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Comment: US-Pakistani Spy Relations Just Short of Open War

December 19, 2009 by intelNews 3 Comments

ISI HQ

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS* | intelNews.org |
Officially, the United States and Pakistan are allies in the so-called “war on terrorism”. But diplomats and intelligence agents on the ground tell a very different story. For several months now, Washington and Islamabad have engaged in a low-intensity intelligence war, with the Pakistanis accusing the Americans of failing to share actionable intelligence, and the Americans blaming Pakistani security services for maintaining clandestine links with Taliban groups. On at least one occasion, a senior advisor to the US-backed Afghan leadership has claimed that Pakistani intelligence services provide assistance to suicide bombers willing to strike targets in Kabul and other cities and towns in Afghanistan.

Lithuania’s spy chief resigns over secret CIA prison probe

December 17, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Malakauskas

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The director of Lithuania’s intelligence service unexpectedly resigned on Monday, reportedly in connection with a parliamentary investigation into a reputed CIA secret prison site in the country. IntelNews regulars will remember that last November ABC News cited CIA officials in alleging that the Lithuanian government provided the CIA with an unmarked building located in Lithuanian capital Vilnius, with the understanding that it would be used as a so-called black site for secretly detaining high-value al-Qaeda suspects. Lithuanian government officials denied the allegation, but promised to set up a high-level probe into the matter. But the members of the parliamentary committee that was established to examine the ABC News revelations soon found themselves shunned by Lithuanian intelligence officials. According to the committee head, Arvydas Anusauskas, the parliamentarians were offered ambiguous answers or no answers at all by Lithuanian secret service agencies. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, Arvydas Anusauskas, CIA, Eastern Europe, extraordinary rendition, intelligence oversight, Lithuania, News, Paul Gimigliano, Povilas Malakauskas, resignations, secret prisons, State Security Department (Lithuania), United States, Vilnius (Lithuania), War on Terrorism

Obama’s Afghan plan includes expanding CIA ops in Pakistan

December 4, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

Predator drone

By I. ALLEN & J. FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The Obama Administration’s plan to increase US military presence in Afghanistan includes expanding the CIA’s work in neighboring Pakistan, a country with which the US is officially not at war. An article published yesterday in The New York Times notes that the President has authorized the CIA to expand its Predator drone assassination program to include strikes in places like Baluchistan, which are outside Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal areas and far from the Afghan-Pakistani border. This development represents a major policy victory for the hawkish wing in the Pentagon’s senior leadership, which has been pressing Obama’s advisors to expand CIA assassination operations deeper into Pakistan since November of 2008. It also further reveals the Obama Administration’s policy preference toward undercover operations with a strong deniability proponent. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, assassinations, Baluchistan (Pakistan), CIA, covert operations, ethics, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Pakistan), intelligence oversight, News, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Predator drones, United States, War on Terrorism

Analysis: Is an obscure US military unit replacing the CIA?

December 3, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

JSOC logo

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
An obscure US military unit established in 1980 is gaining prominence in America’s “war on terrorism” and may be slowly replacing the CIA’s functions, according to a well-researched piece in The Atlantic magazine. The US Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) was created soon after the fiasco of the attempted rescue of the hostages held at the US embassy in Tehran. Since 9/11, the unit has emerged from its relative obscurity to join the forefront of America’s so-called “global war on terrorism”. Gathering evidence from a variety of sources investigating the use of paramilitary operations in America’s post-9/11 wars, Max Fisher argues that, even under the Obama Administration, JSOC may in fact be “taking on greater responsibility, especially in areas traditionally covered by the CIA”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Analysis, Bush Administration, CIA, intelligence oversight, Joint Special Operations Command, JSOC, Obama Administration, Pakistan, paramilitary units, United States, US DoD, US Special Forces, War on Terrorism

Blackwater aids US covert assassination, kidnapping ops

November 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Jeremy Scahill

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Private mercenary firm Blackwater (recently renamed Xe) is part of a covert US program in Pakistan that includes planned assassinations and kidnappings of Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects. Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill published earlier this week in The Nation magazine an in-depth study of the controversial firm’s role in the outsourced operation, which was first revealed by The New York Times and The Washington Post last August (see previous intelNews commentary). The close operational association between US Special Forces, the CIA, and the private mercenary firm is well known, largely thanks to Scahill’s prior work. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with abductions, assassinations, Blackwater, CIA, intelligence outsourcing, Jeremy Scahill, mercenaries, News, Pakistan, United States, US Special Forces, War on Terrorism

One third of Pakistani spy budget comes from CIA, say officials

November 17, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

ISI HQ

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
As much as one third of the annual budget of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence has come from the CIA in the last eight years, according to a new report in The Los Angeles Times. The paper says that even more US dollars have been supplied to the ISI through a secret CIA monetary rewards program that pays for the arrest or assassination of militants wanted by Washington. The payments reportedly began during the early years of the George W. Bush administration, and are now continuing under the Obama administration, despite “long-standing suspicions” that the ISI and the Pakistani military maintain close links with the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and elsewhere. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, Bush Administration, CIA, intelligence cooperation, intelligence funding, intelligence sharing, ISI, News, North Carolina, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Taliban, United States, War on Terrorism

