6 February 2010
South Africa: Role of intelligence in transition remembered SA Intelligencer Number 66 1
SA Intelligencer
Number 67
6 February 2010
From the Editor Initiator: Johan Mostert Contributions and enquiries dalene@4knowledge.co.za
Reports from 1-5 February 2010 Inside This Issue 1 Botswana ultimatum to Zimbabwe:
withdraw envoys
2 South Africa: Role of intelligence in
transition remembered target for increased espionage 3 Climate leak “work of spy agency” 4 Ukraine and Russia trade spying charges 4 Far-reaching proposals for Russia’s security apparatus 5 Belarusian government orders internet providers to snoop on users 5 Syria renews intel sharing with US & UK 6 Israel Defence Force is prepared for Cyberwarfare 6 Beijing bones up its cyber-warfare capacity 7 Taiwan detains two agents for alleged spying for China 8 Colombia has 3,000 paid civilian informants 8 Crowd sourcing of intelligence / collective intelligence collection 9 CIA to report to Senate on moonlighting in corporate world allegations 9 Blair spells out annual threat assessment 9 Google cyber attacks a 'wake-up' call for US, intel chief says 10 Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks 10 Spy vs Spy 11 Upcoming events 3 Norway
We cannot afford to be ignorant of what is happening in the international intelligence arena. These developments create the context in which intelligence professionals in the national security, military or law enforcement arenas perform their duty. The SA Intelligencer is a compilation of open source reports and does not attempt to comment or interpret events. Our readership has multiplied exponentially in the last few weeks to include a larger segment of the South African IC, universities, agencies and other institutions here and abroad. I received a few queries on who I am and why I publish the SA Intelligencer. I’m a proud South African with 19 years experience in the South African civilian intelligence – 10 years as an intelligence analyst and 9 years in training, KM etc. I’ve been in the private sector now for nearly 3 years, providing training and sharing my passion for intelligence as decision-support in all domains. When Johan Mostert asked me to take over his creation 3 weeks ago, I jumped at the opportunity! Publishing the Intelligencer is a labour of love, an awareness campaign, and an educational vehicle. It will not be used for commercial purposes and email addresses are confidential. Previous editions can be found at http://4knowledge-za.blogspot.com/ Dalene Duvenage
Africa Botswana ultimatum to Zimbabwe: withdraw envoys Gaborone: 5 Feb 2010
The Government of Botswana has issued a 24-day ultimatum to Zimbabwe to withdraw its intelligence and defence attaches from its capital following a diplomatic fallout over park rangers arrested and detained in Zimbabwe. Botswana yesterday recalled its Defence and Intelligence Attachés from Zimbabwe and expelled the Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Organisation and defence attachés from Gaborone, saying diplomacy had failed.
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In a statement released yesterday, the Botswana government demanded that Zimbabwe withdraw its spies from Botswana by the end of February 2010. In view of the stance taken by the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe to rebuff all attempts by the Government of Botswana to find diplomatic and amicable solution to the problem, Botswana has taken a decision to recall its Defence and Intelligence Attachés from Zimbabwe by the end of February 2010. The two (intelligence and defence attaché) positions should be frozen and never filled again,” the statement reads, graduating relations between the two countries to that of hostile nations after Zimbabwe ignored diplomatic overtures by its neighbour to free game scouts arrested for trespassing into Victoria Falls with arms. Botswana says diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue have failed. Relations between the two countries have been frosty for several years, starting with differences over demarcation of territory in the Caprivi Strip and then Botswana’s hosting of Voice of
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America Studio Seven, which broadcasts into Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai lived in Botswana as a guest of the state after the violent elections in 2008, claiming that he had caught wind of an assassination attempt by Zimbabwe security forces. The intelligence and defence forces of the two countries have hardly been on talking terms, and diplomacy has suffered as well. The spat over the rangers is the latest in a series of diplomatic brashes between the two countries. Botswana is the only African country that has openly criticized the Zimbabwean government and President Mugabe for human right abuses. Botswana is host to thousands of Zimbabwean refugees.
