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News you may have missed #356

May 21, 2010 by intelNews 1 Comment

US intel failures facilitated Christmas bomb plot: Senate report. The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has released a summary (.pdf) of their investigation into the so-called Christmas bomb plot of last December. The report concludes that the would-be bomber was effectively assisted by “systemic failures across the Intelligence Community”.
More alleged Korean double spies dispute charges. Inspired by the case of the late Lee Soo-geun, who was shot by South Korea after being falsely charged with spying for North Korea, more alleged South Korean double spies are coming forward to reveal that, like Lee, their incriminating confessions were extracted through torture.
Israeli IDF soldiers fall prey to Facebook spy. A number of Israeli soldiers fell victim to a Facebook spy scam, according to German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. The Israel Defense Forces members appear to have befriend a young woman on the social networking site, who may have been a Hezbollah operative. This is not the first time this has happened.

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News you may have missed #355

May 20, 2010 by intelNews 1 Comment

Jones, Panetta, brief Pakistanis on Times Square bomb plot. US President Barack Obama’s national security advisor Jim Jones and CIA Director Leon Panetta are in Pakistan to brief local officials about the failed Times Square bomb plot. A sign of tighter US-Pakistan spy relations? Don’t hold your breath.
Partial history of NSA computers released. The link to the .pdf document that explores the history of US National Security Agency computers up to 1964, is available through Bruce Schneier’s blog.
Rio Tinto employees lose espionage appeal. Three of the four senior staff members of Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian mining concern, who were arrested last July by Chinese authorities on espionage charges, have lost an appeal against their convictions.

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News you may have missed #354

May 19, 2010 by intelNews 3 Comments

Germany arrests Libyans on spy charges. Two Libyans have been arrested in Berlin on suspicion of working as secret agents, spying on members of the Libyan opposition in Germany. The two, identified only as 42-year-old ‘Adel Ab’ and 46-year-old ‘Adel Al’, are being held in custody in Berlin, pending possible spying charges.
Israeli handler discusses relationship with Hamas spy. Israeli broadsheet Ha’aretz has aired a fascinating interview with ‘Captain Loai’, a Shin Bet operative who handled Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of a senior Hamas official, who was an informant for Israeli intelligence for at least a decade. Note the strong personal connection between handler and informant, which would be considered unprofessional in US intelligence culture.
Analysis: Iran’s murky link to al-Qaeda confounds CIA. It’s one of the enduring mysteries of the US ‘war on terrorism’: what will become of the al-Qaeda leaders and operatives who fled into Iran after 9/11 and have been detained there for years?

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News you may have missed #353

May 18, 2010 by intelNews 2 Comments

Name of British Mossad agent handed to Interpol. Dubai police have identified another suspect in the January murder of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, by Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. He is reportedly a 62-year-old British citizen, who is believed to be currently hiding in western Africa.
Russia jails man for spying for the US. Gennady Sipachyov, a Russian whose age and profession have been kept secret by Moscow, has been sentenced to a four-year sentence for allegedly emailing secret military maps identifying classified Russian military infrastructure to the US Pentagon in 2008. Earlier this month, a Russian court rejected an appeal by another alleged US spy, Igor Sutyagin.
Bulgarian government wants to copy CIA. Bulgaria’s Defense Minister, Anyu Angelov, has proposed the merging of intelligence services to create a mega-structure of the CIA type. Meanwhile, a panel investigating Bulgaria’s communist-era police files has exposed two of the country’s former counterintelligence heads as former communist state security agents.

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News you may have missed #352

May 17, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA rewarded extraordinary rendition supervisor. A CIA counterterrorism official who supervised the agency’s extraordinary rendition and torture of Khaled El-Masri –a German citizen who was later found to be innocent– has been promoted twice since that episode.
US Pentagon picks contractors for intel IT. The Defense Intelligence Agency has picked 11 private contractors to compete for up to $6.6 billion in information technology contracts over the next five years. They include the usual suspects, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, General Dynamics Corp, and Northrop Grumman, among others.
Alleged spy’s lawyers threaten trial boycott in Israel. Lawyers representing Israeli citizen Amir Makhoul, who is accused of spying on behalf of Hezbollah, have threatened to boycott an upcoming trial hearing unless they are allowed to meet with their client.

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News you may have missed #351

May 16, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Former CIA agent admits role in Plame case. In an extensive interview with Truthout, former CIA counterterrorism official John Kiriakou has disclosed for the first time his role in the events that led to the outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Indian double agent refused Pakistani handler’s marriage proposal. Madhuri Gupta, second secretary at the Indian high commission in Islamabad, Pakistan, who was arrested for working for Pakistan’s ISI spy agency, had a “relationship of personal affection” with an aide of her Pakistani handler, but says she refused his offer of marriage.
US Pentagon details Cold War mind-control tests. More than 30 years after it was written, the US Pentagon has released a memorandum detailing its involvement in the CIA’s infamous Cold War mind-control experiments.

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News you may have missed #350

May 14, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Gulf authorities still silent on Iranian spy ring. The Kuwaiti government has banned local media from commenting on the recent busting of an alleged Iranian spy ring, and Gulf leaders still refuse to comment on the issue.
NSA head confirmed as chief of US Cyber Command. US Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the National Security Agency, has been promoted to four-star general and will now head the US Pentagon’s new Cyber Command, as well as the NSA.
Venezuela to release more alleged Colombian spies. Three more of the eight alleged Colombian spies, who were arrested by Venezuelan government forces last month, are to be released. Four others were released on April 12, which leaves in custody only one of them, Luis Carlos Cossio, who has dual Colombian and Canadian citizenship.

