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Reports of a possible rogue US DoD operation in Pakistan

March 15, 2010 by intelNews 3 Comments

Michael Furlong

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A New York Times article published late yesterday alleges the existence of a clandestine intelligence network of private contractors, set up by a US Pentagon employee, possibly without supervision or approval by senior US Defense officials. The network, which appears to operate under the cover of an Internet-based research company, is actually used to gather intelligence on the activities and whereabouts of individuals on the CIA’s assassination list, claims the paper. What is more, the network coordinator, retired US Air Force officer Michael D. Furlong, is currently being investigated by the US Department of Defense for fraudulent dealings with private contractors. It is not clear whether these were the same contractors (mostly former CIA and US Special Forces operatives) who were employed in the undercover intelligence network uncovered by The New York Times. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Blackwater, CIA, intelligence funding, intelligence outsourcing, Jeremy Scahill, Michael D. Furlong, News, non-official-cover, Pakistan, United States, US DoD, US Special Forces, US Strategic Command, Xe

US to stop funding scandal-prone Colombian spy agency

December 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN| intelNews.org |
The US Congress has voted to stop subsidizing Colombia’s soon-to-be dismantled Administrative Department of Security (DAS) intelligence agency. The Colombian government recently decided to disband DAS, after it was found to have illegally wiretapped the phones of several public figures, including the chief of the Colombian National Police, the minister of defense, as well as those of former Presidents, Supreme Court judges, prominent journalists, union leaders and human rights campaigners. The activities of the scandal-prone agency had not, until now, affected US-Colombian relations, nor had they dampened US-Colombian intelligence cooperation. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2010 US Consolidated Appropriations Act, civil liberties, Colombia, Colombian National Police, DAS (Colombia), intelligence funding, narcotics trade, News, United States, warrantless communications interception, wiretapping

One third of Pakistani spy budget comes from CIA, say officials

November 17, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

ISI HQ

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
As much as one third of the annual budget of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence has come from the CIA in the last eight years, according to a new report in The Los Angeles Times. The paper says that even more US dollars have been supplied to the ISI through a secret CIA monetary rewards program that pays for the arrest or assassination of militants wanted by Washington. The payments reportedly began during the early years of the George W. Bush administration, and are now continuing under the Obama administration, despite “long-standing suspicions” that the ISI and the Pakistani military maintain close links with the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and elsewhere. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, Bush Administration, CIA, intelligence cooperation, intelligence funding, intelligence sharing, ISI, News, North Carolina, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Taliban, United States, War on Terrorism

Indians allege Pakistani spies funded through Europe

November 12, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

India-Pak border

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Indian authorities have told a major newspaper that Pakistani spies operating in India are funded with money transfers from spy handlers in Europe. Indian daily The Telegraph cites Indian counterintelligence sources, who claim that Pakistani embassies in several European nations, including Spain, Estonia and Luxembourg, use “a popular money transfer company” (in all likelihood Western Union) to fund Pakistani agents operating in India. According to the Indians, most money transfers are facilitated through the simple technique of email account password sharing, which allows both the handler in Europe and the agent in India to access the same email inbox, as well as the same money transfer drafts. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with economic espionage, espionage, Estonia, India, intelligence funding, Luxembourg, money transfers, News, Pakistan, password sharing, Spain, Western Union

News you may have missed #0138

October 10, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US intelligence turf wars plague email system. US intelligence officials have decided to shut down a Web-based, unclassified e-mail system, which had been heralded as an important step in the US intelligence community’s drive for better information sharing after 9/11. A Directorate of National Intelligence representative said “security concerns” led to the decision to shut down the e-mail system.
CIA Climate Change Center survives funding opposition. Republican lawmakers criticized the CIA’s plan to open the Center on Climate Change and National Security as a “misguided defense funding priority” and even tried to prevent appropriate funding last week. But they failed and so it appears that the Center will be established after all.
Colombia to rename spy agency to “CIA”. The restructuring of Colombia’s scandal-prone domestic spy agency, Administrative Department of Security (DAS), continues, as the government has announced that DAS will now be known as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a new entity which will take over state and immigration intelligence and counterintelligence duties.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, CIA (Colombia), CIA Center on Climate Change, climate change, Colombia, DAS (Colombia), DNI, intelligence cooperation, intelligence funding, intelligence reform, Internet, News, news you may have missed, turf wars, United States

