US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence | intelNews.org

News you may have missed #0045

July 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Ex-CIA, -NSA director defends warrantless wiretapping. Michael Hayden, who was director of the CIA from 2006 to 2009 and of the NSA from 1999 to 2005, has penned an article in The New York Times, in which he says that the Bush Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program helped the US intelligence community “connecting the dots, something for which we were roundly criticized after Sept[ember] 11 as not sufficiently doing”.
US House intelligence panel member calls for new Church Committee. Rush Holt (D-NJ) a senior member of the US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has called for a resuscitation of the Church and Pike investigations into intelligence practices of the 1970s.
BBC radio launches series on MI6. The BBC’s Radio 4 has launched today a new three-part series examining the 100-year history and operations of MI6, Britain’s foremost external intelligence agency. The programs, which can also be listened to online, include interviews with senior intelligence officers, agents and diplomats.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 9/11, Church Committee, CIA, MI6, Michael Hayden, News, news you may have missed, NSA, operation STELLAR WIND, Rush Holt, Terrorist Surveillance Program (STELLAR WIND), UK, US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, US House of Representatives Select Committee on Intelligence (Pike Committee), US Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, War on Terrorism, warrantless communications interception, wiretapping

News you may have missed #0043

July 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Iran government fires intelligence minister. Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie was fired on Sunday. No reason has officially been given for the dismissal.
What the CIA hid from Congress. Jane Harman was a member of the US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 2003 to 2006. Now she has authored an article in The Los Angeles Times, in which she comes out in support of the new House and Senate intelligence authorization bills.
Satellite photos of NSA’s new cryptology center in San Antonio, courtesy of TerraServer and Cryptome. See here for previous intelNews coverage of this data-mining facility in Texas.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, intelligence oversight, Iran, Jane Harman, News, news you may have missed, NSA, San Antonio (Texas), Texas Cryptology Center, United States, US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Comment: Not So Fast, Cyberwarriors! [updated]

July 14, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

Hoekstra

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Rep. Peter Hoekstra wants to launch a cyberwar against North Korea. The Republican from Michigan, who heads his party’s delegation on the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, urged the US government last Thursday to “launch a cyber attack” or at least increase international sanctions on Pyongyang. Hoekstra urged this in response to a series of mysterious cyber-attacks that paralyzed major South Korean and US government websites for three days earlier this month. And he’s not alone. Last Friday, ABC News technology pundit Michael Malone effectively echoed Hoekstra and warned that “enemies of freedom everywhere” could use cyberterrorism to kill untold numbers of Americans by remotely controlling “fetal monitoring systems, surgical equipment, robotic bomb demolition equipment and ICBMs”. But South Korean cybersecurity specialists, who intensely monitor North Korean information systems, and were the ones who actually informed their US counterparts of the unfolding cyber-attacks on July 4, are not so sure that Pyongyang was behind the attacks. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with cybersecurity, cyberterrorism, cyberwar, Joseph Fitsanakis, Michael Malone, National Intelligence Service (South Korea), North Korea, Pete Hoekstra, South Korea, United States, US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Secret CIA program involved assassinations of suspects

July 13, 2009 by intelNews 3 Comments

CIA HQ

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Quoting “three former intelligence officials” The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that the secret CIA program, which recently alarmed Congress, involved summary killings and assassinations of al-Qaeda operatives. Although the plan’s details remain highly classified, it appears that the CIA sought to set up specialized assassination squads, staffed with US Special Forces personnel, in an attempt to copy the Israeli Mossad Operation Wrath of God (also known as Operation Bayonet) of the 1970s. Wrath of God, which involved targeted assassinations of individuals allegedly behind the 1972 Munich massacre, was described by Canadian journalist George Jonas in his 1984 book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team, which also formed the basis for Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film Munich. The Wall Street Journal quotes an anonymous former US intelligence official who describes the CIA plan as coming “straight out of the movies […]. It was like: Let’s kill them all”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 1972 Munich massacre, Afghanistan, assassinations, CIA, Dick Cheney, George Jonas, intelligence oversight, Israel, Joint Special Operations Command, Leon Panetta, Mossad, Munich (Germany), News, Operation BAYONET, Operation Wrath of God, Pete Hoekstra, Seymour Hersh, US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Revelation of secret program prompted CIA spat with Congress [updated]

July 11, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Leon Panetta

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
More information has emerged about the background to an ongoing dispute between the US House Intelligence Committee and the CIA, which intelNews has been covering since late last month. The Washington Post has now revealed that on June 24, CIA director Leon Panetta informed the US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of his decision to terminate a CIA project, which the Agency had kept hidden from Congress since 2001. Nobody will publicly state what the secret project involved, except to say that it “was planned and never executed” and that it “never quite achieved its original concept” (whatever this means). Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Barack Obama, CIA, intelligence oversight, Leon Panetta, News, Operational Preparation of the Environment, US House of Representatives, US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

US House Intelligence Committee says routinely misled by CIA

July 8, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Reyes

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
On June 23, intelNews reported on the endorsement by key lawmakers in Washington of a proposed bill that would force US intelligence agencies to make full disclosure of covert spy programs to all members of Congress’ intelligence oversight panels. Yesterday, US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), came out once again in support of the proposed legislation, saying that he has evidence that the Committee he chairs has been routinely “misled […] and […] affirmatively lied to” by the CIA. Reyes’ allegations were included in a letter to the committee’s Republican members, in which he urged them to support the proposed bill. According to the National Security Act of 1947, Congressional intelligence committees must be “fully and currently” informed about the activities of US intelligence agencies. In recent years, however, military and intelligence officials routinely make use of a classification label called Operational Preparation of the Environment (OPE), which allows them to shield certain activities from Congressional oversight. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 1947 US National Security Act, CIA, intelligence oversight, News, Operational Preparation of the Environment, Silvestre Reyes, US House of Representatives, US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

News you may have missed #0014

July 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Belarus releases US lawyer jailed for industrial espionage. Emmanuel Zeltser who spent a year in jail in Belarus, is a lawyer with “a vast knowledge of organized crime, particularly the practice of money laundering”.
US Pentagon supplying intelligence to Pakistani armed forces. IntelNews has been keeping an eye on the intelligence side of the ongoing Pakistani offensive in the country’s North-West Frontier Province. Chinese intelligence involvement has already been established, and there have been allegations of Indian and Israeli involvement. It has now emerged that the US military has resumed surveillance flights over Pakistan, a clear sign of increased US-Pakistani intelligence collaboration.
US Congressional intel committee issues warnings. The US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has approved, as expected, the 2010 fiscal intelligence authorization bill, but it said that “funding for cybersecurity programs may need to be reduced or slowed until the future direction for cybersecurity is better defined”. It also urged US intelligence agencies to expand ethnic diversity among employees and improve training on foreign languages.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2009 Pakistani offensive, Belarus, Emmanuel Zeltser, ethnic diversity, intelligence cooperation, intelligence funding, languages, News, news you may have missed, North-West Frontier Province (Pakistan), Pakistan, Swat (Pakistan), US DoD, US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Analysis: A look at new House Intel Committee appointee

February 16, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Rep. Smith

By IAN ALLEN| intelNews.org |
Les Blumenthal, of McClatchy Newspapers, has penned an interesting article on US Representative Adam Smith (D-WA), who has just been appointed to the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In the article, Blumenthal reminds those who were surprised by this liberal Democrat’s appointment to the spy committee, that Smith was, until recently, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, where he chaired for over two years the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee. Moreover, during the recent Presidential campaign, Smith “developed [ties] to the White House’s national security staff”, says Blumenthal. Read more of this post