Book claims CIA turned blind eye on Pakistan’s post-9/11 terror links

November 16, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

J.L. Bruguiere

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A new book by France’s former leading investigating magistrate on counterterrorism affairs alleges that the CIA allowed the Pakistani army to train members of a notorious Islamist militant group, even after 9/11. In the book, entitled Ce que je n’ai pas pu dire (The Things I Would Not Utter), Jean-Louis Bruguiere says the US spy agency was aware that Pakistani army trainers worked with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani group responsible for a series of sophisticated strikes in India, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The former magistrate bases his allegations on official testimony provided by Willy Brigitte, a French citizen from Guadeloupe, who was arrested in Australia in 2003, in connection with Lashkar-e-Taiba activities there. Soon after the US invasion of Afghanistan, Brigitte traveled to Pakistan aiming to join the Taliban insurgency, but was unable to cross the Pakistani-Afghan border. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2008 Mumbai attacks, Afghanistan, Australia, CIA, France, Guadeloupe, India, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, Lahore (Pakistan), Lashkar-e-Taiba, News, Pakistan, Pakistani armed forces, Punjab (Pakistan), Taliban, terrorism, United States, War on Terrorism, Willy Brigitte

Comment: Why the Italian Convictions of CIA Officers Matter

November 6, 2009 by intelNews 5 Comments

Sabrina De Sousa

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
An Italian court has convicted 22 CIA officers and a US Air Force officer involved in the abduction of a Muslim cleric from Milan in 2003. All but three Americans tried in the case received jail sentences ranging from five to eight years, for kidnapping Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr in broad daylight and for illegally renditioning him to Egypt, where he says he was brutally tortured before being released without charge. As intelNews has previously reported, it is extremely unlikely that the US will agree to extradite the convicted abductors to Italy. Washington has formally invoked the NATO Status of Forces Agreement, arguing that the offenders were operating “in the course of official duty” and fall therefore under US, not Italian, jurisdiction. But the convictions are important nonetheless, for three reasons.

Breaking news (or is it?): Karzai’s brother on CIA payroll

October 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Wali Karzai

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Citing “current and former American officials”, The New York Times said last night that Ahmed Wali Karzai, notorious drug lord and younger brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, “gets regular payments from the CIA. Understandably, the Times report is making headlines all over the world today, though it’s not exactly a revelation. IntelNews readers have known about Wali Karzai’s spy connection since September 17 (respect to The Washington Post‘s Rajiv Chandrasekaran, who first alerted us to it). That aside, there are four main new pieces of information in the Times article. First is the allegation that the CIA has financially sustained Wali Karzai ever since the initial US invasion of Afghanistan, in 2001. Second, Karzai appears to function as a “landlord” to the CIA force in southern Afghanistan, providing it with facilities and logistical support. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Ahmed Wali Karzai, CIA, Hamid Karzai, informants, Kandahar Strike Force, News, Obama Administration, United States, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0151

October 24, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Musicians protest use of their songs in Guantánamo torture. A group of musicians, including Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, REM, Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne, Rise Against, Roseanne Cash, Billy Bragg, the Roots, and many more, have joined the National Campaign to Close Guantánamo.
More information on CIA’s interest in monitoring Internet sites. Noah Shachtman, contributing editor at Wired magazine and editor of Danger Room, speaks on the CIA’s funding of a private software company specializing in monitoring online social media, such as YouTube, Twitter and Flickr.
Lithuania to investigate CIA secret prison allegations. Dalia Grybauskaite, president of Lithuania, has called for an official investigation into recent allegations that the CIA housed a secret prison for al-Qaeda suspects in Lithuania for more than a year, beginning in 2004.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, Billy Bragg, black operations, CIA, Cuba, Dalia Grybauskaite, Fickr, Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, Jackson Browne, Lithuania, music, National Campaign to Close Guantánamo, News, news you may have missed, Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, REM, Rise Against, Roseanne Cash, social networking, the Roots, Tom Morello, torture, Trent Reznor, Twitter, United States, War on Terrorism, YouTube

News you may have missed #0149

October 23, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Why is CIA fighting to keep JFK documents sealed? For years, the CIA has fought in US federal courts to keep secret hundreds of documents detailing the relationship between Lee Harvey Oswald and a CIA anti-Castro front group. The Agency says it is only protecting legitimate secrets. But some researchers are questioning this.
Up to 320 Pakistani civilians killed in US drone war. As many as 320 innocent civilians may have been killed in the CIA-led US drone war in Pakistan, according to an analysis by the New America Foundation. That’s about a third of the 1,000 or so people slain in the robotic aircraft attacks since 2006. Previous research has shown that approximately 80% of the airstrikes have failed to kill what the US Pentagon calls “high value targets”.
Analysis: What are the risks of the CIA’s covert drone program? “It’s easy to understand the appeal of a ‘push-button’ approach to fighting al-Qaeda, but the embrace of the Predator program has occurred with remarkably little public discussion, given that it represents a radically new and geographically unbounded use of state-sanctioned lethal force. And, because of the CIA program’s secrecy, there is no visible system of accountability in place, despite the fact that the agency has killed many civilians inside a politically fragile, nuclear-armed country with which the US is not at war”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with assassinations, CIA, Cuba, declassification, Fidel Castro, front groups, government secrecy, John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Predator drones, War on Terrorism

