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Senior Afghan official says Pakistan aided Kabul suicide bombing

October 19, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

ISI HQ

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A senior advisor to the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai has accused Pakistani intelligence services of aiding suicide bombers strike targets in Afghan capital Kabul and other areas in Afghanistan. Speaking last week to Reuters news agency, Davood Moradian, senior policy aide in the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, alleged that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency systematically helps “anti-Western militants” in Afghanistan mount attacks against civilian and military targets alike. Moradian hinted that the ISI assistance to the militants is sanctioned by senior officials in the Pakistani government. The latter view it as a means to “arouse Western concern for stability” in Pakistan, which may in turn translate into increasing Western financial aid poring to the country, said Moradian. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2008 Indian embassy in Kabul bombing, Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Afghanistan, Davood Moradian, Hamid Karzai, India, Indian embassy in Afghanistan, ISI, News, Pakistan, suicide bombings, United States

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

Analysis: NSA emerging as the world’s most powerful spy agency

October 17, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

James Bamford

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Regular readers of this blog know that the US National Security Agency is in the process of renovating its soon-to-be-unveiled Texas Cryptology Center, a 470,000-square-foot facility that will cost “upwards of $130 million” and be used primarily to store intercepted communications data. They also know that the gigantic Agency, which is tasked with worldwide communications surveillance, as well as communications security, is also building a 1 million square foot data center at Utah’s Camp Williams. Finally, as we reported last August, the NSA is currently laying out a 20-year plan to construct 5.8 million square feet of new working and storage space on its Fort George G. Meade headquarters in Maryland, and staff it with 11,000 people. What does all this mean? Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, book news and reviews, Camp Williams (Utah), databases, Fort George G. Meade, James Bamford, Maryland, Matthew M. Aid, NSA, San Antonio (Texas), Texas Cryptology Center, United States, Utah

Russia jails man for passing military secrets to US Pentagon

October 16, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Iskander missile

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A Serb national was given an eight-year sentence by a Russian court earlier today, for allegedly passing classified information on Russian defense projects to an agent of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Agents with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, arrested the 61-year-old man, named Aleksandar Georgijevic, at a Moscow airport in 2007, as he was reportedly trying to leave Russia. They accused him of giving secret documents to Farid Rafi, whom the Russians claim was “working in the interests of the intelligence agency of the US defense ministry”. Georgijevic’s trial took place behind closed doors. But Russian media report that he began collecting classified information in as early as 1998, focusing primarily on the Russian military’s R-500 supersonic cruise missile, as well as the Iskander, Blokada and Khrizantema-C tactical missiles. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Aleksandar Georgijevic, Blokada missile (Russia), DIA, espionage, Farid Rafi, FSB, informants, Iskander missile (Russia), Khrizantema-C missile (Russia), military intelligence, Moscow (Russia), News, R-500 missile (Russia), Russia, Serbia, United States, US DoD, Viktor Kalyadin

News you may have missed #0144

October 15, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Cuban Five convict’s sentence cut to 22 years. As intelNews reported on October 12, Antonio Guerrero, a member of the Cuban Five spy ring, has had his life sentence cut to 22 years, following a successful appeal. Given the time he has already served since his 1998 arrest, and benefits for good behavior, Guerrero could be released in seven years. The Cuban Five were sentenced in 2001 for spying on the US for Cuba.
Was British MP a Czech agent during Cold War? A recently published book on MI5’s history by Cambridge historian Dr. Christopher Andrew has reignited rumors that Labour Party parliamentarian John Stonehouse worked as an agent for the Czech StB intelligence agency in the 1960s.
West German spies collected East German jokes during Cold War. West German spies diligently recorded popular East German jokes about communism during the Cold War, in an attempt to gain insights into the public mood, according to recently released intelligence files.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Antonio Guerrero, Christopher Andrew, Cold War, Cuba, Cuban Five, Czechoslovakia, espionage, Federal Republic of Germany, German Democratic Republic, John Stonehouse, MI5, News, news you may have missed, StB (Czechoslovakia), UK, United States

News you may have missed #0143

October 14, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Documents shed light on secret US-Japan nuclear deal. The George Washington University’s National Security Archive has published a number of declassified US government documents, as well as interviews with and memoirs of diplomats, which appear to confirm the existence of a rumored secret nuclear agreement between Washington and Tokyo. Both sides have for years denied the existence of the agreement, which is said to allow US military vessels and aircraft carrying nuclear weapons to enter Japanese territorial waters, as long as Japan is protected by the US nuclear umbrella.
Man killed by Houston Police was not our agent, says CIA. Roland Vincent Carnaby, who was shot dead by police on a Houston highway at the end of a high-speed chase in 2008, was not an undercover CIA operative, Langley has said. It also said that it holds no files or other materials relating Carnaby. But Carnaby’s widow’s lawyer, Randall Kallinena, insists the deceased did “a whole lot of counterintelligence work at the highest level where it was helpful to the United States”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Cold War, declassification, FOIA, Houston (Texas), Houston Police Department, Japan, lawsuits, News, news you may have missed, nuclear proliferation, Randall Kallinena, Roland Vincent Carnaby, United States