Full article at http://investigativezim.com/2010/02/05/diplomatic-stalemate-botswana-expels-spies-withdrawsdiplomats/
South Africa: Role of intelligence in transition remembered Prof Willie Esterhuyse: 2 Feb 2010 (Ed: freely translated and excerpted)
South Africa's top spies have opened the door for ex-pres. FW de Klerk's February 2 speech 20 years ago. Whatever the "old" South Africa can be called, the then National Intelligence Service (NI) under the leadership of dr. Niel Barnard was undoubtedly one of the best in the world. During the many conversations I had with their members, it was remarkable how well it collaborated with other intelligence services. Before 1990, Barnard, Mike Louw and members of their team were in my mind, the main actors in the preparation of the negotiations. They were the pioneers!
My contact with that team started in early 1987. It became clear to me that there was fierce competition between NI and Military Intelligence. Some of the biggest legacies of Barnard and Louw were that they have broken the military influence on political policy makers. This gave impetus to the political settlement. I experienced Louw as a highly intelligent man who could think strategically. He was also blessed with a very valuable trait: integrity. In 1989, the NI team started discussions with the ANC in a confidential and professional manner. Barnard and Louw were doing something that from a political angle, was brilliant. On August 16, 1989, a day after De Klerk was
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inaugurated as acting president, the NI submitted to the State Security Council one of the best formulated proposals in which the Council committed itself to the process. Few in the Council, including de Klerk, were aware of the detail or the implications of such a commitment. On 12 September 1989, the first-of-face-toface meeting took place in the Palace Hotel, Lucerne, Switzerland, between Louw, Mauritz Spaarwater, Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. On September 17 1989, Louw reported to De Klerk on this historic first meeting. De Klerk was just elected as president.
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And Louw, in his usual calm and professional manner, give the new president a hot potato! De Klerk was appalled! He wanted to know where Louw and his team got the mandate? Louw referred to the decision of the State Security Council. De Klerk conceded and took the process, started by NI, forward. http://www.beeld.com/Content/InDiepte/1978/37619ad300494121905e38a217c0fdb8/0 2-02-2010-10-50/Spioene_dek_tafel
(Ed: Louw died in January 2010 – Read Pres Zuma’s tribute to Louw).
Europe Norway target for increased espionage Espionage efforts by foreign powers directed against Norway is more intensive now than during the Cold War, says head of the Special Branch of the Norwegian Police (PST), Janne Kristiansen. The espionage is mainly directed against leading politicians, the Norwegian Defence and private industry.
The spies are interested in high tech information, classified NATO documents and high level decision-making. Much of the espionage is carried out via the Internet, and the Norwegian National Security Authority (NSM) has registered an increased number of such attacks over the past years, NRK reports. The PST does not want to reveal which countries are involved in this espionage, but says that new countries have joined the illegal activity.
http://www.norwaypost.no/content/view/23149/26/
Climate leak 'work of spy agency' London: Feb 2, 2010
A highly sophisticated hacking operation that led to the leaking of hundreds of "climategate" emails from the Climatic Research Unit in East Anglia was probably done by a foreign intelligence agency, says the British Government's former chief scientist. Sir David King, former Prime Minister Blair's chief scientific adviser for seven years until 2007, said the hacking and selective leaking of the unit's emails going back 13 years bore the hallmarks of a co-ordinated intelligence
Editor: Dalene Duvenage
operation - especially given their release before the Copenhagen climate conference in December. King suggested the email leaks were deliberately designed to destabilise Copenhagen and he dismissed the idea that it was a run-of-the-mill hacking. It was done by a team of skilled professionals, either on behalf of a foreign Government or at the behest of anti-climate-change lobbyists in the United States, he said.