MI5 chief defends use of intelligence extracted through torture

October 19, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Jonathan Evans

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
In an unprecedented public speech, the director of MI5, Britain’s national counterintelligence agency, said the intelligence extracted by torturing suspects after 9/11 had stopped “many attacks” on Western and other targets. Last January, Jonathan Evans, who was named director of MI5 in April 2007, gave the first-ever media interview by an MI5 director in history. Last Thursday, he made history once again by giving the first-ever public speech by an MI5 chief. Speaking at the University of Bristol, England, Evans said MI5 was right to cooperate after 9/11 with US and other intelligence agencies, even if those agencies were known to routinely extract information from detainees through torture. In doing so, he revealed that MI5’s own knowledge of al-Qaeda was “inadequate” at the time of 9/11, and that the agency “had to get overseas help at the time”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 9/11, al-Qaeda, Binyam Mohamed, Jonathan Evans, MI5, News, torture, UK, United States, University of Bristol (UK), War on Terrorism

US wont’ share al-Qaeda intelligence, say Pakistani spies

October 13, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Quetta, Pakistan

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A number of senior Pakistani security officials have accused US spy agencies of systematically withholding from their Pakistani counterparts actionable intelligence on al-Qaeda and Taliban activities in Pakistan. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials complained to The Washington Times that the last time the CIA shared actionable intelligence on al-Qaeda with the government of Pakistan was in 2007. They also said that recent public assertions by US officials that senior al-Qaeda leaders are hiding in Quetta, Pakistan, have not been followed with corresponding actionable intelligence by US spy agencies. The allegations shed further light on the increasingly severed intelligence relationship between Washington and Islamabad, which began shortly before the 2008 ousting of American-supported Pakistani dictator General Pervez Musharraf. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, CIA, Gerald Feierstein, intelligence cooperation, intelligence sharing, ISI, Islamabad (Pakistan), News, Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, Quetta (Pakistan), Taliban, United States, US embassy in Pakistan, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0129

October 5, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Romanian communist spy boss dead at 80. General Nicolae Plesita, who directed Romania’s Securitate during the country’s communist period, has died. While heading the Securitate’s foreign intelligence service, from 1980 to 1984, Plesita hired the Venezuelan-born operative Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos the Jackal, to assassinate Romanian dissidents in France and bomb the US-owned Radio Free Europe offices in Munich, in 1981. In 1998, Plesita revealed that he had orders from the Romanian government to find temporary shelter for Carlos in Romania after the RFE bombing.
Settlement reached in DEA-CIA spying dispute. A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit brought 15 years ago by a former US Drug Enforcement Administration agent who accused a CIA operative of illegally bugging his home. In a court filing, lawyers for the government and the DEA agent said they “had reached an agreement in principle to settle the underlying litigation”. See here for previous intelNews coverage of this case.
Federal judge denies request for CIA secret documents. Hundreds of documents detailing the CIA’s defunct overseas secret detention program of suspected terrorists, including extreme interrogation methods have remained secret after U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein on Wednesday refused to release them “in order to protect intelligence methods and sources”. The ACLU argues that the CIA secret program was illegal under international and US law, that it involved the torture and deaths of some inmates, and therefore should not be shielded from public view.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, Alvin K. Hellerstein, assassinations, black operations, Burma, Carlos the Jackal, CIA, Cold War, DEA, declassification, Departamentul Securităţii Statului (Romania), Eastern Europe, Germany, government secrecy, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, lawsuits, Munich (Germany), News, news you may have missed, Nicolae Plesita, Radio Free Europe, Romania, secret prisons, Securitate (Romania), torture, Venezuela, war on drugs, War on Terrorism, warrantless communications interception

Pakistani spies “visibly angry” at US charge of Taliban links

September 30, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

A.S. Pasha

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Recently, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s secretive spy service, gave Washington Post’s associate editor, David Ignatius, a rare look inside its Islamabad headquarters. However, the first known visit to the ISI by a Western journalist in recent years failed to impress the Pakistanis. The latter became “visibly angry” when Ignatius asked them whether they are withholding information about al-Qaeda and the Taliban, as the CIA and other US intelligence agencies claim. The charges, which are disputed by Pakistani officials, led to “a long and animated conversation” with ISI Director, Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who forbade the US journalist from quoting him directly. Read more of this post