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News you may have missed #0131

October 6, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA active in UK, British MPs told. Charles Farr, the head of the British Home Office’s office of security and counter-terrorism, told members of the British Parliament that Britain had a “very close” relationship with the US intelligence community and that “declared” CIA personnel are active in the British Isles. IntelNews readers have been aware since last January that the CIA has been conducting “unprecedented intelligence-gathering operations in Britain”.
Denmark’s military spy chief resigns amid soldier book scandal. The publication of a book by Thomas Rathsack, former member of Jaegerkorps, an elite army unit, which reveals systematic breach of Geneva Convention directives by members of the unit deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, has prompted the resignation of the country’s military intelligence chief. Tim Sloth Joergensen announced his resignation on Sunday.
Wife of poisoned Russian spy criticizes Moscow visit. The widow of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was assassinated by radiation poison in London, where he was living after defecting to the UK, has criticized the prospect of a visit to Moscow by Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Miliband. “That [Mr. Miliband’s] visit will take place exactly on the third anniversary of my husband’s poisoning is adding insult to injury”, said Marina Litvinenko.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan War, Alexander Litvinenko, assassinations, British Muslims, Charles Farr, CIA, David Miliband, defectors, Denmark, Geneva Convention, Iraq War, Jaegerkorps (Denmark), London, Marina Litvinenko, News, news you may have missed, resignations, Russia, Thomas Rathsack, Tim Sloth Joergensen, UK, UK Home Office

“Unprecedented” history of MI5 published

October 6, 2009 by intelNews 3 Comments

Dr. Andrew

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The MI5, Britain’s foremost counterintelligence organization, made headlines in 2002, when it appointed Cambridge University history Professor Christopher Andrew to produce an authorized account of its long history. The 1,032-page-long book, entitled Defense of the Realm, was published this week by Allen Lane, as announced last March, in time to mark the agency’s centennial. Despite the fact that Defense of the Realm has been officially sanctioned by MI5, (ex-director-general Stephen Lander was sitting next to Dr. Andrew during Monday’s press conference), the book makes some interesting revelations. Among them is that MI5 considered assassinating V.K. Krishna Menon, post-colonial India’s first High Commissioner (an ambassador within the British Commonwealth of Nations) to Britain. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with assassinations, book news and reviews, British Commonwealth of Nations, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Christopher Andrew, Cold War, Communist Party of Great Britain, Harold Wilson, history, Jack Jones, Joan Ruddock, KGB, Labour Party (UK), MI5, News, Norman John Worthington, Peter Wright, Stephen Lander, UK, UK Transport and General Workers' Union, University of Cambridge, USSR, V.K. Krishna Menon

Analysis: Spy agencies disagree on status of Iran’s nuclear program

October 5, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

M. Ahmadinejad

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Western intelligence agencies agree that Iran’s ultimate aim is to fortify its military posture with nuclear weapons. Putting aside, however, the broad concurrence of opinion about Iran’s long-term goal, very little is clear about the immediate status of the country’s nuclear program. Iran maintains that its goal is peaceful; namely to invest in nuclear energy so as to free up large quantities of oil for exports. It is important to stress that the consensus among America’s intelligence agencies is that this is in fact Iran’s immediate goal. This was pronounced in the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), a publicly available annual report cooperatively authored by the heads of all 16 US intelligence agencies. The 2007 report stated “with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program”. The reality is that the existence of Iran’s second uranium enrichment plant –of which, incidentally, Western and Israeli intelligence agencies have been aware for years– does not necessarily contest the findings of the 2007 NIE. IntelNews editor Dr. Joseph Fitsanakis explains why this is so on the website of the Research Institute for European and American Studies. Read article →

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2007 NIE, France, Germany, IAEA, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Joseph Fitsanakis, NIE, nuclear espionage, nuclear proliferation, Qum (Iran), RIEAS, UK, United States

