Man killed by Belarusian KGB in shootout was US citizen, reports claim
October 1, 2021 Leave a comment
A MAN WHO WAS killed earlier this week by the intelligence service of Belarus worked for an American software company and may have been a citizen of the United States, according to some reports. Belarusian media reported late on Tuesday that an armed man had died in a shootout in the capital Minsk, which also left an intelligence officer dead and another one wounded. The man had allegedly opened fire with a hunting rifle against members of the Belarusian state security service —known as the KGB. After the man was shot dead, his wife was reportedly taken into custody.
Late on Tuesday, state television stations aired video footage showing plainclothes KGB officers storming an apartment and coming under heavy fire from inside the premises. In a statement issued on Thursday, the KGB did not identify the man, which it described as a “31-year-old terrorist”, and said he had been “liquidated with return fire”, after resisting arrest and shooting at the KGB officers in Minsk. But some media reports cited a member of the exiled opposition, who identified the deceased as Andrei Zeltser and said he worked for the American software company Epam Systems. Other reports suggested that Zeltser was a citizen of the United States, but this has not been confirmed.
Also on Thursday, the Belarusian state-owned news agency Belta claimed that the dead man was a member of the opposition movement, which views the country’s authoritarian President, Alexander Lukashenko, as illegitimate. Later on the same day, it was reported that the KGB had arrested at least 50 people for “insulting a government official” or “inciting social hatred”. Opposition figures claimed that the arrests were connected to comments in support of Zeltser that appeared on social media.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 01 October 2021 | Permalink
THE FORMER DIRECTOR OF Venezuela’s military spy agency has been captured in Madrid after two years on the run, and is now likely to be extradited to the United States, where he will face drug trafficking charges. Hugo Carvajal is a retired general and former diplomat, who was a member of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s inner circle. From 2004 to 2011, under Chávez’s tutelage, Carvajal headed Venezuela’s Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM).
THE SOMALI CAPITAL MOGADISHU remains tense today, after the country’s president and prime minster, who are supported by rival militias, leveled accusations at each other over an intelligence officer’s disappearance. Ikran Tahlil, 25, who works for the Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), disappeared in June. She was reportedly last seen entering a government vehicle outsider her home in Mogadishu. The NISA said that Tahlil had been abducted and probably executed by al-Shabaab, an East African affiliate of al-Qaeda.
Three former employees of American spy agencies, who helped the United Arab Emirates hack targets around the world, including United States citizens, have agreed to cooperate with the investigation into their activities. The US Department of Justice said on Tuesday that it had reached a “deferred prosecution agreement” with the three Americans, Ryan Adams, Marc Baier and Daniel Gericke. At least two of them are believed to have worked for the US National Security Agency before transferring their skills to the private sector.
AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES ARE noticing early signs that al-Qaeda may be regrouping in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, according to the deputy director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. The presence of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan was the primary reason behind the invasion of the country by the United States in 2001. In subsequent years, the militant group, which was behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, suffered heavy losses, and saw its members disperse across the region. Many others were captured or killed.
HIGH LEVEL DELEGATIONS OF intelligence officials from the United States and Russia visited India on the same day this week, for talks with Indian officials about the situation in Afghanistan, according to news reports. This development highlights the frantic pace with which Moscow and Washington are maneuvering around the region, following the dramatic takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban last month.
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Man caught with pistol and ammunition is Turkish spy, German prosecutor says
October 4, 2021 by Joseph Fitsanakis Leave a comment
GERMAN AUTHORITIES ARE TREATING the arrest of a Turkish citizen, who was found with a pistol and 200 rounds of ammunition, “as a case of suspected espionage on behalf of the Turkish state” according to reports. The case was revealed late last week by Germany’s Federal Prosecutor General, Peter Frank, who said that the suspected spy was arrested at a hotel in the western German city of Düsseldorf during a raid that took place on September 17.
Local reports said the hotel raid was carried out by members of the Spezialeinsatzkommando (SEK), a police tactical unit, who stormed the building and used an armored vehicle to barricade its front door. They emerged from the hotel with the suspect, who has been identified in German media reports only as “Ali D.”, a Turkish citizen. He is now under investigation for collecting information on alleged supporters of the so-called Gülen movement. The Gülen movement consists of supporters of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, who runs a global network of schools, charities and businesses from his home in the United States. The government of Turkey has designated Gülen’s group a terrorist organization and claims it was behind the failed 2016 coup against Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The Federal Prosecutor General’s office has said that Ali D. was acting “on behalf of and under the guidance” of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), which is the state intelligence agency of Turkey. It also claims that “sufficient evidence” has emerged to establish this case as a “counterintelligence matter”. In his statement to the press, Frank said Ali D. was found in possession of a pistol, 200 rounds of ammunition and documents containing names and other personal information of alleged supporters of the Gülen movement. Some reports suggest that the police has linked this case with a suspected planned attack against Gülen supporters in Düsseldorf and Cologne.
The investigation of Ali D. has now officially been moved from the Düsseldorf Prosecutor’s office to the office of the Federal Prosecutor General.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 04 October 2021 | Permalink
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