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News you may have missed #0228

December 21, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Irish nationalists planting honey traps on British troops? The Belfast Telegraph reports that British Army personnel have been “warned about the recruitment by dissidents of attractive females to identify soldiers at popular nightspots and lure them into ambushes” in Northern Ireland. This is highly unnecessary. Usually British troops in the North are easily identifiable by their haircuts, accents, even by their choice of beer!
Egyptian spy chief meets Israeli defense minister. Ehud Barak and Omar Suleiman, director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Services, met in Jerusalem on Sunday. The meeting included a “private 30-minute session” between the two men (and the eavesdroppers on either side, presumably –ed.).
Terror suspect David Headley was ‘rogue US secret agent’. The London Times has woken up to the rumors circulating about David Headley, a full month after Indian media began reporting them, and nearly three weeks after intelNews alerted its readers. Nice of them to catch up.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with David Coleman Headley, Egypt, Egyptian General Intelligence Services, Ehud Barak, honey traps, India, informants, Israel, Jerusalem, News, news you may have missed, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, United States

Comment: US-Pakistani Spy Relations Just Short of Open War

December 19, 2009 by intelNews 3 Comments

ISI HQ

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS* | intelNews.org |
Officially, the United States and Pakistan are allies in the so-called “war on terrorism”. But diplomats and intelligence agents on the ground tell a very different story. For several months now, Washington and Islamabad have engaged in a low-intensity intelligence war, with the Pakistanis accusing the Americans of failing to share actionable intelligence, and the Americans blaming Pakistani security services for maintaining clandestine links with Taliban groups. On at least one occasion, a senior advisor to the US-backed Afghan leadership has claimed that Pakistani intelligence services provide assistance to suicide bombers willing to strike targets in Kabul and other cities and towns in Afghanistan.

Comment: Saudi Spies Take Over Yemen Border War

December 18, 2009 by intelNews 4 Comments

Saudis in Yemen

By IAN ALLEN* | intelNews.org |
Perceptive Middle East observers have been following the under-reported but escalating conflict along the Yemeni-Saudi border, in which Saudi and Yemeni government forces have joined forces in combating al-Qaeda-linked Yemeni rebels. It now appears that Saudi Arabia’s preeminent intelligence agency, the General Intelligence Presidency (GIP) has assumed direct command of the conflict. What exactly is going on?

News you may have missed #0218

December 13, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US Pentagon joins CIA drone war in Pakistan (yes, we know). Wired magazine’s Noah Shachtman (Danger Room blog) reports that the US military is gradually joining the CIA’s unmanned drone war in Pakistan –but this is old news, Noah.
Part 4 of CIA defector’s writings now available. Former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer has published the fourth installment of the writings of Edward Lee Howard, a CIA officer who defected to the USSR in 1985 (see here for previous intelNews coverage). In this part, he advises the reader to “never wear a disguise past police or immigration unless it is a dire emergency”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Cold War, defectors, Edward Lee Howard, history, KGB, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Predator drones, United States, US DoD, USSR

US use of stealth spy drones in Afghanistan raises questions

December 11, 2009 by intelNews 3 Comments

RQ-170 Sentinel

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
On December 6, we posted a link to a photo of what appeared to be a classified US drone aircraft, which was published on a blog belonging to French newspaper Libération. Then, unexpectedly, on December 8, the US Air Force admitted that the mystery aircraft, dubbed ‘the Beast of Kandahar’ by aviation spotters, is the RQ-170 Sentinel, an unmanned, unarmed surveillance and reconnaissance drone with stealth capabilities, that is officially still in production by US defense contractor Lockheed Martin. That’s all well and fine. But the question is: why would the US be using a stealth drone against the Taliban in Afghanistan, who have no known antiaircraft radar systems, and are therefore unable to track enemy surveillance planes? Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with aerial reconnaissance, Afghanistan, airborne surveillance, Iran, Lockheed Martin, News, Pakistan, RQ-170 Sentinel, Taliban, United States, unmanned aerial vehicles, US Air Force

News you may have missed #0213

December 10, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Pakistan militants target spy agency (again). Pakistani militants appear to be continuing their policy of directly targeting offices of the country’s main intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence.
Thailand angry after Cambodia jails alleged spy. Cambodian authorities have imposed a seven-year jail sentence on Siwarak Chothipong, whom they accuse of spying on the flight itinerary of visiting former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The latter has been living in exile since a 2006 military coup in Thailand.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Cambodia, espionage, ISI, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Siwarak Chothipong, suicide bombings, Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra

