SA Intelligencer Number 85
22 February 2011 Editor: Dalene Duvenage
From the editor
Contributions and enquiries dalene@4knowledge.co.za Click on titles below to access the articles
February 2011
Middle East Egypt: The spies who got it wrong Former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan to Head Ports Authority Syria says jailed blogger worked for CIA
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Africa
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Europe
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North America
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Asia
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Oceania
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Malawi Varsity lecturers down tools after police chief interrogates lecturer Kenya: Spy Agency to Vet Poll Hopefuls South Africa: Shaik cables shows inadequacies of US intel Oromo rebels claim killing of Ethiopian intelligence agent Norway: Secret spying unit ‘no surprise’ UK: Chinese cyber spies hit British computers UK: 7/7 Inquest: MI5 Missed Leader 'Despite Links To Earlier Plot' UK: Intelligence Services Commissioner, Rt. Hon. Sir Mark Waller appointed early, announced late UK: Sketchy Intelligence: Artist Unveils Study of MI6 France: Renault’s spy scandal hints at growing corporate espionage France: 14 French train in camps of al-Qaida Russia will retaliate in diplomatic spat with Ireland Mysterious death' of colonel in Russian spy service Moscow 'ambassador' resigns after spy allegations UK MP's Russian 'spy' assistant offered Kremlin TV role Spy Anna Chapman Seen Running on Putin's Party List for Russian Parliament Curveball doubts were shared with CIA, says ex-German foreign minister Germany: Undercover police officers work abroad Intelligence chief says German terror threat still serious White House, Intel Chief Can’t Agree on Budget Secrecy CIA Reports No Progress in Classification Review CIA neither confirms nor denies pension fund shortfall Senate confirms O'Sullivan as ODNI deputy U.S. officials: Raymond Davis, accused in Pakistan shootings, worked for CIA Hiding Details of Dubious Deal, U.S. Invokes National Security Trinidad & Tobago New spy agency soon Taiwan detains general in China spy case CIA Views China’s “Student Informant System” South Korea's spy chief made secret trip to U.S South Korea's NIS head tender resignation over alleged spying on Indonesian envoys New Zealand spy agency criticised over gaffe NZ: Manawatu spy base to cut jobs On a lighter note
On a lighter note
It is quite a challenge for the intelligence services to stay focused and productive when every crisis in the world of politics is seen as an intelligence failure. As with the developments in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrein en Yemen, we have seen that although intelligence agencies have warned about instability, the exact tipping points and their impact were unknowable. In this complex world intelligence agencies have to calculate many “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns” in our understanding of a situation. Our clients should understand that intelligence cannot predict, we can only reduce uncertainty to a certain degree –thereafter unpredictable human actions could nullify even the most sophisticated intelligence analysis. Our main task is to support decision-making. If our clients choose to ignore our analyses, they should bear the consequences of their political policy failures. The SA Intelligencer is published on an ad hoc basis and aim to inform decision makers and intelligence professionals on recent developments in the world of intelligence agencies. It is compiled from free open English sources and is distributed to our main client base here in South Africa, our neighbours and further north in Africa, as well as several hundred/thousands of readers in the US, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and South America. These readers prefer a document that they can print, read and distribute for their own and their agency’s situational awareness. All the articles are excerpted – click on the source link to access the original report. You are welcome to contact me should you wish to sponsor this publication or need your own customised OSINT service. Dalene Duvenage
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British Border Agent Fired for Putting Wife on Terrorist Watch List
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Intelligence developments Egypt: The spies who got it wrong Sreeram Chaulia; 19 Feb 2011 online chat rooms, which ended up damaging After every major foreign policy catastrophe US assets in the Middle East much more than in the contemporary history of the United violent Islamist terrorist cells of al-Qaeda. States, the blame game goes around as to who "lost it'. Post mortems of events that Feisty American politicians have labeled the generate a crisis for American overseas double whammy loss of Tunisia's Zine elinterests essentially go along two opposing Abidine Ben Ali's and Egyptian Hosni lines. The first one is technical, which involves Mubarak's regimes as a "wake-up" call for US dissecting the minutiae of why the nation's spies apparently snoring on their jobs and assortment of spies did not provide accurate feeding a false sense of complacency in advance information so that the dreaded Washington by rating these former outcome could have been occluded or at least strongmen as stable in their seats. According hedged against. The second one is political, to the widely followed liberal which asks why American website, The Huffington Post, interests were poorly defined The revolutions in the President Barack Obama told and executed by the highest Middle East reflect the the DNI, James Clapper, that office holders in power when disconnection between he was "disappointed with the realities on the ground were American ideals and the intelligence community clearly headed towards a practice. Intelligence failure and its failure to predict the shocking denouement that is a charade or, at best, a unrest". The present crisis of would set back US influence in a minor glitch compared to the unknown in the US country or region for decades. the larger problem of policy foreign policy establishment failure. as to the degrees of The current self-introspection in independence or even hostility of protothe wake of the overthrows of pro-American democratic polities in the Middle East has despots in Tunisia and Egypt fit neatly into unleashed a frenzy of scapegoats and alibis this dualistic framework. The US intelligence about how and why these developments community is finding itself under a heap of could not be anticipated to minimize damage. brickbats from politicians and hindsightequipped pundits for turning a blind eye to Clapper has excused himself and his rank-andsigns of the popular mobilization and protests file in the intelligence agencies by admitting that have toppled two solid US allies already that "we are not clairvoyant" and that and threaten to scalp some more in a hurry. "specific triggers cannot always be known or predicted". The House and senate committees on intelligence are grilling defensive personnel of To be fair to the spies, predicting behavior in the CIA and the Director of National the complex social world has never been Intelligence (DNI) for their alleged failure to easy because history often gets remade in catch the pulse of youth movements and
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mysterious bouts of energy spurts and realignments of actors. For an intelligence station chief or an agent on the ground, the problem is often that of receiving alarming news from various sources but exercising discretion on how much of these titbits should be passed on to higherups who might be skeptical about overly frightening scenarios. The mark of a quality spy has always been supreme alertness to danger, but agents are wary of crying wolf far too often and then losing the ears of policymakers who get inured to scaremongering. The unforeseeable force of historical developments can be a legitimate defense for intelligence agencies, but it does not imply that politicians and definers of national interest at the helm of the US state structure can be absolved for misguided policy.