News you may have missed #0125

October 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US officials deny deal with Russia on missile shield. Officials from the US Department of Defense have denied persistent rumors that Washington’s decision to scrap the controversial missile defense shield was part of a secret deal with Moscow. They also continue to insist that “[t]his is not about Russia. It never has been about Russia”, according to US defense undersecretary Michele Flournoy.
US DHS is hiring cyber experts. The Obama Administration has approved a request by the US Department of Homeland Security to hire of up to 1,000 cyber experts over the next three years. The recruits will include “cyber analysts, developers and engineers”. One hopes the move will also patch the countless holes in the Department’s cyber defense posture, which were revealed last month in an internal report, to little media attention.
MI6 is also hiring. Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service –also known as MI6– is hiring and has uploaded a snap test (called “selection tool”) on its website to test whether those interested have what it takes to be a spy. The test, which evaluates how well potential candidates can lie, is located here.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with cybersecurity, intelligence recruitment, MI6, Michele Flournoy, News, news you may have missed, Obama Administration, Russia, UK, United States, US Department of Homeland Security, US DoD, US Missile Defense Shield

News you may have missed #0119

September 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA opens center on climate change. The CIA Center on Climate Change and National Security is a small unit led by senior specialists from the Directorate of Intelligence and the Directorate of Science and Technology. It focuses on “the national security impact of phenomena such as desertification, rising sea levels, population shifts, and heightened competition for natural resources”. Methinks the emphasis will probably be on the latter.
Brazilian political figures spied on after dictatorship. Senior Brazilian politicians, religious leaders and activists were spied on illegally for 16 years after the 1964-1985 military regime, according to recent allegations in the country’s press. Major surveillance targets included Brazil’s current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, opposition leader and Sao Paulo Governor Jose Serra, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, and others.
New book examines life of Franco-sympathizer British spy. Jimmy Burns has written a biography of his father, Tom Burns, an anti-communist sympathizer of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who organized the British intelligence network in Spain during and after World War II.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Brazil, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, CIA, CIA Center on Climate Change, CIA Directorate of Intelligence, CIA Directorate of Science and Technology, climate change, domestic intelligence, energy resources, espionage, Francisco Franco, Ignacio Lula da Silva, Jose Serra, MI6, News, news you may have missed, political policing, São Paulo (Brazil), Spain, Spanish Civil War, surveillance, Tom Burns, UK, World War II

IBM bungles expensive IT project for UK intelligence

September 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

IBM logo

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The British government has scrapped a major intelligence-related network development project due to substandard security standards and several missed deadlines by International Business Machines (IBM). The company, which is the leading contractor in the project, has been blamed for its failure and will probably be taken to court by the government, which is eager to recover £24.4 million ($38,8 million) in research costs. Relatively little is known about the project itself, codenamed SCOPE, which the British government initiated in 2003 with the aim of facilitating increased cross-department collaboration between as many as ten government departments with security or intelligence components. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with IBM, intelligence cooperation, intelligence outsourcing, News, project SCOPE, UK

Portrait of ex-spy said to be “close with militant Islamists”

September 27, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

Alastair Crooke

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Writing for Mother Jones magazine, David Samuels presents an interesting portrait of Alastair Crooke, a former British intelligence agent who brokered deals with the Irish Republican Army, funneled arms to the mujahideen in Afghanistan, spent time with rebel groups in the jungles of Colombia, and later served as British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s eyes and ears in the Middle East. In late 2003, after three decades as an MI6 field officer, he was called home and, in classic British bureaucratic fashion, given a royal honor for his service and then fired from his job. It was rumored in London and in Jerusalem that Crooke had alienated the British prime minister by becoming too closely affiliated with militant Islamists. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Alastair Crooke, Beirut, Conflicts Forum, David Samuels, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, MI6, Palestine, Tony Blair, UK