Real-life story behind Indian spy novel revealed

December 8, 2009 by intelNews 8 Comments

Mission to Pakistan by Maloy Krishna Dhar

Book cover

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A few years ago, Maloy Krishna Dhar, a longtime veteran of India’s Central Intelligence Bureau (CIB), wrote Mission to Pakistan, a spy novel about the ongoing intelligence war between nuclear powers India and Pakistan. Since 2002, when the novel was published, Dhar has maintained that the exploits of his protagonist, an undercover Indian spy leading a double life inside the Pakistani armed forces, were based on the true story of an unnamed CIB agent who was active in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It now appears that the real-life story behind the book is that of Ravindra Kaushik, an accredited CIB agent who moved to Pakistan from Dubai, converted to Islam, married a Pakistani woman, and joined the country’s Army under the cover name “Nabi Ahmed”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with book news and reviews, Central Intelligence Bureau (India), CIB (India), Dubai, espionage, Inayat Masiha, India, intelligence covers, Maloy Krishna Dhar, Multan (Pakistan), Nabi Ahmed, News, Pakistan, Pakistani armed forces, Rajashtan (India), Rajeshwar Kaushik, Ravindra Kaushik, Sri Ganganagar (India)

US embassy worker caught monitoring Pakistan naval site

December 5, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Ghafoor's ID card

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Pakistani news outlets have reported the arrest last month of an employee at the US embassy in Islamabad who was reportedly caught monitoring Pakistan’s Naval Headquarters at Zafar Chowk, a site targeted by a suicide bomber on December 3. Leading Pakistani daily The Nation published the US embassy identity card of the man, Abdul Ghafoor, who was reportedly apprehended by Pakistani Naval Police and intelligence officers in the morning of November 18. Interestingly, Ghafoor, who was said to have been acting “suspiciously”, was found to be carrying a camera with him, and to be riding a motorcycle “with a number plate that was found to be fake when checked”. Several commentators have suggested that the case points to a routine surveillance operation, which warrants further investigation in light of the December 3 suicide bombing attack at the Naval Headquarters. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdul Ghafoor, Islamabad (Pakistan), Leon Panetta, News, Pakistan, Pakistani 1923 Official Secrets Act for Spying, Pakistani Naval Police, Pakistani Navy, surveillance, United States, US embassy in Pakistan, Zafar Chowk (Pakistan)

Obama’s Afghan plan includes expanding CIA ops in Pakistan

December 4, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

Predator drone

By I. ALLEN & J. FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The Obama Administration’s plan to increase US military presence in Afghanistan includes expanding the CIA’s work in neighboring Pakistan, a country with which the US is officially not at war. An article published yesterday in The New York Times notes that the President has authorized the CIA to expand its Predator drone assassination program to include strikes in places like Baluchistan, which are outside Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal areas and far from the Afghan-Pakistani border. This development represents a major policy victory for the hawkish wing in the Pentagon’s senior leadership, which has been pressing Obama’s advisors to expand CIA assassination operations deeper into Pakistan since November of 2008. It also further reveals the Obama Administration’s policy preference toward undercover operations with a strong deniability proponent. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, assassinations, Baluchistan (Pakistan), CIA, covert operations, ethics, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Pakistan), intelligence oversight, News, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Predator drones, United States, War on Terrorism

Analysis: Is an obscure US military unit replacing the CIA?

December 3, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

JSOC logo

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
An obscure US military unit established in 1980 is gaining prominence in America’s “war on terrorism” and may be slowly replacing the CIA’s functions, according to a well-researched piece in The Atlantic magazine. The US Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) was created soon after the fiasco of the attempted rescue of the hostages held at the US embassy in Tehran. Since 9/11, the unit has emerged from its relative obscurity to join the forefront of America’s so-called “global war on terrorism”. Gathering evidence from a variety of sources investigating the use of paramilitary operations in America’s post-9/11 wars, Max Fisher argues that, even under the Obama Administration, JSOC may in fact be “taking on greater responsibility, especially in areas traditionally covered by the CIA”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Analysis, Bush Administration, CIA, intelligence oversight, Joint Special Operations Command, JSOC, Obama Administration, Pakistan, paramilitary units, United States, US DoD, US Special Forces, War on Terrorism

Is Pakistani-American insurgent a rogue CIA agent?

