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German security group sees rise in industrial, commercial spying

May 26, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A major German corporate security group has echoed recent warnings by the German government that foreign industrial and commercial espionage in Germany is on the increase. Last week, the general manager of the German Association for Security in Industry and Commerce (ASW), Dr. Berthold Stoppelkamp, told German newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung that the targeting of German research and commercial enterprises by mainly Chinese and Russian agents is so extensive that it usually costs the German economy over €20 billion per year, and it may be costing as high as €50 billion per year since 2007. Dr. Stoppelkamp said that, although these covert activities are government-managed, they aim to assist individual Chinese or Russian firms competing against German companies for international contracts. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Berthold Stoppelkamp, China, corporate espionage, economic espionage, German Association for Security in Industry and Commerce, German Ministry of the Interior, Germany, industrial espionage, News, Russia

Belarus puts on trial members of alleged Polish military spy ring

May 6, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Very little information has appeared in Western news outlets of an ongoing trial in Belarus of four army officers accused of spying for Poland. The four, all of whom are Belarusian, are accused by Belarus security officials of collaborating with Polish intelligence agents by providing them with classified data on Belarusian military technologies, as well as with information on Russia’s air defense system, of which Belarus is a partner. A fifth alleged member of the spy ring, who is a Russian military officer, is facing similar charges in Moscow. The four Belarusians were reportedly arrested several months ago by the KGB, Belarus’ intelligence service. The discovery of the alleged spy ring led to a major political scandal in Minsk, prompting the dismissal of KGB’s director, Stepan Sukhorenko, by Belarus’ longtime President, Alexander Lukashenko. If convicted of treason and espionage, the army officers could technically face the death penalty under Belarusian law.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus, Belarusian armed forces, espionage, KGB (Belarus), military intelligence, News, Poland, Russia, Stepan Sukhorenko

Georgia war prompted Russian purchase of Israeli drones

April 10, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Much was made last week of an agreement between the Russian government and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to purchase three Israeli-made intelligence-gathering drones. The Israeli company will receive $50 million to supply the Russian military with three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), namely a Bird-Eye 400 mini, an I-view MK 150 tactical, and a Searcher MK II medium-range UAV. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced the deal last Friday, saying it needed the new generation UAVs “to provide battlefield reconnaissance to the country’s armed forces”. What the Ministry didn’t say, however, is that it was prompted to purchase the Israeli-made drones after it saw its operations severely hampered by lack of aerial intelligence during the 2008 South Ossetia war last August. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2008 South Ossetia War, aerial reconnaissance, Bird-Eye 400 UAV, Israel, Israel Aerospace Industries, MK 150 UAV, MK II UAV, News, Russia, Russian Ministry of Defense, unmanned aerial vehicles, weapons trade

DC surveillance house still outside Russian embassy

April 10, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Secret camera

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Almost exactly a year ago, MSNBC’s Jim Popkin showed how easy it was to detect an FBI surveillance post at a house outside the Russian embassy in Washington, DC. The post operated out of what initially appeared to be a residential property located directly across from the Russian embassy building. Watching closely late in the afternoon, however, three video cameras could be seen operating from inside the three opaque skylights in the roof of the house. It took minimal background research for Popkin to confirm the FBI connection to the property. One of the Bureau’s counterintelligence agents associated with the operation, and listed as a resident of the property, had even identified himself as “clerk [but] really a spy” in a publicly available database. Now Cryptome has published recent photographs of the house, which confirm the earlier MSNBC story and show that the opaque skylights are still in place in the roof of the residential property. One of the photographs shows an empty lot by the side of the property, which readers with background in surveillance and will undoubtedly find intriguing.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with consular monitoring, counterintelligence, FBI, News, Russia, Russian embassy in the US, surveillance, United States, Washington DC

Intelligence sources say US electric grid hacked by foreign spies

April 9, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
In yesterday’s edition, The Wall Street Journal quoted senior US intelligence sources, including former Homeland Security Department officials, who said that foreign spies have penetrated the electronic infrastructure of America’s electrical supply grid. The officials said the hackers, who have reportedly been traced to Russia and China, among other countries, do not currently appear intent on disrupting the system. Instead, they seem to be “on a mission to navigate [and map] the US electrical system and its controls”, allegedly so that they can sabotage it “during a crisis or war”. Interestingly, the discovery was reportedly made not by utility company technicians, but by US intelligence agents engaged in monitoring cyber-intrusions into the nation’s electronic infrastructure. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with China, computer hacking, cyberespionage, cybersecurity, energy networks, News, Russia, sabotage, United States, Yevgeniy Khorishko

