torture | intelNews.org

News you may have missed #0162

November 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

South Korean 1967 spy case was “trumped up”, report finds. A national truth commission set up by South Korea’s primary intelligence organization, the National Intelligence Service, has concluded that the so-called Tongbaengnim spy ring case was “grossly trumped up”. The case culminated in a public show-trial of 194 South Korean academics, artists and students, accused of spying for North Korea.
CIA torture sparked rift with FBI. The Associated Press is reporting what intelNews readers have known since July 20; namely that the CIA’s use of “harsh interrogation techniques” against captured terror suspects made FBI interrogators wary of the legality of the methods. As a result, FBI agents were barred from the interrogations.
Analysis: Friendship is no bar to espionage. As relations between Taiwan and China improve, would it be reasonable to expect that China will temper espionage activity against Taiwan, and vice-versa?

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, China, CIA, Cold War, declassification, espionage, FBI, history, lawsuits, News, news you may have missed, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Tongbaengnim spy ring, torture, turf wars, United States

UK spy agencies argue for torture trial behind closed doors

October 29, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Binyam Mohamed

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The two primary intelligence agencies in the British Isles have argued that any evidence presented in a lawsuit accusing them of torture should remain secret. The request, which is unprecedented in British legal history, was made on Monday before Britain’s High Court by MI5, MI6, as well as by a number of government ministers. The court case in point centers on a lawsuit filed jointly by seven British citizens or residents, all of whom were held in the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp and claim they were tortured by the CIA with British complicity. The seven are Moazzam Begg, Bisher Al Rawi, Jamil El Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes, Martin Mubanga, and Binyam Mohamed, whose case is perhaps the most well known. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Binyam Mohamed, Bisher Al Rawi, CIA, Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, High Court of Justice of the United Kingdom, Hillary Clinton, intelligence cooperation, Jamil El Banna, lawsuits, Martin Mubanga, MI5, MI6, Moazzam Begg, News, Omar Deghayes, Richard Belmar, torture, UK, United States

News you may have missed #0155

October 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

NSA confirms rumors of new Utah data center. IntelNews readers have known about this since last July. Despite the new center, NSA still cannot process all the information it intercepts. But officials told a press conference on Friday that the Agency “has no choice but to continue enhancing its data processing efforts”.
UK intel agents to train West Bank security forces. Britain is sending intelligence officers from MI5 and MI6 to the West Bank, to train the Palestinian Authority’s Mukhabarat intelligence agency. According to The Daily Mail, the move is aimed to “stop a wave of brutal torture by Palestinian security forces”. How ironic is it, then, that both MI5 and MI6 are currently under investigation by British police for complicity to torture?

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Camp Williams (Utah), communications interception, databases, intelligence training, MI5, MI6, Mukhabarat (Palestine), News, news you may have missed, NSA, Palestine, Palestinian National Authority, torture, UK, United States, Utah, West Bank

News you may have missed #0151

October 24, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Musicians protest use of their songs in Guantánamo torture. A group of musicians, including Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, REM, Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne, Rise Against, Roseanne Cash, Billy Bragg, the Roots, and many more, have joined the National Campaign to Close Guantánamo.
More information on CIA’s interest in monitoring Internet sites. Noah Shachtman, contributing editor at Wired magazine and editor of Danger Room, speaks on the CIA’s funding of a private software company specializing in monitoring online social media, such as YouTube, Twitter and Flickr.
Lithuania to investigate CIA secret prison allegations. Dalia Grybauskaite, president of Lithuania, has called for an official investigation into recent allegations that the CIA housed a secret prison for al-Qaeda suspects in Lithuania for more than a year, beginning in 2004.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, Billy Bragg, black operations, CIA, Cuba, Dalia Grybauskaite, Fickr, Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, Jackson Browne, Lithuania, music, National Campaign to Close Guantánamo, News, news you may have missed, Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, REM, Rise Against, Roseanne Cash, social networking, the Roots, Tom Morello, torture, Trent Reznor, Twitter, United States, War on Terrorism, YouTube