November 30, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Earlier this month US authorities said they wouldn’t let an Indian intelligence team question Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, who was arrested by the FBI in October for plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. The Indians said they wanted to talk to Headley, born Daood Gillani, about his reported association with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group responsible for several high-profile attacks inside India. But US officials blamed “bureaucratic” and “procedural” hurdles for denying Indian investigators access to Headley. Considering the close security ties between Washington and New Delhi, intelligence observers were surprised by the US move. Why did the FBI bar Indian intelligence from questioning Headley? Some Indian commentators suggest an intriguing theory: that Headley may be “an undercover agent whom the [US] authorities are shielding from the media and the hapless Indian investigators who were told to take a hike when they came to [Washington to] interview [him]”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with American Muslims, CIA, David Coleman Headley, DEA, Denmark, FBI, India, informants, intelligence cooperation, intelligence sharing, Lashkar-e-Taiba, narcotics trade, News, Pakistan, United States

News you may have missed #0197

November 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Pakistani spy agencies looking into oil, gas deals. At least two premier Pakistani intelligence agencies, Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence, have started investigations into multi-million dollar oil and gas transactions involving government-owned Pakistan State Oil.
Intelligence Community plans workforce of the future. Interesting take on future recruiting goals by Dr. Ron Sanders, Chief Human Capital Officer in the US intelligence community.
Update on French ex-spy v. Dubai World Corp. legal saga. Dubai World Corporation and former French intelligence officer Herve Jaubert, who escaped from the United Arab Emirates using his cache of spy tricks, are still at it in court.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Dubai World, energy resources, France, Herve Jaubert, intelligence recruitment, ISI, lawsuits, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Pakistan State Oil, Pakistani Military Intelligence, Ron Sanders, United Arab Emirates, United States

Blackwater aids US covert assassination, kidnapping ops

November 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Jeremy Scahill

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Private mercenary firm Blackwater (recently renamed Xe) is part of a covert US program in Pakistan that includes planned assassinations and kidnappings of Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects. Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill published earlier this week in The Nation magazine an in-depth study of the controversial firm’s role in the outsourced operation, which was first revealed by The New York Times and The Washington Post last August (see previous intelNews commentary). The close operational association between US Special Forces, the CIA, and the private mercenary firm is well known, largely thanks to Scahill’s prior work. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with abductions, assassinations, Blackwater, CIA, intelligence outsourcing, Jeremy Scahill, mercenaries, News, Pakistan, United States, US Special Forces, War on Terrorism

CIA chief has ‘confrontational’ meeting with Pakistani spymaster

November 24, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

A.S. Pasha

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
There is almost no coverage in the US media of CIA director Leon Panetta’s trip to Pakistan —in sharp contrast to the Pakistani and Indian press, where his visit made national headlines over the weekend. A scheduled meeting with Ahmed Shuja Pasha, director of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was undoubtedly among Panetta’s most important engagements in Islamabad. According to Pakistani media accounts, the meeting between the two men —the second in less than two months— was confrontational and marred by serious differences between the ISI and the CIA —two agencies that rarely see eye-to-eye lately. Citing “well-placed sources”, Pakistani daily The Nation said that the ISI spymaster “expressed his disappointment” to Panetta about the CIA’s “dismal role in countering terrorism” in Pakistan and its “failure to provide concrete actionable information” to the Pakistani secret services. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Ahmed Shuja Pasha, CIA, India, intelligence cooperation, ISI, Leon Panetta, Milt Bearden, News, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United States, US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

News you may have missed #0190

November 19, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Indicted Liberian leader continues to allege CIA complicity. Former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, who is being tried at The Hague for war crimes, said his rebel group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, exchanged information with the CIA, and continued to do so into his presidency. Talylor has made similar allegations before, but the US media is ignoring it.
Debate on who should protect US computer networks continues. Cyber experts and intelligence officials continue to debate about whether the National Security Agency is the best-suited US agency for protecting the country’s critical computer networks from cyberattacks.
Case of Pakistani ‘spy’ arrested in India gets thicker. A Pakistani man arrested in India just as he was set to board a flight to Saudi Arabia, using a fake passport, “was a leader of some bigger ring spread across central and western Uttar Pradesh”, according to Indian officials. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police has arrested two more individuals in connection with the case.