US uses Kyrgyz base to spy, say Russians

April 7, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Rossiya TV

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Just as US officials entered one last round of negotiations to avert the scheduled evacuation of the Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan, Russian television has accused the US Pentagon of secretly using the base to spy on Moscow and Beijing. Government-owned Telekanal Rossiya aired during primetime last Sunday a documentary titled “Base”, which alleged that signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the Pentagon’s primary operational focus at Manas. Footage aired in the documentary showed several windowless buildings located around the perimeter of the Manas Air Base, said to contain components of a “multi-channel, multi-functional system of radio-electronic surveillance […] which controls entire Central Asia, parts of China and Siberia”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with China, Kyrgyzstan, Manas (Kyrgyzstan), News, Russia, SIGINT, Telekanal Rossiya, United States, US DoD

Dubai police say Russian parliamentarian ordered murder

April 6, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Yamadayev

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Police officials in the United Arab Emirates said last weekend that Chechnya’s ex-Prime Minister and “close ally of the Chechen president” was behind the March 31 assassination of a former Chechen separatist living in Dubai. Speaking to reporters, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan bin Tamim, chief of Dubai’s police, said Adam S. Delimkhanov, who is currently a Member of Parliament in Russia, “is the man behind the assassination of Sulim B. Yamadayev”. Yamadayev was a Chechen rebel commander who fought against Moscow in the 1990s, but in 1999 switched sides and headed an elite pro-Moscow paramilitary squad that targeted the separatists. Last spring, however, after Yamadayev fell out with pro-Moscow Chechen President Ramzan A. Kadyrov, Moscow issued an arrest warrant against him for the 1998 abduction of a Chechen entrepreneur. Shortly after one of his brothers was shot dead in Moscow, Yamadayev moved to the United Arab Emirates. On March 31, however, less than four months after his relocation to Dubai, Yamadayev was shot several times in the head outside the Jumeirah Beach apartment complex in which he lived. He thus became the latest target in a recent wave of assassinations of former Chechen commanders by mysterious assailants, who many suspect are commissioned by the Russian intelligence services. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Adam S. Delimkhanov, assassinations, Chechnya, Dahi Khalfan bin Tamim, Dubai, Jumeirah Beach apartment (Dubai), Mahdi Lournia, Makhsud-Jan, News, Ramzan Kadyrov, Russia, Sulim B. Yamadayev, United Arab Emirates

An April Fools story from Robert Eringer

April 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Albert II

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
In his latest blog entry, former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer, who until recently was spymaster to Prince Albert II of Monaco, recounts an interesting story of deceit at the gaffe-prone Royal House of Monaco. According to Eringer, the tiny principality’s ruler, Prince Albert II, was recently fooled by an attractive 24-year-old blonde into believing she was the daughter of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The woman, whose name was Ekaterini (Catherine) was in fact Greek and spoke not a word of Russian. Eringer reports that the young woman convinced the Monegasque royal to patronize the local chapter of Green Cross International, an environmental action group she claimed to speak for. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Monaco, Monaco Intelligence Service, News, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Robert Eringer, Russia

Ex-KGB agent, wanted for murder in Britain, to run for mayor

March 16, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Lugovoy

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS| intelNews.org |
Andrey Lugovoy, who is wanted in Britain for the 2006 murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, is poised to run for mayor in the Russian city of Sochi. British authorities believe that Lugovoy, who served in the KGB and in Russia’s Federal Protective Service (FSO) from 1987 to 1996, carried out the radioactive poisoning of Litvinenko, a former intelligence officer who had defected to the UK. Litvinenko, who was a vocal critic of former Russian President Vladimir Putin, came down with radioactive poisoning soon after meeting Lugovoy in a London restaurant. The latter is believed by British authorities to have acted “with the backing of the Russian state”. A victory by Lugovoy in next month’s mayoral race could potentially pose a diplomatic challenge for London, as Sochi will be hosting the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. If he wins, therefore, the prime murder suspect will be expected to lead local officials in “welcoming the British team to the Games”. Britain’s Daily Telegraph notes that such a possibility could ultimately “lead to the first ever British boycott of an Olympic Games”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2014 Winter Olympic Games, Alexander Litvinenko, Andrey Lugovoy, assassinations, FSO (Russia), informants, KGB, Marina Litvinenko, MI6, News, Olympic Games, poisoning, Russia, Sochi (Russia), UK, Vladimir Putin

Video alleges Moscow policy of assassinating Chechen expats

March 9, 2009 by intelNews 3 Comments

Khadirov

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Just days after the latest mysterious assassination of a former Chechen commander in Turkey, a video has surfaced on YouTube in which a Chechen man reveals how he was tasked by pro-Moscow authorities in Chechnya with killing a pro-independence Chechen leader in Norway. The two-minute video features Ruslan Khalidov, who claims he is a nephew of Shaa Turlayev, a prominent former bodyguard of the late Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov. Maskhadov was assassinated by Russian FSB agents in 2005. Khalidov states that he was repeatedly tortured by Chechen authorities operating under the instructions of pro-Moscow Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. He was then blackmailed into agreeing to perform a series of covert tasks in Norway, including providing Norwegian authorities with disinformation on Chechen expats in Norway, and assassinating Magomed Ocherhadji, a vocal pro-independence Chechen community leader based in the Scandinavian country. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Aslan Maskhadov, assassinations, Austria, Chechnya, FSB, Magomed Ocherhadji, News, Norway, Ramzan Kadyrov, Ruslan Khalidov, Russia, Shaa Turlayev, Turkey, Umar Israilov

