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News you may have missed #0074

August 20, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Captured Real IRA operative tried to buy weapons in Lithuania. An Irishman accused of attempting to buy weapons for the Real IRA in Lithuania appeared in court on Tuesday, in Lithuania’s first terrorist trial.
CIA lawyers accused of “deception” in contract dispute. Only three weeks after a federal judge ruled that CIA lawyers committed fraud in a lawsuit, another top agency lawyer is being accused of unethical conduct in another case.
Western spy agencies develop “terrorist Facebook”. Western spy agencies are turning to complex social network analysis. They plan to amass intelligence on a large range of people, even those who seem obscure or irrelevant, and feed it into a computer which will use an algorithm to investigate associations or connections that could be missed by a human.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Facebook, lawsuits, Lithuania, Michael Campbell, News, news you may have missed, Real IRA, RIRA, social networking, United States, War on Terrorism, weapons trade

News you may have missed #0068

August 13, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US overt aid to Pakistan revealed. The United States provided around $15.4 billion in overt aid to Pakistan between Fiscal Years 2002 and 2009, according to a newly updated Congressional Research Service tabulation.
Intolerance of Arabs, Muslims led to torture, says US interrogator. Former Air Force Major Matthew Alexander is promoting his book, How To Break a Terrorist: The US Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq.
China drops Rio Tinto espionage charges. Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto faces charges of stealing commercial secrets and bribery, but the Chinese government has dropped charges of spying.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Australia, China, energy resources, espionage, financial aid, interrogation techniques, Iraq War, Matthew Alexander, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, racism, Rio Tinto, Stern Hu, torture, UK, US, US Air Force, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0066

August 12, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US court upholds conviction of CIA contractor. A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of David Passaro, the first US civilian found guilty of abusing a detainee in Afghanistan.
US ex-Attorney General comes out against CIA probe. In a move that is hardly surprising, US Attorney General under the Bush Administration, Alberto Gonzales, said yesterday that investigating past interrogation practices “could discourage” CIA operatives from “engaging in conduct that even comes close” to more stringent guidelines.
Rare Chinese view on the Rio Tinto spy case. A rare article in English, by Jiang Ruqin, an official in the Bureau of National Secrecy of China’s Jiangsu Province.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Alberto Gonzales, Australia, Bureau of National Secrecy (China), China, CIA, David Passaro, energy resources, intelligence outsourcing, Jiang Ruqin, News, news you may have missed, Rio Tinto, torture, US Attorney General, War on Terrorism

Intelligence sources speak of clashes between rival Pakistani militias

August 12, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Mehsud

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Exactly one week after Pakistani officials announced the assassination of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, there are unconfirmed reports of serious clashes between rival armed factions in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Canadian sources are quoting unnamed intelligence officials who claim that Mehsud’s Taliban fighters are engaged in an all-out offensive against militia followers of Turkistan Bitani, a tribal warlord backed by the Pakistani government. Bitani spoke to the Associated Press saying that 90 fighters have so far died in the offensive and that at least 40 houses have been destroyed. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with assassinations, Baitullah Mehsud, CIA, Jandola (Pakistan), News, Pakistan, Predator drones, South Waziristan, Taliban, Turkistan Bitani, United States, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0063

August 10, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

UK government ministers, MI6 boss, reject torture accusations. Britain’s home secretary, Alan Johnson, and foreign secretary, David Miliband, have rejected claims that the UK operated a “policy to collude in, solicit, or directly participate in abuses of [war on terrorism] prisoners” or to cover up abuses. The outgoing director of MI6, Sir John Scarlett, has also said that there has been “no torture and there is no complicity with torture” by British agents.
Ex-spy may succeed Kazakh leader. An unnamed senior security official may eventually succeed Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan for 20 years.
Congressman tells Holder to widen torture probe. Several news outlets are verifying earlier rumors (reported on by intelNews on July 13) that the Obama Administration is considering the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the use of torture by US intelligence agencies after September 11, 2001. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, has said he wants US Attorney General Eric Holder to extend the rumored investigation beyond CIA interrogators, and determine whether high-level officials of the Bush administration committed war crimes.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Alan Johnson, Bush Administration, Central Asia, CIA, David Miliband, Eric Holder, Jerrold Nadler, Kazakhstan, MI6, News, news you may have missed, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Sir John Scarlett, torture, UK, War on Terrorism

Is Mehsud dead, and if so, who or what killed him?