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Some commentators in Russia have said that China had more to gain from destabilising the Copenhagen conference than Russia. King said that it was not possible to dismiss the possibility of Russia's involvement. "If it was a job done on behalf of a government, then I suppose there is the possibility that it could be the Russian intelligence agency. If it was a maverick group
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then I suppose it could be the Americans. I've worked within government and I've seen this in operation. It was a sophisticated and expensive operation ... Right now, the American lobbyists are a very likely source of finance for this." http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/ article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10623508
Ukraine and Russia Trade Spying Charges New York Times: KIEV, Ukraine February 3, 2010
attention on Russian activities on Ukrainian soil. Ukraine has detained a Russian intelligence The Ukrainian announcement brought an officer and expelled four others, breaking up unusual public rebuke from the Russian what it said Tuesday was a spy ring that intelligence agency, the F.S.B., which expressed intended to steal military and state secrets. surprise that its Ukrainian counterpart, the The announcement came less than a S.B.U., had not sought to resolve the week before a presidential runoff case “through cooperation between election in Ukraine and might stir new special services,” Russian news tensions between Ukraine and Russia, agencies reported. which have had a contentious The Russian agency said that in relationship in recent years. October, it arrested a Ukrainian At a news conference on Tuesday, intelligence agent at a Russian military Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, the Ukrainian site in a separatist region of Moldova, another intelligence chief, said the Russians were former Soviet republic. The man then detained on Jan. 27 “trying to illegally obtain apparently agreed to work as a double agent Ukrainian secrets through blackmail and and help the Russians learn about Ukrainian threats.” spying against Russia. He was scheduled to Espionage cases are often handled without meet the Russian agents in the Odessa region publicity through diplomatic channels, so the of Ukraine to hand over information when they Ukrainian disclosure of this one suggested that were arrested, the officials said. Mr. Yushchenko’s government wanted to focus http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/world/europe/03ukraine.html
Far-reaching proposals for Russia’s security apparatus 03 February, 2010
(Ed: Excerpted) A presidential think-tank has proposed radical changes in Russia, including a return to certain liberal elements of Yeltsin’s policy, a multi-party system and cutting the president’s term. The Institute of Contemporary Development (INSOR), whose board of trustees is chaired by President Dmitry Medvedev, outlined its vision
Editor: Dalene Duvenage
of the country’s future in a 66-page report entitled "21st Century Russia: the Image of Tomorrow We Want", which was released Wednesday. The authors see the overhaul of the lawenforcement system as one of the key reforms in the overall reorganization of the internal security system in the country, and the system
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should change from its current repressive style to one that puts the security and rights of the people first. In the new model, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be replaced by a new organisation called the Federal Service of Criminal Police. Special police units would exist in the regions to deal with social security and minor crimes. Instead of internal forces there will be a National Guard, and a municipal militia would be active in cities and villages. The former responsibilities of the liquidated State Traffic Safety Inspectorate would be divided between the militia and a Civil Road Traffic Service. A newly created Federal Financial Police Service would investigate economic crimes. Two institutes would be created instead of the Federal Security System: the Federal Counterespionage Service and Federal Service for Constitution Security (which would deal
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with terrorist acts and the prevention of separatist activities). The report says that some of the proposed measures are already being implemented. For instance, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the army are being reorganized, but it says there needs to be a new stage of reforms and the gap between enacting those stages should be not be years, but months. The authors of the report suggest that the current Armed Forces be replaced by a smaller force (about 500,000 – 600,000 from the existing 1,1 million) and a volunteer and professional army, with higher salaries, should be created. http://rt.com/Politics/2010-02-03/russia-developmentconcept-insor.html
Belarusian Government Orders Internet Providers To Snoop On Users Minsk, Belarus AHN February 4, 2010
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has signed a decree imposing stricter control over internet access in the former Soviet republic and obliging providers to collect users’ personal data and profiles. The order introduces a bunch of new rules, including those to protect copyright and prevent children accessing porn websites. Many fear, however, the new legislation is tightening the screws on internet users.