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Washington's bipartisan consensus during and after the Cold War in favor of cultivating strong relationships with totalitarian regimes that repress their people remains the ultimate cause of anti-Americanism in many parts of the world, including the Middle East. Tunis and Cairo are symbols of the yawning gap between the American self-image and political rhetoric of promoting democracy on one hand, and the continued preference for "big men" with whom Washington can easily "do business with" on the other. The revolutions in the Middle East reflect the disconnection between American ideals and practice. Intelligence failure is a charade or, at best, a minor glitch compared to the larger problem of policy failure.
Former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan to Head Ports Authority Israel news 16 Feb 2011
meetings as he enters his position According to financial with the Port Authority will be talks publication Globes, Israel's former with seven Israeli cruise and cargo spymaster, Mossad Chief Meir shipping companies over possible Dagan, is to be appointed chairman martime links, according to Greek of the Israel Ports Development & newspaper Naftemporiki. Assets Company and will be responsible for implementing a According to Bloomberg, as many as national transportation plan for 800,000 Israeli tourists may visit Israel. Greece and Cyprus in 2012. The increase is attributed to improved Dagan, who was replaced by Tamir improved Israeli-Greek relations Pardo as Mossad Director on New Mossad chief contrasted with poor Israeli-Turkish January 1, 2011, is a vegetarian and Tamir Pardo relations, and political unrest in an amateur painter who studied North Africa. sculpture at Tel Aviv University. Dagan's first
Syria says jailed blogger worked for CIA AFP -17 February 2011
A young Syrian blogger sentenced to five years in jail, Tal al-Mallouhi, worked for the US spy agency CIA, the foreign ministry said on Thursday. Held since December 2009, Mallouhi was convicted on Monday for
passing on secrets to the United States, Syrian rights groups said. "At the age of 15, she was recruited by an Austrian officer of UNDOF (the United Nations observer force in the Golan) who asked her to
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"We call on the Syrian government to move with her family to Cairo," where they immediately release all its prisoners of arrived in September 2006, she said. conscience and allow its citizens freedom to In the Egyptian capital, an American spy had exercise their universal rights of expression introduced Mallouhi to diplomats at the US and association," the State Department said. embassy who allegedly asked her to find information on the work of Syria's mission in Mallouhi, granddaughter of a former minister under the late Hafez al-Assad, Cairo. father of President Bashar alThe young Syrian was later asked Assad, was "held incommunicado to return to her home country and without charge for nine months," to dig up details on political US-based Human Rights Watch prisoners while cultivating ties (HRW) said in September. with security agents and officials, Security services seized her according to Kanafani. home computer, CDs and books, Last October, Syria's Al-Watan HRW said, although her blog, newspaper reported that Tal al-Mallouhi which contains poetry and social Mallouhi, a high school student at commentary, focused on the plight of the the time of her arrest, was being accused of Palestinians and did not address Syrian spying for the US embassy in Egypt. politics. Washington has denied the charge and called for her "immediate release" while condemning what it called her "secret trial."
Malawi Varsity lecturers interrogates lecturer
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Pana 16/02/2011
Blantyre, Malawi - Lecturers at Chancellor College, the main constituent college of the University of Malawi in the eastern city of Zomba Wednesday abandoned classes after one of them was interrogated by the southern African country's police chief over an example he allegedly gave during a political science class. Inspector General of Police Peter Mukhito drove all the way to Zomba, 80 kilometres east of the commercial capital, Blantyre, to personally interrogate a political science lecturer, Dr. Blessing Chinsinga, for allegedly inciting students to rise against the administration of President Bingu wa Mutharika.
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According to the police, Dr. Chinsinga allegedly told his class that insurrections like those that have toppled the government of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt are started by things like the fuel crisis that is currently hitting Malawi. Details of the interrogation have not been released and Dr. Chinsinga was not detained, but the incident has angered the Chancellor College Academic Staff Union (CCASU) which described this as intimidation. 'We are alarmed and saddened by this development which infringes upon academic freedom,' said CCASU president Jessie Kabwila-Kapasula in a letter to the college principal, Prof. Chris Kamlongera, notifying him that they have abandoned classes.
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Kenya: Spy Agency to Vet Poll Hopefuls All Africa 13 February 2011
The Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) has put in place stringent measures to vet candidates vying for electoral positions. The commission will work closely with the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS), Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) and the police to ensure that those
with criminal records or lack integrity are not cleared to run. The commission will also hold security meetings with candidates and security agents where they will be taken through the code of conduct and other laws on elections.
South Africa: Shaik cables shows inadequacies of US intel Leadershiponline
The leaked 2008 cables from the American embassy in Pretoria reporting on conversations with head of South Africa’s Secret Service (SASS) Moe Shaik delivers some interesting perspective on the WikiLeaks phenomenon and might be more revealing about inadequacies of American intelligence than about the South African spy boss. Careful analysis of the cables, if interpreted within the context of the prevailing political circumstances at the time in South Africa, read with the present news reports on the matter, illustrates the danger of judging the leaked information distributed by WikiLeaks out of context or on an isolated individual basis. A clear example of this is the inference now being made that the Americans at the time went to some lengths to cultivate Moe Shaik as a source of information. The prevailing facts at the time, however seem to suggest that it likely was the other way round: Moe Shaik acted as an agent for the then president of the ANC tasked to act as a communication channel to the Americans – and others – to
prepare them for the planned early removal of Thabo Mbeki as president and eventual Zuma presidency. Most news reports in this respect also seem to have totally missed the fact that the May meeting, with which the one cable mainly deals, did not take place on the initiative of the Americans. The cable clearly states that the meeting was “called” by Shaik. The cables on this meeting also clearly reveal to what extent the embassy was out of touch with the lay of the political land in South Africa at the time and how it did not understand the power-relations between the Mbeki presidency and ANC headquarters. When evaluated in full context it would seem very unlikely that the revelation of the Shaik cables will have much more impact other than some irritation on the part of Moe Shaik. The leaked Shaik cables do however expose the often-flawed American system of intelligence-gathering and some of the dangers of untested, un-collaborated and unnuanced reporting of the massive information contained in WikiLeaks dumps.