August 10, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Baitullah Mehsud

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
There is confusion about the fate of Pakistan’s senior Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud. On August 7, the Pakistani military told the world’s media that an unmanned drone air strike (probably operated by the CIA) had killed Mehsud. The Associated Press reported that a Taliban commander in Pakistan, Kafayat Ullah, had confirmed that “Mehsud and his wife died in the American missile attack in South Waziristan”. Pakistani military officials said they were “reasonably sure” of the accuracy of these reports, but that they did not possess irrefutable “forensic evidence” of Mehsud’s death. Over the weekend, however, other Taliban leaders came forward to contest Ullah’s account. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with assassinations, Baitullah Mehsud, CIA, Hakimullah Mehsud, Kafayat Ullah, Maulvi Umar, News, Pakistan, Predator drones, South Waziristan, Taliban, United States, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0058

August 5, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Were Americans in Iran spying or in wrong place at wrong time? Officials in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region said Sunday that the three, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal, were tourists who inadvertently crossed into Iran on Friday while hiking in the region. But the head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Committee said on government-run Arabic television that the three came as spies.
British lawmaker challenges US threats to suppress CIA torture evidence. Conservative British parliamentarian David Davis is on a visit to the United States to speak with US lawmakers about the case of Binyam Mohamed.
Al-Qaeda will pose a threat for 20 years, says Dennis Blair. The US Director of National Intelligence has said al-Qaeda will continue to rely mostly on conventional explosives in its attacks.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, Binyam Mohamed, CIA, David Davis, Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, espionage, Iran, Iranian Parliament National Security Committee, Joshua Fattal, Kurdistan, News, news you may have missed, Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, torture, UK, UK House of Commons, United States, War on Terrorism

CIA director says Congress should let go of CIA’s past actions

August 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Leon Panetta

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
CIA director Leon Panetta has criticized Congress for its “focus on the past” that “threatens to distract the CIA from its crucial core missions”. In an editorial published last weekend in The Washington Post, Panetta says he is becoming “increasingly concerned” that “wrong judgments” made by the Bush Administration after 9/11 have damaged the broad agreement between the executive and legislative branches of the US government about the CIA’s role and activities. But the CIA director says the “sincerity or the patriotism” of Bush Administration officials should not be questioned, as they “were trying to respond as best they could” in the aftermath of 9/11. Instead, Panetta argues for learning “lessons from the past without getting stuck there”, and warns that “classified information that shapes […] conversations” between the CIA and Congress must be protected. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 9/11, Bush Administration, Chile, CIA, extraordinary rendition, intelligence oversight, Leon Panetta, Melvin A. Goodman, News, Richard Helms, Salvador Allende, torture, United States, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0051

August 1, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Instigator of Church committee hearings speaks about domestic intelligence. Christopher Pyle, the American whistleblower who in the 1970s sparked the Church Committee hearings on intelligence activities, has spoken about the recent revelations of US Army personnel spying on activist groups in Washington state. Pyle provided interesting historical context linking domestic espionage in the 1960s and 1970s with current developments in the so-called “war on terrorism”.
Declassified US President’s Daily Brief is reclassified. The CIA says that extracts of the President’s Daily Briefing (PDB) that were declassified in 2006, during the prosecution of former vice presidential aide Scooter Libby, are “currently and properly classified”. PDB declassifications occur extremely rarely.
Australian intelligence to focus on cybersecurity. David Irvine, the recently appointed director of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, has identified cyberespionage as “a growing national security risk”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ASIO, Australia, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Christopher Pyle, Church Committee, CIA, cybersecurity, David Irvine, declassification, domestic intelligence, News, news you may have missed, President's Daily Brief, surveillance, United States, US Army, US Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, War on Terrorism, whistleblowing