“…From July 1, 2010, internet service providers will be required to identify devices used to connect to the internet and keep information on those devices and the services provided,” the decree reads. In other words, the state will be able to easily find out Belarusian internet surfers’ names and monitor what they do when connected to the World Wide Web. The explanation behind the move is the necessity “to ensure security of the citizens, society and the state.”
Full article at http://rt.com/Politics/2010-02-02/belarus-internet-control-lukashenko.html
Middle East Syria renews intel sharing with U.S., U.K. By Haaretz Service: 4 February 2010
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh on Wednesday reported that a senior Syrian official told him Damascus has renewed intelligence-sharing efforts with the United States and Britain after
Editor: Dalene Duvenage
a special request was made by U.S. president Barack Obama. Hersh reported in the New Yorker that George Mitchell, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, relayed Obama's request, despite Syria being on the State
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Department's list of state sponsors of terror. but warned Mitchell that cooperation with the The White House declined to comment on C.I.A. and Britain's MI6 would stop "if nothing Hersh's report, which also said that Syrian happens from the other side." President Bashar Assad agreed to the request, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1147567.html
Israel Defence Force is prepared for Cyberwarfare 03 February 2010 (Ed: Excerpted)
In a paper published by the head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate, Major General Amos Yadlin, in the Intelligence Research Center Journal, described the development of cyberwarfare, computer attacks in the 21st century, and the capabilities required from armies to fight this medium successfully. According to Maj. Gen. Yadlin, cyberwarfare is divided into three areas: intelligence gathering, defense and attack. Additionally he spoke of the attacks on government sites, banks and communications in Estonia following the crisis with Russia, which accused Russia of cyberwarfare; the attack on local networks during the war in Georgia, where Russia was also accused; and the attacks on computer networks in the U.S. and South Korea, where North Korea was blamed for penetrating into U.S and South Korean servers. None of the charges against the aggressor countries, stressed Yadlin, were verified even until now. Maj. Gen. Yadlin, concerned about the potential defensive capabilities, stated: "Many
people believe that defense must go hand in hand with intelligence gathering and attack. Cyber power gives the little guys the kind of ability that used to be confined to superpowers. He stressed that proper dimension for cyber warfare fits with Israel's conception of security. No great natural resources are required. It's all available right here, without any dependence on foreign aid, in an area with which Israeli young people are very familiar. "Staying ahead of the game is important in light of the dizzying change of pace in the cyber world: at most, a few months in response to a change, compared to the years that pilots have." Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin concluded: "Every day I meet the soldiers and officers whose job is to march us confidently ahead into this new world. With them we will be able to compete in the Cyber Premier League." http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/News/today/10/02/0304.h tm
Asia Beijing Bones up its Cyber-Warfare Capacity Jamestown Foundation China Brief Volume: 10 Issue: 3: February 4, 2010 (Ed: Excerpted)
While the furor over cyber attacks against Google has lapsed somewhat, the SinoAmerican confrontation over the larger issue of Internet security and global digital warfare is expected to intensify in the near future. Even
Editor: Dalene Duvenage
more significant is the fact that despite Washington’s criticism of Beijing’s censorship of the Internet—as well as China-originated sorties against the networks of American government agencies and multinationals—the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership is devoting unprecedented resources to
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strengthening its already formidable cyber warfare prowess. Research and development in Net-based combat, including cyber espionage and counter-espionage, figure prominently in the 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015) that is being drafted by both the central government and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Two major considerations are behind the CCP leadership’s ultraambitious expansion of digital warfare capability. The first is to narrow the gap with the United States, which is seen as having a comfortable lead in the virtual battlefield of the 21st century. The second motivation behind Beijing’s noholds-barred cyber gambit is to safeguard China’s “IT sovereignty.” The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) claims that China is the world’s largest victim as far as cyber attacks are concerned. Last year, 42,000 websites were emasculated by hackers,
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while 18 million computers per month were knocked out by virus blitzes. Wpacity are clear. In early 2009, party-and-state authorities significantly boosted budgets for recruiting the best Chinese graduates in areas including computers, engineering, mathematics and foreign languages. There is also evidence that agencies under public security and military intelligence are recruiting hackers as software engineers and Net-related security experts. This is despite the MIIT’s statement late last month that China will actively participate in global efforts to combat threats to cybersecurity. Given the fact that friction between the United States and China will likely continue if not worsen over issues including trade, Taiwan and Tibet, cut-throat competition along the information superhighway could add a new dimension of instability in ties between the world’s sole superpower and the fast-rising quasi-superpower.