Oromo rebels claim killing of Ethiopian intelligence agent IndepthAfrica February 12th, 2011
The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), the armed wing of the OLF rebel group has claimed it has killed the head of a government intelligence group in the country’s Oromoya region. According to the group’s news agency, the OLF News, the intelligence official was killed
by armed special units of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) in Eastern Oromia, Western Hararge zone.The unnamed intelligence agent, who was head of the Chiro area, has been harassing the local people of the Oromo population in various, towns, and
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villages in Eastern Oromian Zone, said the rebel group. In November last year, the same group claimed it had killed the intelligence head and a government representative of Calanqoo town, in Eastern Harargee, Haile Gebre.Earlier in November, armed Forces of the group said they had killed a commander of Ethiopia’s federal government special forces, named Tesfaye Megersa.
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The OLA accuse Ethiopian forces of “continued inhumanly and unlawfully harassing, terrorizing, and killing” Oromo civilians accusing them of supporting OLA – an allegation the government rejects.The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) along with its armed wing, the OLA is labeled as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government. Ethiopian authorities say the Oromo rebels have been defeated and are no longer a threat. However, the rebels stress that still active.
Norway: Secret spying unit ‘no surprise’ February 7, 2011
A leading foreign policy analyst says it should come as no surprise that Norway maintained a secret spying unit that operated in nine countries for 10 years. Two Oslo newspapers reported its existence over the weekend, and key government officials claim they didn’t know about it. Newspapers VG and Dagbladet both carried stories on the so-called E14 unit, otherwise known as Seksjon for spesiell innhenting. (Section for Special Gathering). As many as 140 Norwegian men and women worked in the unit, which was operative from 1995 until 2005. It operated separately from the
Defense Ministry and its own intelligence gathering units, although many of its staff were defense personnel. VG reported that it operated in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and its agents often posed as Norwegian students. The E14 agents nurtured their own sources in the countries where they operated, Lurås said, “and that creates the little extra that can give unique analysis material.” He said the existence of the E14 unit shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with the volatile situation in the 1990s.
UK: Chinese cyber spies hit British computers Albuquerque Express; Saturday 5th February, 2011 (IANS)
A Chinese internet spy ring has penetrated Britain's government computer networks with malicious software, the Guardian reported. British foreign secretary William Hague told a security conference in Munich that his office repelled an attack last month by 'a hostile state intelligence agency'. Although Hague did not name the country
behind the attacks, intelligence sources familiar with the incidents made it clear he was referring to China, the daily said. In his speech Hague talked about concern within the government about increasing threat posed by cyber espionage to steal the country's defence, diplomatic and commercial secrets.
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UK: 7/7 Inquest: MI5 Missed Leader 'Despite Links To Earlier Plot' Police Oracle: 04-Feb-11
The security services were unable to identify the ringleader of a terrorist gang before it struck London on 7 July 2005, despite having his picture and having seen him associating with other terrorist suspects, the inquest into the 52 deaths heard yesterday. Mohammad Sidique Khan was spotted by MI5 on the periphery of another terror plot as early as 2003, and was seen with suspected terrorists. Khan was groomed through contact with other suspected terrorists progressing from "an associate of terrorists to prime conspirator and murderer", said Hugo Keith
QC, counsel to the inquests, in a statement assessing whether the attacks could have been prevented. Security services did not believe Khan was a high priority and did not connect different pieces of information relating to him, including training at terrorist camps and having an interest in "martyrdom operations". Various sources pointed towards an individual in the West Yorkshire area, but the authorities never uncovered Khan's full name until he led the biggest mass murder on UK soil.
UK: Intelligence Services Commissioner, Rt. Hon. Sir Mark Waller appointed early, announced late Spyblog; January 27, 2011
In accordance with section 59 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, I have agreed to appoint the right hon. Sir Mark Waller as Intelligence Services Commissioner from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2013. All the RIPA Commissioners are retired senior High Court Judges and they are usually appointed for 3 years at a time. Why was this Written Ministerial Statement only published on 20th January 2011, when the appointment had already been in effect for the previous 3 weeks? Could the Prime Minister and his securocrat advisors really not recruit a successor to the previous Intelligence Services Commissioner before Christmas 2010 and announce the appointment Sir Mark Waller was to take over the role? What does this imply about the Rt. Hon. Sir Peter Gibson? He was originally
appointed by Tony Blair as Intelligence Services Commissioner from 1st April 2006 to 31st March 2009 and was the re-appointed by Gordon Brown to serve from 1st April 2009 to 31st March 2012. Why has his tenure been cut short by 15 months? Does this mean that he is in poor health? What about the Administrative Inquiry into the alleged complicity of the UK intelligence agencies with torture and "extraordinary rendition" of British nationals and residents, which Sir Peter Gibson was appointed to chair by Prime Minister David Cameron, on 6th July 2010 ? Are there so many allegations or so much prima facie evidence of complicity in torture by the intelligence agencies, that Sir Peter Gibson can no longer fulfill both roles at the same time?
UK: Sketchy Intelligence: Artist Unveils Study of MI6 The Associated Press, 14 February 2011
Artist James Hart Dyke poses with his painting 'Waiting in the hotel room' on display in an exhibition 'A year with MI6', in Mount Street
Gallery, London, Monday, Feb. 14, 2011. Artist James Hart Dyke on Monday unveiled a series of paintings and drawings created
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during a year embedded with Britain's MI6 intelligence agency, in an uncharacteristic act of openness for the secretive organization. The project was sanctioned to mark the service's centenary in 2009 — a milestone MI6 has used to carefully raise its public profile and dispel some of the myths about life as a spy. Retired spy chief John Scarlett, who as head of MI6 commissioned the art project, said its goal was to capture "the nature, the spirit of the service and its people — within the parameters of secrecy." The 40 oil paintings and numerous pencil, charcoal and watercolor sketches — the latter, fittingly, in shades of gray — include depictions of the futuristic MI6 Building,
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views of London's River Thames from inside MI6, street scenes of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and images of agents in offices, meeting rooms and hotel bars. The works are on display and for sale at the Mount Street Galleries in London from Tuesday to Feb. 27, with prices ranging from 950 pounds to 25,000 pounds ($1,500 to $40,000). "I recognize that situation completely," he said. "I've been in that situation many times. You're waiting, it's a boring situation, but you're waiting for something exciting and exceptional to happen. "This is an intriguing profession," he said. "The work is very interesting and exciting, but in a funny way, mixed up with everyday life."