Hillary Clinton pressured UK government to conceal torture information

July 31, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

B. Mohamed

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton personally threatened the British government that Washington would stop collaborating with London on intelligence matters if the latter allowed the release of evidence on an alleged torture case. This has been revealed in London’s high court during the ongoing trial of Binyam Mohamed, a resident of Britain, who is was until recently imprisoned by US authorities at the Guantánamo Bay camp. Mr. Mohamed was abducted in 2002 by Pakistani authorities, who delivered him to US intelligence agents. The latter employed the controversial practice of extraordinary rendition and had Mr. Mohamed secretly imprisoned in Morocco and Afghanistan before taking him to Guantánamo. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Binyam Mohamed, extraordinary rendition, Hillary Clinton, intelligence cooperation, Justice Lloyd Jones, Lord Justice Thomas, News, torture, UK, United States, War on Terrorism

Mystery surrounds conviction of alleged Belgian spy in Morocco

July 29, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Belliraj

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A court in Sale, Morocco, has sentenced to life a Belgian national of Moroccan origin, who Belgian media claim was a “golden informant” for the Belgian secret services. Moroccan authorities arrested Abdelkader Belliraj, 50, in early 2008, and charged him with a plethora of criminal offenses, including armed robbery, money laundering and arms smuggling. More importantly, Belliraj is accused of participating in at least six killings carried out in Belgium by Abu Nidal in the 1980s and early 1990s, supplying arms to the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front, and leading a militant group aiming to overthrow the government of Morocco. Interestingly, however, in March of 2008, Belgian newspaper De Tijd reported that Belliraj had acted as an invaluable informant for Belgium’s State Security Service (SV/SE) and had recently supplied information that helped foil a bomb attack in a Western European country. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdelkader Belliraj, Abu Nidal Organization, Alain Winants, Algeria, Belgium, double agents, informants, Islamic Salvation Front (Algeria), money laundering, Morocco, News, SV/SE (Belgium), War on Terrorism, weapons smuggling

News you may have missed #0046

July 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA documents reveal Chilean candidate’s ties to Pinochet. CIA documents declassified last Friday allegedly point to ties between the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and presidential candidate Sebastián Piñera, who lost the 2005 elections to Chile’s current President, Michelle Bachelet.
US officials claim increased intelligence sharing with Pakistan. In a report that reads too much like a Pentagon public relations briefing, UPI reports that increasing US-Pakistani intelligence cooperation is “yielding results” along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Augusto Pinochet, Chile, CIA, Cold War, intelligence sharing, Michelle Bachelet, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Sebastián Piñera, United States, War on Terrorism

Analysis: Can Obama’s inter-agency interrogation unit overcome turf-wars?

July 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The task force set up by President Barack Obama to reform US interrogation policies will shortly be unveiling its long-awaited report. There are rumors in the US intelligence community that the report will call for a new inter-agency interrogation unit that will combine experts from several US military and intelligence agencies, including the CIA and FBI. But in a well-argued article in Time magazine, Bobby Ghosh asks the important question of whether such a plan is represents mere wishful thinking, by ignoring the “brief and bleak” history of inter-agency cooperation on interrogation. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abu Zubaida, al-Qaeda, Analysis, CIA, FBI, interrogation techniques, Obama Administration, Pakistan, torture, turf wars, United States, US DoD, War on Terrorism, Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn

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

Obama administration denies UN access to Guantánamo, CIA prisons

July 24, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

Guantánamo

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The US government has turned down calls by United Nations human rights monitors for access to the US Pentagon’s Guantánamo Bay prison camp and to CIA prison sites around the world. It is the second time that Obama administration officials have declined this request by UN monitors, despite the administration’s rhetorical commitment to increasing its collaboration on human rights issues with the international agency. Commenting anonymously to The Washington Post, which is one of a handful of US news outlets that are running this story, US government officials said that the Obama administration “support[s] the work of the UN human rights researchers”, but is “constrained in releasing information on sensitive intelligence matters”. The news comes ten days after unconfirmed reports that the US Department of Justice is considering the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the use of torture by US intelligence agencies after September of 2001.