SA Intelligencer 15 April-6 May 2011 Click on titles below to access the articles
Page 2 CIA Chief Breaks Silence: Pakistan Would Have Jeopardized bin Laden Raid, ‘Impressive’ Intel Captured Pakistan’s reaction: world's spy agencies 'should share blame' Osama bin Laden death: Afghanistan 'had Abbottabad lead four years ago' New DOD and CIA appointments signal shift in military thinking Four tasks for Petraeus to fix the CIA What Obama seeks in a new FBI director CIA losing intel war to private sector Annual Secrecy Costs Now Exceed $10 Billion CIA writes new chapter in information sharing AFRICA Page 10 South Africa intelligence minister's wife found guilty of drug trafficking Military chiefs of Sahelian-Saharan countries strategise against Al-Qaeda An Iranian Intelligence Failure: Arms Ship in Nigeria Reveals Iran's Penetration of West Africa Uganda: 500 DISOs end human rights course Zimbabwe: International think-tank says army, police and security agencies are perpetuating violence in Zimbabwe Mali: Intelligence course fosters cooperation among West African neighbors ASIA Page 13 India: Top Tibetan monk denies Chinese 'spy' tag Iran: Spy Chief vs President: hot showdown puts government in deep freeze Taiwan: Military officer gets life for spying for China India/Burma: Chief of India’s foreign intelligence agency visits Naypyitaw Indonesia: Secret Report Reveals How BIN Misread Threat to Ahmadiyah Philippines: Audit commission dips fingers into AFP intelligence fund Taiwan: Intelligence chief under fire over questionable travel expenses Pakistan: ISI chief reaches Turkey, made covert visit to France MIDDLE EAST Page 18 CIA’s Panetta Held Secret Talks on Syria in Ankara, Sabah Says US slaps sanctions on Syrian intelligence agencies after bloodshed at protests Israel indicts Australian suspected of spying for Hamas EUROPE Page 20 FSB charges Russian who betrayed U.S. spy ring Russia violated rights of accused spy: European court Finland: New SUPO chief on terrorism and reform Finland: Annual report of the Security Intelligence Service Netherlands: Former Fighter Pilot Arrested for Divulging State Secrets Switzerland: Annual Report 2010 of the Intelligence Service of the Confederation Germany: CIA Part of Investigation of 'Düsseldorf Cell' Germany: Alleged terrorists claim police spy was in charge of their operations UK: Cryptome publishes new list of MI6 members posted internationally EU intelligence bureau sent officers to Libya Italian secret service expects migrant wave OCEANIA Page 26 Australia releases cloud computing guide Australia: Osama bin Laden death won't change security budget SOUTH AMERICA Page 28 Colombia’s Financial Intelligence Director to Await Trial in Relative Freedom Colombia to issue international arrest warrant for former spy chief' CARIBBEAN Page 29 Trinidad & Tobago: Scandal at regional 'spy' agency Trinidad & Tobago: Sandy: No intelligence breakdown ON A LIGHTER NOTE Page 30 MI5 to outsource surveillance to Google Spymasters Flash Their Green Bona Fides US
6 May 2011
Number 87
Editor: Dalene Duvenage Contributions and enquiries dalene@4knowledge.co.za
From the editor Wow! What a week of developments where intelligence played the determining factor in success! The challenge for a publication such as this is to get the gold nuggets among the millions of media reports which might be important for our readers: intelligence and professionals, decision-makers academia. We focus on issues pertaining to tradecraft, developments, political challenges, espionage and intelligence priorities that assist us in environmental awareness. 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 thousand 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 at the beginning of each report to access the original. Dalene Duvenage Pretoria, South Africa
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
Page 2
CIA Chief Breaks Silence: Pakistan Would Have Jeopardized bin Laden Raid, ‘Impressive’ Intel Captured Afghan Voice Agency(AVA),International Service; 4 May 2011 (Ed: excerpted and own sub headings added)
Going at it alone In his first interview since commanding the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, CIA chief Leon Panetta tells TIME that U.S. officials feared that Pakistan could have undermined the operation by leaking word to its targets. Long before Panetta ordered Vice Admiral William McRaven, head of the Joint Special Forces Command, to undertake the mission at 1:22 p.m. on Friday, the CIA had been gaming out how to structure the raid. Months prior, the U.S. had considered expanding the assault to include coordination with other countries, notably Pakistan. But the CIA ruled out participating with its nominal South Asian ally early on because “it was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission. They might alert the targets,” Panetta says. CIA options The U.S. also considered running a highaltitude bombing raid from B-2 bombers or launching a “direct shot” with cruise missiles but ruled out those options because of the possibility of “too much collateral,” Panetta says. The direct-shot option was still on the table as late as last Thursday as the CIA and then the White House grappled with how much risk to take on the mission. Waiting for more intelligence also remained a possibility.
Intelligence and decision-making On Tuesday, Panetta assembled a group of 15 aides to assess the credibility of the intelligence they had collected on the compound in Abbottabad where they believed bin Laden was hiding. They had significant “circumstantial evidence” that bin Laden was living there, Panetta says — the residents burned their trash and had extraordinary security measures — but American satellites had not been able to photograph bin Laden or any members of his family. The Tuesday meeting included team leaders from the CIA’s counterterrorism center, the special-activities division (which runs covert operations for the agency) and officials from the office of South Asian analysis. Panetta wanted to get those aides’ opinions on the potential bin Laden mission, and he quickly found a lack of unanimity among his team. But Panetta concluded that the evidence was strong enough to risk the raid, despite the fact that his aides were only 60%-80% confident that bin Laden was there, and decided to make his case to the President. At the key Thursday meeting in which President Obama heard the arguments from his top aides on whether or not to go into Pakistan to kill or capture bin Laden, Panetta admitted that the evidence of bin Laden’s presence at the compound was circumstantial. But “when
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
you put it all together,” Panetta says he told the room, “we have the best evidence since [the 2001 battle of] Tora Bora [where bin Laden was last seen], and that then makes it clear that we have an obligation to act.” You would never have enough intel Obama decided that Panetta’s arguments trumped two other options: striking the compound remotely or waiting until more evidence was available to prove bin Laden was there. “If I thought delaying this could in fact produce better intelligence, that would be one thing,” Panetta says he argued, “but because of the nature of the security at the compound, we’re probably at a point where we’ve got the best intelligence we can get.” The role of GEOINT For weeks, Panetta had been pushing the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to try to get photographic confirmation of the presence of the bin Laden family. “NGA was terrific at doing analysis on imagery of that compound,” he says, but “I kept struggling to say, ‘Can’t you at least try to get one of the people that looks like [bin Laden]?’ ” NGA produced photographs of the two couriers and their families that McRaven’s Navy Seal team used to identify players in the compound as they made their way toward bin Laden. Utilizing analysis techniques (Ed: this is from another source) Intelligence analysts concluded that this compound was custom built to hide someone of significance. We soon learned that more people were living at the compound than the two brothers and their families. A third family lived there — one whose size and whose makeup matched the bin Laden family members that we believed most likely to be with Osama bin Laden. Our best assessment, based on a large body of reporting from multiple sources, was that bin Laden was living there with several family members, including his youngest wife.
Page 3
Our analysts looked at this from every angle, considering carefully who other than bin Laden could be at the compound. We conducted red team exercises and other forms of alternative analysis to check our work. No other candidate fit the bill as well as bin Laden did. So the final conclusion, from an intelligence standpoint, was twofold. We had high confidence that a high-value target was being harbored by the brothers on the compound, and we assessed that there was a strong probability that that person was Osama bin Laden. It’s a GO! Panetta only learned that the President had been convinced by his arguments on Friday, when Obama said he was authorizing the helicopter mission and made his order official in a signed letter. After he received the order, Panetta told McRaven of the President’s decision and instructed him to launch. He told him the mission was “to go in there [and] get bin Laden, and if bin Laden isn’t there, get the hell out!” CIA officials turned a windowless seventh-floor conference room at Langley into a command center for the mission, and Panetta watched the operation unfold from there. As he and his team waited for McRaven to report on whether bin Laden was indeed at the compound, Panetta says the room was tense. “I kept asking Bill McRaven, ‘O.K., what the hell’s this mean?,’ ” and when McRaven finally said they had ID’d “Geronimo,” the mission code name for bin Laden, “All the air we were holding came out,” Panetta says. When the helicopters left the compound 15 minutes later, the room broke into applause. The intel booty and its strategic significance The aftermath of the mission has been productive. The U.S. collected an “impressive amount” of material from bin Laden’s compound, including computers and other electronics, Panetta says. Panetta has set up a task force to act on the fresh intelligence.
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
Intelligence reporting suggests that one of bin Laden’s wives who survived the attack has said the family had been living at the compound since 2005, a source tells TIME. That will raise questions about the Pakistani government’s possible awareness of bin Laden’s location in recent years. But one of Panetta’s predecessors says this can work to
Page 4
U.S. advantage. “It opens up some opportunities for us with Pakistan,” says John McLaughlin, former deputy CIA chief. “They now should feel under some great pressure to be cooperative with us on the remaining issues,” like going after the Taliban elsewhere in the country. “It’s called leverage.”
Pakistan’s reaction: world's spy agencies 'should share blame' The Telegraph; 04 May 2011
Spy agencies around the world should share the blame for Pakistan’s failure to capture Osama bin Laden, according to the country's prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. "Certainly, we have intelligence failure of the rest of the world including the United States," Mr Gilani said, where he was meeting with business leaders. "There is intelligence failure of the whole world, not Pakistan alone."