Full article at http://www.jamestown.org/uploads/media/cb_010_12.pdf
Taiwan detains two agents for alleged spying for China Taipei, Feb 3 (AFP
Taiwan has detained two retired military intelligence agents suspected of spying for China, a prosecutor said Wednesday. The authorities were investigating whether the agents had collected confidential defence information for China. According to Taiwan's Apple Daily, one of the suspects, Chang Chuanchen, went to live in China after he retired from the military intelligence bureau four years ago, but continued to work for the bureau on the mainland. After the retirement of his contact at the bureau, Tseng Nen-duen, Chang admitted that he was already spying for China and convinced
Tseng to join him, the report said, citing unnamed sources. The duo were also found to be in contact with two current officials at the bureau, which might have helped them obtain more confidential documents, the report said. Former arch-rivals Taiwan and China have spied on each other ever since they split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Beijing still claims the island as its territory, awaiting reunification by force if necessary. Ties have improved markedly since Taiwan's China-friendly government took power in 2008, and Beijing has so far avoided public criticism of Taipei in a spat with Washington over the sale of US arms to the island.
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/34843 Editor: Dalene Duvenage
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Latin America Colombia has 3,000 paid civilian informants Thursday, 28 January 2010: Adriaan Alsema
Colombia's state forces have 2.2 million "cooperating civilians" including some 3,000 paid informants, Defense Minister Gabriel Silva said Wednesday. The Minister made his statement after a plan by President Alvaro Uribe to pay 1,000 Medellin students a monthly bonus for information on criminal activity in their neighborhoods caused a wave of criticism. But according to Silva, Uribe's plan is nothing new and civilians are already helping the government with intelligence work. According to the Minister, some 2.2 million Colombians are "cooperating civilians." 3,000 of these informants receive a monthly $50 fee.
The civilian informants play a vital role in the state's war against leftist guerrilla groups and drug trafficking. Silva rejects criticism that the government is putting the lives of these civilians at risk by asking them to "snitch" on groups that are not afraid to use violence. "We have methods and already proven practices that allow us to be calm. Naturally we will be supervising and monitoring this process," the minister said. http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/7891colombia-has-3000-paid-civilian-informants.html
USA 5 Feb 2010: President Barack Obama praised the dedication and service of seven CIA agents killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan in December. For full speech see http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0210/at_the_cia_933e7f23-207f-451f-a0b2-a8d59653e87a.html
Crowd sourcing of intelligence/collective intelligence collection Wired.com 2 February 2010
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, just released its budget for the upcoming year. And, as you might expect from the Pentagon’s way-out science and technology division, there are some wild new projects on tap. Military analysts are already overwhelmed by too much information. Instead of training more analysts or handing data over to computers, Darpa wants to improve how the military uses its intelligence info by turning it into an open call for contribution. The $13 million dollar project, called “Deep ISR Processing by Crowds,” looks “to harness the unique cognitive and creative abilities of large numbers of people to enhance dramatically the knowledge derived from ISR systems.”
Crowdsourcing is already used among businesses and other government agencies, to generate more innovative ideas that draw on as many sources as possible. The Deep ISR Processing by Crowds Program goes beyond the concept of putting the human in the loop, and instead looks to harnessing the unique cognitive and creative abilities of large numbers of people to enhance dramatically the knowledge derived from ISR systems. This approach is unconventional in that it involves the massed exploitation of ISR products in concert with other sources of data based on distributed crowd sourcing across human/machine systems. Novel frameworks will be developed to capture the experience base of users and systems to allow optimum problem partitioning, quantitative confidence
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assessment, and validation in environments that may be partially compromised by adversaries.