Total US intelligence budget revealed for the first time

September 18, 2009 by intelNews 3 Comments

Dennis Blair

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The US Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, has revealed the total amount of America’s military and civilian intelligence budget for the first time in history. Blair, who oversees all 16 American intelligence agencies, said the country’s intelligence program costs $75 billion annually. This number includes funds for military intelligence agencies, which have previously been classified. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Blair argued that the “old distinction between military and non-military intelligence is no longer relevant”. The DNI was referring to the traditional budgetary distinction between the Military Intelligence Program (MIP) and the National (civilian) Intelligence Program (NIP), which make up the US intelligence budget. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, intelligence budget, intelligence funding, News, United States, US Military Intelligence Program, US National Intelligence Program

US spy services hiding true employee numbers, says Senate panel

July 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Dennis Blair

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has voiced disapproval of the high numbers of contractors employed by America’s intelligence organizations, and has censured US intelligence agencies for hiding their actual personnel numbers. The criticism follows a Congressional testimony last week by Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dennis Blair, who claimed that the intelligence community has come up with its own definition of inherently governmental. The term refers to government jobs that are too sensitive to be outsourced. In his presentation, Blair revealed that private contractors now constitute 25% of the entire US intelligence force in all 16 agencies of the US intelligence community, but he said this share shrunk by 3 % last year, as the intelligence agencies revised their definition of jobs that cannot be outsourced. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, inherently governmental jobs, intelligence budget, intelligence funding, intelligence outsourcing, intelligence oversight, News, United States, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

News you may have missed #0042

July 26, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Postcards containing Cold War spy messages unearthed. The postcards, containing chess moves, were posted in 1950 by an unidentified man in Frankfurt, thought to have been an undercover agent, to Graham Mitchell, who was then deputy director general of MI5. The problem is, researchers are not quite sure whether the cryptic text on the postcards is based on British or Soviet codes, because Mitchell was suspected of being a secret Soviet agent at the time.
Is NSA actively mapping social networks? There are rumors out there that NSA is monitoring social networking tools, such as Tweeter, Facebook and MySpace, in order to make links between individuals and construct elaborate data-mining-based maps of who associates with whom.
US Senate bill would disclose intelligence budget. The US Senate version of the FY2010 intelligence authorization bill would require the President to disclose the aggregate amount requested for intelligence each year. Disclosure of the budget request would enable Congress to appropriate a stand-alone intelligence budget that would no longer need to be concealed misleadingly in other non-intelligence budget accounts.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with cloud computing, Cold War, cryptology, data mining, double agents, espionage, Facebook, Frankfurt (Germany), government secrecy, Graham Mitchell, intelligence budget, intelligence funding, MI5, MySpace, News, news you may have missed, NSA, social networking, Twitter, UK, United States, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, USSR

News you may have missed #0014

July 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Belarus releases US lawyer jailed for industrial espionage. Emmanuel Zeltser who spent a year in jail in Belarus, is a lawyer with “a vast knowledge of organized crime, particularly the practice of money laundering”.
US Pentagon supplying intelligence to Pakistani armed forces. IntelNews has been keeping an eye on the intelligence side of the ongoing Pakistani offensive in the country’s North-West Frontier Province. Chinese intelligence involvement has already been established, and there have been allegations of Indian and Israeli involvement. It has now emerged that the US military has resumed surveillance flights over Pakistan, a clear sign of increased US-Pakistani intelligence collaboration.
US Congressional intel committee issues warnings. The US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has approved, as expected, the 2010 fiscal intelligence authorization bill, but it said that “funding for cybersecurity programs may need to be reduced or slowed until the future direction for cybersecurity is better defined”. It also urged US intelligence agencies to expand ethnic diversity among employees and improve training on foreign languages.