Osama bin Laden death: Afghanistan 'had Abbottabad lead four years ago' Guardian.co.uk; 5 May 2011 (ed: excerpted)
Agents working for the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the country's intelligence service, worked out that the world's most wanted man must be inside Pakistan proper, rather than the semi-autonomous tribal areas, as early in 2004, Amrullah Saleh told the Guardian. He said they believed Bin Laden must be there based on "thousands of interrogation reports" and the assumption that Osama – "a millionaire with multiple wives and no background of toughness" – would not be living in a tent. Their intelligence became more precise in 2007 when they believed he was hiding in Manshera, a town a short distance from Abbottabad where the NDS had identified two al-Qaida safe houses. But the former spy chief said that Pervez Musharraf, then president of Pakistan, was outraged at the suggestion that Bin Laden was hiding in such a prominent part of the country.
In a meeting with Musharraf and Hamid Karzai the Pakistani president became furious and smashed his fist down on the table. "He said, 'Am I the president of the Republic of Banana?'" Saleh recalled. "Then he turned to President Karzai and said, 'Why have you have brought this Panjshiri guy to teach me intelligence?'" He said Karzai had to intervene as Musharraf got increasingly angry and began to physically threaten Saleh. Afghanistan's former top spy also said he had no doubts that Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban movement, was hiding in a safe house owned by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani spy agency, in the city of Karachi. "He is protected by ISI, General Pasha [Lieutenant-General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, director-general of the ISI] knows as I am talking to you where is Mullah Omar and he keeps daily briefs from his officers about the location of senior Taliban leaders, simple," he said.
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
Page 5
New DOD and CIA appointments signal shift in military thinking Homeland Security Newswire; 3 May 2011 (ed: excerpted)
Henry A. Crumpton, a long-time CIA officer In appointing General David Petraeus as the and the State Department’s former top next director of the CIA and Leon Panetta as counterterrorism official, warned of the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates's dangers of the “militarization of intelligence” replacement, President Obama is helping to with more former military officers taking solidify the increasingly intertwined roles of leadership roles in the CIA. the two departments; in recent years, the CIA has become more of a tactical agency While Crumpton believes that General frequently engaging in kinetic operations with Petraeus is “one of the most sophisticated its predator drone program above the skies of consumers of intelligence,” he cautioned that Pakistan, while the military officers Defense Department bring a different has stepped up its own perspective on intelligence operations; intelligence observers note that the operations than increasing muddying of their the two organizations is civilian counterpar part of a shift in ts. thinking on combat “If the intelligence operations and community is Gates, Pres Obama, Panetta and Petraeus intelligence needs in populated by the post 9/11 world; military officers, they understandably are critics of this trend say that this may reduce going to reflect their experiences,” each agency's operational effectiveness. Crumpton said. According to the New York Times, under Leon On the other side, officials at the Defense Panetta’s tenure as the head of the CIA, the Department worry that with more troops agency has established a strong presence in engaging in intelligence gathering they are Afghanistan operating out of remote forward more at risk of being thrown in jail and operating bases, secret stations, and denied protections under the Geneva deploying covert agents across the country. Convention when captured in the field. Meanwhile, as the head of U.S. Central President Obama’s decision is the Command, General Petraeus has pushed the continuation of a broader trend as Secretary military further into intelligence, often Gates, who was first appointed by President sending Special Operations forces and private George W. Bush in 2006, was the director of security contractors to conduct the CIA from 1991 to 1993. intelligence missions. Before that, Secretary of Defense Donald Critics of this trend say that the lines between Rumsfeld worked to actively bolster the American intelligence and defense agencies Pentagon’s intelligence gathering capabilities have become blurred limiting transparency so that it would have to rely less on the CIA. and reducing operational effectiveness. Observers note that the increasing muddying Members of the CIA have objected to the of the two organizations is part of a shift in increasing devotion of their agency’s thinking on combat operations and resources to the bombing campaign in intelligence needs in the post 9/11 world. Pakistan believing that it is not part of the Senior officials at both the Pentagon and the CIA’s core mission and that it has become an CIA believe that combating violent extremism extension of the Defense Department. and fighting today’s current wars is best
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
served by quality intelligence rather than raw firepower. Senator Jack Reed (D –Rhode Island), a former Army officer and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, explains
Page 6
that in recent years “in the field, there is a blurring of the mission.” “Military operations can buy time to build up local security forces, but intelligence is the key to operations and for anticipating your adversary,” he said.
Four tasks for Petraeus to fix the CIA Paul Miller, Foreign Policy Thursday, May 5, 2011 (ed: excerpted)
Appointing Gen. David Petraeus to be Analysts can and should be open and regular Director of the Central Intelligence Agency participants in the world of academia, think might make good politics for Obama -tanks, and conferences, encouraged to bottling Petraeus up in a strictly non-partisan publish and speak on their areas of expertise. position -- and may or may not be a good Their writing may actually have a larger move for Petraeus, depending on his future impact if they focus less on the PDB and more ambitions. My interest is more prosaic: would on the broader foreign policy establishment, the move be good for the CIA? which is where policy is shaped in broad Possibly. Petraeus is not just smart: he is outline before it makes it to the President. Petraeus might even experiment with having capable of challenging groupthink, which is the DI publish a regular, unclassified product. exactly what the CIA needs. If Petraeus is It's not like we keep ready to rewrite the book on our classified intelligence the way he did, documents secret not just for counterinsurgency anyway. doctrine, but for the Army's culture as a whole, he could Get the National do wonders for the CIA. But if Clandestine Petraeus lets himself go Service (NCS, or, native or surrounds himself by to any selfthe intelligence respecting establishment, he'll just keep intelligence the chair warm for the next and Petraeus professional, the Director. DO) to report gray Here are a few things Petraeus should tackle. information The operations officers of the clandestine Get the analysts out of the shadows. service are an invaluable tool of national The Directorate of Intelligence (DI) has the security by collecting human intelligence. In capability of being a leading foreign affairs non-spy lingo, that means they persuade think tank in the world. Instead, it has largely foreigners to sell secrets. However, they focus limited itself to being a massive, overpriced, exclusively on secrets. The service vets its secretive magazine staff for a readership of reports to ensure that it is onlyreporting one, pouring most of its resources in to the information that is sufficiently "clandestine." President's Daily Brief (PDB). Analysts live That is understandable: the NCS wants to under a maze of restrictions that bar them ensure it is not duplicating the media or the from public activities, ostensibly to protect State Department. However, the division their objectivity and credibility. The between "open" information reported by the restrictions are silly. Instead of enhancing media and the State Department, and their credibility, the restrictions just isolate "secret" information reported by the NCS, is them and make contact with other experts in artificial. There is also gray information, stuff their field difficult, awkward, and sporadic.
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
Page 7
that is important, not strictly a secret, but also very hard to get. Tribal dynamics, for example, are not "secrets" but they are rarely reported with much detail or accuracy by anybody. In war zones and failed states, NCS officers are often the only people well-placed to observe and report this kind of information. They should be encouraged to do so, but that would require a profound cultural and institutional shift in what the NCS understands its mission to be. Draw down the counterterrorism surge A huge proportion of the intelligence community's assets were rightly diverted to tracking terrorists after 2001. But terrorism is unlikely to be the U.S.'s principle foreign policy challenge in coming decades. The principle challenges probably will include, at one pole, China and Russia, and, at the other pole, widespread state failure and anarchy in much of the world. Islamism, of the political, radical, extremist, or violent variety (pick your modifier), may also be a long-term challenge. But that is a broader challenge than al-
Qaida's terrorist campaign and includes political, diplomatic, and economic facets to it. My sense is that we should rebalance the allocation of our resources away from CT and towards these broader challenges. Our heavy focus on counterterrorism is too narrow. Tackle clientitis Analysts and operatives can, on occasion, go native. They start to see the world through the perspective of the foreign country (Pakistan, to take a completely random example) on which they spend their careers. This destroys their objectivity and undermines their usefulness to U.S. policymakers. The solution is not simply to rotate personnel to different countries every few years, because that erodes their depth and expertise. We need to encourage depth without sacrificing perspective. Petraeus should form a cross-directorate task force to study the problem, develop ways to identify and track clientitis, and find ways to prevent or cure it.
What Obama seeks in a new FBI director Charlie Savage / New York Times News Service;: May 01. 2011
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, having settled on his choices for the next leaders of the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, is now turning toward filling a third major national security position: director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Robert Mueller, who became the FBI director just a week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will complete his 10-year term on Sept. 4, having led the in-progress effort to transform the bureau into a domestic intelligence agency. A small team led by Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder has been evaluating potential successors and, according to officials familiar with the internal
deliberations, has reached certain views about the ideal candidate. In particular, officials said, the administration wants someone who shares the philosophy and has the management abilities to press forward with changing the bureau’s culture, so that agents focus less on solving already-completed crimes and more on uncovering potential threats — even at the expense of accumulating arrests and convictions. Possible contenders
They include James Comey, a former deputy attorney general; Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago; Raymond Kelly, the New York City police commissioner; Ronald Noble, a former enforcement head at the Treasury Department who now leads Interpol; and
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
Kenneth Wainstein, a former assistant attorney general for national security. Officials say the administration is also looking for someone who will be easily confirmed and who will be respected both inside the bureau and elsewhere in the intelligence community. Finally, they say, they want someone with the character to be a strong leader during a crisis and to maintain an appropriate level of independence, but who would keep a low political profile and focus on operational matters while deferring to the White House
Page 8
and the Justice Department when it comes to making policy. Holder said the administration wanted to have the next director in place by the time Mueller is required to step down. He hinted that a nomination could come as early as May, though other officials cautioned that later was more likely. The Senate has been slow to vote on Justice Department nominees lately; by contrast, in 2001, the Senate confirmed Mueller less than a month after his nomination. It is not clear whether there is a front-runner for the job.
