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News you may have missed #0266

January 24, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Convicted US Pentagon official’s mom introduced him to Chinese spy. Retired US Air Force officer James W. Fondren Jr., who was convicted in September of selling classified US government information to China, was apparently introduced to his Chinese spy handler, Tai Shen Kuo, by his mom.
CIA contractor flying surveillance missions over Haiti. Evergreen International Aviation, a controversial Oregon-based CIA contractor, is flying at least one ScanEagle surveillance drone over Haiti, supposedly on disaster recovery duty.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with airborne surveillance, China, CIA, espionage, Evergreen International Aviation, Haiti, intelligence outsourcing, James Wilbur Fondren Jr, News, news you may have missed, ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle, Tai Shen Kuo, United States, US Air Force, US DoD

News you may have missed #0265

January 23, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Plans for motion picture on life of famous Israeli spy. A US production company plans to make a feature motion picture about the life of Israeli spy Eli Cohen, who operated in Damascus in the 1960s until he was executed in 1965. Cohen is known as the greatest Israeli spy of all time. He penetrated Syria’s power hubs and rose through the ranks to become part of the country’s ruling establishment.
CIA report ‘a declaration of war’, says Venezuela. President Hugo Chávez said on Wednesday that the latest entry for Venezuela in the CIA World Factbook represents a declaration of war on his country. The CIA publication describes Chávez’s government as an administration that “purports to alleviate social ills while at the same time attacking globalization and undermining regional stability”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, CIA World Factbook, Eli Cohen, espionage, Hugo Chávez, Israel, motion pictures, News, news you may have missed, Syria, United States, Venezuela

News you may have missed #0264

January 22, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

India jails two Pakistanis on spying charges. India has jailed Adil Anjum Nazir Ahmed and Abdul Shakur Hafiz, claiming they spied on behalf of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. The two were arrested in Lucknow in 2006.
US Pentagon re-examines PsyOp doctrine. The field of Psychological Operations (PsyOps) is among the oldest of military disciplines, but a new US Department of Defense report on the subject shows that the DoD continues to wrestle with basic definitional issues.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdul Shakur Hafiz, Adil Anjum Nazir Ahmed, espionage, India, ISI, Lucknow (India), News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, psyops, United States, US DoD

Analysis: US spy turf-war flares up on Capitol Hill

January 22, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Dennis Blair

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Wednesday’s testimony by US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, received plenty of media coverage. But few have examined the ongoing public hearings by three separate Senate committees on the Christmas Day bomb plot in light of the turf battles taking place between US intelligence agencies. An excellent article by Politico’s Kassie Hunt does just that, by pointing out that the hearing proceedings should be viewed in light of the “three-way turf war among Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, CIA Director Leon Panetta, and National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter”. Capitol Hill lawmakers appear to be aware of this: Hunt’s article quotes Peter King, the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s senior Republican member, who warns that US intelligence agencies will use the public hearings to place blame about the Christmas Day bomber fiasco on each other. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, CIA, Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, intelligence oversight, Leon Panetta, Michael Leiter, Peter King, turf wars, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, United States, US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, US National Counterterrorism Center, US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

China not top priority for US spy agencies under new policy

January 22, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

US and China

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
American intelligence agencies have been directed by the US National Security Council (NSC) to downgrade intelligence collection on China. Under the directive, which was first proposed last October, Chinese intelligence targets will be coded “Priority 2” (Pri-2), from their current “Priority 1” (Pri-1) status. The Washington Times reports that the move is part of a wider Obama administration effort “to develop a more cooperative relationship with Beijing”. The latter recently requested a new bilateral relationship with Washington, free from “Cold War and power politics mentality”. But the NSC proposal was contested by CIA director Leon Panetta and director of national intelligence Dennis Blair. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with China, CIA, Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, Leon Panetta, National Security Council, News, Obama Administration, Pri-1, Pri-2, Priority 1, Priority 2, United States

Released cable reveals CIA decision to destroy torture tapes

January 21, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA HQ

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The US Justice Department’s investigation into the destruction of videotapes by the CIA, which reportedly showed acts of torture committed during interrogations of terrorism detainees, began in 2007, but has stalled. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is spearheading what appears to be the only organized attempt to discover when and why those tapes were destroyed. Last year the ACLU uncovered that the CIA destroyed the videotapes in question after –not before, as the Agency had originally claimed– a spring 2004 report by the Agency’s inspector general, which described the interrogation methods employed on CIA prisoners as “constitut[ing] cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment”. Thanks to the ACLU, we have also known for quite some time that the decision to destroy the incriminating tapes was taken sometime in November of 2005. But now, with the release of a new batch of documents in response to an ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, we have the exact date that decision was taken: Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, CIA, declassification, FOIA, government secrecy, intelligence oversight, interrogation techniques, lawsuits, News, torture, United States, War on Terrorism