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http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/ darpas-new-plans-crowdsource-intelimmunize-nets-edit-dna/#ixzz0ehWw0ROR
CIA to report to Senate on moonlighting in corporate world allegations Washington 3 Feb 2010:
The intelligence community will send a report to Congress examining policies that allow employees to moonlight in the private sector for extra cash, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told a congressional panel Wednesday. In an excerpt from his book "Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage," POLITICO's Eamon Javers revealed that CIA employees had worked for a consulting firm on behalf of hedge funds and a financial DNI Dennis Blair firm to apply sophisticated deception detection Blair said some staff in the DNI's office teach at techniques to investment and management nearby universities, a trend he backs. practices of those companies. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32459.html
Blair spells out annual threat assessment In his annual testimony before the Senate, DNI Dennis Blair's testimony discusses: far-reaching impact of the cyber threat; the changing threat to the global economy; terrorists under pressure: terrorist threat to homeland remains (includes discussion on Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and comments on US "homegrown jihadists"); the growing proliferation threat; Afghanistan (including the Taliban-dominated insurgency, potential ties to
Al-Qa'ida, security and governance issues, and the Afghan drug trade); Pakistan: Turning against domestic extremists; further regional and country updates; mass killings; climate change; strategic health challenges and threats; and international organized crime. Read his full testimony at http://www.dni.gov/testimonies/20100202_tes timony.pdf
Google cyber attacks a 'wake-up' call for US, intel chief says Christian Science Monitor: 4 Feb 2010
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair warns that the US could face a crippling cyber attack, as cyber threats grow in scope and sophistication. The computerized critical infrastructure of the US is "severely threatened" by malicious cyberattacks now
Editor: Dalene Duvenage
occurring on an "unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication." That's the headline Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence, offered the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Tuesday. But it was the largely unreported details he unpacked that could provide the wake-up call for government and private industry, whose computer
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networks he says are now under persistent and subtle assault. In his remarks, Mr. Blair concluded that: • Sensitive information is “stolen daily from both government and private sector networks.” • Investigations are finding "persistent, unauthorized, and at times unattributable presences on exploited networks, the hallmark of an unknown adversary...." • The US cannot be certain its cyberspace infrastructure will be available and reliable in a crisis.
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• The US and the world face greater vulnerability to disruption as a result of the trend toward convergence of voice, facsimile, video, computers, and controls that operate critical infrastructure on a single network: the internet. These include banking, power, and water supplies • Cyberthreats are increasingly subtle and sophisticated. Last year saw the deployment of “self-modifying malware, which evolves to render traditional virus detection technologies less effective.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0204/Google-cyber-attacks-a-wake-up-call-for-US-intel-chief-says
Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks Ellen Nakashima 4 February 2010 (Ed: excerpted)
The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity. Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack. Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed
to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users' searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data. Google approached the NSA shortly after the attacks, sources said, but the deal is taking weeks to hammer out, reflecting the sensitivity of the partnership. Any agreement would mark the first time that Google has entered a formal information-sharing relationship with the NSA, sources said. In 2008, the firm stated that it had not cooperated with the NSA in its Terrorist Surveillance Program. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020304057.html ?hpid=topnews
Spy vs Spy The US, pointing fingers at China for spying, owns most of the playing field John Berthelsen, 04 Feb 2010
Earlier this week, Admiral Dennis C. Blair, the US's new so-called cyber-czar appointed by President Barack Obama, warned that an "increasingly sophisticated group of enemies has severely threatened the sometimes fragile Editor: Dalene Duvenage
systems undergirding America's information systems," according to the New York Times. Over recent weeks, partly triggered over a controversial warning by Google that its systems had been hacked and that China was