CIA losing intel war to private sector The Washington Post; April 14. 2011 (Ed: excerpted)
In the decade since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, private intelligence firms and security consultants have peeled away veterans from the top reaches of the CIA, hiring scores of longtime officers in large part to gain access to the burgeoning world of intelligence contracting. More than 90 of the agency’s upper-level managers have left for the private sector in the past 10 years, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. In addition to three directors, the CIA has lost four of its deputy directors for operations, three directors of its counterterrorism center and all five of the division chiefs who were in place the day of the Sept. 11 attacks and responsible for monitoring terrorism and instability across the world. But the wave of departures from the CIA has marked an end to a decades-old culture of discretion and restraint in which retired officers, by and large, stayed out of the intelligence business. It has also raised questions about the impact of the losses incurred by the agency. Veteran officers leave with a wealth of institutional knowledge, extensive personal contacts and an understanding of world affairs afforded
only to those working at the nation’s preeminent repository of intelligence. The exodus into the private sector has been driven by an explosion in intelligence contracting. As part of its Top Secret America investigation, The Washington Post estimated that out of 854,000 people with top-secret clearances, 265,000 are contractors. Thirty percent of the workforce in the intelligence agencies is made up of contractors. Those contractors do everything from assessing security risks to analyzing intelligence to providing “risk mitigation” services in foreign countries. For private firms seeking to tap into the lucrative industry of intelligence contracting, the value of having agency officers on the payroll is hard to overstate. And although the agency pays its top managers large sums — the most senior officers make nearly $180,000 annually — private firms are generally able to pay more. The Post compiled its list of more than 90 upper-level managers by identifying agency personnel who left for the private sector after serving as directors, deputy directors or
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
chiefs of the CIA’s various divisions, as well as other members of the leadership of the Directorate of Operations, now known as the National Clandestine Service. At the agency, Director Leon Panetta has helped slow the hemorrhaging of talent. But this year he has seen his top three leaders leave the agency. Collectively, they represented more than 75 years of institutional knowledge and operations talent.One former official said the loss of so many insiders has taken a toll on those connected to the agency.
Page 9
“Honestly, it’s painful to see, and it’s not in the national interest to see so many men and women at the peak of their experience walk out of the agency at the age of 52 or 53,” the former official said. “The agency would be well served to implement stronger incentives to encourage people to stay.” “People tire of meetings,” Wallace said. “Eventually, they decide they want to jump to the private sector so they can be back on the street again — doing what they love.”
Annual Secrecy Costs Now Exceed $10 Billion Secrecy News; May 4th, 2011 by Steven Aftergood
The rise in national security secrecy in the first year of the Obama Administration was matched by a sharp increase in the financial costs of the classification system, according to a new report to the President (pdf). The estimated costs of the national security classification system grew by 15% last year to reach $10.17 billion, according to the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO). It was the first time that annual secrecy costs in government were reported to exceed $10 billion. An additional $1.25 billion was incurred within industry to protect classified information, for a grand total of $11.42 in classification-related costs, also a new record high. The cost estimates, based on the classification-related activities of 41 executive branch agencies, were reported to the
President by ISOO on April 29 and released yesterday. They include the estimated costs of personnel security (clearances), physical security, information systems security, as well as classification management and training — all of which increased last year. Many factors contribute to the rise in secrecy costs, but one of them is widespread overclassification. Ironically, the new ISOO report provides a vivid illustration of the overclassification problem. ISOO did not disclose security cost estimates for the large intelligence agencies — the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency, and the National Reconnaissance Office — because those costs are considered classified.
CIA writes new chapter in information sharing Defence Systems; By Terry Costlow; May 04, 2011 (Ed: excerpted)
The concept of information sharing by the CIA is considered an oxymoron by some, but the agency has become a leader in this area. The changes came after perceived failures related to 9/11 and the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction debacle.
The CIA responded to those lapses by establishing an online data-sharing environment, the Worldwide Intelligence Review (WIRe). The agency now makes all sorts of data available to more than 100,000 authorized users, Geoffrey Fowler, director and
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
managing editor of WIRe, said May 4 at the Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems (DODIIS) conference in Detroit. “Our business is about information sharing. We’ve become a leader in information sharing. What good is a piece of data if the right people can’t use it to make an informed decision? If we share too little information, people make uninformed decisions and someone can die,” Fowler said. One key focus for WIRe is to let users find data that they might not know exists. That has to be balanced with the need for security. Those opposing challenges are resolved by showing users names and headlines for
Page 10
reports, articles and other files, along with information on their security level. Sometimes users will see nothing more than an article number, other times they may see the first page of a document based on their security level. Another major focal point is to provide links to other files that may help WIRe users connect the dots and make good decisions. “Knowledge is no longer seen as discrete; each piece is presented in context. We provide relationships we’ve discovered between files, and users can create tagging structures or other links that we didn’t make,” Fowler said.
South Africa intelligence minister's wife found guilty of drug trafficking Global Post; May 5, 2011
Sheryl Cwele, wife of South Africa’s intelligence minister, has been convicted and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment ofdrug trafficking for recruiting young women to smuggle drugs into the country. Cwele, who is married to minister Siyabonga Cwele in charge of state security, recruited women to act as drug mules in order to smuggle cocaine into South Africa from Turkey and South America, a judge found. Siyabonga Cwele has previously said that he had no knowledge of
his wife’s drug dealing, and he did not attend court for the verdict. But his wife’s conviction has fueled calls from opposition politicians for his resignation, and sparked questions about whether she took advantage of his position in government. Critics have said that if Cwele was unaware of his wife’s drug smuggling, then he should not be in charge of the country's security and intelligence operations, Reuters reports.
Military chiefs of Sahelian-Saharan countries strategise against Al-Qaeda Pana 01/05/2011
The Chiefs of Staff of the armed forces of Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger met on Friday in the Malian capital, Bamako, to strategise on stepping up the fight against AlQaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQMI), which is very active in the Sahelian-Saharan strip, an official source told PANA in Bamako. The meeting was aimed primarily at curbing the
risks of destabilisation of the SahelianSaharan strip following the raging political crisis in Libya. Rebels in Libya took up arms against the government and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is leading a western bombardment of the country to enforce a UN resolution of a no-fly zone. The Sahelian-Saharan strip has recently seen
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
an upsurge of terrorism, drug trafficking, criminality of all kinds and insecurity, exacerbated by the presence of AQMI in the area.
Page 11
Their activities are marked by abductions, particularly of Westerners, which have hit tourism in Mali and Niger.
An Iranian Intelligence Failure: Arms Ship in Nigeria Reveals Iran's Penetration of West Africa Jerusalem Issue Briefs, Jacques Neriah; 7 April 2011 (Ed: excerpted)
Since the Khomeini revolution, Iran has invested heavily in strengthening its diplomatic, economic, and security ties with Western African countries, especially with Senegal, Mauritania, Gambia, and Nigeria. Traditionally, Senegal had been a Sunni Muslim nation from the Sufi tradition. But in the wake of Senegal's openness toward Iran, scores of Shiite clergy from Lebanon entered the country to spread Shiism. President Wade even allowed the establishment of a Persian-language school at Senegal University in 2003 and a Shiite hawza (traditional Islamic seminary) at the University of Dakar. In Nigeria, more than half of the population practices Islam. During his last visit to Nigeria in July 2009, Iranian President Ahmadinejad met with Nigerian ulema (Muslim religious scholars), and welcoming crowds in the streets of the capital, Abuja, cheered his convoy. A weapons ship departed from the Iranian port
of Bandar-Abbas and arrived in the Apapa port of Lagos, Nigeria, in July 2010. On October 26, 2010, the shipping containers were opened and the weapons were discovered. Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki was then sent to Nigeria, where he told authorities there had been a mistake and that the weapons' destination was actually Gambia. Senegal has accused Gambia of providing arms for anti-government forces, especially for the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance in South Senegal. Sayyed Akbar Tabatabaei, the Africa commander of the Quds Force (the branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards charged with exporting the revolution overseas), found refuge on Mottaki's plane and flew with him to Iran. On February 23, 2011, Senegal cut diplomatic ties with Iran. The whole affair was a failure on the part of Iranian intelligence.
Uganda: 500 DISOs end human rights course New Vision, 1st May, 2011 (Ed: excerpted)
Five hundred (500) District Internal Security Organisation (DISO) officers have completed a two-day training in human rights protection and promotion. The ISO director general, Col. Ronnie Bariya, said in a speech read by the deputy director of political affairs, Maj. Charles Ndawula, that officers who violate human rights would be harshly punished. “We should desist from violating people’s rights. We should not arrest and detain
anyone so that we have zero cases of human rights violation. Let’s collect all cases of human rights violation at sub-county levels and pass them over to the human rights commission,” Ndawula advised. The Uganda Human Rights Commission director of research, education and documentation, Dorah Kabuye, said although DISOs were not notorious human rights violators, they had to be trained to nurture respect for human rights.
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
“We want cases of human rights violations against ISO to reduce to zero from 11 in 2009 and seven in 2008,� Kabuye stated. The northern regional Internal Security
Page 12
Organisation chief, Charles Tummusime, said there was need to partner with the human rights commission to improve the observation of human rights in Uganda.
