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News you may have missed #0160

November 1, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

South Korean college teacher charged with spying for North. A 37-year-old South Korean college instructor, identified only as Lee, has been charged with spying for North Korea since 1992.
Analysis: The CIA’s Afghan payroll. The revelation by The New York Times Wednesday that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has long been on the payroll of the CIA is only the tip of a much bigger iceberg, says IPS correspondent Gareth Porter.
US spy budget up $2 billion since 2008. US spy agencies spent $49.8 billion in fiscal year 2009, $2 billion more than in 2008 and the second such multibillion-dollar increase in as many years.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Ahmed Wali Karzai, bribing, CIA, espionage, Gareth Porter, Hamid Karzai, informants, intelligence budget, Lee, News, news you may have missed, North Korea, South Korea, United States

New research reveals extent of East German spying in Canada

October 30, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Muller-Enbergs

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Previously unknown aspects of East German intelligence-gathering operations in Canada will be presented this coming Saturday at the annual conference of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies in Ottawa. The new data was unearthed in Berlin by Helmut Müller-Enbergs, a researcher with Germany’s Office of the Federal Commissioner Preserving the Records of the Ministry for State Security of the German Democratic Republic (BStU). His findings show that the Stasi (Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung), the main foreign intelligence department of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was able to gain “deep insights into the domestic and foreign affairs of Canada”. The feat appears impressive when considering that the GDR had no embassy in Canada until 1987. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with BStU, Canada, Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies, Cold War, espionage, German Democratic Republic, Germany, Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, Helmut Müller-Enbergs, history, illegal residents, News, Ottawa (Canada), Siegfried, Stasi (GDR), United States

News you may have missed #0159

October 29, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US Congress wants to change locks in document safes. Some Congress members have revived “a decade-old debate” on replacing security locks on government safes for storing classified documents with new electromechanical locking mechanisms. According to one independent security consultant, existing mechanical locks in classified document safes “can be penetrated surreptitiously within 20 minutes”, and older barlock containers still in use “can be penetrated within seconds”.
A US spy in wartime Ireland. The interesting story of Major Martin S. Quigley, one of three US spies sent by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, CIA’s forerunner) to Ireland, on a mission to find out whether the country’s government, which was officially neutral in the War, was actually siding with Nazi Germany.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, document storage, espionage, Germany, history, intelligence classification, Ireland, lock picking, Martin S. Quigley, News, news you may have missed, OSS, United States, US Congress, World War II

UK spy agencies argue for torture trial behind closed doors

October 29, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Binyam Mohamed

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The two primary intelligence agencies in the British Isles have argued that any evidence presented in a lawsuit accusing them of torture should remain secret. The request, which is unprecedented in British legal history, was made on Monday before Britain’s High Court by MI5, MI6, as well as by a number of government ministers. The court case in point centers on a lawsuit filed jointly by seven British citizens or residents, all of whom were held in the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp and claim they were tortured by the CIA with British complicity. The seven are Moazzam Begg, Bisher Al Rawi, Jamil El Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes, Martin Mubanga, and Binyam Mohamed, whose case is perhaps the most well known. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Binyam Mohamed, Bisher Al Rawi, CIA, Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, High Court of Justice of the United Kingdom, Hillary Clinton, intelligence cooperation, Jamil El Banna, lawsuits, Martin Mubanga, MI5, MI6, Moazzam Begg, News, Omar Deghayes, Richard Belmar, torture, UK, United States

CIA misled, lied to Congress several times since 2001, say lawmakers

October 29, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Jan Schakowsky

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The two Democrats chairing the US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence have accused the CIA of misleading Congress on at least five instances during the last eight years. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Representatives Jan Schakowsky (CA, photo) and Anna Eshoo (IL.) said an investigation by the Committee had uncovered several examples “where the committee actually has been lied to” by the CIA. The two chairwomen described the investigation findings as “symptom[s] of a larger disease” involving the routine practice of “incomplete and often misleading intelligence briefings”. However, commenting on Schakowsky and Eshoo’s allegations, Robert Litt, the senior attorney in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the conduct of all 16 US intelligence agencies, said Congress was not adequately briefed on “a small number of intelligence activities”, but “has since been brought up to date”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Anna Eshoo, CIA, DNI, intelligence oversight, Jan Schakowsky, Leon Panetta, Robert Litt, Silvestre Reyes, United States, US Congress, US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

