Iraq War | intelNews.org

News you may have missed #0189

November 18, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Somali youths from Canada may have joined Al-Shabab militant group. It’s not only Somali-Americans who are going back to Somalia to join Al-Shabab. Canadian officials are worried the same thing may be happening in Toronto.
New website examines intelligence contractors. The website Spies for Hire is a new project by Tim Shorrock, which aims to track the America’s most important intelligence contractors. The website expands on Shorrock’s 2008 book, Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing.
MI6 chiefs to testify about Iraq War fiasco. Past and present chiefs of MI6, including Sir John Scarlett and Sir John Sawers, will be among the first witnesses to give evidence to the official inquiry into Britain’s entry into the Iraq War, it was disclosed on Monday.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Shabaab, Canada, intelligence outsourcing, Iraq War, MI6, News, news you may have missed, Sir John Sawers, Sir John Scarlett, The Party of Youth (Somalia), Tim Shorrock, Toronto (Canada), UK, United States

News you may have missed #0185

November 16, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Article claims US employed cyberwar in 2007. A cover story in the Washington-based National Journal claims former US President George W. Bush authorized the National Security Agency to “launch a sophisticated attack […] on the cellular phones and computers that insurgents in Iraq were using to plan roadside bombings”. IntelNews regulars will remember that we had suspected as much.
Somali suicide bomb recruiter had US residency. Somali Mohamud Said Omar, who was arrested a week ago in Holland on suspicion of recruiting youth in Minneapolis for suicide missions in Somalia, has a US green card, Dutch media reported Friday.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial a huge challenge for US judiciary. The alleged 9/11 mastermind’s case poses the question of how to deal with what is likely to be an extremely large body of classified evidence that the prosecution will want to present.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Bush Administration, cyberwar, government secrecy, Iraq, Iraq War, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, lawsuits, Minneapolis, Mohamud Said Omar, Netherlands, News, news you may have missed, NSA, Somalia, United States

News you may have missed #0131

October 6, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA active in UK, British MPs told. Charles Farr, the head of the British Home Office’s office of security and counter-terrorism, told members of the British Parliament that Britain had a “very close” relationship with the US intelligence community and that “declared” CIA personnel are active in the British Isles. IntelNews readers have been aware since last January that the CIA has been conducting “unprecedented intelligence-gathering operations in Britain”.
Denmark’s military spy chief resigns amid soldier book scandal. The publication of a book by Thomas Rathsack, former member of Jaegerkorps, an elite army unit, which reveals systematic breach of Geneva Convention directives by members of the unit deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, has prompted the resignation of the country’s military intelligence chief. Tim Sloth Joergensen announced his resignation on Sunday.
Wife of poisoned Russian spy criticizes Moscow visit. The widow of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was assassinated by radiation poison in London, where he was living after defecting to the UK, has criticized the prospect of a visit to Moscow by Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Miliband. “That [Mr. Miliband’s] visit will take place exactly on the third anniversary of my husband’s poisoning is adding insult to injury”, said Marina Litvinenko.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan War, Alexander Litvinenko, assassinations, British Muslims, Charles Farr, CIA, David Miliband, defectors, Denmark, Geneva Convention, Iraq War, Jaegerkorps (Denmark), London, Marina Litvinenko, News, news you may have missed, resignations, Russia, Thomas Rathsack, Tim Sloth Joergensen, UK, UK Home Office

Ex-CIA agent says Cheney “damaged the CIA more than anybody has”

September 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Robert Baer

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Robert Baer, the retired CIA field officer whose bestselling memoir, See No Evil, formed the basis of the 2005 motion picture Syriana, has said that former Vice President’ Dick Cheney “damaged the CIA more than anybody has, including the press or the Department of Justice”. Speaking on PBS’ The Tavis Smiley Show, Baer claimed that Cheney was the leading proponent of the CIA’s torture program, which the Bush Administration “invented as we went along”, and which never provided any critical intelligence. Baer said that in some cases FBI interrogators resorting to torture tactics extracted false leads from detainees. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, Bush Administration, CIA, Dick Cheney, Iraq, Iraq War, News, Robert Baer, torture, United States, War on Terrorism

Comment: CIA Insiders Issue Torture Probe Warnings

September 1, 2009 by intelNews 4 Comments

A.B. Krongard

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Sensing that a government probe into its post-9/11 practices is around the corner, the CIA has employed its usual practice of issuing public warnings through friendly news outlets. Several Agency insiders appear to have simultaneously decided to break their customary silence. Speaking to The Washington Post, they sternly warned that “[m]orale has sagged at the CIA” because of the rumored government investigation into torture of detainees and other controversial intelligence projects.