France: Renault’s spy scandal hints at growing corporate espionage Reuters : 30 January 2011
Earlier this month, the French automaker, which is 15 percent owned by the state, went public with its suspicions of economic espionage. It sacked three senior staff with more than half a century of service between them and has filed a legal complaint against “persons unknown” over organised theft, aggravated breach of trust and passing intelligence to a foreign power. The case swiftly took on wider geopolitical implications as French prosecutors looked into what one government source called a “China link” as part of their initial probe. China has emphatically denied involvement; the three Renault executives say they have done nothing wrong. However the drama at Renault turns out, intelligence and security
experts expect government-linked corporate espionage and data theft to increase in coming years. They say a lack of dividing lines between the state and corporations in countries such as China or Russia, coupled with the fact that digital technology makes stealing huge volumes of information so much easier, increase the risks companies face. In France, a country which has its own Economic Warfare School, companies like Renault may have even seen this coming years ago. Western firms, some with their own history of stealing secrets and uncomfortably close relationships with state spy agencies, face a particular threat from China and Chinese companies, security experts say.
France: 14 French train in camps of al-Qaida Le Figaro, 6 February 2011 (Ed: machine translation)
In the aftermath of the uprising in Tunisia and as protests multiply in Egypt , the French spy-
cons is more than ever on high alert. Hundreds of Europeans, including fourteen
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French, trained in jihadist camps, could take action. Many of these fighters have now gained experience and legitimacy that allows them to rally around them newcomers', warn analysts cons of French intelligence. Having
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lived in Europe and often feeding personal grievances against their adopted country, the Europeans are likely to be involved in terrorist acts.
Russia will retaliate in diplomatic spat with Ireland Feb 2, 2011 12:35 Moscow Time
Russia will retaliate for its diplomat’s expulsion from Ireland in what Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov has described as an unfriendly move. The Irish authorities proclaimed a few days ago a Russian embassy staff member persona non
grata. The name of the diplomat has not been disclosed. The man has been accused of stealing passport details of six Irish citizens allegedly to use them as a cover for intelligence gathering in the United States.
Mysterious death' of colonel in Russian spy service 31st Jan 2011
Russian security officials are investigating the death of a colonel in Russian foreign intelligence, who apparently fell from the window of his 14th floor flat, media reports
say. The body of Col Gennady Ambarnov, 46, was found by passers-by hours later. The colonel had been arguing with his wife and son, media reports say.
Moscow 'ambassador' resigns after spy allegations The News, Poland: 5 January 2011
Tomasz Turowski, Poland’s so-called ‘titular’ ambassador in Moscow, has offered his resignation after allegations that he collaborated with the Kremlin while working as a secret agent in the Vatican, Cuba and Russia. The move follows allegations released in the week prior to Christmas by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) which
claimed that Turowski had lied during his socalled lustracja, or vetting, declaration, in which high-ranking public servants are obliged to reveal whether they had contacts with the communist security services during the Cold War era. Turowski is not to be confused by the ambassador to Russia, Wojciech Zajaczkowski.
UK MP's Russian 'spy' assistant offered Kremlin TV role Sify.com 14 February 2011
Katia Zatuliveter, an assistant to a UK MP and an alleged spy, has now been offered a job at the Kremlin's English-language TV news propaganda channel. Zatuliveter, a 25-year-old former parliamentary assistant for Mike Hancock, a Liberal Democrat MP, was arrested in December and ordered deported on MI5's advice after it was decided that her continued
presence in Britain was a potential threat to national security. Since then, she has been released on bail and is living in London and will continue to do so until her appeal against her deportation can be heard in October. However, her new role at RT, the Kremlin's English-language TV news channel, could see her become a presenter in Moscow or even a London-based reporter.
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Zatuliveter, who last week had her bail conditions eased so that she could negotiate with RT, has insisted she is not a Russian spy though security service sources have said
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there is no doubt she was working for the Kremlin as a "sleeper agent," either for its SVR foreign intelligence service or for its GRU military intelligence arm. (ANI)
Spy Anna Chapman Seen Running on Putin's Party List for Russian Parliament Bloomberg - Feb 16, 2011 Anna Chapman, one of the Russian spies expelled from the U.S. last year, will probably run for parliament as a member of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party. Chapman, praised by Putin for her service to the country, is officially a "party supporter" and will be eligible for full membership in the summer, said Frants Klintsevich, a senior United Russia official and a lawmaker in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. Elections are scheduled for December. Chapman has been the most visible of 10 Russian agents deported from the U.S. last July. She has her own weekly television show, "Mysteries of the World With Anna Chapman," and has appeared on the cover of Maxim magazine in lingerie, holding a gun, as well as in the nude in the U.S. edition of Playboy. "The party needs young beautiful girls," Klintsevich said by phone from Moscow today. "She can bring more supporters with
her. She’s a smart, sharp person. She needs to fulfill her potential. She’s a patriot who really suffered for her country." Another member of the spy ring, Natalia Pereverzeva, who went by the name Patricia Mills, was hired by state-run pipeline operator OAO Transneft as an adviser on international projects to Chief Executive Officer Nikolai Tokarev. A third agent, Andrei Bezrukov, who lived in the U.S. as Donald Heathfield, is working as an adviser for state-run oil company OAO Rosneft. Chapman, who turns 29 next week, has worked as an adviser to Fondservisbank, which invests in aerospace and high- technology industries, since October, according to the Moscow- based company.