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News you may have missed #349

May 13, 2010 by intelNews 1 Comment

New spy agency won’t spy…says Fiji government. Fiji’s head of defense, Ratu Epeli Ganilau, has argued that the proposed National Intelligence Agency will not be a spy organization. According to news reports, he is adamant that the use of the word “spying” is inappropriate to describe the agency’s mission.
Ex-CIA analyst lashes out at Ignatius. Former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman, currently senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, has accused The Washington Post’s David Ignatious of being a “chief CIA apologist”.

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News you may have missed #348

May 12, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

US knew Guatemalan Army was behind notorious 1982 massacre. Declassified documents released on May 7 show that US officials knew the Guatemalan Army was responsible for the 1982 Dos Erres massacre, one of Guatemala’s most shocking human rights crimes.
New presiding judge in US FISA court. Three years after he was first appointed to serve on the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), John D. Bates has taken over as the presiding judge. Last week, Judge Martin Feldman was appointed to serve on the secretive court, which reviews (and invariably approves) government applications for counterintelligence surveillance and physical search.
UAE security sector benefits from al-Mabhouh assassination. Business for security companies in the United Arab Emirates has been brisk, with some companies reporting a 40% increase in business, as hotels spend millions bolstering their security systems. Some attribute this to last January’s killing in Dubai of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, by a Mossad hit squad.

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News you may have missed #347

May 11, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA drones now target non-listed targets in Pakistan. It used to be the case that the CIA unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan were directed at confirmed Taliban senior operatives. But an American official has said that the CIA does “not always have their names”. Instead, the Agency targets them based on their “actions over time” that make it “obvious that they are a threat”.
Democrat Senator presses Obama for more NSA powers. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) is pressing the Obama Administration to give the National Security Agency more power to oversee privately owned portions of the Internet. Speaking on Thursday, Mikulski complained that “we don’t know who the hell is in charge” over the security of private networks.
Lebanese officer charged as Israel spy may get death. A Lebanese prosecutor has requested the death penalty for Gazwan Shahin, an army colonel charged with having provided Israel’s spy agency with pictures, information and coordinates of Lebanese civil and military posts during and after the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

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News you may have missed #346 (Iran spy ring edition)

May 10, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Iran denies connection with Bahrain spy ring. Tehran’s Ambassador to Bahrain has dismissed reports about Iran’s alleged involvement in a spy ring in Bahrain. There are reports that the ring was in contact with a similar outfit in the nearby state of Kuwait.
Kuwait media banned from reporting on alleged spy ring. The government of Kuwait has banned the country’s media from reporting on an extensive espionage ring allegedly operating on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, which was uncovered earlier this month.
Saudi minister denies Kuwait visit linked to Iran spy ring. Prince Khaled Bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s deputy minister of defense, has denied a rumored connection between his recent visit to Kuwait and the alleged busting of an Iranian spy ring there.

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News you may have missed #345

May 7, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Mossad assassins fled Dubai through Johannesburg. South African State Security external branch head Moe Shaik has admitted that two Israeli Mossad agents flew to the Oliver R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg from Dubai, after assassinating Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January.
New CIA deputy director sworn in. CIA Director Leon Panetta swore in his new deputy director Michael J. Morell at a private ceremony yesterday morning at CIA headquarters. A 30-year veteran of the Agency, Morell succeeds Steve Kappes, a veteran officer in the CIA’s clandestine service.
Indian researcher detained for spying in Estonia. An unnamed Indian female doctoral researcher was detained by Estonia’s KaPo secret police over suspicion of technological espionage, according to media reports.

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News you may have missed #344

May 6, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA base in Afghanistan hit again. A suicide car bomber killed one civilian and wounded two security guards at the entrance to the CIA’s Forward Operating Base Chapman, in Afghanistan’s Khost province. It is the same base where Jordanian suicide bomber Humam Khalil al-Balawi killed seven CIA officers in December of 2009.
Fiji to set up new spy agency. The government of Fiji plans to re-establish its intelligence agency, ten years after it was disbanded by Labour Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry. The new organization will be called the National Intelligence Agency of Fiji.
MI5 and MI6 must release Guantánamo records, says judge. MI5 and MI6 have been told by a British judge that they cannot use secret evidence to defend themselves from civil damages claims brought by six former detainees in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, including Binyam Mohamed.

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News you may have missed #343

May 5, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Taliban leader H. Mehsud reportedly not dead. Last February US and Pakistani officials claimed a CIA airstrike had killed Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the largest faction of the Pakistani Taliban. But it now appears that Mehsud is alive and well.
Analysis: Operation MINCEMEAT and the ethics of spying. The New Yorker‘s Malcolm Gladwell on operation MINCEMEAT, a World War II British deception plan, which helped convince the German high command that the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia in 1943, instead of Sicily.
US DoJ announces FISA court appointment. Judge Martin L.C. Feldman, of the Eastern District of Louisiana, has been appointed to a seven-year term on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court, which reviews (and invariably approves) government applications for counterintelligence surveillance and physical search under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

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News you may have missed #342

May 4, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Kuwaitis want Iranian envoy expelled over spy ring. Several Kuwaiti parliamentarians have called on the government to expel the Iranian ambassador over an alleged Iranian spy ring that was busted in Kuwait last week.
Mystery behind ex-ISI officer’s killing in Pakistan. Former Inter-Services Intelligence directorate officer Khalid Khawaja was known as a fervent supporter of the Taliban. So why did the Asian Tigers, a Taliban sect kidnap him and kill him? Some say the killing was actually India’s work.
Honey trap caused Indian diplomat to spy for Pakistan. It seems that Madhuri Gupta, a second secretary at the Indian high commission in Islamabad, Pakistan, who was arrested for working for Pakistan’s ISI spy agency, had a “relationship of personal affection” with an aide of her Pakistani handler.