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MI6 agents accused of assisting corrupt Kazakh oil propaganda effort

January 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Rakhat Aliyev

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Until recently, Rakhat Aliyev was deeply embedded in Kazakhstan’s corrupt governing establishment. Having served for years as the country’s Deputy Foreign Minister and Director of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee (the intelligence service, also known as KNB) he is uniquely aware of the annals of sleaze and fraud that dominate Kazakh political culture. In 2007, following his divorce with Dariga Nazarbayeva, eldest daughter of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Aliyev became estranged from the Kazakh leadership. He was stripped of his government positions, issued with an arrest warrant, and now lives in exile in Vienna, Austria. Soon after his estrangement from the Kazakh leadership, Aliyev began accusing President Nazarbayev of regularly receiving secret commissions from foreign oil companies operating in Kazakhstan, and of illegally expropriating state assets worth billions of US dollars. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Akezhan Kazhegeldin, Alexander Mirtchev, Canada, Central Asia, Dariga Nazarbayeva, economic espionage, energy resources, Global Options Management, Hurricane Hydrocarbons, Kazakhstan, KNB (Kazakhstan), MI6, News, Nursultan Nazarbayev, PetroKazakhstan, Rakhat Aliyev, UK, US Department of Justice

NSA whistleblower reveals routine spying on American media

January 23, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Russell Tice

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Russell Tice, an analyst with the National Security Agency (NSA) until 2005, was among several inside sources who in 2005 helped The New York Times reveal NSA’s warrantless spying program. A few months earlier, Tice had been fired by the NSA after he started to investigate a suspicious communications-monitoring program he was involved in. The last time Mr. Tice spoke publicly about his experience at the NSA was in 2006. He then waited until the Bush Administration was out of the White House before he made any more revelations. Hours after Barack Obama’s inauguration, Tice surfaced again, this time giving an interview to MSNBC’s Keith Olberman. 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, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, government secrecy, intelligence oversight, News, NSA, operation STELLAR WIND, Russell Tice, Terrorist Surveillance Program (STELLAR WIND), Thomas M. Tamm, United States, US Department of Justice, warrantless communications interception, whistleblowing

Obama to protect immunity of TSPs who assisted in warrantless wiretapping

January 18, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Holder

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews |
After assuring the CIA that “he has no plans to launch a legal inquiry” into its use of torture methods to interrogate prisoners, Barack Obama is now sending a similar message to telecommunications service providers (TSPs) who participated in the Bush Administration’s warrantless surveillance program. Eric Holder, who is Obama’s nominee for the position of US Attorney General, told the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary that the Obama Administration intends to safeguard the immunity of all TSPs that participated in warrantless wiretapping. Speaking before the Committee last Thursday, Holder said the new Administration will keep protecting TSPs from privacy lawsuits “[u]nless there are compelling reasons” to do otherwise. He did not specify what such “compelling reasons” might be. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Barack Obama, Eric Holder, intelligence legislation, News, operation STELLAR WIND, Russ Feingold, telecommunication service providers, Terrorist Surveillance Program (STELLAR WIND), United States, US Department of Justice, warrantless communications interception

DoJ continues criminal investigation of NSA whistleblower

January 7, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Last month, Thomas M. Tamm, a former US Justice Department official, revealed himself as the source who initially tipped off The New York Times about NSA’s operation STELLAR WIND, a domestic warrantless spying program, which was secretly authorized by the Bush Administration in the wake of 9/11. New York Times journalists James Risen and Eric Lichtblau eventually revealed the program in a front page article, relying on interviews with nearly a dozen undisclosed insiders. Despite numerous indications that STELLAR WIND may be unconstitutional, and despite the impending change of guard at the White House, the US Department of Justice appears to be actively pursuing its criminal investigation of Tamm. 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, News, NSA, OIPR, operation STELLAR WIND, Steven Tyrrell, Terrorist Surveillance Program (STELLAR WIND), Thomas M. Tamm, United States, US Department of Justice, warrantless communications interception, whistleblowing

Obama to nominate wiretapping critic for critical DoJ post

January 7, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Yesterday we wrote that Leon Panetta’s nomination to direct the CIA is part of a broader effort by US President Elect Barack Obama to reestablish governmental “oversight over the intelligence community, which […] was effectively terminated [after] 9/11”. Now rumors of yet another nomination come to support the view of a broader plan by Barack Obama “to depart from some of the most controversial legal policies of the Bush administration”. The President Elect is shortly expected to nominate David Kris, a former national security legal adviser in the Department of Justice, to lead the DoJ’s National Security Division. The Division was established in 2006 to oversee intelligence activities by US government agencies relating to counterespionage and counterterrorism. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Barack Obama, counterintelligence, David Kris, Dawn Johnsen, News, NSA, Office of Legal Counsel, operation STELLAR WIND, Terrorist Surveillance Program (STELLAR WIND), US Department of Justice, US Department of Justice National Security Division

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

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

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

Letter suggests CIA destroyed torture tapes after damning report

December 12, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

Almost exactly a year ago, the US Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the destruction of two videotapes by the CIA, which reportedly showed acts of torture committed during interrogations of detainees in the so-called “war on terrorism”. After an initial interest in the case, the US media then forgot about it and moved on to other things. One person who chose not to forget this issue is investigative reporter Jason Leopold. In a new article, Leopold references new information showing that the CIA destroyed the videotapes in question after –not before, as the Agency has claimed– a spring 2004 report by the CIA’s inspector general, which described the interrogation methods employed against CIA prisoners as “constitut[ing] cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment”. Read the article here. [IA]