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News you may have missed #0052

August 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Expert says US Army’s spying on activists was illegal. Eugene R. Fidell, a military law expert at Yale Law School, says the spying by the US Army against two activist groups in Washington state, which was revealed earlier this week, appears to violate the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that prohibits the use of the US Army for conventional law enforcement activities against civilians.
German court rules spy services withheld information –again. Germany’s highest court has concluded that the government illegally withheld information from investigators probing into alleged spying on parliamentarians by Germany’s intelligence services (BND). Last week the BND was found to have withheld information from a parliamentary inquiry into the BND’s role in the detention of two Muslims from Germany at a US prison in Afghanistan.
Nearly 2.5 million have US government security clearances. The US Government Accountability Office estimates that 2.4 persons currently hold security clearances for authorized access to classified information. This number does not include those “with clearances who work in areas of national intelligence”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with BND, domestic intelligence, Eugene R. Fidell, Germany, News, news you may have missed, Posse Comitatus, security clearance, surveillance, United States, US Army, US Government Accountability Office, Yale Law School

News you may have missed #0051

August 1, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Instigator of Church committee hearings speaks about domestic intelligence. Christopher Pyle, the American whistleblower who in the 1970s sparked the Church Committee hearings on intelligence activities, has spoken about the recent revelations of US Army personnel spying on activist groups in Washington state. Pyle provided interesting historical context linking domestic espionage in the 1960s and 1970s with current developments in the so-called “war on terrorism”.
Declassified US President’s Daily Brief is reclassified. The CIA says that extracts of the President’s Daily Briefing (PDB) that were declassified in 2006, during the prosecution of former vice presidential aide Scooter Libby, are “currently and properly classified”. PDB declassifications occur extremely rarely.
Australian intelligence to focus on cybersecurity. David Irvine, the recently appointed director of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, has identified cyberespionage as “a growing national security risk”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ASIO, Australia, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Christopher Pyle, Church Committee, CIA, cybersecurity, David Irvine, declassification, domestic intelligence, News, news you may have missed, President's Daily Brief, surveillance, United States, US Army, US Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, War on Terrorism, whistleblowing

FOIA request reveals US Army spying on activists

July 29, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Eileen Clancy

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
US government documents released through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by activists in Washington state have helped unmask a US Army informant operating amidst their ranks. John Towery, a member of the US Army’s Force Protection Service at Fort Lewis in Washington, claimed to be an anarchist named “John Jacob” in order to join Students for a Democratic Society and Port Militarization Resistance. He then spied on the groups on behalf of several regional and federal government agencies, including Immigration Customs Enforcement, Joint Terrorism Task Force, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and the US Army. This is the latest in a long line of similar incidents, which inevitably point to a systematic campaign of domestic intelligence gathering against antiwar groups. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with domestic intelligence, Eileen Clancy, FBI, FOIA, Fort Lewis, Immigration Customs Enforcement, John Jacob, John Towery, Joint Terrorism Task Force, News, political activism, political policing, Port Militarization Resistance, Posse Comitatus, Students for a Democratic Society, surveillance, United States, US Army, US Army Force Protection Service, US Department of Homeland Security, Washington state

Comment: AIPAC agents accused of spying may walk scot-free

April 23, 2009 by intelNews 3 Comments

Jane Harman

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The controversy over Democratic Representative Jane Harman’s alleged telephone deal with a suspected agent of Israel is still raging. One of its unfortunate side effects has been to shift media attention away from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) involvement in the Lawrence Franklin spy case, and focus instead on Washington micro-politicking. But what about the two former AIPAC lobbyists who are technically at the center of the Harman imbroglio? Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with AIPAC, Alberto Gonzales, Ben-Ami Kadish, Benjamin Netanyahu, communications interception, espionage, Hillary Clinton, Israel, Jane Harman, Joseph Fitsanakis, Keith Weissman, Lawrence Anthony Franklin, NSA, Sallai Meridor, Steve Rosen, United States, US Army, US Department of Justice, US Department of State, Uzi Arad

Paper alleges US espionage links at Cairo’s American University

April 8, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
America’s image in Egypt has suffered in recent days, after one of Egypt’s largest newspapers claimed in a series of articles that the American University in Cairo (AUC) is conducting espionage work for the US Pentagon. On March 30, Egypt’s Al Masry Al Yawm newspaper said that the AUC, one of Egypt’s most prominent academic institutions, which was established 90 years ago, had signed a contract worth $605,000 with the US Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU) to conduct research on “infectious diseases, applied research and development in Egypt”. Prompted by the article’s allegations, two representatives in the Egyptian People’s Assembly requested “an emergency meeting of national security and education officials to discuss espionage at the AUC”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Al Masry Al Yawm, American University in Cairo, Egypt, Mohamed Samir, News, United States, US Army, US DoD, US embassy in Egypt, US Naval Medical Research Unit, US Navy

US Pentagon report acknowledges Israel has the bomb!

March 20, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Ever since the early 1970s, the United States and Israel have maintained what nuclear proliferation experts call “a policy of ambiguity” on Israel’s nuclear weapons program. Namely, American and Israeli officials will neither confirm nor deny that Israel has nuclear weapons. The reason for this pretended vagueness is the 1976 Symington Amendment, which prevents the US from providing any economic or military assistance to countries “that deliver or receive, acquire or transfer nuclear enrichment technology”. Now, however, a declassified report by the US Pentagon has been found to confirm that Israel has a nuclear weapons arsenal. The US Joint Forces Command study (pdf), which was compiled last year by the US Army, includes Israel among the world’s nuclear powers. Read more of this post