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engaging in censorship of the Internet search giant, China in particular has come under fire for what critics say is a fast-growing capability to mine both commercial and military data across the planet. After US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a major speech in late January condemned countries that censor the internet and engage in hacking, China, via a wideranging editorial in People's Daily fired back, accusing the United States of "doublespeak" and aiding the opposition through the Internet in Iran in the wake of Iran's contested national elections last June, which were widely believed to be rigged by the mullahs. However, lost in the concern about China is that the Americans invented cyber warfare. They spend more money on it and they are probably by far the most sophisticated operators in the world. If the total United States defense budget is bigger than the combined military budgets of the next seven
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biggest countries in the world, it is probably a safe bet that its spending on cyber warfare is in equal proportion. By most estimates, US defense spending accounts for 45 percent of the world total, followed in order by the United Kingdom, China, France and Japan – each officially at between 4 and 5 percent. China's defense spending accounts officially for about 5 percent of the world total, although it could be considerably larger due to hidden budgetary allocations. If hidden allocations were to double China's total spending, the US would still be spending four times as much. The US capability doesn't mean China isn't working feverishly to develop its cyber warfare capability. It is, and those developments have been given wide publicity, particularly through Clinton's speech and continuing expressions of alarm by Blair and others. But America's complaints resemble those of a madam in a bordello who discovers that other people are having sex.
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2284&Itemid=164
Upcoming events Only new announcements on upcoming intelligence related events will be carried here. The complete list can be accessed at http://4knowledge-za.blogspot.com/
February 2010: 24-26: New York: Limiting knowledge in a democracy; Social research Conference Steven Aftergood, Senior Research Analyst and Director, FAS Project on Government Secrecy, Federation of American Scientists will be one of the speakers. He says: “The contours of the national security secrecy system have remained unaltered for more than half a century, but the substance of what is kept secret is constantly subject to change. Secrecy is often rescinded for reasons that include internal administrative imperatives (e.g., to improve efficiency or to advance preferred policy objectives) as well as various types of external challenges (e.g., oversight requirements, Freedom of Information Act litigation, unauthorized disclosures, and others). The
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equilibrium between secrecy and disclosure can be shifted by stressing or relaxing these internal imperatives and external challenges. More information: http://www.socres.org/limitingknowledge/index.htmlNational Security Secrecy: How the Limits Change
March 2010 3 & 4 March: Boksburg, South Africa: Anti Money Laundering Conference Contact Ursula McCrystal Tel: + 27 79 695 8694
April 2010 11 - 14 April 2010, Geospatial Intelligence Middle East 2010, The Diplomat Radisson SAS Hotel, Residence & Spa, Manama, Bahrain Geospatial intelligence is a vital tool for defence and security organisations, but during our extensive research we have found that even though it is being extensively used in the region, interoperability and integration across the Middle East could still be significantly enhanced. Presentations and discussions will tackle key issues including: • Enabling effective interoperability to integrate civilian and military geospatial intelligence capabilities • Overcoming stovepipes to create cross-command situational awareness • Building effective enterprise architectures to allow instant access to data in an interoperable environment • Benchmarking against international geospatial standards • Assessing the latest technology solutions and how to implement them http://www.geospatialdefence.com/Event.aspx?id=223166 Notice: The material is being made available for purposes of education and research of the subscribers. The SA Intelligencer contains copyrighted material - the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We do not take responsibility for the correctness of the information contained herein. The content has been harvested from various news aggregators, web alerts, lists etc. This work is in the Public Domain. To view a copy of the public domain certification, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. The SA Intelligencer covers developments in the intelligence field that has not been widely reported in the general media. We also share comments from international experts on burning intelligence issues. Our South African context determines our approach and priorities. We aim to publish weekly, or as the intelligence dictates. We currently have a readership of about 350 intelligence managers, decision makers, civil society leaders, academia and other intelligence professionals from national security, the defence industry, law enforcement, other government departments and the private sector. Subscriptions and email addresses are treated confidentially. Email to dalene@4knowledge.co.za should you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe.
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