Zimbabwe: International think-tank says army, police and security agencies are perpetuating violence in Zimbabwe Times Live; Apr 29, 2011 (Ed; excerpted)
International Crisis Group, the Brussels-based think-tank on current global affairs, says Zimbabwe needs urgent security sector reform to create a conducive environment for free and fair elections. In an incisive report titled "Zimbabwe: The Road to Reform or Another Dead End", released this week, ICG says there is a critical need for reform within security sector to ensure the army, police and intelligence services adopt professional ethics in their administration and operations. ICG
says this has been made more urgent by the recurring political violence which has raised the spectre of assaults and killings during elections, as well as disputed election results and illegitimate governments. It also says the SA-Zimbabwe Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security must undertake an assessment of defence and security conditions in Zimbabwe and their related implications for South Africa.
Mali: Intelligence course fosters cooperation among West African neighbors http://www.army.mil; Apr 20, 2011 (Ed: excerpted)
Recently, U.S. Army Africa (USARAF) intelligence assets extended a helping hand to their African continent counterparts in Bamako, Mali. According to Maj. Kevin Cahill, of USARAF Intelligence Security Cooperation section, 18 students from various African nations took part in a Military Intelligence Professional Course (MIPC) recently. The six-week course was conducted in French and English. Among the 18 students were two U.S. Soldiers who are working for U.S Africa Command. Cahill said the MIPC is designed for senior military intelligence officers from Operation Enduring Freedom and African partnership nations such as Algeria, Mauritania, Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Felton Crawley represented USARAF and served as commandant to the MPIC. Crawley ensured that contractors delivered specified intelligence curriculum that covered a variety of intelligence subjects such as civilian oversight of intelligence, military intelligence in a democracy and disaster response. MPIC students also learned about the intelligence cycle, prepared briefings and produced intelligence-based projects. Cahill explained the importance of MPIC training for our African country counterparts. "One of the important objectives of this course was to generate regional camaraderie and collaboration," Cahill said. "Although challenging to coordinate, bringing these intelligence officers to get to know one another and develop a common understanding of intelligence," he said. This six-week course was the first of two such MPICs slated for this year.
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
Page 13
India: Top Tibetan monk denies Chinese 'spy' tag Penny MacRae (AFP) – 3 May 2011 (Ed: excerpted) The Karmapa Lama, one of Tibet's top Buddhist monks and widely seen as a potential spiritual successor to the Dalai Lama, spoke out Monday against allegations that he was a Chinese spy. "Let me categorically state that I am not a Chinese spy, agent or plant in India," the 26-year-old Karmapa, who fled Tibet in 1999 at the age of 14, told reporters in New Delhi in his first comments on the issue. Earlier this year, the Indian media, quoting unnamed security sources, reported concerns the Karmapa Lama could be a Chinese stooge sent to India to set up pro-Chinese monasteries. The allegations surfaced after authorities found more than $1 million in foreign cash, including Chinese yuan, stashed at the Gyuto monastery where the Karmapa lives. There is longstanding suspicion in India about Chinese interference in Indian affairs amid friction over a disputed frontier. The two countries fought a brief but bitter border war in 1962. The Karmapa lives in Dharamshala, the northern Indian hill town
that is the base of the Tibetan government-in-exile and home to the Dalai Lama. The Karmapa said he fled Tibet because he was concerned Beijing would force him to turn against the charismatic Dalai Lama, who has acted as a father-like figure for him in Dharamshala. The Tibetan is one of the most revered religious figures in his homeland and is seen as as having the highest profile of a cast of young lamas who might fill the void when the charismatic Dalai Lama, now 75, dies. The Karmapa's general secretary Karma Chungyalpa told the news conference the money found by police totalled 60 million rupees ($1.4 million) and were "offerings by devotees" from around the world and had been accumulated. Police raided the monastery in January after two men were stopped carrying a large sum of money they said belonged to one of its trustees. The Karmapa conceded there had been "financial mismanagement" but said he had trusted the administration of the funds to "lay workers."
Iran: Spy Chief vs President: hot showdown puts government in deep freeze AP, 30 April 2011 (Ed: excerpted)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s spy chief took his seat at a planned Cabinet meeting in Tehran and waited with the other ministers for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The embittered president never showed up. It was all another bit of political theater last week amid Iran’s current — and deeply complex — power plays between the increasing confident Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi and the suddenly defensive Ahmadinejad, who refuses to accept Moslehi and has boycotted Cabinet sessions despite an order from the country’s highest authority.
Political dustups are nothing new to Iran, where parliament bickers regularly and Ahmadinejad and the ruling clerics have traded tense moments. But few can match this one for its raw nerve and serious stakes, which reach into the highest levels of how Iran is ruled. In the balance is a host of big-ticket questions: Ahmadinejad’s political stature in his final two years in office, his ability to push back against growing challenges from parliament and other critics, and whether Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
Page 14
meanwhile, have seized the moment. A group seeking to exert more control as key ally Syria of lawmakers has revived a petition drive for faces an uprising. Ahmadinejad to be called before the chamber Ahmadinejad could hardly have picked a for questioning, giving his critics room to raise more potent adversary than Moslehi, who the extremely unlikely was restored to the — but still headline powerful intel post by snagging — scenario Khamenei just hours after of impeachment. resigning April 17 A group of 216 apparently under pressure lawmakers, more from Ahmadinejad. than two-third the The embarrassing slap has 290 members, issued invited speculation that a letter to Khamenei’s once-blanket Ahmadinejad urging support for Ahmadinejad him to call off his — particularly in the critical Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi / ©AP Cabinet boycott for months of chaos after his the good of the country, the Shargh disputed re-election in 2009 — could be now newspaper in Iran reported Saturday. fraying by his repeated attempts to push the “You are expected to follow the supreme limits of his powers. leader,” the lawmakers wrote. It also shows the importance the ruling clerics On Friday, a hard-line cleric used his place in the intelligence minister, who is nationally broadcast sermon to indirectly deeply involved in both Iran’s international warn Ahmadinejad that he would be moving policies and its domestic spy networks that into dangerous territory by escalating his are pillars of the regime’s control. challenges to Khamenei. A serious fall from Khamenei’s favor would “Obedience to the supreme leader is a undoubtedly leave Ahmadinejad’s clout religious obligation as well as a legal diminished as a lameduck leader and test the obligation, without any doubt,” said Ayatollah loyalty of his main supporters, including the Ahmad Khatami. He did not mention Revolutionary Guard that will have a central Ahmadinejad by name, but it was clear he role in picking the candidates for his was referring to the president. successor in 2013. Ahmadinejad’s opponents,
Taiwan: Military officer gets life for spying for China ROC Central News Agency; 28 April 2011
Colonel Lo Chi-cheng, who used to work at the Defense Ministry's Military Intelligence Bureau, was sentenced to life plus 27 years for spying for China, bribery and extortion. Lo Chi-cheng was given a life sentence for colluding with Lo Pin, a China-based Taiwanese businessman, to gather military intelligence for China, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a statement, citing the Military High Court verdict. Lo was also sentenced to 14-years in prison for taking bribes from Chinese authorities and was given an additional 13-year sentence for
using "false intelligence" fed by China to obtain monetary rewards from Taiwanese authorities, the MND said. A collegial panel of the Military High Court imposed a prison sentence of life plus 27 years on Lo Chi-cheng for all three crimes, the ministry said, adding that he can still appeal the verdict. Meanwhile, the Taiwan High Court sentenced Lo Pin to three and a half years in prison on Thursday for violating the National Intelligence Act. The court said in its verdict that Lo Pin was recruited by Lo Chi-cheng in 2003 to help obtain classified information
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
from China. From February 2004 to October 2005, Lo Pin made 10 visits to China to collect intelligence and was paid NT$50,000 (US$1,724.14) a month, according to the court verdict. He was later dropped as a spy in 2005 on suspicion that he had been exposed, and was given severance pay of over NT$870,000, the court said. Lo Pin was arrested by Chinese security authorities during a trip to the mainland in July 2006. Chinese officials asked him to "redeem himself through good service." In exchange for his own release, Lo Pin then made a deal to convince Lo Chi-cheng to spy for China. Tempted by China's incentives, Lo Chi-cheng began to work as a double agent. In the ensuing years, Lo Pin traveled to Hong Kong on many occasions to deliver intelligence
Page 15
reports leaked by Lo Chi-cheng and to give false intelligence to the latter. Lo Chi-cheng then used the information to obtain monetary rewards from Taiwan authorities. The court verdict said Lo Pin had received a total of US$39,700 plus HK$54,600 from Chinese agents for his service before he was caught exchanging intelligence with Lo Chicheng at Taipei Metro's Kunyang station last October. Lo Pin was taken into custody Nov. 1, 2010, pending investigations into his role in the espionage case. During the court hearings, Lo Pin confessed to the espionage crime and was released on NT$100,000 bail earlier this month. Lo Pin can also appeal his case, the high court said.
India/Burma: Chief of India’s foreign intelligence agency visits Naypyitaw Mizzima, 27 April 2011
S. K. Tripathi, the chief of Research and it was the first visit of a top intelligence Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s officer from India. S. K. Tripathi has foreign intelligence agency, visited been the RAW chief for two years. Naypyitaw on Monday, the stateAmong the Indian intelligence run newspaper New Light of agencies, RAW focuses mainly on Myanmar said on Wednesday. international affairs. It was formed Lieutenant General Hla Htay Win of after the poor performance of the Ministry of Defence met with India’s Intelligence Bureau in the S. K. Tripathi. There was no Sino-Indian war in 1962 and the statement about what was India-Pakistan war in 1965. On discussed. Also present at the Tuesday, the Indian Ambassador to meeting were Major General Kyaw Burma, Dr. Villur Sundararajan Swe, Major General Thura Thet Seshadri, met with Home Affairs RAW Chief S. K. Tripathi Swe and other top military officers. Minister Lieutenant General Ko Ko Although the relationship between and Agriculture and Irrigation India and Burma is friendly and diplomats Minister Myint Hlaing in Naypyitaw, from the two countries often visit each other, according to the newspaper.
