Wikileaks publishes major RAND intelligence study

March 3, 2009 by Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN| intelNews.org |
Wikileaks, the public website that anonymously publishes leaks of sensitive documents, has aired a major US government study on intelligence and counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The study, titled Intelligence Operations and Metrics in Iraq and Afghanistan, was initially published on a confidential basis in November of 2008 by the Research and Development (RAND) Corporation, the research arm of the US Pentagon. Originally prepared for the Pentagon’s Joint Forces Command, the 318-page study is described by Wikileaks as the “Pentagon Papers” of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The RAND Corporation report findings are reportedly not as interesting as the “candid and revealing interview quotes” scattered throughout the document, which represent the views on the wars of nearly 300 intelligence officers and diplomats from the US, Britain and the Netherlands. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

US military group sees Canada Muslims as potential security threat

February 22, 2009 by 4 Comments

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS| intelNews.org |
For the past two months, I have been reporting that the US intelligence community sees the radical fringe in Britain’s Muslim community as “the most likely source of another terrorist spectacular on US soil”. It turns out that the US Pentagon’s Joint Task Force-North, a group that provides military support to federal agencies in domestic security operations, has a different opinion. For it, Muslims residing in Canada present the “greatest potential for foreign terrorists’ access to the homeland”. This is according to a briefing document that the group inadvertently published on the reading room section of its website a couple of weeks ago, only to abruptly remove it last Wednesday. According to InsideDefense, which noticed the report before it was withdrawn, the internal document blames Canadian immigration policies for “creating a favorable environment” for “foreign terrorist opportunities”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Vietnam veterans sue CIA for mind control experiments

January 9, 2009 by 1 Comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) have filed a federal lawsuit against the CIA, the US Department of Defense and numerous other government entities and individuals, for subjecting US military personnel to chemical, biological and mind control experiments from 1953 until 1976. The Washington, DC-based group said it filed the lawsuit on behalf of six elderly veterans “with multiple diseases and ailments”, who were subjected to “secret experiments to test toxic chemical and biological substances under code names such as MKULTRA”. The codeword refers to a lengthy research program by the CIA’s Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI, a.k.a. Technical Services Division) to test the effects of various types of drugs in altering the brain function of unsuspecting subjects. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

US federal appeals court upholds National Security Letters

December 16, 2008 by Leave a comment

National Security Letters (NSLs) are types of warrantless subpoenas issued by US government agencies. They are typically used to force organizations or companies to surrender information pertaining to individuals or groups. In the late 1970s, NSLs were used in rare instances by the FBI during investigations. The 2001 USA PATRIOT Act marked an unparalleled expansion of the power of NSLs, allowing their use against American citizens even in cases when they are not targets of criminal investigations. The USA PATRIOT Act also ratified a gag order provision preventing NSL recipients from disclosing the letter’s existence. The CIA, FBI and the US Department of Defense are all known to have issued several NSLs in recent years. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Interesting questions about the Cyber Security Committee’s report

December 8, 2008 by Leave a comment

After the recent stir caused by purported cyber-attacks that struck the US Pentagon’s computers in October, news has emerged that the Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency has finally revealed its findings about the future of online governmental security. The Commission, whose panel “includes executives, high-ranking military officers and intelligence officials, leading specialists in computer security, and two members of Congress”, spent the last few months visiting computer labs at the National Security Agency as well as being briefed “in closed-door sessions by top officials from Pentagon, CIA, and British spy agency MI5”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with , , , , , ,

Russians deny cyber-attacks, accuse US of hypocrisy

December 5, 2008 by Leave a comment

On November 28 we reported on conflicting and muddled reports in the US media about a purported cyber-attack that had struck the Pentagon’s computers during the previous month. According to The Los Angeles Times, the attack “raised potential implications for national security” that were considered important enough to brief the President. The paper further claimed that the attack originated in Russia and appeared “designed specifically to target military networks”. Yesterday the Russian Foreign Ministry struck back at the allegation, calling it “a fabrication”. It also reminded observers that the Russian delegation initiated a formal resolution on international IT security at the 63rd UN Assembly, back in September of 2008. Interestingly, the resolution was almost unanimously approved by Assembly members. The only vote against it? You guessed it: the US of A. Could it be that the US, which has been building its own advanced cyber-attack arsenal since the mid-1990s, has more to gain from international IT insecurity than do its adversaries? [JF]
.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with , , , , , ,

US President briefed about severe cyber-attack on Pentagon

November 28, 2008 by Leave a comment

Conflicting and muddled reports have emerged in the US media about a purported cyber-attack that struck the Pentagon’s computers last month. The only thing that appears certain at this point is that the attack “raised potential implications for national security” that were considered important enough to brief the President. It also appears that the malicious software-based attack severely affected computer networks at CentCom, which oversees US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to one report, the software originated in Russia and appeared “designed specifically to target military networks”. Another report claims the attack actually originated in China, although “[m]ilitary electronics experts have not pinpointed the source or motive of the attack”. The pattern of the reports appears to point to yet another case of “the Pentagon once again has no idea what’s the matter with their computer networks so they’re simply blaming the usual suspects (Russia and China) hoping to deflect attention from the dire security standards in government computer networks”. [JF]

.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with , , , , , ,

Newer posts →