Curveball doubts were shared with CIA, says ex-German foreign minister Guardian, 17 February 2011
Germany's former foreign minister Joschka Fischer has accused the former head of the CIA George Tenet of making implausible claims about the handling of the Curveball case by the US. On Wednesday Tenet, the director of central intelligence between 1997 and 2004, issued a statement on his website saying he discovered "too damn late" that Curveball – the Iraqi defector who became a key source
for the CIA and the German secret service (BND) – might be a fabricator. Reprinting an extract from his autobiography, Tenet claimed he only found out in 2005, two years after the Iraq invasion, that the BND had doubts about Curveball's claims to have witnessed first-hand Saddam Hussein's bioweapons programme.
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Asked by the Guardian whether Tenet's claims were plausible, Fischer said: "No. I don't think so." Fischer said the BND realised some time before the war that Curveball was not a watertight source, and passed on his testimony to the CIA with warnings attached. "Our position was always: [Curveball] might be right, but he might not be right. He could be a liar but he could be telling the truth," said Fischer at a press conference in Berlin to promote his memoir about the Iraq war. Fischer said Germany was put in a "very difficult position" when the CIA asked whether they could "have" Curveball, or at least use his evidence to justify a war in Iraq. Germany's official position was that it would not join the coalition of the willing. Fischer himself famously told Donald Rumsfeld in February 2003 that he was "not convinced" about the case for war. "On the one hand we didn't want to withhold from the US any bit of relevant information we had about possible WMD in Iraq. On the other hand, we did not want to take part in any propagandistic exploitation of material, which was far from proven, to justify a war," Fischer writes in his new autobiography, I Am Not Convinced.
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He added: "We decided, therefore, that we would do our duty by sending the Americans all the information we had, together with our assessment that that information came from a deserter and that we had not verified or substantiated it ourselves, and that it could be completely wrong." Fischer said today: "We, the German government, decided to pass on the evidence, and I think that was the right thing to do." He said the then head of the BND, August Henning, wrote a letter to the CIA outlining the possible problems with Curveball. Fischer also pointed out that it was common practice in security circles – then, as now – to not rely on a single source, but to get at least three independent sources that corroborate each other. Asked what he thought about Colin Powell demanding answers as to why the CIA and its military arm, the DIA, never told him about Curveball possibly being a liar, Fischer said he couldn't comment. "[Powell] is a very good friend of mine, but we have never ever spoken about this phase," he said. "If there is something to discuss, he has to initiate the conversation."
Germany: Undercover police officers work abroad (including G8 in Scotland) The Local: Germany's News in English 119 Feb 2011
"The German police have admitted sending undercover officers to other countries, including Scotland, during a parliamentary hearing into the controversial deployment of an undercover UK policeman in Germany. Der Spiegel reported on 19 February 2010 (Saturday) that MPs sitting in a confidential meeting of a parliamentary interior affairs
committee were told at the end of last month that undercover German police officers were routinely sent abroad to infiltrate suspect groups. The hearing was prompted by the revelation that British undercover police officer Mark Kennedy had been working in Germany, as well as in other countries,
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infiltrating environmental and leftist protest groups. The story caused a scandal as it emerged that he had been undercover for years, posing as an activist called Mark Stone, becoming heavily involved in protests and even pursuing several sexual relationships. Jörg Zierke, head of Germany’s federal criminal police, told the committee that five undercover German police officers had been sent to the protests at the 2005 G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland. There they had been
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under the command of the UK National Public Order Intelligence Unit, said Zierke. Different forces helped each other “accompanying the scene in the relevant countries,” Zierke was quoted as saying in meeting notes which were marked “for official use only.” Those being watched would include what he called “Euro anarchists, militant left-extremists and terrorists.” One could only take on organised and conspiratorial international networks when one worked “as internationally and conspiratorially” as they did, he said."
Intelligence chief says German terror threat still serious Intelligent Intelligence 18 Feb 2011
Despite a reduction of security since public police presence was increased in November, a serious terrorist threat still exists. Heinz Fromm, president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said “In Germany and abroad there are people who are ready and able to carry out attacks”. He also stated that about 1000 people in Germany are on the “Islamic-terrorists
spectrum”.Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziére announced an increase of security in public places in November 2010, following a terrorist scare. In February, Mr Maiziére announced plans to reduce the levels of security, adding that matters should be pursued behind the scenes. Mr Fromm reportedly acknowledged that the increase insecurity may have deterred terrorist plans.
White House, Intel Chief Can’t Agree on Budget Secrecy Wired.com February 15, 2011
Feast your eyes and prepare for the sky to fall: James Clapper’s first budget for all nonmilitary intelligence (read: CIA) asks Congress for $55 billion. That’s an increase from last year’s $53.1 billion for the so-called National Intelligence Program. Anti-secrecy crusader Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists heralds the disclosure as “a new milestone in the ‘normalization’ of intelligence budgeting. The weird thing about the budget announcement? The White
House’s budget rollout overlooked it. When releasing a terse summary of its fiscal 2012 request to Congress for intelligence, the Office of Management and Budget wrote: “NIP’s budget is classified, so the President’s Budget does not publicly disclose funding requests for intelligence activities.” Not that Clapper will tell much more than that. In a press release, his office warns, “Any and all subsidiary information concerning the National Intelligence Program (NIP) budget,
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whether the information concerns particular intelligence agencies or particular intelligence programs, will not be disclosed.” You guessed why: “such disclosures could harm national security.” But don’t think that the whole budget for spycraft will be in the ballpark of $55 billion. With military intelligence added in, the total intelligence budget last year was $80.1 billion. In 2009, Clapper’s predecessor, Dennis Blair, inadvertently disclosed that the Military Intelligence Program, which had never been previously revealed, amounted to $47.5 billion in 2008. And Clapper wants control of that budget. Last year, the director said he’d
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reached “at least conceptual agreement” with Defense Secretary Robert Gates to move the NIP out of the Pentagon budget — something Aftergood praises as an honest accounting measure for defense cash. At a House hearing last week, Clapper told lawmakers that he understands “some belttightening” is probably in order for the intelligence community, as its budget has nearly doubled since 9/11. Disclosing the NIP budget request may be literally unprecedented. But for a cabinet official to concede that his budget is too big — now that’s really something that never happens.
