Turkey arrests American diplomat, claims he sold fake passport to Syrian refugee

Istanbul airport arrestTURKISH POLICE ARRESTED A man reported to be an American diplomat, allegedly for selling a forged passport to a Syrian refugee who then attempted to use it in order to travel from Turkey to Germany. The incident was reported on Wednesday by Turkey’s state-run news service, Anadolu Agency. The news story was soon picked up by Hürriyet, Turkey’s leading pro-government newspaper. According to the reports, the alleged American diplomat was arrested on November 11, and he remains in prison today. He is identified only as “D.J.K.” in media reports. According to Turkish sources he works at the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.

The arrest took place at the Istanbul International Airport, Turkey’s busiest air-travel hub. Turkish media aired security camera footage, which shows D.J.K. approaching the Syrian man, identified as R.S., inside the airport’s departures hall. The two men then appear to casually swap jackets before separating. The Syrian man then goes to the departures lounge, where he presents an immigration police officer with a passport. He is arrested by police soon thereafter, as is D.J.K.

Some reports claim that D.J.K. gave R.S. his own passport, while other reports suggest that it was in actually a forged passport that bore D.J.K.’s name. Allegedly R.S. gave D.J.K. $10,000 in exchange for the passport. According to Turkish police, the cash was found inside an envelope that was in D.J.K.’s possession at the time of his arrest. The Syrian man is now facing charges of forging an official document and has reportedly been released on bail. Unlike R.S., D.J.K. remains in prison in Istanbul.

No comment has been issued by the United States embassy in Beirut. Initially, the United States Department of State refused to comment on the case. Late on Wednesday, however, the Reuters news agency cited a source in the Department of State who said D.J.K. was not an American diplomat. The footage of D.J.K. and R.S.’s arrest can be watched here.

Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 23 December 2021 | Permalink

Lebanese TV station reveals names of alleged CIA officers

Al-Manar TV logo

Al-Manar TV

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A Lebanese television station has aired the names of ten American diplomats, which it says are working for the United States Central Intelligence Agency under diplomatic cover. The identities of the ten diplomats were revealed on Friday by al-Manar, a satellite television station affiliated with Hezbollah, the militant Shiite group that controls large parts of Lebanon. The station said that all ten alleged CIA agents, which include women, are stationed at the US embassy located in the Awkar area of northern Beirut. Their names were aired during a special investigative program broadcast on Friday night, which claimed to offer proof of CIA activities in Lebanon, in alleged collaboration with Israel’s intelligence service Mossad. The program featured animated sequences recreating meetings between CIA case officers and their paid informants, which allegedly took place in fashionable Beirut cafés and restaurants, such as Pizza Hut and Starbucks. The revelation by al-Manar follows last month’s acknowledgment by US officials that Hezbollah had indeed busted a Lebanese spy ring that had been set up and operated by the CIA in the Lebanese capital. The ring, which consisted of native Lebanese citizens, including allegedly “a doctor, a researcher and a journalist”, was apparently discovered after Hezbollah counterintelligence forces employed sophisticated telecommunications data analysis software, which flagged unusual usage patterns on phones belonging to CIA officers and agents. IntelNews has viewed the al-Manar broadcast that includes the identities of the alleged CIA officers. Read more of this post

News you may have missed #303

  • Don’t share telecoms data with US, Hezbollah warns Lebanon. Hezbollah has warned the Lebanese government against sharing telecommunications information with the United States. Apparently the US embassy in Beirut sent out a request for “very detailed information on the mobile phone service providers in Lebanon — the stations, the antennas, technical information”. The request probably pertained to Hezbollah’s privately-owned telecommunications network in the country.
  • Using intelligence from the al-Mabhouh hit. “While the 22-hour period depicted in the Dubai police surveillance video showcased the tactical capabilities of the various teams, it hardly tells the whole story. In order to pinpoint the location of al-Mabhouh on the day of his killing, the organization responsible for this operation would have had to have tracked al-Mabhouh for months, if not years”.

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For second time in history, CIA suffers 8 deaths in a day [updated]

US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, after the April 18, 1983 bombing

US Beirut mission

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Update: The CIA now says that seven, not eight, of the “Agency’s workforce” died in the Khost suicide attack. There is, however, some confusion as to the status of the bomber himself, with some Taliban sources in Afghanistan claiming he was already operating as a CIA informant.

Since it emerged last night that eight CIA agents were killed in a suicide bombing in Khost, Afghanistan, intelNews has received several emails asking whether the deaths marked a horrific record for the US spy agency. The unnamed agents were reportedly killed along with at least one Afghan civilian at the US-operated Forward Operating Base Chapman, close to the Pakistani border. The CIA is not known for forwarding details on its agents who perish while on missions around the world. But there is at least one other known instance when the Agency lost eight of its operatives in one day: Read more of this post

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