Chechnya President says US, UK spies active in region

September 26, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Ramzan Kadyrov

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The pro-Moscow President of Russia’s Chechen Republic has accused American and British intelligence services of collaborating with Muslim separatists in the region, in order to “split [Russia] apart”. Speaking to conservative newspaper Zavtra, President Ramzan Kadyrov said Russian government forces are “fighting in the mountains [against] the American and English intelligence agencies”. Asked to elaborate, Kadyrov alleged he had personally seen the US driver license of a CIA operative who was shot dead during a security operation he led. Kadyrov’s comments mark the first public allegation by a Russian government official of Western intelligence activity in the Russian Caucasus. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with assassinations, Chechnya, CIA, espionage, News, Ramzan Kadyrov, Russia, separatism, Sulim Yamadayev, Turkey, UK, United Arab Emirates, United States

News you may have missed #0115

September 25, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

China says US intelligence report shows Cold War prejudice. The 2009 US National Intelligence Strategy (.pdf) report singles out Iran, North Korea, China and Russia as nations with the ability to challenge US interests. But government-owned China Daily newspaper says the report is “stuffed with outdated pride and prejudice” and “reflects typical Cold War and power politics mentality”.
Somali suicide bomber lived in the US. After Shirwa Ahmed, a US citizen of Somali descent who last October became history’s first known US-born suicide bomber, another Somali-American, who lived in Seattle, has been identified as one of the participants of a suicide bombing that killed 21 peacekeepers in Mogadishu last week. US officials have been warning for almost a year about the strange phenomenon of the “disappearing Somali youths” from their US homes.
UK spies used Monopoly sets to help WWII prisoners escape. British secret services embedded escape tools and maps in Monopoly game sets distributed by humanitarian groups in care packages to imprisoned British soldiers during World War II. The article contains some interesting photographs.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2009 National Intelligence Strategy, Africa, China, Germany, Iran, Mogadishu (Somalia), Monopoly (game), National Intelligence Strategy, News, news you may have missed, North Korea, prisoners of war, Russia, Seattle, Shirwa Ahmed, Somalia, suicide bombings, UK, United States, World War II

News you may have missed #0114

September 23, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US Senate Democrats seek stronger wiretap law. Led by Russ Feingold (WI) and Dick Durbin (IL), the Senate group proposes stronger safeguards and higher standards of judicial oversight for surveillance activity, including withdrawing immunity to telecom companies that participated in warrantless communications surveillance during the Bush Administration.
South Korean spy agency in trouble over expenses. The scandal-prone National Intelligence Service of South Korea is being scrutinized again for spending billions of wons in unaccounted “special activities”.
Movie script tells story of British police detective turned KGB spy. Daniel Craig and Jude Law are said to be in the running to play the lead role in a new film about the story of John Symonds, a British former police detective who worked for the KGB from 1972 until 1980. In 1981, when he approached MI5 and MI6 and offered to turn into a triple agent for the UK spy services, he was dismissed as a fantasist.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Bush Administration, Cold War, communications interception, corruption, Dick Durbin, double agents, espionage, honey traps, intelligence budget, John Symonds, KGB, MI5, MI6, National Intelligence Service (South Korea), News, news you may have missed, operation STELLAR WIND, Russ Feingold, South Korea, telecommunication service providers, Terrorist Surveillance Program (STELLAR WIND), UK, United States, USSR, warrantless communications interception

News you may have missed #0111

September 20, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

Obama supports extending USA PATRIOT Act domestic spy provisions. The move confirms the US President’s support for the Act, whose warrantless communications monitoring provisions he approved with his Senate vote in 2008.
Poland jails alleged Belarusian spy. The man, known only as “Sergei M.” was sentenced Wednesday to five-and-a-half years in prison by a Warsaw district court for spying against Poland between 2005 and 2006. Meanwhile in Belarus four local army officers are still on trial, accused of spying for Poland.
Tolkien was trained as a British spy. Novelist JRR Tolkien, whose day occupation was in linguistics research, secretly trained as a British government spy in the run up to World War II, new documents have disclosed.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Barack Obama, Belarus, cryptology, domestic intelligence, espionage, JRR Tolkien, linguistics, News, news you may have missed, Poland, Sergei M., UK, USA PATRIOT Act, warrantless communications interception, World War II