CIA Reports No Progress in Classification Review February 14th, 2011 by Steven Aftergood
The Central Intelligence Agency has taken no action to carry out the Fundamental Classification Guidance Review, a mandatory effort to eliminate obsolete or unnecessary classification practices. The Fundamental Review is a systematic attempt to combat overclassification by subjecting thousands of current classification instructions to critical scrutiny and revision. It was required in President Obama’s December 2009 executive order 13526 (section 1.9), which came into effect in June 2010. “These reviews can be extremely important in changing the habits and the practices of classifiers throughout government,” said William H. Leary of the National Security Staff last year. But that will be true only if the required reviews are actually implemented. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request for CIA records on its implementation of the review process thus far, CIA reported last week (pdf) that “We did not locate any records responsive to your request.” This does not necessarily imply that the CIA is being insubordinate or that the Fundamental Review will not eventually be performed there, an Administration official said, noting that agencies were given two years — until June 2012 — to complete the Review process. The CIA’s latest statement “means
only that they have not done anything to date,” the official said. “There are a ton of things that agencies have to do that did not come with a two-year implementation window.” Nevertheless, it is not very encouraging to see that the CIA, which is one of the government’s most prolific classifiers, evidently does not consider the Fundamental Review to be a matter of urgency and a high priority. Its lethargy is in contrast with the energetic response of the Department of Energy, which developed a detailed workplan last November to implement the Review. (See “A Bumpy Start for Fundamental Classification Review,” Secrecy News, January 18, 2011.) The Department of Homeland Security began its Fundamental Review even earlier, in July, according to internal DHS correspondence (pdf) also released under FOIA. Reducing government reliance on secrecy is an appropriate response to current technological and political realities, according to a report released by the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Law and National Security (“No More Secrets: National Security Strategies for a Transparent World,” January 2011). It would also reduce the nation’s growing susceptibility to
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unauthorized disclosures, and would therefore enhance national security. “The report recommends that the government operate with fewer secrets to gain a significant advantage over those who ‘continue to cling to traditional notions of indefinite information monopoly’.”
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The ABA report did not present an actionable plan that agencies could adopt to reduce the number of national security secrets they keep. But that is what the Fundamental Classification Guidance Review was intended to provide. The Review’s success — or its failure — will determine, for better or worse, the feasibility of reversing the growth of national security secrecy.
CIA neither confirms nor denies pension fund shortfall CIARDS has an unfunded liability of $6.4 billion Tim Inklebarger February 21, 2011
The Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System could go bankrupt by the end of 2012 without an appropriation of $513.7 million, according to a request in the 2012 federal budget. “Independent actuarial projections show the CIARDS fund going bankrupt by the end of 2012 with an unfunded liability of $6.4 billion,” according to the funding request. The requested funds reflect the amortized cost of recapitalizing the system over 20 years, according to the budget request. The system received $291 million in fiscal year
2010, which ended Sept. 30, according to the budget request. Information for fiscal year 2011 was not immediately available. The size of the system's assets and liabilities were not immediately available. CIA spokesman Preston Golson declined to reveal the size of the assets or liabilities of the pension plan, or the location of the fund. “The CIA cannot address your specific questions because details associated with the CIARDS budget are classified,” Mr. Golson said in an e-mailed response to questions.
Senate confirms O'Sullivan as ODNI deputy Federal News Radio; February 18, 2011
The Senate confirmed Stephanie O'Sullivan to the second highest position in the intelligence community as principle deputy to the Director of National Intelligence. She reports to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. O'Sullivan's duties include maintaining a uniformity of information across all 16 agencies in the intelligence community. "Ms. O'Sullivan has led the community's most aggressive efforts to date to harness technology to keep
Americans safe at home and abroad. Her efforts have created better systems and capabilities to collect and analyze intelligence worldwide, while at the same time streamlining how the community purchases the equipment necessary to do its job," said Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) in a release Friday. She replaces David Gompert, who left the position in August. O'Sullivan is the former associate deputy director at the CIA and has served there since 1995.
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U.S. officials: Raymond Davis, accused in Pakistan shootings, worked for CIA Washington Post February 22, 2011
The American who fatally shot two men in Pakistan last month and who has been described publicly as a diplomat is a security contractor for the CIA who was part of a secret agency team operating out of a safe house in Lahore, U.S. officials said. The contractor, Raymond A. Davis, 36, has been detained in a Pakistani jail since his arrest. He has said that he opened fire on two Pakistani men after they tried to rob him at a traffic signal in Lahore. The disclosure compounds an already combustible standoff between the United States and Pakistan at a time of growing distrust between the two countries and complicates U.S. efforts to win Davis's release. President Obama and other senior administration officials have repeatedly described Davis as a diplomat who was assigned to the U.S. Consulate General in Lahore and have said he is entitled to immunity from prosecution in Pakistan. But, in fact, Davis has spent much of the past two years working as part of a group of covert CIA operatives, whose mission appears to have centered on conducting surveillance of militant groups in large cities, including Lahore. At the time of his arrest, Davis was based at a house with five other CIA contractors as well as an agency employee, a U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The official said the impact of the disclosure that Davis is a CIA contractor "will be serious. "I think it's going to make it a hell of a lot harder to get him out," the official said. "I think ISI knows what this guy is, but I think this is just going to inflame the Pakistanis." ISI is the acronym for Pakistan's spy service, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate. "Our security personnel around the world act in a support role providing security for American officials. They do not conduct foreign intelligence collection or covert operations. Any assertion to the contrary is flat wrong," said George Little, a spokesman for the CIA, without commenting specifically on Davis. The Washington Post learned of Davis's CIA affiliation after his arrest but agreed not to publish the information at the request of senior U.S. intelligence officials, who cited concern for Davis's safety if his true employment status were disclosed. Those officials withdrew the request Monday after other news organizations identified Davis as a CIA employee and after U.S. officials made a final attempt to prevail upon Pakistan's government to release Davis or move him to a safer facility. Even while shedding new light on the circumstances of Davis's detention, U.S. officials continued to provide scant information about his assignment. A former member of the U.S. Army Special Forces, Davis was hired as a contract employee of the CIA's Global Response Staff, a unit that is responsible for providing security for agency employees and facilities in other countries. Current and former U.S. officials said Davis had previously been employed by the sprawling security firm once known as Blackwater. A spokeswoman for the company, now known as Xe Services, did not respond to a request for comment. U.S. officials said that at the time of the shooting, Davis was doing what CIA employees refer to as "area familiarization," meaning basic surveillance designed to familiarize operatives with their surroundings. The work would help to explain a collection of items found in Davis's possession
