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Article on formerly unknown Soviet spy published

April 24, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

George Koval

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
On November 2, 2007, some of Russia’s most senior military and intelligence officials gathered at the Kremlin to honor a Soviet spy whose name was until then completely absent from the annals of espionage history. Russian defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov and Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) chief Valentin Korabelnikov were among several officials who joined Russian president Vladimir Putin to pay tribute to George Koval. Koval was an American citizen born in Iowa to immigrant parents from Belarus. In 1932, Koval, his parents and two brothers, all of whom were US citizens, moved back to the then rapidly developing Soviet Union to escape the effects of the Great Depression. It was there that the young George Koval was recruited by the GRU, the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces. He received Soviet citizenship and returned to the US through San Francisco in October 1940. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Anatoly Serdyukov, Belarus, Cold War, Delmar, espionage, George Koval, GRU, history, Iowa, Klaus Fuchs, MANHATTAN project, News, nuclear proliferation, sleeper agents, Soviet nuclear program, United States, USSR, Valentin Korabelnikov, Vladimir Putin

US Pentagon report acknowledges Israel has the bomb!

March 20, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Ever since the early 1970s, the United States and Israel have maintained what nuclear proliferation experts call “a policy of ambiguity” on Israel’s nuclear weapons program. Namely, American and Israeli officials will neither confirm nor deny that Israel has nuclear weapons. The reason for this pretended vagueness is the 1976 Symington Amendment, which prevents the US from providing any economic or military assistance to countries “that deliver or receive, acquire or transfer nuclear enrichment technology”. Now, however, a declassified report by the US Pentagon has been found to confirm that Israel has a nuclear weapons arsenal. The US Joint Forces Command study (pdf), which was compiled last year by the US Army, includes Israel among the world’s nuclear powers. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Israel, Israel's nuclear arsenal, News, nuclear proliferation, United States, US Army, US DoD, US Joint Forces Command

Obama insiders already in secret talks with Iran, Syria

February 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
French news agency AFP is reporting that individuals associated with the Administration of US President Barack Obama have held several secret meetings with Iranian and Syrian officials during the past several months. The Agency describes the clandestine meetings as “high-level” and notes that the Obama team approved them “even before winning the November 4 election”. Some of the meetings appear to have been coordinated by the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, a Nobel Prize-winning anti-nuclear proliferation group. The Executive Director of the group’s US branch, Jeffrey Boutwell, describes the US-Iranian contacts, which took place in The Hague and in Vienna, as “”very, very high-level”, and notes that they covered issues beyond Iran’s nuclear program, including “the Middle East peace process [and] Persian Gulf issues”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Barack Obama, Ellen Laipson, Gary Samore, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Jeffrey Boutwell, Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi, News, nuclear proliferation, Pugwash, secret meetings, Syria, William Perry

World’s most prolific nuclear arms smuggler admits CIA link

January 23, 2009 by intelNews 8 Comments

Urs Tinner

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
On October 4, 2003, Italian authorities, acting on a tip by the CIA, inspected a Libya-bound German ship anchored at Taranto, Italy. The ship was found to be carrying several centrifuges for use in Libya’s uranium enrichment program. The discovery led to the uncovering of the role of Dr. Abdul Qadeer (A.Q.) Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, in subcontracting his nuclear knowhow to North Korea, Iran and Libya. It also led to the uncovering of Urs Tinner, a Swiss engineer who worked under A.Q. Khan, and was said at the time to be leading “the world’s biggest nuclear smuggling ring”. Tinner was eventually arrested along with his father Friedrich and brother Marco, both members of Tinner’s ring, and extradited to Switzerland. Strangely, however, he was never charged and was in fact released from detention last December, with the blessings of the CIA, who did not wish to see him prosecuted. Now Swiss TV station SF1 has announced the scheduled airing of a documentary, in which the freed Tinner will acknowledge that he tipped the CIA about the German ship in Taranto and A.Q. Khan’s nuclear subcontracting. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdul Qadeer Khan, CIA, informants, Iranian nuclear program, Libyan nuclear program, News, North Korean nuclear program, nuclear espionage, nuclear proliferation, Switzerland, Tinner nuclear smuggling ring, Urs Tinner

Analysis: Former USAF Secretary discusses hidden history of nukes

January 3, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

It is not necessary to agree with Thomas C. Reed’s worldview in order to appreciate his deep knowledge of the history of nuclear politics. His argument, for instance, that “the world is safer for having all the permanent UN Security Council members possess nuclear weapons” may be seen as absurdly myopic -especially in light of numerous instances in which the US and the USSR came close to annihilating the entire world during the Cold War. Nevertheless, the former nuclear weapons designer and US Air Force Secretary always has interesting insights to share on the dark history of nuclear proliferation. For instance, in a recent interview with US News & World Report, Reed discussed how Klaus Fuchs, the nuclear scientist who was jailed in 1950 for having spied for the Soviets, also shared his immense nuclear knowledge with the Chinese, following his release from prison. He also outlined the Chinese contribution to nuclear proliferation in the Third World, which he attributes to a 1982 decision by the Chinese leadership, under the Chairmanship of Deng Xiaoping, to “proliferate nuclear technology to communists and Muslims” around the world. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, China, Klaus Fuchs, North Korea, nuclear proliferation, Pakistan, Thomas C. Reed

Official history of Israeli spy services acknowledges US spying against Israel

December 11, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

American espionage conducted against Israel is hardly news. It is rare, however, that such operations –which are routine in nature– are acknowledged in official histories of intelligence institutions. Yet this is exactly what will happen this coming January, when a new official history of Israel’s intelligence services is published in Israel. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Barak Ben-Zur, Israel, Israel's nuclear arsenal, Military Intelligence Directorate (Israel), Mossad, News, nuclear proliferation, Shin Bet, United States

Israeli intelligence alleges Syrian nuclear program resumed

December 5, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

In September 2007, Israel launched an air attack against Syria, destroying a facility in Al Kibar that both the Israelis and the Americans claimed was a nuclear military installation. Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed the US and Israeli allegations. The Israelis now claim that the Syrians have resumed their nuclear program. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Al-Kibar (Syria), Al-Kibar nuclear reactor (Syria), IAEA, Israel, News, nuclear proliferation, Syria, Syrian nuclear program, United States

Comment: A message to Obama from Israel

December 4, 2008 by intelNews 2 Comments

The usual periodic report is making the rounds today in the world’s news media, suggesting that Israel is working on plans to attack Iran’s nuclear installations. The reports, which are clearly based on controlled leaks by the Israeli Ministry of Defense to friendly media outlets, such as The Jerusalem Post, claim that Israel is prepared to “launch a strike [against Iran] without backing from the US” and is thus “preparing options that do not include coordination” with its American ally. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Barack Obama, Iran, Israel, Joseph Fitsanakis, nuclear proliferation

IAEA confirms US allegations of Syrian nuclear reactor

November 21, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

Fourteen months ago, Israel launched an air attack against Syria, destroying a facility that both the Israelis and the Americans claimed was a nuclear military installation. When Syria denied the claim, US intelligence officials released visual evidence —some from the interior of the installation— arguing that the bombed building was in fact a plutonium production reactor. After undertaking its own investigation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has now confirmed the US and Israeli allegations that Syria was covertly constructing a nuclear reactor. Interestingly, the IAEA reportedly based its investigation on “other evidence, not on the photos released by Washington”. [JF]