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
Page 16
Indonesia: Secret Report Reveals How BIN Misread Threat to Ahmadiyah Jakarta Globe; Nivell Rayda; April 30, 2011(Ed: excerpted)
When the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front attacked demonstrators rallying in support of the embattled Ahmadiyah sect on June 1, 2008, many believed that fundamentalists would go to any length until they succeeded in ridding Indonesia of the minority Islamic group. Many more had predicted that the issuance of a joint ministerial decree (SKB) — which bans Ahmadis from practicing their faith in public and proselytizing — a week after the rally would not be enough to halt intimidation and discrimination against members of the sect. A secret document obtained by the Jakarta Globe, however, suggests there was one institution that believed otherwise: the State Intelligence Agency (BIN). A month after the June 2008 attack on the rally at the National Monument (Monas), BIN prepared a 180-page assessment on the expected implications of the decree. In the document, BIN claimed it had found no indications that persecution, torture or intimidation of the sect’s members would continue. “Concerns that there would be an escalation of violence following the enactment of the SKB, prove to be unfounded,” according to the preface of this document, written by Bambang Karsono, a BIN expert on social and cultural affairs. “In fact, members of Ahmadiyah, who have become ... targets of attacks, have so far been passive in response to the enactment. “The reaction [to the SKB] from the opponents of Ahmadiyah appears to be modest. Although they still demand the complete disbandment of Ahmadiyah, apparently they feel that the banning of its [Ahmadiyah’s] activities is enough,” the document continues. The same document, however, acknowledges the presence of hard-line groups that, according to BIN’s assessment, “have the potential to
use violence to deal with Ahmadiyah”. It then went on to identify the groups that might cause trouble: the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), the Islamic People’s Forum (FUI), the Indonesian Committee for Solidarity with the Islamic World (Kisdi), Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, Ittihadul Muballighin, the Indonesian Islamic Propagation Council (DDII) and the Islamic Union (Persis). ut BIN had focused its attention mainly on the expected reactions within Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, the country’s largest Islamic organizations, which have always chosen peaceful methods in voicing objections against the Ahmadiyah. “BIN’s suggestions on the implications of the SKB on Ahmadiyah are deeply flawed, because none of its predictions came true. The data is quite comprehensive so I assume the problem lies with the analysis,” Mufti added. “The document suggests that BIN naively underestimated the Islamist militant groups [in its analytical report]. Attacks on Ahmadiyah have steadily increased following the 2008 decree,” she told the Globe. BIN in its analysis assumed that mainstream Muslim groups would take any Ahmadiyah violations of the decree to the courts of law. But the intelligence agency underestimated the violent nature of hard-line groups. So far, the government has stopped short of disbanding Ahmadiyah altogether. The BIN document argues that Ahmadiyah met all of the formal requirements to legally exist. The BIN dossier also suggests the agency was concerned about Ahmadis members seeking asylum abroad, on the grounds of persecution. “This would be an international embarrassment. There is a need for diplomatic talks with countries presumed to be the destination of asylum seekers,” the document says.
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
Page 17
Philippines: Audit commission dips fingers into AFP intelligence fund Business World Online; April 27, 2011
Intelligence funds of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will now be subject to state audit, the Commission on Audit (CoA) chief yesterday said, setting aside a longestablished practice of keeping auditors at bay when it comes to accounting the budgetary item. "We are set to meet with AFP officials [yesterday afternoon] to discuss the audit of the intelligence funds," Maria Gracia PulidoTan, CoA chairperson, said in a press conference in Quezon City yesterday. The audit comes after the AFP voluntarily opened the funds to scrutiny. A Department of National Defense panel investigating alleged corruption in the military has recommended CoA review of the fund. Intelligence and confidential funds are not subject to regular audit requirements. Ms. Tan said she will personally lead an audit
team to ensure confidentiality. "We will keep this confidential. People of trust and confidence will be responsible for the audit," she said. She also commended the AFP "for coming out with expression of support. We hope other agencies will be like that. It will make our jobs easier. In a related development, House Bill 4127, or the proposed Intelligence and Confidential Funds Transparency Act, has been filed by Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro A. Casiùo, Jr. "Lack of audit on intelligence funds has rendered these funds open to the misuse and abuse of those who are charged with the utilization of these funds granted to numerous government agencies, usually the generals closest to the Commander-in-Chief," he said in the bill’s explanatory note.
Taiwan: Intelligence chief under fire over questionable travel expenses The China Post; April 21, 2011 (Ed: excerpted),
situation and order a private investigation on National Security Bureau (NSB) Directorwho may have leaked the evidence. General Tsai De-sheng and prosecutor Hsueh However, Hsueh's actions did not sit well with Wei-ping have separately come under fire; the former for questionable Lo Sung-fang, a former prosecutor-turned-director of travel expenses and the latter, for passing on the incriminating the NSB's Civil Service Ethics documents to the NSB instead Department, who reported his of reporting and investigating behavior to the Department of the lead. Ethics under the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), resulting in an The complicated case began last investigation targeting the December, when Hsueh NSB DG Tsai De-sheng prosecutor. allegedly received an After local media broke the news, the NSB anonymous lead accusing Tsai of abusing his position by making over 15 personal trips immediately conducted a press conference yesterday at Yangmingshan, with Tsai and Lo overseas and abusing the governmentstipulated daily travel expenses. Instead of both in attendance. Lo explained that as the NSB ethics director, it was his responsibility to investigating the lead, Hsueh was accused of privately handing the files to members of the his expose Hsueh's actions to the MOJ. A distressed-looking Tsai used the press NSB, allowing Tsai to catch wind of the
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
conference as an opportunity to refute the accusations. Tsai explained that when a document of unknown origin arrived, he could have ignored the accusations within and dismissed them as baseless. However, he was not aware that the act of passing on the document violated ethical laws, and handed the files to the ethics department for further investigation. No one
Page 18
has turned up as the suspect who leaked the information, Tsai said, adding that if the investigation proved to be unlawful, he would take full responsibility. Regarding the initial accusation of pocketing the travel expenses of supposedly “personal trips,” Tsai said every overseas trip he embarked on as NBS director-general had to have been approved by his superiors.
Pakistan: ISI chief reaches Turkey, made covert visit to France The News, Pakistan, 14 April 2011
terrorist networks that threaten both Inter Service Intelligence Chief Lt Gen Ahmed countries”. Sources told that during his stay in Shuja Pasha has reached Turkey on his way Turkey the DG ISI would also meet with his from US while he also made a secret visit to Turkish counterpart and would hold talks on France. Defence sources told Online that on promoting Pak-Turkey his way from US ISI Chief intelligence cooperation and made a stopover in Turkey situation in Afghanistan. Sources where he met President further said that after his US visit Asif Ali Zardari and briefed the ISI Chief made an him on his talks with US unscheduled secret visit to Intel CIA chief Leon France where he met with Panetta regarding national French defence and senior army security and drone attacks. officials. The talks focused in CIA Director Leon Panetta intelligence operations and and the ISI chief Lt Gen movement of terrorists. ISI Chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha Ahmed Shuja Pasha had a According to sources DG ISI had four-hour long meeting on apprised the Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Monday at the agency`s headquarters at Pervez Kayani of details of his visits. Langley during which Both sides agreed also to work closely “on our common fight against
CIA’s Panetta Held Secret Talks on Syria in Ankara, Sabah Says Bloomberg; Benjamin Harvey - Apr 26, 2011
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency chief Leon Panetta spent five days in the Turkish capital at the end of March discussing regional tensions as Syria became the latest Mideast country to erupt in protests, Sabah newspaper reported. The visit to meet Turkish officials including intelligence chief Hakan Fidan, who according to Sabah was sent to Syria to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month, was not announced to the public. Deborah
Guido, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, said she could not confirm it. Panneta’s talks included planning for possible regime change in Syria and ensuring the safety of the Assad family, Sabah wrote without saying how it got the information. The talks also touched on the fighting in Libya, Turkish- Israeli relations, intelligencesharing in Iraq, cooperation in Afghanistan and the fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK, Sabah said.
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
Page 19
Intelligence developments US slaps sanctions on Syrian intelligence agencies after bloodshed at protests Mail and Guardian, 30 April 2011 (ed: exscerpted)
The United States slapped sanctions on Syria's intelligence agency and two relatives of President Bashar al-Assad on Friday in Washington's first concrete steps in response to a bloody crackdown on protests. Assad, Syria's long-serving ruler, was not among those targeted under an order signed by President Barack Obama but could be named soon if violence by government forces against democracy protesters continued, a senior US official said. "The sanctions that were announced today are intended to show the Syrian government that its behavior and actions are going to be held to account," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters after a meeting with Japan's visiting foreign minister. Sanctions for alleged human rights abuses were imposed against Maher al-Assad, Bashar's brother, and Atif Najib, one of his cousins, together with Syria's General Intelligence Directorate and its chief. Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard was also targeted, accused of helping Syria's crackdown. The action, details of which were first reported by Reuters, marks a more
assertive approach by Washington, which has been criticised by human rights groups for not doing more to curb Assad's efforts to crush an uprising against his autocratic 11-year rule. The sanctions, which include asset freezes and bans on US business dealings for those on the list, build on broader US measures against Syria in place since 2004. There are questions, however, whether new sanctions against Assad's inner circle will have any dramatic impact since they are thought to hold few US assets. But US officials said they hoped European and Asian governments would follow suit. Maher al-Assad is a brigade commander in the Syrian Army's 4th Armoured Division that has played a key role in Dera'a, where protesters have been killed by security forces, the White House said. Najib was described as former head of the Political Security Directorate for Dera'a during the deadly crackdown. The new sanctions also target the General Intelligence Directorate and its director, Ali Mamluk. The spy agency is accused by US officials of repressing dissent and of involvement in the killing of protesters in Dera'a.