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when he was arrested, including a camera, a small telescope, a first-aid kit, flashlights and a Glock semiautomatic pistol. Davis has testified that he was approached by two Pakistani men on a motorcycle and that they brandished a weapon in an apparent attempt to rob him. Pakistani authorities have threatened to charge Davis with murder and have released pages from police reports indicating that he fired at the backs of the men he killed even as they attempted to flee. A third Pakistani, a pedestrian, was fatally struck by a U.S. vehicle that apparently had been dispatched from the Lahore consulate to retrieve Davis. Officials in Pakistan said the government has known that Davis worked for the CIA and that the U.S. acknowledgment bolsters Islamabad's case that Davis was not a diplomat and, therefore, is not entitled to immunity. Davis's affiliation with the CIA was "one of the major reasons" for the complications surrounding the case, a senior Pakistani official said. The broader impact, the official said, will be in "adding to the public anger and anguish, and hence more pressure on authorities in Islamabad not to succumb to the American pressure to hand over Davis." State Department officials reiterated Monday that Davis was entitled to diplomatic immunity under the terms of the Vienna Convention, which has been ratified by Pakistan, the United States and most other countries. A senior official, asked whether diplomatic immunity applied to CIA employees posted abroad, said Davis's employer was not relevant. "Under international law, there are very few areas where the law is so clear," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in accordance with ground rules. The CIA and the ISI have cooperated extensively on counterterrorism operations. Pakistan has secretly authorized CIA drone strikes in the country's tribal belt, where al-Qaeda and other militant groups are based. The CIA has mainly relied on the ISI to carry out arrests of senior al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives, including Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Karachi and other major cities. But the murky mission of the team that included Davis suggests that the CIA has sought to expand its capabilities in Pakistan's urban areas, where high-ranking militants are thought to have taken refuge from the deadly toll of drone strikes. One U.S. official said Davis and the others working out of a Lahore safe house "were hooked up with JSOC," the U.S. military's Joint Special Operations Command, which has taken on an increasingly important role in intelligence-gathering missions in Pakistan. "There were five other contractors and a blue badger living in a safe house in Lahore," the official said, referring to the colored badges worn by CIA personnel. The CIA has provided leads and intelligence to ISI units that have made high-profile arrests. But that partnership might be strained if Davis's team were focused on militant groups with close ties to the ISI, including Lashkar-i-Taiba, a potent organization with deep support in Pakistan that is accused in the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai. CIA Director Leon Panetta testified last week that the CIA-ISI relationship is one of the "most complicated" he had encountered in decades of service in Washington. Earlier this year, U.S. officials accused the ISI of intentionally exposing the identity of the agency's top spy in Pakistan, forcing the CIA to recall the officer back to Washington.
Hiding Details of Dubious Deal, U.S. Invokes National Security NY Times 19 February 2011
WASHINGTON — For eight years, government officials turned to Dennis Montgomery, a California computer programmer, for eyepopping technology that he said could catch terrorists. Now, federal officials want nothing
to do with him and are going to extraordinary lengths to ensure that his dealings with Washington stay secret. The Justice Department, which in the last few months has gotten protective orders from
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two federal judges keeping details of the technology out of court, says it is guarding state secrets that would threaten national security if disclosed. But others involved in the case say that what the government is trying to avoid is public embarrassment over evidence that Mr. Montgomery bamboozled federal officials. A onetime biomedical technician with a penchant for gambling, Mr. Montgomery is at the center of a tale that features terrorism scares, secret White House briefings, backing from prominent Republicans, backdoor dealmaking and fantastic-sounding computer technology. Interviews with more than two dozen current and former officials and business associates and a review of documents show that Mr. Montgomery and his associates received more than $20 million in government contracts by claiming that software he had developed could help stop Al Qaeda’s next
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attack on the United States. But the technology appears to have been a hoax, and a series of government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the Air Force, repeatedly missed the warning signs, the records and interviews show. The software he patented — which he claimed, among other things, could find terrorist plots hidden in broadcasts of the Arab network Al Jazeera; identify terrorists from Predator drone videos; and detect noise from hostile submarines — prompted an international false alarm that led President George W. Bush to order airliners to turn around over the Atlantic Ocean in 2003. The software led to dead ends in connection with a 2006 terrorism plot in Britain. And they were used by counterterrorism officials to respond to a bogus Somali terrorism plot on the day of President Obama’s inauguration, according to previously undisclosed documents.
Trinidad & Tobago New spy agency soon Newsday, February 3 2011
An implementation committee to facilitate the merger of the Special Anti-Crime Unit (SAUTT), the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA) and the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) into one legal corporate body known as the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) will be put in place at the end of March. When the committee completes this exercise, the recommendations will be taken to Parliament for the NIA to become the legal corporate body. However, in order to facilitate the formation of the NIA, Parliament should abolish the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) and the Act that created this agency should be repealed and replaced by the National Intelligence Agency
Act, a Government source said yesterday. This body should be in place by September. This means hundreds of persons employed at the three agencies could be out of jobs because of the duplication taking place. According to the Government source, at the end of March 31, police and Defence Force officers who were seconded to SAUTT will be required to return to the service which they came from, while the foreign police officers’ contracts at SAUTT will be terminated. Newsday understands the headquarters for the NIA will be Riverside Plaza in Port-of-Spain, which now houses the SAUTT.
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Taiwan detains general in China spy case Benjamin Yeh – Wed Feb 9 2011 TAIPEI (AFP) – A Taiwanese general has been arrested over claims he spied for China, the defence ministry said Wednesday as it scrambled to limit the damage from what it called the worst espionage case in 50 years.Army Major General Lo Hsien-che was recruited by China while stationed in Thailand between 2002 and 2005 and was detained late last month, the ministry said in a statement. At the time of his arrest, the 51-year-old was head of the army's telecommunications and electronic information department, according to the statement. "This is definitely the worst Chinese communist espionage case in the past half century." It was not immediately clear how much harm Lo had caused Taiwan's military, but given the sensitive affairs he was in charge of, "it could be serious," the official added.