Russian intelligence suspected in new killing of Chechen in Turkey

March 4, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Another assassination of a former Chechen insurgent living in Turkey has been reported. This time it was Musa Atayev (also known as Ali Osaev), 48, who was killed in Zeytinburnu, Istanbul, with three shots to the head from a gun equipped with a silencer. Atayev’s assassination was the third such killing in five months. In September of 2008, Gazhi Edilsutanov was also shot in the head in Istanbul’s Başakşehir suburb, while last December Islam Dzhanibekov was shot and killed in front of his home in the Turkish commercial capital’s Ümraniye district. Notably, all three Chechens were reportedly shot from a close range with a single action 7.62 MSP pistol. This type of weapon has been traditionally favored by the KGB and its successor agencies since the early 1970s, mainly due to its small size and relatively silent operation. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Ali Osaev, assassinations, Chechnya, Istanbul, Musa Atayev, MİT (Turkey), News, Russia, SVR (Russia), Turkey

NATO spy convicted by Estonian court

February 27, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Herman Simm

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Herman Simm, the Estonian spy who handed classified NATO material to Russia, has been convicted to 12.5 years’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $1.6 million for damages he caused while spying for the Russians. Simm, a high-level official at the Estonian defense ministry, who once headed the country’s National Security Authority, was arrested last November along with his wife and charged with spying for Russia for over 10 years. At the time of his arrest, Simm’s spying activities were described by Western counterintelligence officials as perhaps “the most serious case of espionage against NATO since the end of the Cold War”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with News, espionage, NATO, Russia, US Missile Defense Shield, Germany, BND, Estonia, Herman Simm, double agents, Valery Zentsov, Sergei Yakovlev, SVR (Russia)

Vienna is world’s largest espionage hub, say experts

February 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Vienna

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A few months ago, a federal office under Austria’s Interior Ministry published a report on foreign intelligence activity in the country, in which it predicted that “Austria will remain an operational area for foreign intelligence agencies […], which will account for a consistently high number of intelligence agents”. An article in German newspaper Die Welt explains that not only does post-Cold-War Vienna continue to be “a spy hub between East and West”, but the Austrian capital now has “the highest density of [foreign intelligence] agents in the world”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Austria, Chechnya, espionage, IAEA, News, OPEC, OSCE, Russia, Siegfried Beer, Vienna

Analysis: US issues financial warfare warnings against China, Russia

February 20, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS| intelNews.org |
It turns out that Admiral Dennis Blair wasn’t kidding when he said last week that “the primary near-term security concern of the United States is the global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications”. Barack Obama’s Director of National Intelligence warned during his annual threat assessment that “the longer it takes for the recovery to begin, the greater the likelihood of serious damage to US strategic interests”. The continuing credit vulnerability of the US economy is central to these fears, and it appears to be forcing the rapid rise of microeconomic concerns to the top of the US intelligence community’s threat list. A major aspect of these concerns centers on the hard-to-ignore fact that China currently holds close to $1 trillion-worth of US monetary debt. Trade experts suggest that, should China suddenly decide to offer these securities for sale, “the US dollar would tank”. The chances of this happening are slim -the Chinese economy would also suffer from such a move- but US intelligence agencies are taking no chances. On February 19, the office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a public warning to the Chinese government that it would consider any attempts to sell US Treasury bonds an act of “financial warfare”. Keep reading →

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with China, CIA, CIA Office of Transnational Issues, David Gordon, Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, Eastern Europe, economic espionage, financial warfare, James Rickards, Joseph Fitsanakis, Russia, threat finance, United States

Russian intelligence notes influx of foreign spies into Siberia

February 10, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The press office of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has announced a noticeable increase in espionage activity by agents of foreign governments in Siberia. Russian counterintelligence agents have apparently detected increased presence of operatives from Asian-Pacific countries in and around Siberian scientific centers in Novosibirsk, and especially in its suburb of Akademgorodok, nicknamed “science city” by the Russians. The head of FSB’s local directorate in Novosibirsk, Sergey Savchenkov, said that “dozens of foreign spies” had been discovered in the region in 2008″, and that most of them were targeting Russian scientists using “all possible means” to extract confidential information. Siberian academic facilities are noted for their research in the fields of oil and gas geology, nanotechnology, creation of new materials, and biochemistry, among other subjects. This is not the first time in recent months that the FSB has drawn attention to scientific and technical espionage on Russian soil. In December of 2008, Major-General Valeriy Beklenishchev, who heads the FSB’s Saratov branch, said nanotechnology research projects conducted at regional universities, as well as research on “heat and power engineering and electronics” were prime espionage targets of foreign operatives.