Gaddafi’s son employed former spies’ firm to research PhD thesis

September 16, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Saif al-Gaddafi

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
One of Libyan ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi’s seven sons employed a firm staffed by former British intelligence agents to carry out research for his PhD thesis. Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, 37, who is seen as the leading candidate to succeed his father, recently submitted his doctoral thesis at the London School of Economics, where he was a PhD candidate for four years. A preliminary note in his thesis, which is now available at the Senate House library of the University of London, reveals that he employed the Monitor Group, a research and consultancy company that includes at least two well-known former British spies among its ranks, to conduct interviews required for his thesis. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, BP, British Petroleum, Libya, Lockerbie air disaster, MI6, Muammar al-Gaddafi, News, Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, Sir Mark Allen, Sir Richard Dearlove, The London School of Economics, The Monitor Group, The University of London, UK

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

News you may have missed #0106

September 15, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

North Korean succession rumor mill now silent. Rumors circulated last summer by South Korean intelligence sources, that Kim Jong Il was on his deathbed and was about to be replaced with his son, Kim Jong Un, have gone quiet, after the health of the “Great Leader” appears to have miraculously improved. Some now believe Pyongyang may have deliberately fed those rumors to discern reactions among senior North Korean officials in Kim John Il’s circle.
UK government issues apology for treatment of gay cryptanalyst after 57 years. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he is sorry for the “appalling” way World War II code-breaker Alan Turing was treated by British authorities for being gay. In 1952, Turing was prosecuted for gross indecency after admitting a sexual relationship with a man. Two years later, he killed himself. He is most famous for his code-breaking work at Bletchley Park, also known as Station X, during WWII, where he helped create the Bombe that cracked messages enciphered with the German Enigma machines.
Ex-chief of Greek secret services to stand for far-right party. Yannis Korantis, who was axed two months ago from his post as chief of Greece’s State Intelligence Service (EYP), said he will stand for extreme-right party LAOS in next month’s parliamentary elections. Notorious neo-Nazi Dimitris Zafeiropoulos, who recently joined LAOS, said he would also stand for the party in Patras, in the northern Peloponnese. LAOS entered parliament for the first time in 2007, with 3.8 percent of votes and 10 parliamentarians.

UK government issues apology for treatment of gay cryptanalyst after 57 years.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Alan Turing, Bletchley Park, cryptology, Enigma, EYP (Greece), Germany, Greece, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, LAOS (Greece), News, news you may have missed, North Korea, South Korea, State Intelligence Service (Greece), Station X, UK, World War II, Yannis Korantis

News you may have missed #0102

September 9, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

NSA helped UK arrest convicted bomb plotters. Email correspondence intercepted by the US National Security Agency in 2006 helped lead to the arrest and conviction of three Muslim militants, who were planning attacks in Britain. IntelNews learns that this case was brought up by American intelligence officials who recently threatened to terminate all intelligence cooperation with the UK, in reaction to the release from a Scottish prison of convicted Libyan bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
Bush Administration tried to alter “enforced disappearances” international treaty standards. The aim of the global treaty, long supported by the United States, was to end official kidnappings, detentions and killings like those that plagued Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s, and that allegedly still occur in Russia, China, Iran, Colombia, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. But the documents suggest that initial US support for the negotiations collided head-on with the then-undisclosed goal of seizing suspected terrorists anywhere in the world for questioning by CIA interrogators or indefinite detention by the US military at foreign sites. So the Bush Administration tried to alter the language of the treaty from 2003 to 2006, reveals The Washington Post.