US mosque says FBI informant responsible for shootout killing

January 20, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

L.A. Abdullah

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Community relations between the FBI and American Muslim groups took a turn for the worse yesterday, after an African-American Muslim congregation in Detroit accused a Bureau informant of luring a Mosque member to his death. Luqman Ameen Abdullah, leader of the self-described Ummah Mosque in Detroit, was killed in a shootout with FBI agents on October 28, during a raid at a warehouse reportedly aimed at recovering stolen goods. But Mosque worshipers claim that Abdullah was led to the warehouse by a man going by the name of Jabril, who they say was an FBI informant. The man allegedly infiltrated the Mosque for several months leading to the shootout, but disappeared following the FBI raid. The FBI has admitted it employed three informants to spy on the group, but has refused to reveal details, and is now seeking a protective order to shield the informants’ identities. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with American Muslims, California, Craig Monteilh, Detroit, domestic intelligence, FBI, informants, Jabril, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, News, Ummah Mosque, United States

News you may have missed #0260

January 20, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Senior Iran military official says foreign correspondents “clearly spying”. Speaking at a gathering of Iranian armed forces personnel, Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said individuals who have links with some foreign radio and television networks are “clearly spying on Iran in a modern way”. This comment comes after last year’s arrest in Iran of Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari, who was accused by Tehran of being a “media spy”.
Protest organized near CIA headquarters. Activists led by antiwar campaigner Cindy Sheehan have staged a rally near the CIA’s headquarters and former Vice President Dick Cheney’s home in northern Virginia, protesting the use of unmanned drone aircraft to assassinate al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders in Pakistan.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, assassinations, CIA, Cindy Sheehan, Dick Cheney, espionage, Iran, Iranian armed forces, journalism, Massoud Jazayeri, Maziar Bahari, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, political activism, Predator drones, United States

Georgian paramilitaries posed as election observers, say Ukrainians

January 20, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

V. Yanukovych

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Ukraine’s largest political party has accused the nearby nation of Georgia of sending to Ukraine a team of paramilitary operatives disguised as international election monitors. Vladyslav Lukianov, who represents Ukraine’s Party of Regions in the country’s parliament, has given to the press ten names of Georgian paramilitary agents who allegedly performed “law enforcement operations” in Ukraine, while supposedly monitoring last Sunday’s Ukrainian elections. It appears that three more Georgians, who were arrested on Saturday in Donetsk, reportedly did not possess identity papers or travel documentation, and are so far refusing to speak to Ukrainian security officials. To further complicate the issue, an allegedly wiretapped conversation between Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, and an unidentified woman surfaced in the Ukrainian news media last week. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with All-Ukrainian Union “Fatherland” party (Ukraine), black operations, Donetsk (Ukraine), Eastern Europe, Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili, News, Party of Regions (Ukraine), Russia, Ukraine, United States, Viktor Yanukovych, Vladyslav Lukianov, Yulia Tymoshenko

Who tried to burn down the US embassy in Skopje in 1999?

January 19, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Pavlovic-Latas

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
On March 25, 1999, approximately 200 people broke off from a much larger crowd of pro-Serbian demonstrators in downtown Skopje, Macedonia, and, in a military-style operation, tore down the security perimeter around the US embassy and occupied its courtyard for several hours. With the US ambassador, Christopher Hill, and most of the embassy staff inside the building, the occupiers set fire to embassy cars and tried to set the building alight. By the time they were dispersed by police, the rioters had managed to destroy all the cars parked in the embassy’s courtyard, as well as a large part of the embassy building’s exterior. The demonstrators were protesting US and NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia, which had begun on the previous day, sparked by brutal ethnic clashes in the Kosovo region. But the question remains: who, if anyone, organized the attempted burning down of the US embassy? Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, Balkans, Christopher Hill, Dragan Pavlovic-Latas, former Yugoslavia, informants, Kosovo, lawsuits, Macedonia, NATO, News, Serbia, Skopje (Macedonia), State Security Service (Serbia), United States, US embassy in FYR Macedonia