US wont’ share al-Qaeda intelligence, say Pakistani spies

October 13, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Quetta, Pakistan

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A number of senior Pakistani security officials have accused US spy agencies of systematically withholding from their Pakistani counterparts actionable intelligence on al-Qaeda and Taliban activities in Pakistan. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials complained to The Washington Times that the last time the CIA shared actionable intelligence on al-Qaeda with the government of Pakistan was in 2007. They also said that recent public assertions by US officials that senior al-Qaeda leaders are hiding in Quetta, Pakistan, have not been followed with corresponding actionable intelligence by US spy agencies. The allegations shed further light on the increasingly severed intelligence relationship between Washington and Islamabad, which began shortly before the 2008 ousting of American-supported Pakistani dictator General Pervez Musharraf. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, CIA, Gerald Feierstein, intelligence cooperation, intelligence sharing, ISI, Islamabad (Pakistan), News, Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, Quetta (Pakistan), Taliban, United States, US embassy in Pakistan, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0140

October 12, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA Intellipedia gurus get Homeland Security Medal. Don Burke and Sean Dennehy, the CIA agents behind Intellipedia, have been awarded a medal for “promoting and expanding information-sharing in the Intelligence Community”. As intelNews noted last August, Intellipedia, the intelligence community’s version of Wikipedia, has grown markedly since its formal launch in 2006. It now averages more than 15,000 edits per day and is home to 900,000 pages and 100,000 user accounts.
Cuban Five resentencing delayed. A US federal judge has accepted requests from the lawyers of Antonio Guerrero, a member of the Cuban Five spy ring, to delay their resentencing, after the US government refused to turn over any national security damage assessments in the case. Washington accuses the Five of spying on the US for Cuba. But an appeals court ruled earlier this year that the sentences they received (ranging from 19 years to life) were too long. It appears that Guerrero’s sentence will be reduced from life to 20 years behind bars.
Was Christopher Columbus a spy? An independent researcher is raising eyebrows by suggesting that Columbus was a Portuguese spy who knew exactly what he was doing when he supposedly “got lost” in the Atlantic in 1492.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Antonio Guerrero, Christopher Columbus, CIA, Cuba, Cuban Five, history, intelligence analysis, intelligence cooperation, intelligence sharing, Intellipedia, lawsuits, maritime intelligence, national security, News, news you may have missed, Purtugal, United States, US Homeland Security Medal

Clinton’s mysterious comment raises eyebrows in New Zealand

October 12, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

Hillary Clinton

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A comment by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton following a meeting with a senior New Zealand government official has raised questions by intelligence observers in the pacific nation. Speaking last Friday after an official meeting in Washington with her New Zealand counterpart, minister of foreign affairs Murray McCully, Clinton said the US “very much” values its diplomatic partnership with New Zealand. She then proceeded to say “[w]e are resuming our intelligence-sharing cooperation, which we think is very significant”. This latter comment struck many intelligence observers in Wellington as odd, and for a good reason: nobody was under the impression that the US-NZ intelligence cooperation had been disrupted. The mystery deepened when New Zealand prime minister John Key refused to explain Hillary Clinton’s remark when asked, saying simply “I just don’t comment on issues of national security”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 9/11, AUSCANZUKUS, Bush Administration, David Lange, diplomacy, Hillary Clinton, intelligence cooperation, Labour Party (NZ), Murray McCully, New Zealand, New Zealand nuclear ban, News, nuclear proliferation, Obama Administration, UKUSA, United States

News you may have missed #0139

October 12, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Pakistan tells US diplomat to be quiet. Perturbed by the recent remarks of US Deputy Chief of Mission in Islamabad, Gerald Feierstein, that top al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are presently hiding in Quetta, Pakistan has summoned the US diplomat and demanded that he stops discussing intelligence issues in media. The move follows a closed-door meeting last week between the director of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Ahmed Shuja Pasha, and CIA director Leon Panetta.
Analysis: HUMINT worries al-Qaeda more than drone assassinations. The CIA-operated drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan get all the headlines. But what’s really worrying al Qaeda are the agents in their midst, says Adam Rawnsley of Wired magazine’s Danger Room blog.
Chinese spymaster complains about US news leak. It has emerged that Major General Yang Hui, China’s most senior military intelligence official, recently made a secret visit to the US and complained to the Pentagon over the US press leak on the Chinese submarine that secretly shadowed the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier in 2006. He said senior Chinese leaders suspect the Pentagon deliberately disclosed the encounter as part of an effort to send a “tough” message to China’s military.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, Analysis, assassinations, China, diplomacy, espionage, Gerald Feierstein, HUMINT, maritime surveillance, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Predator drones, Quetta (Pakistan), secret meetings, Taliban, United States, US DoD, USS Kitty Hawk, Yang Hui