MI5 chief defends use of intelligence extracted through torture

October 19, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Jonathan Evans

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
In an unprecedented public speech, the director of MI5, Britain’s national counterintelligence agency, said the intelligence extracted by torturing suspects after 9/11 had stopped “many attacks” on Western and other targets. Last January, Jonathan Evans, who was named director of MI5 in April 2007, gave the first-ever media interview by an MI5 director in history. Last Thursday, he made history once again by giving the first-ever public speech by an MI5 chief. Speaking at the University of Bristol, England, Evans said MI5 was right to cooperate after 9/11 with US and other intelligence agencies, even if those agencies were known to routinely extract information from detainees through torture. In doing so, he revealed that MI5’s own knowledge of al-Qaeda was “inadequate” at the time of 9/11, and that the agency “had to get overseas help at the time”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 9/11, al-Qaeda, Binyam Mohamed, Jonathan Evans, MI5, News, torture, UK, United States, University of Bristol (UK), War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0147

October 19, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Major purge in Gambian intelligence services. The Gambian government gave no official reasons for the dismissal of 27 officers from the country’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA). But local media said the dismissals were aimed to end bitter internal turf wars that have affected NIA’s performance.
US Congress bars release of more torture photos. US House and Senate members have approved legislation that would permit the Pentagon to withhold photographs if it determines that their disclosure “would endanger citizens of the US, members of the US Armed Forces, or employees of the US government deployed outside the US”. The ACLU said that “the suppression of these photos will ultimately be far more damaging to our national security than their disclosure would be”.
Russia jails alleged Georgian spy. A Russian military court has jailed Russian Army sergeant Jemal Nakaidze for nine years, for passing secrets to Georgia during a war between the two countries last year. See here for more on the recent tug-of-war between Russia and Georgia.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, Africa, declassification, espionage, Gambia, Georgia, government secrecy, Jemal Nakaidze, National Intelligence Agency (Gambia), News, news you may have missed, Russia, torture, turf wars, US Congress

News you may have missed #0134

October 8, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

S. Korean government tries to silence anti-surveillance activist. Park Won-sun, the executive director of the Hope Institute, a civic think tank, says he will continue to criticize the country’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) for spying on civilians, despite charges filed against him by the government.
Cleric in CIA kidnap trial seeks millions. Hassan Moustafa Osama Nasr, an Egyptian cleric kidnapped by the CIA from a Milan street in 2003, has asked for €10 million ($15 million) in damages from the American and Italian defendants charged in his abduction.
Three US-based Chinese nationals accused of selling arms to China. Chinese nationals Zhen Zhou Wu, Yufeng Wei, Bo Li and Chitron Electronics and Shenzhen Chitron Electronics Co. Ltd., face a 38-count indictment for conspiring to violate the US Arms Export Control Act for allegedly exporting defense weapons and electronics, money laundering and filing false documents with the US Department of Commerce.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with abductions, Bo Li, China, Chitron Electronics, CIA, domestic intelligence, Egypt, extraordinary rendition, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, Hope Institute (South Korea), Italy, lawsuits, Milan (Italy), National Intelligence Service (South Korea), News, news you may have missed, Park Won-sun, Shenzhen Chitron Electronics Co. Ltd., South Korea, surveillance, torture, United States, US 1976 Arms Export Control Act, US Department of Commerce, weapons trade, Yufeng Wei, Zhen Zhou Wu