News you may have missed #0158

October 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Former Los Alamos scientist is no spy, say physicists. US scientists familiar with the work of P. Leonardo Mascheroni, a former Los Alamos National Laboratory nuclear physicist whose house was recently searched by the FBI, insist he is not a spy. Mascheroni says he was told by the FBI that he is suspected of possible involvement in “nuclear espionage”.
Analysis: The West’s intelligence deficit on Iran. The fact is that neither a single intelligence agency nor the collective wisdom of the Brits, Israelis, French and Americans, has given Western countries a full picture of what is going on either in Iran’s nuclear program or in the minds of the leadership in Tehran.
Australia hires more spies. The Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) has said in its annual security review that “hostile intelligence agencies” are increasingly using the Internet to gather intelligence from Australian government computer networks. Interestingly, ASIO also noted that the number of its staff members increased from 1492 in 2008 to 1690 today.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ASIO, Australia, FBI, France, intelligence penetration, intelligence recruitment, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Israel, Los Alamos National Laboratory, News, news you may have missed, nuclear espionage, P. Leonardo Mascheroni, UK, United States

Breaking news (or is it?): Karzai’s brother on CIA payroll

October 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Wali Karzai

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Citing “current and former American officials”, The New York Times said last night that Ahmed Wali Karzai, notorious drug lord and younger brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, “gets regular payments from the CIA. Understandably, the Times report is making headlines all over the world today, though it’s not exactly a revelation. IntelNews readers have known about Wali Karzai’s spy connection since September 17 (respect to The Washington Post‘s Rajiv Chandrasekaran, who first alerted us to it). That aside, there are four main new pieces of information in the Times article. First is the allegation that the CIA has financially sustained Wali Karzai ever since the initial US invasion of Afghanistan, in 2001. Second, Karzai appears to function as a “landlord” to the CIA force in southern Afghanistan, providing it with facilities and logistical support. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Ahmed Wali Karzai, CIA, Hamid Karzai, informants, Kandahar Strike Force, News, Obama Administration, United States, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0157

October 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US providing Pakistan with airborne intelligence. The Los Angeles Times reports that the US military is providing intelligence and surveillance video from unmanned aircraft to the Pakistani army in its operations in South Waziristan. If this is true, it marks the deepest American involvement yet in a Pakistani military campaign.
French ‘trial of the century’ is over. The “Clearstream” trial, dubbed as “trial of the century” or “France’s Watergate”, which involved senior members of the country’s political and intelligence elite, has ended. The judgment will not be delivered for several months.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with airborne surveillance, Clearstream Bank, France, intelligence sharing, lawsuits, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, South Waziristan, United States

News you may have missed #0156

October 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

NGOs worry African spy services. A memo authored by African spy service representatives at the third annual conference of the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA), has acknowledged what most intelligence services in developing countries already know: that many “volunteers” of Western non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are in fact intelligence operatives using their NGO status as a cover.
Nozette admitted guilt in fraud charges last January. New information shows that Stewart D. Nozette, who was arrested and charged last week under the US Espionage Act, pleaded guilty in January to overbilling NASA and the Pentagon more than $265,000 for consulting services.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Africa, CISSA, Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa, corruption, Israel, lawsuits, NASA, News, news you may have missed, NGO, Stewart David Nozette, sting operations, United States, US DoD

News you may have missed #0155

October 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

NSA confirms rumors of new Utah data center. IntelNews readers have known about this since last July. Despite the new center, NSA still cannot process all the information it intercepts. But officials told a press conference on Friday that the Agency “has no choice but to continue enhancing its data processing efforts”.
UK intel agents to train West Bank security forces. Britain is sending intelligence officers from MI5 and MI6 to the West Bank, to train the Palestinian Authority’s Mukhabarat intelligence agency. According to The Daily Mail, the move is aimed to “stop a wave of brutal torture by Palestinian security forces”. How ironic is it, then, that both MI5 and MI6 are currently under investigation by British police for complicity to torture?

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Camp Williams (Utah), communications interception, databases, intelligence training, MI5, MI6, Mukhabarat (Palestine), News, news you may have missed, NSA, Palestine, Palestinian National Authority, torture, UK, United States, Utah, West Bank

News you may have missed #0154 [updated]