Some reportedly detail the Po Sheng (Broad Victory) system, a sophisticated command, control and communications network that Taiwan is purchasing from US defence contractor Lockheed Martin at a cost of Tw$46 billion ($1.6 billion). China is believed to be very interested in learning more about the project as it enables the Taiwanese military to get access to US intelligence systems, the China Times newspaper said. Other documents include the army's procurement of 30 Boeing-made Apache AH64D Longbow attack helicopters and the army's underground optical fibre network system, it said. The defence ministry has set up an ad hoc group in an effort to limit the possible damage, according to Lieutenant General Wang Ming-wo, acting director of the ministry's Political Warfare Bureau.
CIA Views China’s “Student Informant System” January 24th, 2011 by Steven Aftergood
The Chinese Communist Party employs a growing network of student informants who monitor political expression on university campuses and denounce professors and students for politically subversive or unconventional views, according to a recent report (pdf) from the Central Intelligence Agency. Established in 1989 after the Tienanmen Square protests, “the principal objective of the Student Informant System [SIS] is to ensure campus stability and to control the debate and discussion of politically sensitive
issues,” the CIA report said. “Students have had their scholarships revoked and their academic records penalized because of information provided by student informants that is sometimes highly subjective, such as facial expressions.” “The SIS employs traditional political spying and denunciation techniques, seeking to create a ‘white terror’ (bai se kong bu) environment on campus — in which students and teachers fear surveillance more than arrest — to achieve and maintain influence and control.”
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South Korea's spy chief made secret trip to U.S SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Yonhap)
South Korea's spy chief secretly visited the United States last week apparently for discussions on pending inter-Korean issues, a government source said Thursday. "I understand Won Sei-hoon, director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), made a trip to the U.S. last week," the source said. Won met with Leon Panetta, director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and other key officials during the visit, according to other sources here. The NIS chief is believed to have exchanged North Korea-related information with the U.S. officials. Some observers say the two may have discussed ways to arrange a new round of inter-Korean summit to break a deadlock in the cross-border ties. S. Korea's NIS head tender resignation over alleged spying on Indonesian envoys And a week later‌
South Korea's NIS head tender resignation over alleged spying on Indonesian envoys English.news.cn 2011-02-22
SEOUL, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- The head of South Korea's spy agency has expressed his will to step down amid allegations that intelligence officials broke into a hotel room of visiting Indonesian envoys last week, local media reported Tuesday. Won Se-hoon, director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) , has tendered his resignation to President Lee Myung-bak, but the president is unlikely to accept it in the near future, Seoul's Donga Ilbo newspaper reported citing an informed source in the government. Three unidentified South Koreans last week allegedly intruded into the hotel room of the Indonesian envoys in downtown Seoul and fled after being spotted by a member of the delegation. The intruders, claimed by local papers to be NIS officials, tried to steal laptops in the room. Despite the NIS's denial of involvement, Dong-a Ilbo said the agency will take disciplinary action on the three officials implicated in the incident and express regret to Indonesia, which has asked South Korea to look into the case.
New Zealand spy agency criticised over gaffe AFP Jan 27, 2011
WELLINGTON — New Zealand's spy agency failed to follow basic procedures when it gave top secret security clearance to a scientist who turned out to live in a fantasy world, Prime Minister John Key said Friday. Stephen Wilce resigned as head of New Zealand's defence science agency in September after it was revealed he had made
a series of false claims about his past, including serving as a helicopter pilot with Prince Andrew. Key on Friday released a report from public service watchdog the State Services Commission examining why New Zealand's Security Intelligence Service (SIS) did not
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detect any problems when Wilce was recruited in 2005. "The report finds the vetting process in respect of Mr. Wilce failed to follow basic procedures in the provision of a professional security service," Key said. Wilce served as chief of the Defence Technology Agency for five years, heading 80 staff and enjoying access to highly classified intelligence as he advised the military on science and technology issues. The British-born scientist quit after a television programme revealed he falsely claimed to be an ex-Marine combat veteran and an Olympic bobsledder who raced against the Jamaican team depicted in the 1993 film "Cool Runnings". Further inquiries by military investigators found he had told colleagues he was once a helicopter pilot who served with Prince Andrew, a spy with British intelligence and a
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special forces soldier who was on an IRA death list. Among numerous other fabrications, he also said he designed the guidance system for the Polaris missile system, was a member of the Welsh rugby union team and once had a career as a guitarist on the British folk music circuit. Wilce told the investigators he had been telling tall stories about himself since childhood. Key, who has previously played down the threat Wilce posed to national security, said SIS screening procedures had been tightened since 2005 and further work was being done to make them more efficient. "The State Services Commissioner has said further action needs to be taken to demonstrate confidence in the vetting system, and he will report back to me in the first half of this year," he said.
NZ: Manawatu spy base to cut jobs Stuff: 09/02/2011
One of two national security spy stations is axing jobs, but there are no plans to shut down the Manawatu base. The Government Communications Security Bureau spy station, near Ohakea Air Force base, yesterday confirmed it would cut 10 to 12 jobs by June this year. The spy bases intercept foreign
communications. The Tangimoana base specialises in eavesdropping on highfrequency radio communications from ships and land-based telephones. He said the job losses were part of the Government's restructuring of services to improve value for money and efficiency.
On a lighter note…. British Border Agent Fired for Putting Wife on Terrorist Watch List Wired.com February 2011
A UK border agent lost his job after authorities discovered he’d placed his wife on a terrorist watch list in an attempt to rid himself of her. The woman was left stranded in Pakistan for three years because she was unable to fly back to the UK after visiting relatives, according to the Daily Mail. The agent’s act was only detected after he applied for a promotion, and a background
check revealed that his wife was on the watch list. He was reportedly sacked for “gross misconduct.” The unidentified agent worked at the UK Border Agency’s headquarters in South London. He worked with a unit that was responsible for maintaining the watch list. His promotion would have given him an even higher security clearance.
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