News you may have missed #0129

October 5, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Romanian communist spy boss dead at 80. General Nicolae Plesita, who directed Romania’s Securitate during the country’s communist period, has died. While heading the Securitate’s foreign intelligence service, from 1980 to 1984, Plesita hired the Venezuelan-born operative Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos the Jackal, to assassinate Romanian dissidents in France and bomb the US-owned Radio Free Europe offices in Munich, in 1981. In 1998, Plesita revealed that he had orders from the Romanian government to find temporary shelter for Carlos in Romania after the RFE bombing.
Settlement reached in DEA-CIA spying dispute. A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit brought 15 years ago by a former US Drug Enforcement Administration agent who accused a CIA operative of illegally bugging his home. In a court filing, lawyers for the government and the DEA agent said they “had reached an agreement in principle to settle the underlying litigation”. See here for previous intelNews coverage of this case.
Federal judge denies request for CIA secret documents. Hundreds of documents detailing the CIA’s defunct overseas secret detention program of suspected terrorists, including extreme interrogation methods have remained secret after U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein on Wednesday refused to release them “in order to protect intelligence methods and sources”. The ACLU argues that the CIA secret program was illegal under international and US law, that it involved the torture and deaths of some inmates, and therefore should not be shielded from public view.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, Alvin K. Hellerstein, assassinations, black operations, Burma, Carlos the Jackal, CIA, Cold War, DEA, declassification, Departamentul Securităţii Statului (Romania), Eastern Europe, Germany, government secrecy, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, lawsuits, Munich (Germany), News, news you may have missed, Nicolae Plesita, Radio Free Europe, Romania, secret prisons, Securitate (Romania), torture, Venezuela, war on drugs, War on Terrorism, warrantless communications interception

News you may have missed #0121

September 29, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

DHS intelligence official speaks on cross-department collaboration. Since its establishment, the US Department of Homeland Security has been involved in almost every major turf battle within the US security and intelligence community. Bart Johnson, the department’s Acting Undersecretary of Intelligence and Analysis, speaks about collaborating with non-DHS actors.
Somali group executes two for spying for CIA. Somalia’s al-Shabaab on Monday publicly executed two people accused of spying for the US Central Intelligence Agency and the country’s embattled government. Before the US-assisted Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, al-Shabaab (The Party of Youth) used to be the youth organization of the Somali Islamic Courts Union (ICU). Al-Shabaab shares the ICU’s mission of turning Somalia into an Islamic khalifat.
US intelligence veterans group backs CIA torture probe. The Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) have authored a memorandum addressed to US President Barack Obama, in which they “voice strong support for Attorney General Eric Holder’s authorization of a wider investigation into CIA interrogation”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Shabaab, Barack Obama, Bart Johnson, CIA, Eric Holder, espionage, intelligence cooperation, Islamic Courts Union, News, news you may have missed, Somalia, torture, turf wars, US Department of Homeland Security, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

News you may have missed #0120

September 29, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Film on America’s most famous whistleblower. A new documentary film, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, examines the life of Daniel Ellsberg, a US Pentagon employee who leaked documents to the American public in order to stop the Vietnam War. Ellsberg, 78, is still a pariah in the US defense community. He told the Associated Press that at a RAND (research arm of the Pentagon, where he used to work) reunion several years back, no one would shake his hand.
Retired US Air Force officer convicted in China spying case. Retired US Air Force officer James W. Fondren Jr. faces a maximum of 20 years behind bars, after being convicted of selling classified information on US-China military relations to a Chinese agent and lying to the FBI about it. The US Department of Justice accused Fondren, 62, of being part of a spy ring that operated on US soil under the supervision of Chinese government officials, whom Fondren supplied with classified documents for over three years, beginning in 2004.
Request to halt CIA probe “nonsense” says former agent. A controversial request by seven former heads of the CIA to end the inquiry into abuse of terrorism suspects held by the Agency is “nonsense”, says Bob Baer, a 20-year CIA caseworker in the Mid-East and former CIA station chief in Iraq. “To say let’s not look further into this because it could upset the agency is like saying let’s not look into Bernie Madoff because it could upset the financial sector”, said Baer.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with China, CIA, Daniel Ellsberg, espionage, FBI, James Wilbur Fondren Jr, News, news you may have missed, Pentagon Papers, RAND Corporation, Robert Baer, torture, US Department of Justice, US DoD, Vietnam War, whistleblowing