Israel indicts Australian suspected of spying for Hamas Haaretz Service and The Associated Press 19 April 2011
An Australian citizen was indicted in Israel for being a member of Hamas and entering the country on a mission for the Islamic militant group, Channel 2 reported Tuesday. Channel 2 displayed what it said was the indictment Tuesday night. It said the man, Iad Rashid Abu Arja, who also holds Jordanian and Saudi citizenship, was arrested upon entry to Israel
last month. The report said he was trained in Syria and was sent to Israel by Hamas on a spying mission. According to police investigators, Arja has a background in computers, and apparently he was asked to aid in acquiring various technological devices for the purposes of encryption, photography, and guiding missiles. The purpose of his visit
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
to Israel was mainly to test his ability to enter and exit the country, the indictment said. The police and the Shin Bet said that the arrest was another example of the continuous
Page 20
efforts of Hamas and terror organizations to recruit agents which can enter Israel and make various connections in the country.
FSB charges Russian who betrayed U.S. spy ring Rianovosti; 3 May 2011
A former Russian intelligence officer who "The FSB investigation department has helped the U.S. authorities uncover a Russian completed an investigation into the case to spy ring last summer has been charge Russian national charged with high treason and Alexander Poteyev with desertion, the Federal Security committing high treason by divulging state secrets," the FSB Service (FSB) said on Tuesday. said in a statement. It said the Ten Russians, including media indictment against Poteyev was star Anna Chapman, were arrested sent to Moscow's main military in the United States in June 2010 court on April 21. on suspicion of espionage. They plead guilty to conspiring to act as Poteyev fled to the United unregistered foreign agents and States with his family shortly were returned to Russia in before the arrest of the sleeper Alexander Poteyev exchange for four men accused by agents was made public. His the Kremlin of spying for Britain's MI6 and the case will be heard in absentia. CIA.
Russia violated rights of accused spy: European court AFP 3 May 2011 (Ed: excerpted)
The European Court of Human Rights Tuesday condemned Russian for denying a scientist accused of selling state secrets his right to liberty and a fair trial. Igor Sutyagin, arrested in October 1999, was accused of passing military and technical information to a London-based consulting firm called Alternative futures. The Strasbourg-based court awarded Sutyagin, a Russian national who specialized in military research, 20,000 Euro (29,600 USD) in damages. After his arrest, Sutyagin remained in detention while awaiting trial that only began in September 2003 and was delayed further when his case was assigned to a different judge. He was finally sentenced to 15 years in prison in April
2004, a judgement confirmed on appeal the following August. In a statement Tuesday, the court noted that "people charged with criminal offences ought to always be released pending trial unless there were relevant and sufficient reasons to keep them in detention." The court, which received Sutyagin's petition in July 2002, found that doubts about the objectivity and impartiality of the court could be "objectively justified," as the initial judge was replaced for "unknown reasons." Born in 1965, Sutyagin, who now lives in London, was released in July 2010, following a prisoner exchange between Russian and the United States.
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
Page 21
Finland: New SUPO chief on terrorism and reform HELSINGIN SANOMAT; 3 May 2011 (ed: excerpted)
foundation of the state enjoys the support of Antti Pelttari, the new Director-General of the the people. SUPO plans to launch a study on Security Intelligence Service (SUPO), says that the reasons for the lack of Finland does not face any terrorism in Finland. The concrete terrorist threats, project has already raised some and that the situation has interest abroad. Pelttari said not changed since the that he plans to continue the death of Osama bin Laden. changes in SUPO that were At a press conference on started by his predecessor Ilkka Tuesday, Pelttari pointed Salmi. Pelttari is serving as out that terror attacks Salmi’s substitute for four years require considerable while Salmi serves as the head planning and training, of the Situation Centre of the which is offered in crisis Antti Pelttari EU’s new European External areas of the Middle East Action Service in Brussels. In 2007 Salmi said and Africa, for instance. Pelttari says that no that his goal is the establishment of an “concrete cases” have come up in which a international and more open SUPO, which Finn would have received weapons training serves the people. During Salmi’s tenure abroad. He said that SUPO has information SUPO sent detectives to the Middle East and that people have travelled from Finland to Africa in an effort to prevent terrorists from areas where such training exists, but it has no coming to Finland. The programme is firm information on what the final destination continuing on an experimental basis, and might have been. Section chief Matti Pelttari says that he will seek to make it Saarelainen said at the news conference that permanent. Finland has averted terror because the legal
Finland: Annual report of the Security Intelligence Service http://www.poliisi.fi (ed: excerpted)
The threat of terrorist attacks against Finland is at the moment small. There are in Finland however interests of some individual states that face a terrorist threat, and also international events taking place in our country are potential targets. Recently there have been indications that international terrorism poses a threat also the Nordic countries. Although the overall situation in Finland is good, the authorities must be aware that activities relating to terrorism may take place in Finland as well. In terms of both quantity and quality, the intelligence activities targeting Finland have remained unchanged for the past few years. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, intelligence activity began to increase in
quantity in the mid-1990s and has now stabilised at the level of the early 2000s. Considering the size of the country, there is a fairly considerable presence of foreign intelligence service staff in Finland. Foreign intelligence services operational in Finland also often target other countries from Finland. Intelligence operations are characterised by continuity and perseverance. The objectives of foreign intelligence are to anticipate trends in Finnish politics and to influence important decisions. Foreign states aim at exploiting the information obtained in Finland to promote
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
their economic interests and scientific and technical development. Intelligence officers are interested in Finland’s security policy, relations with the EU and NATO, political decision-making, key hightechnology industries, energy and trade policy, and the operations of security authorities. Finland is also interesting from the perspective of the increasing geopolitical importance of the Baltic Sea and Arctic Region. Today, foreign intelligence officers rarely aim at establishing direct contacts with political decision-makers. Instead, they approach various experts, such as officials, researchers and journalists. In addition to gathering information, intelligence officers aim at exploiting their contacts for the publishing of the political views of their country along with other communications.
Page 22
Finland’s challenges in proliferation control pertain to combating espionage of technological know-how and also to attempts by countries potentially developing weapons of mass destruction to obtain dual-use goods. Certain countries developing nuclear weapons have attempted to obtain components required in their weapons programmes from Finland. Supo’s international exchange of information on proliferation control grew considerably in 2010. The number of preventive corporate visits also increased, and communications on the objectives of non-proliferation were more active than before. Completed in spring 2010, the non-proliferation information package compiled by Supo has attracted extensive interest and resulted in more companies contacting the authorities.
Netherlands: Former Fighter Pilot Arrested for Divulging State Secrets AFP 28 April 2011
A former Dutch fighter pilot has been arrested in The Hague and was being held on suspicion of divulging "one or more state secrets," a prosecution official said April 28. "He is being suspected of divulging one or more state secrets or to have acted to do so," said prosecution spokeswoman Marianne Goet. A judge was to decide April 28 whether the 37-year-old former pilot - arrested on March 17 - would remain in custody. Quoting sources within his unit, Dutch daily tabloid De
Telegraaf said the unnamed pilot, a captain, "wanted to do business with an inhabitant of Belarus." The officer, who flew planes like the F-16, left the air force in 2010, the newspaper said, and then got into financial difficulties. Goet said an indictment would be made public "more or less a week" before a hearing into the case was to take place on June 9 in The Hague. "Meanwhile, in the interest of the investigation, we will not disclose anything else," she said.
Switzerland: NIE: Annual Report 2010 of the Intelligence Service of the Confederation (CBC) www.news.admin.ch; 2 May 2011 (Machine translation)
During the year under review, the main threats came from Switzerland terrorism, violent extremism, proliferation and espionage. The threat of terrorism is not now a danger to the state, but an attack in Switzerland is possible. In 2010, it is mainly left-wing extremism that made the headlines. Generally, the activities of violent
extremism can endanger the internal security of Switzerland. Proliferation activities, but also the actions of terrorist or criminal organizations and state actors in Switzerland threaten industrial and financial establishment. Attacks against critical information systems can enhance other forms of threat and constitute a potential danger to all of these systems. Moreover, the dangers
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
inherent in the strategic environment may threaten the long term Switzerland. Read full
Page 23
report here in French.