France accuses US of launching military invasion of Haiti

January 19, 2010 by intelNews 3 Comments

Haiti

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Rivalries between the major donor powers, as well as non-profit agencies, in earthquake-devastated Haiti are delaying humanitarian help to the island. The infighting surfaced during the weekend, as the growing US military force in Haiti appeared to refuse flights from other nations consistent access to the island’s airport, giving priority instead to its own military aircraft. The move triggered a diplomatic row between the US, France, Haiti’s former colonial power, and Brazil, which technically commands the United Nations mission there. Complaints by the two countries, which lodged official protests with Washington, were echoed by officials from the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, who said emergency flights to the island were diverted to the Dominican Republic by the US military. The tense situation led to France accusing the US of using the island’s Toussaint L’Ouverture airport as a “military annex”, while French and Brazilian diplomats in the Caribbean complained that the US has launched what appeared to be a military invasion of Haiti. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2010 Haiti earthquake, Brazil, Doctors Without Borders, France, Haiti, Hilary Clinton, International Red Cross, News, Toussaint L'Ouverture international airport, United Nations, United States

News you may have missed #0258

January 18, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Cambridge University exhibition documents famous spy ring. Called Under Covers: Documenting Spies, the exhibition features previously unseen student records of the Cambridge Five Soviet spy ring (Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess, and John Cairncross).
CIA Abdulmutallab report not distributed, awaiting photo. On Christmas Day, 2009, as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was preparing to bomb an inbound flight to Detroit, a draft CIA memorandum on him was “still sitting in the computer of a junior CIA analyst, waiting until a photo of the young Nigerian was located. Unbeknownst to the analyst”, however, a photo of Abdulmutallab “had already been delivered to other counterterrorism agencies”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Anthony Blunt, Cambridge Five, CIA, Cold War, Donald Maclean, espionage, exhibitions, Guy Burgess, H.A.R. "Kim" Philby, history, intelligence analysis, intelligence sharing, John Cairncross, News, news you may have missed, UK, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, United States, University of Cambridge, USSR

Mystery surrounds arrest of renegade CIA agent in Indonesia

January 18, 2010 by intelNews 2 Comments

Bogor, Indonesia

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
In January of 2008, a man with an American accent appeared at a passport office in the popular West Java tourist resort of Bogor, Indonesia, and applied for an Indonesian passport. But his inability to speak Bahasa Indonesia triggered the suspicion of passport officials, who subsequently discovered that his Indonesian birth certificate was faked. He was arrested on the spot, but it took nearly a year for Indonesian authorities to ascertain the man’s real identity: he was Bob Marshall, a 61-year-old American-born former CIA agent who allegedly went renegade on the Agency in 1974. For the past 35 years, Marshall has reportedly been cited in dozens of countries, operating a worldwide arms smuggling and check-fraud network. There are rumors at Interpol that Marshall has made use of no fewer than 40 passports during this time, some of which he acquired while working for the CIA. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Bob Marshall, Bogor (Indonesia), check fraud, CIA, forgery, Indonesia, Interpol, News, renegade spies, travel documentation, United States, weapons smuggling, West Java (Indonesia)

News you may have missed #0257 (assassinations edition)

January 18, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Who tried to kill the Israeli diplomats in Jordan? “Whoever placed the bomb targeting the two armored embassy vehicles on their way from Jordan to the Allenby Bridge, last Thursday, appears to have had very good intelligence. They knew that many Israeli diplomats, who normally live in Amman without their families, usually depart for Israel for the weekend on Thursday afternoon, and they knew how to identify the two-car convoy”.
Iran insists in Israeli link to Mohammadi assassination. Last week’s assassination of Iranian scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was carried out in a “Zionist style”, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said in his first direct comment on the killing.
Pakistanis urge US to stop drone attacks. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has renewed calls on the US to stop its CIA-operated targeted assassinations, using unmanned Predator drone attacks on Pakistani soil, as they “kill civilians and ruin its efforts to isolate militants sheltering with tribes in the border region”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Amman (Jordan), assassinations, CIA, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Predator drones, United States, Yousuf Raza Gilani

Cash register ringing for NSA’s corporate suitors

January 18, 2010 by intelNews 1 Comment

NSA HQ

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The decision by the US National Security Agency to build 5.8 million square feet of data-storage and office space by 2029 has drawn mixed reactions by intelligence observers. But for businesses in northern Utah, where the NSA is preparing to build a million-square-foot facility, at Camp Williams, it’s party time, in the middle of a crippling word-wide economic recession. The gigantic government Agency, which is tasked with worldwide communications surveillance, as well as communications security, will build the billion-dollar facility within the next two years, and is already consulting with building contractors. But how does one do business with the notoriously secretive NSA? Read more of this post