October 26, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Breaking news: Castro’s sister says she spied for the CIA. Juanita Castro, Fidel and Raúl Castro’s sister, says she voluntarily spied for the CIA from 1961 to 1964, when she left the island for Miami. She said she met a CIA officer called “Enrique” at a hotel in Mexico City in 1961; she was then given the codename “Donna” and codebooks so she could receive encoded instructions from Washington.
Was Milan Kundera a communist police informant? Documents unearthed by Czech academics allegedly show that the Czech-born author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being denouncing a Western spy to Czechoslovakia’s StB secret police during his student days.
Afghans complain about US spy balloon. A US spy balloon (see previous intelNews coverage) flying over the city of Kandahar in Afghanistan, is prompting privacy complaints from residents.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, airborne surveillance, CIA, Cold War, Cuba, Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, declassification, Donna, Enrique, Fidel Castro, informants, Juanita Castro, Kandahar (Afghanistan), literature, Mexico, Mexico City (Mexico), Miami (Florida), Milan Kundera, News, news you may have missed, privacy, Raúl Castro, StB (Czechoslovakia), surveillance, United States

Prince Albert’s former spymaster airs Monaco’s ‘dirty secrets’

October 26, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Prince Albert II

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Last April I wrote that former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer, who until recently was spymaster to prince Albert II of Monaco, was completing a book on his experiences in the tiny principality, a project he began after leaving his post. But that’s not all. Eringer has now sued the prince for €360,000 ($542,000) in alleged unpaid income, including a severance pay package. The London Sunday Times, which has “obtained” a copy of Eringer’s lawsuit, says that the document “lays bare some of [Monaco’s] dirtiest secrets”. Among them are Eringer’s claims that he investigated activities in Monaco by Russian and Italian mobsters, that he was asked to “assist” a young woman who was romantically involved with prince Albert, and that he went after video evidence showing “a woman performing a sex act on the prince” at his 40^th birthday party. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, FBI, France, Italy, lawsuits, Monaco, Monaco Intelligence Service, News, organized crime, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Robert Eringer, Russia, Thierry Lacoste, United States

Analysis: Is US supporting suicide terrorists in Iran?

October 26, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Jundullah men

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Jundullah, a militant anti-regime Sunni group in Iran, claimed responsibility last week for an October 18 suicide attack that killed 42 people, including five senior members of the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guards corps. Tehran blamed the attack, which is part of a wider low-intensity guerilla war in the country’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, on the work of covert American, British and Pakistani operatives. Should the Iranian allegations be taken seriously? IntelNews has written before about Washington’s complex relationship with Jundullah and the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), two of several armed groups officially deemed terrorist by the US State Department. In 2007, ABC News went so far as to claim that Jundullah “has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005″. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, Bush Administration, CIA, covert operations, Iran, Jundullah, Mujahedeen-e Khalq, Robert Baer, separatism, suicide bombings, terrorism, United States

News you may have missed #0153

October 26, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

More on Nozette’s 2009 mystery trip abroad. The affidavit of Stewart David Nozette, who was arrested last Monday for attempting to sell classified US government information to an undercover FBI agent, reveals that “[o]n or about January 6, 2009, [the scientist] traveled to a different foreign country”, carrying with him two thumb drives, which he failed to bring back with him. Where did he go, and why?
Armenia charges former army officer with spying for Azerbaijan. Armenian Army officer Gevorg Airapetian and a “foreign national” were arrested in a “special operation” by Armenian authorities earlier this week, and charged with spying for Azerbaijan. Some suspect Russian involvement, believing the Azerbaijanis to have acted as intermediaries between Airapetian and Moscow.
US spy chief Blair calls for spy cooperation. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dennis Blair called Wednesday for a better-coordinated effort within the US intelligence community. But he said nothing about recent reports that intelligence officials shut down a Web-based unclassified e-mail system, which had been heralded as an important step in information sharing between members of the US intelligence community.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, espionage, FBI, Gevorg Airapetian, intelligence cooperation, News, news you may have missed, nuclear espionage, Russia, scientific intelligence, Stewart David Nozette, United States

FBI targets US nuclear scientist who contacted Venezuelan official

October 25, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

P.L. Mascheroni

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A team of FBI agents has raided the house of a former Los Alamos nuclear scientist who has spent two decades criticizing Washington’s nuclear weapons and energy agenda. The agents seized several computers, cameras, cell phones and paper files from the home of Dr. P. Leonardo Mascheroni, a 74-year-old Argentinean-born nuclear scientist who became a US citizen while working at the US Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. After leaving Los Alamos, in 1988, Dr. Mascheroni has campaigned in favor of inertial confinement fusion (commonly known as laser fusion) as a means of producing low-cost energy and of testing nuclear weapons without resorting to underground explosions. Following the FBI raid at his house, Dr. Mascheroni held a press conference where he claimed he was told by the FBI that he was suspected of possible involvement in “nuclear espionage”. Read more of this post