Germany: CIA Part of Investigation of 'D端sseldorf Cell' Spiegel Online; 29 April 2011 (ed: excerpted)
The arrest of three suspected al-Qaida members in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Friday followed a months-long investigation that, in addition to the German authorities, also included the participation of the CIA and Moroccan secret service. The German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) created its own special "Comet" investigative unit to look into the case. The detainees are suspected of being members of the international terrorist organization al-Qaida. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, the main suspect in the so-called "D端sseldorf Cell" is Abdeladim K. of Morocco. He is believed to have been in regular contact with an allegedly high-ranking al-Qaida official in the Afghan-Pakistan border region. During the course of the investigation, BKA officials placed a Trojan virus to enable online surveillance as well as software that allowed the monitoring of voice calls on his computer. The arrests reportedly happened after investigators eavesdropped on the suspects
planning a test. Previously, they had obtained chemicals that could be used for the construction of bombs. German public broadcaster ZDF is reporting that security officials acted before the suspects could start building a bomb. One of the leaders reportedly received training in a terrorist camp abroad. German Interior Minister HansPeter Friedrich stated Friday that investigators had imminent threat of international terrorism." The incident, Friedrich said, shows that Germany "remains in the crosshairs of international terrorism." He called on Germans to "remain vigilant." If the suspicion of links to al-Qaida becomes concrete, the men would be the first al-Qaida members to be discovered in Germany since the Hamburg 9/11 cell. In 2009, a trader of Pakistani origin from the western German state of RhinelandPalatine was convicted of supporting a terrorist network. And one year later, Bonn jihadist Bekkay Haarach of Afghanistan died. He landed in the headlines in the autumn of 2009 after threatening to conduct attacks in German on al-Qaida's behalf.
Germany: Alleged terrorists claim police spy was in charge of their operations Deutsche Welle 28 April 2011 (ed: excerpted)
A group of alleged terrorists on trial in Germany claim they were led and radicalized by an undercover agent working for German intelligence. Authorities admit he was a spy but only after he had contact with the group. Seven men and one woman are on trial in Munich on charges of supporting foreign terrorist organizations. But the defense's claim that the group was in fact run by an intelligence infiltrator might yet change the
outcome of the trial. The eight defendants allegedly formed the German section of the International Islamic Media Front, an organization regarded as essentially a European propaganda wing of al Qaeda. Seven of the defendants are German citizens, while one is Turkish. But the defense team sees the case entirely differently. They have revealed that, in fact, the former ringleader of the terror network was not only a jihadist
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
Page 24
preaching hatred on the Internet but also an informant for German intelligence. The authorities do not deny this but say the young man only became an undercover agent in 2009 when he was no longer a member of the Islamic Media Front. "During the time he was active in the Global Islamic Media Front there was no cooperation of any sort between him and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution," says an official statement. But that explanation does not satisfy the defense team.
look very good." In fact, if the witness was already an informant while he was the head of the Islamic Media Front, this would change the entire court case. Because many of the defendants - some of whom were teenagers at the time - say that it was only the alleged informant who radicalized them and spurred them on to commit the very crimes for which they now have to answer. The controversial witness showed up in court on Thursday and was expected to testify but didn't. With reference to membership of the terrorist organization, his lawyer said he wouldn't Radicalized by the undercover spy? testify because he might "They're trying to take incriminate himself. And he everyone for a ride with cannot talk about his work their explanation as to as an informant as that why the charges have information is confidential. been dropped," said In the end, the judges will Some of the defendants blame the spy for their Mutlu G端nal, one of the radicalization have to decide whether to defense lawyers. accept or reject the "The truth is he was in the pay of the intelligence agency claims that the witness intelligence agency, so now they're trying to only started working with them after his time invent a story to fit, and all the participants in as the head of the Internet propaganda this trial are being fed a lie. But that just group. But even if they do accept the official doesn't conform with the rule of law. This has line, the case is expected to drag on until been a problem throughout the case, and it October or November this year. does not make the German justice system
Germany: Intelligence Service says number of violent neoNazis rising in Germany Spiegel Online; 18 April 2011 (ed: excerpted)
The number of violent neo-Nazis in Germany rose by more than 10 percent to 5,600 people in 2010, the head of the country's domestic intelligence agency said in an interview published on Monday. "The neo-Nazi scene that is prepared to commit violence has become larger. It grew by 600 to 5,600 people in 2010," Heinz Fromm, the president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, told the Neue Osnabr端cker Zeitungnewspaper. In 2000, the number had been far lower, at 2,200. Fromm said the number of neo-Nazi anarchists, a relatively recent trend consisting of violent youths,
often masked, bent on committing violence at far-right demonstrations, had increased from 800 to 1,000 people last year. The overall number of right-wing extremists in Germany fell last year by 1,600 to around 25,000, said Fromm. The far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), is continuing to lose members. "At the end of 2010 the party had 6,600 members. That is 300 fewer than the previous year and 600 fewer than in the NPD's best year, 2007," Fromm said. The NPD has been described by the domestic intelligence agency as a "racist, anti-Semitic, revisionist" party which aims to remove parliamentary
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
democracy and form a new German empire. Fromm said that it would be unwise to underestimate the NPD's ability to mobilize voters, despite its setback in Saxony-Anhalt. The party is well-organized in local communities and may be able to win enough support to remain in the MecklenburgWestern Pomerania parliament in a state election on Sept. 4, he said. Ed: Meanwhile, the Local reports that with Scientology
Page 25
membership on the rise, the state’s Verfassungssschutzdomestic intelligence agency has increased its observation of their activity in the state, now home to some 600 Scientologists. State Verfassungssschutz president Mathilde Koller said she was worried about the trend, which is drawing children into an organisation which employs “structures with totalitarian demands.”.
UK: Cryptome publishes new list of MI6 members posted internationally See http://cryptome.org/0003/mi6-worldwide.htm for newest list.
EU intelligence bureau sent officers to Libya EUOBSERVER; 12 April 2011 (Ed: excerpted)
section dealing with communications and The EU's intelligence bureau, the Joint consular services. It gets information from all Situation Centre, has recently sent people to 27 member states plus Norway and Libya. But its new director says there is little Switzerland, the intelligence directorate of prospect of turning it into a genuine the EU Military Staff in Brussels, the EU intelligence-gathering service even in the Satellite Centre in Spain, the Frontex border "long term." Speaking to EUobserver in the control agency in Warsaw and the Europol European Parliament in Brussels on Monday joint police body in The Hague. The (11 April), Joint Situation Centre chief Ilkka operations unit handles "crisis Salmi confirmed that one monitoring" and is a "kind of of his staff accompanied 24/7 permanence" for keeping a European External the EEAS and member states' Action Service (EEAS) diplomats in Brussels up to fact-finding mission to date. "We do monitoring and Tripoli on 6 March and assessing 24 hours a day and that another one took seven days a week, focusing part in a visit to Benghazi Joint Sit Cen Chief Ilkka Salmi Panetta on sensitive geographic areas, on 5 April. "We want to terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass avoid the impression that these were spooks destruction and global threats," Salmi said. of any kind. They were technical specialists "In recent weeks and recent months our who went to help with satellite phones and focus has been on events in Africa and the that type of thing. There was certainly no Middle East and their implications for EU tasking," he explained. "These are the only decision-making." missions of this kind that we have carried out since I became director two months ago." A contact familiar with the work of SitCen earlier told this website: "These are fairly Salmi said SitCen currently employs just over normal people who have perhaps in their 100 people, about 70 percent of whom are lives had some experience of being out in the seconded from member states' intelligence field in a place less comfortable than services and the rest of whom are EU officials. Washington … They are people who can write It has three units: operations, analysis and a
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
reports. Who do not mind not staying in five star hotels. Who know how to take
Page 26
precautions when they go out at night."
Italian secret service expects migrant wave The Times of Malta, 16 April 2011 (Ed; Excerpted)
past before Italy and Libya signed a The Italian secret service is reporting that cooperation agreement that Migration could about 15,000 migrants released from be Col Gaddafi’s “secret weapon” to detention in Libya could be on their way to condition the West, Gen. Piccirillo said. Europe in what is being described as Libyan Italian intelligence has until now excluded the leader Muammar Gaddafi’s “secret weapon”. The revelation was made by Giorgio Piccirillo, possibility of terrorists infiltrating migrant director of Italy’s secret service, when groups arriving in Italy. Rough seas over the briefing the Italian past two days Parliament’s security may have committee on Thursday. prevented more Col Gaddafi is reported migrants from leaving Libya by to have freed more than 15,000 migrants from boat but in the past two weeks the Horn of Africa, Chad more than 1,000 and sub-Saharan Africa, have made it to who were held in Libyan detention camps. Malta. Libyan refugees in Malta (AFP) According to Gen. Migrants have Piccirillo the Libyan arrived in large regime’s intention is to send these migrants wooden fishing boats and most of them, to Italy by boat from the port city of Zuwarah, including women, can uncharacteristically which is about 120 kilometres to the west of speak English, an indication that those who Tripoli. Zuwarah is one of the ports from arrived had established themselves in Libya. where migrant traffickers operated in the
Australia releases cloud computing guide Future Gov| 18 April 2011
Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), an Australian intelligence agency, has released an 18-page document urging government agencies in the country to carefully consider risks associated with cloud computing before adopting the technology. The Cloud Computing Security Considerations deals with traditional cloud fears like security, location of servers and Service Level Agreement (SLA) issues. Agencies are advised to “balance the
benefits of cloud computing with the security risks associated with the agency handing over control to a vendor”. DSD treated cloud vendors with a big dose of caution in case of vendors who may “insecurely transmit, store and process the agency’s data”. “Vendor’s responses to important security considerations must be captured in the SLA,” advised the paper. “Otherwise the customer only has vendor promises and marketing
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
claims that can be hard to verify and may be unenforceable.� The paper urged agencies to consider where offshore location data is stored, backed up and processed in, which country hosts the failover or redundant data
Page 27
centre and whether or not the vendor will notify the agency of any change in this area. Agencies were also asked to pick vendors who stored and managed data within Australia itself.
