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News you may have missed #0093

September 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Did 29th US President have an affair with a German spy? New book claims that Warren G. Harding, US President from 1921 to 1923, had a 15-year love affair with Carrie Phillips, a German sympathizer, who may have been a German spy.
Poland shares blame for WWII outbreak, claim Russian spies. Major General Lev Sotskov, senior official of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), has displayed documents allegedly showing that Poland was considering joining the Axis powers prior to being invaded by both Germany and Russia, in 1939.
The things retired CIA agents do to relax! Gardening and farming have always been popular pastimes among CIA agents, but paper-soldier collecting is apparently gaining ground.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Axis Powers, Carrie Phillips, CIA, espionage, Germany, Lev Sotskov, News, news you may have missed, Poland, SVR (Russia), United States, USSR, Warren G. Harding, World War I, World War II

Panetta not about to resign, says US Senate intel panel head

September 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Leon Panetta

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Insider rumors have been circulating for at least a month now, that CIA Director Leon Panetta is frustrated and is considering resigning in February, after just one year at the post. On Tuesday, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, issued a bizarre statement saying that she spoke to Panetta on Monday, and that the Obama Administration appointee “has no intention of resigning, nor should he. I believe he has an important role to play”, added the Congresswoman. The CIA and the White House have both denied reports that Panetta, who last month publicly came out against a planned probe into CIA torture practices by the US Department of Justice, threatened to resign over the investigation. What is certain is that Senator Feinstein’s statement about his future will fuel, not squelch, whispers of Panetta’s impending departure, which are in fact getting stronger.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Dianne Feinstein, Leon Panetta, News, Obama Administration, United States, US Department of Justice, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

Former spy chief reveals CIA operations against Pakistani nuclear program

September 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Imtiaz Ahmad

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
This news is currently making headlines all over the Arabic and Muslim world, but is not reported on any US news site: retired Pakistani ISI officer and former Intelligence Bureau (IB) director, Imtiaz Ahmad (a.s. Ahmed), has said he was personally involved in foiling two CIA operations targeting Pakistan’s nuclear program. Speaking on Tuesday to Pakistan’s News International, Imtiaz revealed details about the ISI’s operation RISING SUN (1979), which involved the alleged unmasking of Rafiq Munshi, a US-trained Pakistani nuclear scientist, who Ahmed says was a CIA agent. The operation also resulted in the exposure of several undercover CIA agents, posing as diplomats, stationed in the US embassy in Islamabad and the consulate in Karachi. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, espionage, Imtiaz Ahmad, Imtiaz Ahmed, Intelligence Bureau (Pakistan), ISI, News, operation RISING SUN, Pakistan, Pakistani nuclear program, Rafiq Munshi, Reagan Administration, United States, US consulate in Karachi, US embassy in Pakistan

US spy agencies still lack foreign language experts

September 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Urdu script

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A US media outlet has finally followed up on the warnings, made by the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last July, about the lack of trained foreign-language speakers in the US intelligence community. Following similar warnings by the US House intelligence panel in June, the Senate Intelligence Committee used the opportunity of its authorization (.pdf) of the 2010 intelligence budget to draw attention to “the continuing lack of critical language-capable personnel in the Intelligence Community, and the need to address this shortage”. According to The Washington Times, which noticed the Senate Committee’s brief but critical alert, US intelligence agencies remain “woefully short” of foreign-language speakers, let alone experts. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Arabic, Canada, Dari, Hindi, intelligence outsourcing, Kurdish, languages, News, Pashto, UK, United States, Urdu, US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0091

September 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

McCain denies private agreement with CIA torture tactic. A recently released memo suggests that Republican US Senator John McCain, famous for his stance against torture, privately agreed with a CIA six-day sleep-deprivation technique.
CIA rejects further declassifications on torture-related material. The CIA said on Monday that it would release no more documents related to the Bush administration’s torture and detention policies, because disclosing the information “will threaten national security”. The ACLU called this an affront to the Obama Administration’s policies.
Taliban kill Afghan intelligence chief. Abdullah Laghmani, who headed the National Directorate for Security (NDS) was among at least 23 people, including a number of senior officials, killed in the suicide attack. This was one of the few times that the Taliban specifically targeted intelligence officials.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdullah Laghmani, ACLU, Afghanistan, assassinations, CIA, declassification, John McCain, National Directorate for Security (Afghanistan), News, news you may have missed, Obama Administration, sleep deprivation, suicide bombings, Taliban, torture, United States

Ex-CIA agent says Cheney “damaged the CIA more than anybody has”

September 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Robert Baer

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Robert Baer, the retired CIA field officer whose bestselling memoir, See No Evil, formed the basis of the 2005 motion picture Syriana, has said that former Vice President’ Dick Cheney “damaged the CIA more than anybody has, including the press or the Department of Justice”. Speaking on PBS’ The Tavis Smiley Show, Baer claimed that Cheney was the leading proponent of the CIA’s torture program, which the Bush Administration “invented as we went along”, and which never provided any critical intelligence. Baer said that in some cases FBI interrogators resorting to torture tactics extracted false leads from detainees. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, Bush Administration, CIA, Dick Cheney, Iraq, Iraq War, News, Robert Baer, torture, United States, War on Terrorism

Comment: CIA Insiders Issue Torture Probe Warnings

September 1, 2009 by intelNews 4 Comments

A.B. Krongard

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Sensing that a government probe into its post-9/11 practices is around the corner, the CIA has employed its usual practice of issuing public warnings through friendly news outlets. Several Agency insiders appear to have simultaneously decided to break their customary silence. Speaking to The Washington Post, they sternly warned that “[m]orale has sagged at the CIA” because of the rumored government investigation into torture of detainees and other controversial intelligence projects.

News you may have missed #0088

August 31, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US state governors receiving suspicious laptops. Why are state governors’ offices in West Virginia, Vermont, Wyoming and Washington, receiving laptops which they have not ordered? Could there be a connection with malicious emails received recently by several US local officials?
Blackwater training foreign mercenaries in the Philippines. US military contractor Blackwater is now training mercenaries for covert operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. The Philippine government is denying it. What does Leon Panetta, who visited the country not long ago, know about this?
Swiss government agency is able to wiretap Skype. What about NSA? A Swiss software developer who released what he claims is the source code of a program for tapping into encrypted Skype communications, had previously sold it to the Swiss Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (UVEK) “to use in remote surveillance activities”. Does this mean that the NSA has been wasting its money?

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Blackwater, communications interception, computer hacking, Energy and Communications, Leon Panetta, mercenaries, News, news you may have missed, NSA, Philippines, Skype, Swiss Department of the Environment, Switzerland, Transport, United States, VOIP

CIA documents reveal secret aspects of Vietnam War

August 30, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA report cover

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The CIA has released a six-volume internal history of its involvement in Vietnam prior to and during the Second Indochina War (usually referred to in the US as the Vietnam War). The release of the documents’ is the long-awaited result of a Freedom of Information Act request by intelligence historian and National Security Archive research fellow John Prados. The documents, which are available online in the National Security Archive’s Electronic Briefing Book No. 283, detail the CIA’s activities in Vietnam from the early 1950s, and provide what appears to be the most complete account to-date of the Agency’s operations during the US war in South and North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Cambodia, CIA, Cold War, coup plots, declassification, history, informants, John Prados, Kennedy Administration, Laos, News, Ngo Dinh Diem, Ngo Dinh Nhu, North Vietnam, Second Indochina War, South Vietnam, United States, Vietnam, Vietnam War

News you may have missed #0087

August 30, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Lithuania will probe claims of secret CIA prisons. Lithuania has promised to investigate recent allegations that it hosted a secret CIA prison for al-Qaeda suspects on the outskirts of the capital Vilnius.
Book Review: Spycraft. Science News has published a review of Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs, by Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton, with Henry Robert Schlesinger.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, book news and reviews, CIA, H. Keith Melton, Henry Robert Schlesinger, Lithuania, News, news you may have missed, Robert Wallace, secret prisons, United States, Vilnius (Lithuania), War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0085

August 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

How the ACLU got the CIA agents’ photos. As intelNews reported earlier this week, the ACLU has been trying to identify CIA agents who participated in torture of detainees, by taking surreptitious pictures outside the operatives’ homes. It is worth noting that uncovering the identities of CIA officers is legal, so long as it is based on publicly available records.
Russian espionage case is bigger than initially thought, say Czech officials. Intelligence authorities in the Czech Republic say the two Russian agents who were recently expelled from the country last week were not primarily interested in the US missile defense shield.
US spy community builds Wikipedia-style database. 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.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, CIA, Czech Republic, databases, espionage, Intellipedia, lawsuits, News, news you may have missed, Russia, torture, United States, US Missile Defense Shield, Wikipedia

News you may have missed #0084

August 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Cargo ship with Israeli weapons destined for Philippines seized. The arms were apparently destined for “rebel groups or criminal organizations”. No word yet from the Israeli government.
Even more CIA documents to be disclosed. Word comes that, in response to pending requests from the ACLU, more CIA documents about Bush-era interrogations and detentions could be released as early as Monday.
Double spy’s son admits guilt. Nathaniel James Nicholson, youngest son of Harold James Nicholson, who in 1997 became the highest-ranking CIA officer to be convicted of spying on behalf of a foreign agency, pleaded guilty Thursday to collecting cash from Russian officials who owed his father for selling CIA secrets in the 1990s.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, Bush Administration, CIA, declassification, double agents, Harold James Nicholson, interrogation techniques, Israel, lawsuits, maritime surveillance, Nathaniel James Nicholson, News, news you may have missed, Philippines, Russia, United States, weapons smuggling

News you may have missed #0083

August 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Indonesian police denies plan to spy on mosques. Indonesian authorities have denied the rumored existence of a plan to monitor religious sermons during Ramadan.
Reiss was nuclear spy, claim Iranians. Clotilde Reiss, a French student who was arrested in Iran last July, was involved in nuclear espionage, according to Iran’s ambassador to Paris, Seyyed Mehdi Mirabutalebi.
Canada still trying to deport Indian spy. Canada has been trying since last December to deport an Indian man for espionage, since he arrived at Vancouver International Airport under a false identity.
Somali militants use many tactics to woo Americans. Details are emerging about how Somali militants have lured young American men, including as many as 20 from Minnesota, back to their homeland to join the jihad.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Canada, Clotilde Reiss, deportations, France, India, Indonesia, Indonesian Muslims, Iran, Iranian embassy in France, News, news you may have missed, nuclear espionage, Seyyed Mehdi Mirabutalebi, Somalia, The Party of Youth (Somalia), United States, Vancouver (Canada), Vancouver International Airport

News you may have missed #0082

August 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

The spy who prayed. Profile of As’ad Said Ali, deputy chief of Indonesia’s National Intelligence Agency, who is actively involved in Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization.
Shadowy Turkish group used journalists as spies. Ergenekon, a shadowy ultranationalist network with strong links to the Turkish armed forces, which planned to topple the Turkish government, used journalists to spy on its high-profile targets, according to court documents.
CIA sacked Baghdad station chief after deaths. The CIA removed its station chief in Iraq and reorganized its operations there in late 2003, following “potentially very serious leadership lapses” that included the deaths of detainees in US custody.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with As’ad Said Ali, Baghdad (Iraq), CIA, CIA Baghdad station, coup plots, Ergenekon, Indonesia, Indonesian Muslims, informants, Iraq War, Nahdlatul Ulama, National Intelligence Agency (Indonesia), News, news you may have missed, torture, Turkey, United States

CIA loses turf war as new US interrogation unit is unveiled

August 27, 2009 by intelNews 3 Comments

CIA HQ

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The CIA appears to have been stripped of its senior role in America’s post-9/11 interrogation program, as the Obama Administration announced this week the creation of a new interrogation unit. The new High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) will be an elite interagency squad, which will report to the National Security Council and answer directly to the White House. But, according to several insiders, the unit will be housed at the FBI, and not the CIA. The two agencies have been fighting a bitter turf war after 9/11. Officials at Langley view this development as a severe blow to the Agency, which the Bush Administration had tasked with overseeing America’s post 9/11 interrogation program. Read more of this post