News you may have missed #0137

October 11, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Colombian paramilitaries active in Honduras. United Nations human rights officials have voiced concern at reports that right-wing paramilitaries from the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia are active in Honduras following the military coup. Last September it was revealed that the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia also participated in the planning of the failed 2002 coup attempt in Venezuela.
Lawsuit probes US government spying on GTMO attorneys. In Wilner v. National Security Agency, the Washington DC-based Center for Constitutional Rights argued on Friday that the US government must disclose whether it has records related to wiretapping of Guantánamo attorney conversations without a warrant.
France arrests CERN worker with alleged al-Qaeda links. France has arrested a researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) for suspected links with the al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (al-Qaeda’s North African wing). CERN, Europe’s particle physics lab, is known for a particle collider that aims to recreate conditions of the Big Bang.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt, Africa, al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda Organization in Islamic Maghreb, Center for Constitutional Rights, CERN, Colombia, coup plots, France, Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, Honduras, lawsuits, News, news you may have missed, NSA, scientific intelligence, United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, United States, wiretapping

News you may have missed #0138

October 10, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US intelligence turf wars plague email system. US intelligence officials have decided to shut down a Web-based, unclassified e-mail system, which had been heralded as an important step in the US intelligence community’s drive for better information sharing after 9/11. A Directorate of National Intelligence representative said “security concerns” led to the decision to shut down the e-mail system.
CIA Climate Change Center survives funding opposition. Republican lawmakers criticized the CIA’s plan to open the Center on Climate Change and National Security as a “misguided defense funding priority” and even tried to prevent appropriate funding last week. But they failed and so it appears that the Center will be established after all.
Colombia to rename spy agency to “CIA”. The restructuring of Colombia’s scandal-prone domestic spy agency, Administrative Department of Security (DAS), continues, as the government has announced that DAS will now be known as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a new entity which will take over state and immigration intelligence and counterintelligence duties.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, CIA (Colombia), CIA Center on Climate Change, climate change, Colombia, DAS (Colombia), DNI, intelligence cooperation, intelligence funding, intelligence reform, Internet, News, news you may have missed, turf wars, United States

Congress briefing on CIA activities halted after officials refuse to take oath

October 10, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Gloria Luttig

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A US Congressional briefing on the CIA was unexpectedly halted on Wednesday, after Justice Department officials refused to take the oath. The briefing, by the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, concerned the April 20, 2001 shooting down by the CIA of a Cessna 185 floatplane, which was suspected of transporting drugs from Colombia to Peru. The plane was actually carrying an American Christian missionary family, including two children, who were on their way to Lima, Peru. The attack on the plane resulted in the death of the mother and one of the children. As intelNews reported in November of 2008, a still-classified report by the Office of the US Inspector General concluded that the murder of the two Americans resulted from routine violation of intercept procedures by CIA operatives. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Colombia, Gloria Luttig, intelligence oversight, News, office of the US Inspector General, Peru, United States, US House of Representatives, US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, war on drugs

News you may have missed #0136

October 9, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US Senate panel votes to extend PATRIOT surveillance powers. The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a measure that would leave the controversial surveillance powers of the USA Patriot Act mostly intact.
So who was behind GhostNet cyberespionage? Cyber hawks in the West are eager to blame the Chinese government for the huge cyberespionage ring, managed to infiltrate nearly 1,300 mainly government and corporate computers in at least 103 countries, before it was detected last March. This is in contrast to the actual cybersecurity experts themselves, who insist that they still have no idea who was behind it.
US Pentagon creates website for access to secret science. The Pentagon’s Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) has announced the creation of a new password-protected portal where authorized users can gain access to restricted scientific and engineering publications.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with China, cyberespionage, GhostNet, News, news you may have missed, scientific intelligence, United States, US DoD, US DoD Defense Technical Information Center, US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, USA PATRIOT Act

Was woman convicted of hi-tech exports to Iraq victim of CIA plot?

October 9, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Dawn Hanna

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The case of a Detroit woman convicted of exporting mobile communications equipment to the Saddam Hussein regime took an unexpected turn this week, after the man who mediated in the equipment transfer said he was acting on behalf of the CIA. A Detroit jury convicted Dawn Hanna last March for exporting the hi-tech equipment to Iraq, in violation of a US and UN-imposed embargo against the Saddam Hussein regime. The jury was apparently not convinced by Hanna’s claim that the purchaser of the equipment, who mediated in the transfer, had told her that the intended user of the hardware was the government of Turkey. But the case turned more complex this week, after Emad al-Yawer, a Jordanian businessman who mediated in the transfer, gave an interview to a Detroit TV station, in which he claimed he was working for the CIA when he facilitated the mobile equipment transfer. He told the station that the CIA intended to use the hi-tech equipment to track Saddam Hussein’s movements, in order to “send a smart bomb and blow him into smithereens”. Hanna’s parents point to this new, unexpected turn of events, and are requesting that the case be reopened. But the judge has so far refused to grant a new trial.