Australia: Osama bin Laden death won't change budget AAP ; May 04, 2011
security
cabinet colleague and Treasurer Wayne Swan The return of terror to the headlines will not is quite determined to cut spending and reach impact on national security funding in the his routinely stated target of a 2012/13 return federal budget. Since September 11 the to surplus. It is unlikely the national security national security budget has grown budget will be spared, especially in the extravagantly, although not always in line absence of any attack on Australians. Liberal with the threat. The death of Osama bin Senator Russell Trood wants the government Laden will have no impact on the major focus to offer a true indication of spending on in the national security budget - the national security, a continued budget that would construction of obviously include the the massive new roughly $30 billion multi-storey handed to Defence headquarters for annually. Senator the Australian Trood is chairman of Security the Senate's Intelligence Standing References Organisation. Committee on Initially the Foreign Affairs, building on the Defence and Trade. edge of Canberra's He is not hopeful of defence precinct The new ASIO HQ in Canberra (Photo: Alex Ellinghausen) either a combined was going to cost budget or new initiatives to counter what under $500 million. Now it's a nudge over Prime Minister Julia Gillard herself said was $600 million and while the building has the still present threat of al Qaeda despite certainly begun taking shape it is still some the death of bin Laden. "My expectations are way from being the new home of ASIO. There rather gloomy," Senator Trood said. "I don't is a wider problem for the man charged with think there's going to be much money." spending the national security budget Attorney-General Robert McClelland. His
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
Page 28
Colombia’s Financial Intelligence Director to Await Trial in Relative Freedom Dan Gordon Spy Club; Apr 15, 2011
Mario Aranguren, former director of Colombia’s financial
participate in a meeting on April 24, 2008, where the
intelligence agency (UIAF) was freed from house arrest
restricted information was supplied,” to President Alvaro
late last week. He is awaiting trial for illegally spying on
Uribe’s personal secretary Bernardo Moreno.
Supreme
Court
magistrates,
In the months since his May 2010
journalists, politicians and human
arrest, though, the prosecutors could
rights organizations, peering into
not gather enough evidence to call
their finances without permission
Aranguren to trial on time and a judge
or warrant. He had originally
declared that the 10 month delay in the
been placed under house arrest
investigation no longer justifies his
while the Prosecutor General’s
house arrest. An investigation into the
Office prepared evidence against
matter continues by both Colombian
him for his role in the wiretap
and international judicial authorities
scandal that drew international ire, charging him with breach of
Mario Aranguren
while Aranguren awaits his trial in freedom.
Aranguren maintains
his
public duty, intent to commit a crime, and abuse of
innocence with support from President Uribe. Uribe
authority.
rejected Aranguren’s resignation, citing his outstanding
Colombia’s Inspector General
Alejandro
Ordoñez alleged in February that Aranguren had given
performance as head of UIAF.
“instructions to officials of the institution he headed to
Colombia to issue international arrest warrant for former spy chief' Colombia Reports; 24 APRIL 2011
Colombia's Prosecutor general's Office will issue an international arrest warrant for a former intelligence director who was granted political asylum in Panama, newspaper El Tiempo
reported
According newspaper,
Saturday.
to the Prosecutor
Maria Pilar Hurtado
General Viviane Morales is set to indict former DAS director Maria Pilar Hurtado for the illegal wiretapping of supreme court magistrates, journalists, human rights workers and opposition politicians. Sources told El Tiempo that it's a matter of
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
days that the Prosecutor General's Office will issue an international arrest warrant for Del Pilar Hurtado and Bernardo Moreno, the chief of staff of former President Alvaro Uribe. Both are suspected of having ordered lower-
Page 29
ranked intelligence officials to illegally spy on what they deemed government opponents. The scandal forced the government to begin the process of dismantling the DAS.
Editor: And in the Caribbean…
Trinidad & Tobago: Scandal at regional 'spy' agency Trinidad Express; : Apr 16, 2011 (ed: excerpted)
Allegations of corruption are being levelled at yet another security agency, this one headed by a woman who was once at the helm of the controversial Special Intelligence Agency (SIA). Misappropriation of funds, hiring of unqualified staff and fraudulent accounting practices are said to be the order of the day at Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (Impacs) which is headed by Lynne Anne Williams who was director of the SIA for 14 years. Impacs has never been audited nor submitted prepared financial statements since its inception in 2006. Ten former SIA employees are now employed at Impacs, raking in huge salaries and allowances at taxpayers' expense. Family and friends have also found employment at Impacs, also enjoying significant monetary
rewards. One such employee, hired as a project officer for the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup in 2007, takes home $15,750 a month. She has no portfolio within the organisational structure of Impacs, sources say. Williams was appointed executive director of Impacs with effect from September 1, 2009 at the Twentieth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government held in Belize in March of that year. She is responsible for the general leadership, oversight, administrative and financial management of Impacs and its sub-agencies, the Joint Regional Communications Centre (Barbados) and the Regional Intelligence Fusion Centre (Trinidad and Tobago).
Trinidad & Tobago: Sandy: No intelligence breakdown Newsday; April 21 2011
NATIONAL SECURITY is serious business and there has been no breakdown in this country’s security intelligence capabilities, National Security Minister Brigadier John Sandy declared yesterday in a statement in the House of Representatives. Stating there were persons intent on creating the
impression that there has been a breakdown in intelligence gathering, Sandy declared, “There has been no interruption in the intelligence sharing relationship existing between TT and its regional or international partners in the realm of cross border criminal activity.”
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
“Those who choose to perpetuate that inaccuracy are recognisably bent on being mischievous and nurturing discomfort with respect to peace of mind and sense of security of our citizens, and must desist from doing so.” “Matters of a national security nature need to be treated with discretion. A lack of discretion can create alarm in the national community. When there is need to
Page 30
correct situations that may have gone awry, an appropriate approach is necessary,” Sandy said. Sandy said the new National Intelligence Agency (NIA) “will be the product of a rationalisation process that will address deficiencies in security and criminal intelligence.”
On a lighter note…
MI5 to outsource surveillance to Google Newsbiscuit; 10 April 2011 Government sources have confirmed that MI5 are set to outsource their spying activities to the world’s most popular internet search engine. ‘Google have shown that they are world leaders in this arena and can provide a far greater range of spying operations then the British security services for a fraction of the price,’ said an MI5 spokesman known only as ‘Z’, though identified by Google as Mr. G. Tomkins, 23 Croydon Way, Purley. ‘The quality of our surveillance will be much increased, with only small unobtrusive adverts being displayed at the top of every image.’ The decision to completely hand over all spying, military intelligence and national security surveillance to Google follows a trial period during which MI5 and MI6 allowed its own officers to use the latest facilities such as StreetView. ‘The trouble was MI5 agents kept shouting ‘Oh look there’s my car!’ and ‘Blimey, does our hedge really look that
scruffy?’ They were also prone to periods of depression when our strictly anonymous officers would enter their names on the search engine and then find there was nothing about them on the internet. Google have not disclosed how much they are being paid to run the British Government’s surveillance operations, but have promised to arrange for Google Maps to provide slightly more detailed satellite photographs of known terrorist hideouts such as Afghanistan’s Tora mountains and a certain pub in South Armagh. But a number of terrorist suspects have apparently already been identified on Google StreetView, and police have issued an artists impression of a man with a very blurred face. ‘A suspect answering this description was shot dead in North London yesterday, but it turned out to be the wrong man,’ admitted a police spokeman. ‘But it was uncanny – he looked just like him.’
Spymasters Flash Their Green Bona Fides New York Times, 26 April 2011 (Ed; excerpted)
The Central Intelligence Agency is famously tight-lipped about its activities, from directing
SA Intelligencer
6 May 2011
Number 87
drone strikes in Pakistan to interrogating prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. But it is trumpeting what it’s doing to go green. s In a statement issued on Friday — Earth Day, ‘natch — America’s spymasters declared that their habit of shredding and burning vast quantities of classified documents, known as “burn after reading,” was not only safeguarding secrets but also protecting the planet.”Exhaust from the agency’s on-site incinerator generates steam to heat water at C.I.A. headquarters,” the statement said. “In addition to saving fuel, that process reduces the amount of waste — which would otherwise be destined for landfills — by nearly 1,000 tons per year.” The agency also said it was increasing its recycling efforts, collecting more than three tons of plastic, glass, cardboard and other waste annually. Leon E. Panetta, the agency’s
Page 31
director, called energy conservation and preserving the environment a “moral responsibility” for Americans. “The agency’s sustainability efforts also save taxpayer dollars,” he said. It is not the first time the C.I.A. has flashed its green credentials. In 2009, the agency described a variety of earth-friendly initiatives it had undertaken, like the installation of dust collection units in the shooting ranges of the Office of Security. “The units trap toxins produced during firearms training before they can be released into the environment,” the agency said. Several C.I.A. campuses have also attained “platinum” status, the top rating under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED system for environmentally friendly construction, other releases have noted.
Previous editions can be found at http://4knowledge-za.blogspot.com/ Publishing the Intelligencer is a labour of love, an awareness campaign, and an educational vehicle. Notice: The SA Intelligencer does not confirm the correctness of the information carried in the media, neither does it analyse the agendas or political affiliations of such media. The SA Intelligencer’s purpose is informing our readers of the developments in the world of intelligence for research and environmental scanning purposes. We only use OSINT from free open sources and not those from fee-based sources. The SA Intelligencer contains copyrighted material - the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The content has been harvested from various news aggregators, web alerts, lists etc. Further reproduction or redistribution is subject to original copyright restrictions. 4Kowledge provides no warranty of ownership of the copyright, or accuracy with respect to the original source material. Contact Dalene Duvenage at dalene@4knowledge.co.za should you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe.