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Austin activist reveals himself to be FBI informant

January 6, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Brandon Darby

In the days just prior to last year’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul, two activists from Texas used a rented U-Haul trailer to transport dozens of homemade shields, helmets and batons to Minnesota’s capital. The two activists, David McKay and Bradley Crowder, presumably intended the homemade protection gear to be used in street demonstrations during the RNC. They were eventually intercepted by St. Paul police officers who appeared to know what the two men were hauling. The officers, who did not use a warrant, proceeded to smash the trailer’s lock and seize its contents. This incident appears to have failed to convince McKay and Crowder of the obvious existence of an informant in their ranks. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2008 Republican National Convention, Bradley Crowder, Brandon Darby, Common Ground Relief, David McKay, domestic intelligence, FBI, informants, Minneapolis Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee, News, political policing, Scott Crow, surveillance, United States

FBI continues arrests of Iraqi intelligence operatives in US

December 31, 2008 by intelNews 1 Comment

Using Iraqi intelligence documents recovered during the 2003 US invasion, the FBI is continuing its arrests of Iraqi agents on US soil. On December 23, Saubhe Jassim Al-Dellemy, an American citizen of Iraqi origin, pleaded guilty to having “served for more than a decade as an agent of the regime of Saddam Hussein”. FBI documents state that Al-Dellemy exploited the proximity of his Maryland restaurant to the National Security Agency to “gather information about the US government”. On December 24, Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish, a Canadian citizen of Iraqi origin, was arrested while entering the United States from Canada, and charged with acting as an unregistered agent of the Iraqi government before, during, and shortly after the US invasion of Iraq. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with counterintelligence, espionage, FBI, Iraq, Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish, Mukhabarat (Iraq), News, NSA, Saubhe Jassim Al-Dellemy, United States

Former US Army engineer admits spying for Israel

December 31, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

Kadish

It was an almost jovial gathering at a US Federal Court in Manhattan, yesterday, when a retired US Army engineer pleaded guilty to charges of passing classified US military documents to Israel. Ben-Ami Kadish, 85, of Monroe Township, NJ, admitted handing secret technical information on F-15 fighter jets, the Patriot missile, and even on nuclear weapons, to Israel between 1979 and 1985. Last April, after being charged with four counts of conspiracy and espionage, Kadish confessed having worked without compensation for Israeli intelligence and detailed providing the classified documents to Yosef Yagur and Ilan Ravid, who were “science advisers” (probably intelligence agents) at the Israeli Consulate in New York and the Israeli Embassy in Washington, respectively. Mr. Kadish was reportedly extremely pleasant during the hearing and, after declaring that he spied “for the benefit of Israel”, made sure to wish everyone present “a happy New Year”. His lawyer was quick to thank the US government for agreeing “not to oppose or object to a non-jail sentence” and expressed a collective wish that “Mr. Kadish can go on and spend the golden years of his life with his lovely wife, Doris”. Asked about the espionage case, a spokesperson at Israel’s Consulate General dismissively pointed out that “[t]his is an old case which occurred over 25 years ago, and all aspects of it are part of the past”. [IA]

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Ben-Ami Kadish, espionage, Ilan Ravid, Israel, News, United States, Yosef Yagur

Comment: Spreading Democracy Involves Routine Bribing

December 26, 2008 by intelNews 2 Comments

Online pundits appear immensely amused by a recent article in The Washington Post, which reveals that Viagra is among numerous “novel incentives” handed out by CIA officers to Afghan warlords in efforts to “win [them] over” to the American side. The article cites an unnamed CIA agent who confirms that pharmaceutical treatments for erectile dysfunction are occasionally dispensed by the Agency to “aging [Afghan] patriarchs with [several young wives and] slumping libidos”. Unlike most, I find the article’s revelations to be neither novel nor amusing. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, bribing, CIA, corruption, honey traps, Ian Allen, United States, War on Terrorism

Rare revelations on Detroit counterintelligence operations

December 24, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

Assistant Attorney Eric Straus, chief of the East Michigan District Criminal and National Security Division of the US Attorney’s Office, has given a rare interview discussing counterintelligence operations in Detroit. Among other things, Straus revealed that his Division has been monitoring alleged support for Hamas and Hezbollah among Detroit’s substantial Middle Eastern population, which is one of the largest in the United States. He also described military and dual use (i.e. civilian with potential military application) technologies as prime targets of international espionage in the Detroit area. Finally, he briefly commented on a number of counterespionage prosecutions against Iraqi spies, employed by the government of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, operating in the Detroit area before 2003. He did not go into details on whether these were trained and accredited intelligence officers working for Directorate 14 of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (Mukhabarat), but hinted that most were not. The interview is available here. [JF]

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with counterintelligence, Detroit, Eric Straus, espionage, Hamas, Hezbollah, Mukhabarat (Iraq), News, United States, US Attorney's Office Criminal and National Security Division

Kissinger forced to reveal transcripts of phone conversations

December 23, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

During his long career as US National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger kept many secrets. One of these was that he clandestinely recorded all telephone conversations he had with US government officials, which he subsequently had transcribed by his private secretary. Upon leaving office, in early 1977, Kissinger had the audio recordings destroyed but held on to the transcripts which he described as “private papers” not suitable for public release. George Washington University’s National Security Archive had a different view on the matter, however, and in 2004 managed to force the US government to hand over the transcripts. The Archive has now released a generous portion of 15,000 pages of transcripts, fully catalogued and indexed. William Burr, a senior analyst with the National Security Archive, who edited the released documents, described them as “ranking up there with the Nixon tapes as the most candid, revealing and valuable trove of records on the exercise of executive power in Washington”. Among other things, the transcripts reveal that Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger “shared a belief in 1972 that the [Vietnam] war could still be won”. [IA]

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Cold War, government secrecy, Henry Kissinger, News, Richard Nixon, United States, Vietnam War

Waxman sides with CIA on Iraq intelligence dispute

December 21, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

For several years, disgraced former US Attorney-General, Alberto Gonzales, and Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, have maintained that the CIA approved the routine use in Presidential speeches of dubious intelligence on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Recently, George W. Bush upheld to these claims by blaming the US intelligence community for the false information on Iraqi WMD. Now the chair of the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), has written a memo [pdf] containing the results of his investigation on the matter. In it, Rep. Waxman explains that “the CIA had warned at least four National Security Council officials not to allow Bush, in three speeches in 2002, to cite questionable intelligence that Iraq had attempted to obtain uranium”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Alberto Gonzales, CIA, Condoleezza Rice, George Tenet, Henry A. Waxman, Iraq, Iraq War, Iraq weapons of mass destruction, Jami Miscick, News, United States, US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Analysis: Editor cautions against lionizing Deep Throat

December 19, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

Greg Mitchell, the author and editor of Editor & Publisher, has authored a column cautioning against the uncritical lionization of former FBI official W. Mark Felt, who died yesterday at the age of 95. In 2005, Felt voluntarily revealed he was the mysterious whistleblower nicknamed Deep Throat, who helped uncover the Watergate scandal, which lead to the eventual resignation of US President Richard Nixon. Mitchell urges “[j]ournalists and many others lionizing the former FBI official [to] not overlook the fact that Felt was one of the architects of the bureau’s notorious COINTELPRO domestic spying-and-burglary campaign”. Felt was in fact found guilty of authorizing several illegal black bag operations in the state of New Jersey under COINTELPRO, an illegal domestic surveillance and sabotage project directed by the FBI with the participation of the CIA and NSA. Black bag operations refer to covert, surreptitious entries into structures in the course of human intelligence missions. Mitchell correctly points out that “[o]nly a pardon, courtesy of Ronald Reagan, kept him out of jail for a long term”. [JF]

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, black bag operations, CIA, COINTELPRO, Cold War, Deep Throat, domestic intelligence, FBI, Mark Felt, NSA, United States, Watergate

Analysis: Former NSA analyst talks about secret US role in Congo

December 18, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

Wayne Madsen, former NSA analyst and US Navy intelligence officer, has spoken to The Real News Network about the worsening political violence and instability in Congo. Madsen, who authors the daily Wayne Madsen Report, explains the US role in the regional destabilization of central Africa “via its proxies in Rwanda and Uganda”. He also accuses the US of “supplying arms, stoking ethnic divisions as well providing covert military and intelligence support systems to rebel groups”. The former NSA analyst has testified on the situation in Congo before the US Congress. His Congressional testimony is available here. The first part of Madsen’s interview with The Real News Network is available here. The second part is here. [IA]

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Africa, Analysis, Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, United States, Wayne Madsen

Journalist talks about revealing NSA program whistleblower

December 18, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

Michael Isikoff, the Newsweek investigative correspondent who authored the recent article about Thomas Tamm, the whistleblower of NSA’s domestic spying program, has given an interview to Democracy Now. Isikoff, who wrote the article with Tamm’s consent, states in the interview that “Tamm’s lawyers have been told that US Department of Justice officials [are going to leave] the decision on whether to prosecute [Tamm] to the Obama Justice Department”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Bush Administration, data mining, domestic intelligence, Eric Lichtblau, FBI, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, James Risen, News, NSA, OIPR, operation STELLAR WIND, Terrorist Surveillance Program (STELLAR WIND), Thomas M. Tamm, United States, US Department of Justice, warrantless communications interception, whistleblowing

Analysis: Speculation rife about NSA’s STELLAR WIND project

December 17, 2008 by intelNews 3 Comments

Tamm on the cover of Newsweek

The recent voluntary coming forth of Thomas M. Tamm as the whistleblower behind NSA’s warrantless wiretapping scheme has considerably revived speculation about the Agency’s STELLAR WIND project, which appears to have both oral communications and data surveillance components. A superb analysis published in Ars Technica yesterday reasons that the data surveillance component of project STELLAR WIND, which was first revealed in 2006, is in fact far broader and potentially far more controversial than its wireless wiretapping aspect. The article reminds that, in the past, STELLAR WIND has been referred to in public as the Terrorist Surveillance Program, though “that seems to have been invented after the fact to allow officials to testify before Congress on the aspects of STELLAR WIND that had been exposed without admitting to any of the activities that hadn’t yet come to light”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, NSA, operation STELLAR WIND, Terrorist Surveillance Program (STELLAR WIND), Texas Cryptology Center, Thomas M. Tamm, United States, whistleblowing

Analysis: Who is giving Obama advice on national security?

December 16, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

On Monday, US President-Elect Barack Obama chaired the first official meeting of the national security team he assembled earlier this month. But according to an article published today in The International Herald Tribune, an extended list of national security advisers to the President-Elect includes several conservatives, such as Brent Scowcroft, George Shultz and even Richard Armitage (!), whom he has contacted seeking counsel. Why does Barack Obama continue to court such Reaganite and neoconservative figures? Is he simply contacting them as a standard procedural duty, wishing perhaps to ensure some kind of managerial continuum between the current and incoming administrations? But if this is the case, then why do his senior advisers insist on releasing these names to the press in connection with the very first official meeting of Obama’s national security team? Read Article →

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Barack Obama, Brent Scowcroft, General James Jones, George Shultz, Joseph Fitsanakis, national security, Richard Armitage, United States

Analysis: Former CIA clandestine officer paints bleak picture of Agency

December 15, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

In a brutally honest exposé, a 25-year veteran of the CIA has publicly described the Agency as an organization mired in failure, mediocrity and incompetence. Art Brown, who headed the Asia division of the CIA’s Clandestine Service from 2003 to 2005, has called the Agency’s seven-year, multi-billion operation to find Osama bin Laden a “failure” that “no amount of ‘rendition’ of bin Laden lieutenants can mask”. Writing in The New York Times, the CIA veteran has revealed that Syria’s alleged construction of a nuclear reactor in the country’s eastern desert came “as a surprise” to the Agency. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, Analysis, Art Brown, Barack Obama, CIA, Osama bin Laden, Syria, United States

Whistleblower who disclosed NSA domestic spying program comes forth

December 15, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

Exactly three years ago, New York Times journalists James Risen and Eric Lichtblau revealed NSA’s domestic warrantless spying program, which was secretly authorized by the Bush Administration in the wake of 9/11. Nearly a dozen undisclosed insiders helped the two journalists unravel the NSA scheme. But the initial tip came from what Lichtblau describes in his book, Bush’s Law, as a “walk-in” source with intimate knowledge of the US intelligence community’s practices. That “walk-in” source has now come forth. His name is Thomas M. Tamm, a former US Justice Department official who held a Sensitive Compartmented Security clearance (“a level above Top Secret”) issued by the US government. Read more of this post

Analysis: Obama urged to get to bottom of NSA warrantless wiretap scheme

December 15, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

Patrick Keefe, Century Foundation fellow and author of Chatter: Uncovering the Echelon Surveillance Network and the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping, has published an editorial in The New York Times urging US Congress and President-Elect Barack Obama to engage in a “thorough course correction on domestic surveillance”. Keefe describes the post-9/11 enhancement of the domestic wiretapping powers of the National Security Agency (NSA) as a direct violation of “one of the signature prohibitions of the post-Watergate era”, which allowed the US government to turn “its formidable eavesdropping apparatus on its own citizens”. Read more of this post