News you may have missed #0117

September 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Were CIA interrogation techniques based on bad science? The techniques used by the CIA during so-called “harsh interrogations” actually impaired the memories of terrorist suspects, diminishing their ability to recall and provide the detailed information the spy agency sought, according to a new scientific paper.
Ex-KGB officer loses court fight to avoid deportation from Canada. Former KGB agent Mikhail Lennikov, who is living in a Vancouver church, defying an order of expulsion from Canada on national security grounds, has lost his latest legal fight to avoid deportation.
US building spy balloon. It’s not a joke (we think): the US says it is building a big spy balloon, similar to that currently being tested by Canada’s armed forces.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with airborne surveillance, Canada, CIA, deportations, interrogation techniques, KGB, Mikhail Alexander Lennikov, News, news you may have missed, psychology, torture, United States, Vancouver (Canada)

US moves to shield operatives in CIA abduction case

September 24, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Hassan Nasr

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The US government has moved to officially prevent Italian authorities from prosecuting an American Colonel who in 2003 was involved in the illegal kidnapping of a Muslim cleric in Milan. If the Reuters report is accurate, it will be the first time that Washington moves officially to shield its covert operatives from prosecution in the Italian court system. Colonel Joseph Romano is one of 26 Americans, many of them CIA agents, believed to have been involved in the daylight abduction of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr from a Milan street. Nasr, who is also known as Abu Omar, says he was brutally tortured and held illegally for years without charge in Egypt, where he was renditioned by his American abductors. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with abductions, Aviano (Italy), CIA, CIA Milan station, Egypt, extraditions, extraordinary rendition, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, Italy, Joseph Romano, Milan (Italy), NATO, NATO SOFA, NATO Status of Forces Agreemen, News, Robert Seldon Lady, Sabrina De Sousa, torture, USAF Aviano Air Base

News you may have missed #0112

September 21, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Obama refuses to halt CIA probe. Arguing that “nobody’s above the law”, the US President has rejected a request by seven former heads of the CIA to end the inquiry into abuse of suspects held by the Agency.
Naval intel agent caught spying on famous Philippine artist. Philippine prizewinning poet, critic and dramatist Bienvenido Lumbera says he will file a complaint against the Philippines armed forces over the apprehension of a Naval Intelligence Security Force agent, who was caught spying outside his home. The country’s government is supposedly concentrating (with US logistical, intelligence and combat assistance) on fighting the Muslim separatist Moro ethnic group (including the Abu Sayyaf Group) in the south, but it is apparently spying on artists and intellectuals on the side.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abu Sayyaf Group, Barack Obama, Bienvenido Lumbera, CIA, computer hacking, cybersecurity, domestic intelligence, Moro ethnic group, Naval Intelligence Security Force (Philippines), News, news you may have missed, Philippines, torture, United States, US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency

British police investigating secret services in torture cases

September 15, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

MI6 HQ

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Britain’s attorney general has asked London’s Metropolitan police to investigate the role of the country’s external intelligence agency in the torture of a foreign detainee. MI6, also known as the Secret Intelligence Service, is the second British intelligence organization to be investigated by police, since MI5, the country’s main domestic intelligence service, is already under investigation for its alleged role in the torture of Binyam Mohamed. An Ethiopian resident of Britain, Mohamed said he was severely tortured with MI5’s collaboration, after he was renditioned to Morocco. According to MI6 sources, the police investigation into SIS activities is not related to the Binyam Mohamed case, but rather to a yet unnamed foreign detainee of an unnamed country. The MI6 investigation marks the first time in British history that the two main arms of the country’s intelligence establishment, MI5 and MI6 are the subject of simultaneous police investigations.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Binyam Mohamed, London Metropolitan Police, MI5, MI6, Morocco, News, torture, UK

Did CIA engage in non-consensual human experimentation?

September 13, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA HQ

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Late last month, I warned that it would take several weeks before journalists, academics, historians, lawyers, and other interested parties comb through the recently declassified report on torture by the CIA inspector general, as well as several other newly available documents pertaining to the CIA’s interrogation program. The search continues. Meanwhile, several observers are focusing on the CIA’s Office of Medical Services, as well as on Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) a secretive US Army unit, whose work appears to have informed the CIA’s torture program. Read more of this post