News you may have missed #0082

August 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

The spy who prayed. Profile of As’ad Said Ali, deputy chief of Indonesia’s National Intelligence Agency, who is actively involved in Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization.
Shadowy Turkish group used journalists as spies. Ergenekon, a shadowy ultranationalist network with strong links to the Turkish armed forces, which planned to topple the Turkish government, used journalists to spy on its high-profile targets, according to court documents.
CIA sacked Baghdad station chief after deaths. The CIA removed its station chief in Iraq and reorganized its operations there in late 2003, following “potentially very serious leadership lapses” that included the deaths of detainees in US custody.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with As’ad Said Ali, Baghdad (Iraq), CIA, CIA Baghdad station, coup plots, Ergenekon, Indonesia, Indonesian Muslims, informants, Iraq War, Nahdlatul Ulama, National Intelligence Agency (Indonesia), News, news you may have missed, torture, Turkey, United States

News you may have missed #0068

August 13, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US overt aid to Pakistan revealed. The United States provided around $15.4 billion in overt aid to Pakistan between Fiscal Years 2002 and 2009, according to a newly updated Congressional Research Service tabulation.
Intolerance of Arabs, Muslims led to torture, says US interrogator. Former Air Force Major Matthew Alexander is promoting his book, How To Break a Terrorist: The US Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq.
China drops Rio Tinto espionage charges. Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto faces charges of stealing commercial secrets and bribery, but the Chinese government has dropped charges of spying.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Australia, China, energy resources, espionage, financial aid, interrogation techniques, Iraq War, Matthew Alexander, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, racism, Rio Tinto, Stern Hu, torture, UK, US, US Air Force, War on Terrorism

Dutch spy service sued for raiding journalist’s home

July 9, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

van der Graaf

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Holland’s General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) has been sued by the country’s largest newspaper for bugging telephones belonging to its journalists and editors and for raiding the house of a reporter. Last June, the home of Jolande van der Graaf, who works for De Telegraaf newspaper, was raided by security agents after she authored two investigative articles dealing with AIVD’s intelligence failures in the Iraq War. The raid followed the arrest of an AIVD worker and her partner, also an ex-AIVD agent, who allegedly leaked classified information to De Telegraaf. Following the raid, the newspaper discovered that the personal and work phones of van der Graff, as well as other De Telegraaf journalists and editors, including the paper’s chief editor, Sjuul Paradijs, were wiretapped by AIVD in the course of its investigation. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with AIVD (Netherlands), communications interception, De Telegraaf, General Intelligence and Security Service (Netherlands), Iraq War, Jolande van der Graaf, Netherlands, Netherlands Editors Association, Netherlands Union of Journalists, News, Sjuul Paradijs, whistleblowing, wiretapping

News you may have missed #0017

July 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Spain’s chief spy resigns in financial scandal. Alberto Saiz, who headed Spain’s National Intelligence Center, was accused by the daily newspaper El Mundo of using public money for diving and hunting trips in Mexico, Senegal, Mali and Morocco. He denied the accusations, but on July 2, he resigned “to prevent further damage to the reputation of the intelligence agency and the government”.
FBI declassifies reports on agents’ interviews with Saddam. Just-declassified FBI reports reveal that FBI special agents carried out 20 formal interviews and at least 5 “casual conversations” with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after his capture by US troops in December 2003. Interestingly, the declassified reports include nothing about “Iraq’s complicated relationship with the US”, especially the alleged role of the CIA in facilitating the Ba’ath party’s rise to power in the 1960s.
Release of CIA report on detention, interrogation, delayed (again). Like many others, we at intelNews were eagerly expecting this previously classified CIA report on detention and interrogation under the Bush administration to be released last Wednesday. It was initially going to be released in mid-June, but was then delayed until July 1. Now the CIA says it won’t be able to release the report until the end of August. The ACLU says it will wait for as long as it has to.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, Alberto Saiz, Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (Iraq), CIA, declassification, extraordinary rendition, FBI, Iraq, Iraq War, National Intelligence Center (Spain), News, news you may have missed, Saddam Hussein, Spain, torture, War on Terrorism

Alleged Iranian intelligence agent arrested in Iraq

December 21, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

The US Pentagon-controlled American Forces Press Agency has reported the arrest of an alleged Iranian intelligence agent in Qastin, approximately 30 km north of Baghdad. The unnamed arrestee, who was captured after an intelligence tip, is allegedly a “commander of Iranian special operations” forces stationed covertly on Iraq’s soil. The US information claims he helped facilitate training of Iraqi resistance fighters at clandestine camps operated by Quds Force (Jerusalem Force), a paramilitary unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Coprs, whose mission is to organize, train, equip, and finance foreign Islamist revolutionary movements. The US has long ago accused Quds Force and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps of providing direct assistance to Iraqi resistance groups, including providing them with weapons. [IA]

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Iran, Iraq, Iraq War, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, News, Quds Force

Waxman sides with CIA on Iraq intelligence dispute

December 21, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

For several years, disgraced former US Attorney-General, Alberto Gonzales, and Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, have maintained that the CIA approved the routine use in Presidential speeches of dubious intelligence on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Recently, George W. Bush upheld to these claims by blaming the US intelligence community for the false information on Iraqi WMD. Now the chair of the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), has written a memo [pdf] containing the results of his investigation on the matter. In it, Rep. Waxman explains that “the CIA had warned at least four National Security Council officials not to allow Bush, in three speeches in 2002, to cite questionable intelligence that Iraq had attempted to obtain uranium”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Alberto Gonzales, CIA, Condoleezza Rice, George Tenet, Henry A. Waxman, Iraq, Iraq War, Iraq weapons of mass destruction, Jami Miscick, News, United States, US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Comment: Bush blaming intelligence for Iraq debacle is cowardice

December 10, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

US President George W. Bush commented on ABC News last week that the biggest regret of his Presidency is “the intelligence failure in Iraq” and that he “wish[es] the intelligence had been different, I guess”. This response by the President to a question concerning his Presidency’s “do-overs” represents the ultimate political cowardice. In blaming the intelligence services for the Iraq invasion debacle, George Bush knows that, as a matter of standard policy, the intelligence community is unable to respond to these allegations. Read Article →