FBI’s top New York official urges personnel to ‘dig in’ for ‘battle’ with White House
February 3, 2025 4 Comments
THE HEAD OF THE Federal Bureau of Investigation’s largest field office sent an email to his staff last night, urging them to “dig in” for “battle” after the White House began scrutinizing the Bureau’s investigation into the January 6 riots. James E. Dennehy, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office, sent a defiant email to FBI employees just hours after the Department of Justice (DOJ) began compiling the names of Bureau personnel who participated in the probe of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
On January 31, President Donald Trump’s administration summarily dismissed nine senior FBI officials. The following day, the Bureau’s interim leadership received a DOJ directive instructing them to provide information on all employees involved in the January 6 investigation. This request applies not only to special agents but also to thousands of FBI personnel who provided support services for what remains the largest investigation in the agency’s history.
Approximately 15% of the FBI’s workforce —an estimated 6,000 employees— was involved in the investigation. On Sunday, around 4,000 of them received an email from the Department of Justice asking them to voluntarily disclose their role in the probe. Reports indicate that recipients must submit the requested information by 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time today. Many within the FBI fear this inquiry is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to remove rank-and-file employees who worked on January 6 cases.
In response, Dennehy, a former U.S. Marine who joined the FBI after seven years in the Corps, sent an email on Sunday afternoon to personnel in the New York field office, delivering what appears to be a message of defiance. “Today,” he wrote, “we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the FBI and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and FBI policy.”
Dennehy praised the Bureau’s interim leaders, Brian Driscoll and Robert C. Kissane, for resisting DOJ requests to provide lists of FBI personnel, calling them “warriors.” He also recounted his Marine Corps experience, describing a time when he had to dig a five-foot-deep foxhole to survive, stating he would “dig in” similarly now. He emphasized that he had no plans to resign from the FBI or step down from his current position. Read more of this post
A GROUP OF FORMER United States government officials have warned against plans to build a new casino in a part of northern Virginia that is home to several intelligence agency facilities. The proposed casino would be built in Tysons, also known as Tysons’ Corner, an unincorporated community of about 30,000 residents, located between McLean and Vienna, west of the nation’s capital.
THERE WERE 
THE SUDDEN RESIGNATION OF Italy’s spy chief last week was 
THE OFFICE OF THE Federal Prosecutor in Germany has charged three dual German-Russian citizens with acts of espionage on behalf of Russia, with the intent of harming the national security of the German state. In compliance with German privacy laws, the three espionage suspects have been publicly identified only by their first names and last name initials. They are: Dieter S., Alex D., and Alexander J.
A NEW REPORT IN The Washington Post newspaper claims that the Indian government is behind a “methodical assassination program” that has been targeting individuals deep inside India’s nuclear arch-rival Pakistan. According to the 
THE COLLAPSE OF THE regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on December 8 caught the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel’s intelligence community —mainly Israel Military Intelligence (IMI) and the Mossad— by surprise. Assad’s collapse occurred much faster than Israel had estimated. Israel did not expect that the Syrian Arab Army would disintegrate so resoundingly, within 48 hours of the attack by the Syrian rebels.
southern Syria, as well as what is happening at the Syrian and Russian military bases in Latakia and Tartus. Moreover, the IDF is monitoring the activities of Iranian elements in Syria, including on the border with Lebanon, to prevent the possibility of military equipment being transferred from Syria to Hezbollah.
ISRAELI OFFICIALS ARE REPORTEDLY trying to recover the remains of Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy who was hanged in Syria in 1965, after his espionage activities were discovered. Born in Alexandria in 1924, Cohen was an Egyptian Jew, whose family immigrated to Israel after 1949. After joining the Mossad, Israel’s primary external intelligence agency, Cohen became a katsa, or case officer.
THE WHITE HOUSE HELD an emergency meeting on Friday with senior telecommunications industry officials to discuss the fallout from a Chinese cyber espionage operation 
RUSSIA’S NEED TO GATHER intelligence from Scandinavian targets has increased considerably since Finland and Sweden joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), prompting Moscow to seek nontraditional means of collecting intelligence, according to Finland’s spy agency. A new 
THE ISRAEL SECURITY AGENCY (ISA) recently 
AUTHORITIES IN BRITAIN AND Germany are reportedly investigating the possibility that the Russian intelligence services may be behind two fires that occurred in shipping warehouses last summer. The fires occurred in late July in facilities belonging to DHL, a German logistics firm headquartered in Bonn.
AN AFGHAN NATIONAL BASED in the United States, who was allegedly planning to carry out a terrorist attack during the upcoming Election Day, previously worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a guard, reports claim. 
LEAKED INFORMATION PUBLISHED BY leading German media outlets has revealed Russia’s plans for an influence campaign targeting Israel. The information was leaked earlier this month by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and German television stations Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), as well as by 
parliament— would support a possible transfer of military aid to Ukraine.
DOGE breach of US Treasury data may harm CIA intelligence assets, officials warn
February 8, 2025 by Joseph Fitsanakis 13 Comments
According to The Washington Post, a senior Treasury employee filed a memorandum to Secretary Bessent, warning that any form of access to the department’s payment system by DoGE employees would “pose an unprecedented insider threat risk” to government secrets. The memo reportedly focused specifically on payments made by Treasury to human intelligence sources, which are typically recruited and handled abroad by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and other agencies of the United States Intelligence Community. Such payments are made to foreign assets who collect intelligence on behalf of American agencies, or Americans who work in an intelligence capacity without the use of diplomatic cover.
According to Newsweek, which followed up on the story, the memo noted that the Treasury Department employs several methods to disguise payments made to human intelligence sources. However, these methods remain vulnerable to detection by “people with the requisite know-how”, which would allow these assets to be identified and could place their lives in danger. As a result, DoGE’s access to the classified database posed an “unprecedented insider threat risk”, according to the memo. It advised Secretary Bessent to “suspend [DoGE’s] access immediately and conducting a comprehensive review of all actions [DoGE employees] may have taken on these systems”.
On Saturday a federal judge in the district of Manhattan issued a preliminary injunction that bars DoGE from accessing any Treasury Department databases that contain personally identifiable information. The injunction also instructs DoGE personnel to surrender back to Treasury all information they have obtained so far. A hearing to decide the next steps in the case is due to occur on February 14.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 08 February 2025 | Permalink
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