Counterintelligence News for the week of:

October 15-21, 2006

Fire Damages Fort Meade Intelligence Building

A Fort Meade building that houses Army counterintelligence activities was heavily damaged yesterday in a stubborn and spectacular six-alarm fire that burned for hours, generating thick clouds of smoke that streamed and billowed in a brisk wind….(Washington Post, 21 Oct 06)

Australia's spy masters show their faces

The heads of Australia's spy agencies made a rare appearance in public yesterday to explain their expanded role and systems of accountability in a post-September 11 world…(The Age, 21 Oct 06)

Used Cellphones Hold Trove of Secrets That Can Be Hard to Erase

… It turns out that hackers or sleuths armed with commercially available software can fairly easily resurrect erased data on cellphones, including address books and calendar contacts, photos, videos and e-mails, turning used phones into a treasure trove for identity thieves and allowing them in effect to buy personal data off the Internet, security experts say….(Washington Post, 21 Oct 06)

Experts create invisibility cloak

A US-British team of scientists has successfully tested a cloak of invisibility in the laboratory….(BBC, 20 Oct 06)

Scientists Create Cloak of Invisibility

…”We have built an artificial mirage that can hide something from would-be observers in any direction,'' said cloak designer David Schurig, a research associate in Duke University's electrical and computer engineering department….(AP, 20 Oct 06)

Agency explores new tool to connect intelligence dots

...The system, which is run by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is in the early research phases and is being tested, in part, with government intelligence that may contain information on U.S. citizens and other people inside the country…(National Journal, 20 Oct 06)

Pentagon Audit Clears Propaganda Effort

…The report said that the secret program, run by the military in conjunction with the Lincoln Group, a Washington contractor, was lawful and that it did not constitute a “covert action” designed to influence the internal political conditions of another country….(New York Times, 20 Oct 06)

Pollard to PM: Your silence costing me my life
Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy jailed in the US for some 21 years, passed on a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in which he criticized the fact that his name did not appear on the list of missing and captives that Olmert read this week in his opening speech of the Knesset's winter session….(Ynet, 20 Oct 06)

Former top spy admits army rigs polls to perpetuate power

A former head of Pakistan’s top spy agency, ISI, has told a meeting here that army regimes in Pakistan only dig themselves deeper into their hole as time passes and they have to rig elections to perpetuate their power….(Gulf-Times, 20 Oct 06)

Brochure explains what spy agencies do

ASIO, ASIS, DIO, DSD, ONA and DIGO - these are the nation's six intelligence agencies and largely, they are quite unfamiliar to most Australians….(The Age, 20 Oct 06)

L.A. Scientist for Boeing Is Focus of Probe

…The warrants remain under seal. Lesnik's attorney, Marc Harris, also declined to talk about the case, other than to dismiss any notion that his client engaged in corporate espionage or turned over information about a U.S. government project to a foreign power….(LA Times, 20 Oct 06)

Court filing defends NSA spy program

The legal brief says Bush acted properly because Congress put the nation on a wartime footing. "This specific authorization, focusing directly on those whom the president determined were responsible for the 9/11 attacks, represents a targeted expansion of the president's statutory authority to address al-Qaida's extraordinary threat," Justice Department lawyers wrote. …(Plain Dealer, 20 Oct 06)

Spying-for-China Scandal

…It seems at first glance like a relatively minor charge, but in fact the analyst had provided many classified documents and information to Chinese military intelligence officers. According to the U.S. attorney, Neil Hammerstein, who handled the case in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, Ronald Montaperto had met over 60 times with two of the Chinese officers, and had provided them with both secret and top secret information….(National Ledger, 20 Oct 06)

House Intel Chair Suspends Staff Member

…''I have no credible information to say any classified information was leaked from the committee's minority staff, but the implications of such would be dramatic,'' LaHood said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press….(AP, 20 Oct 06)

Limits Placed on House Aide After a Leak

… The spokesman, Jamal D. Ware, said the staff member had requested a copy of the intelligence estimate, on terrorism, from the office of the director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte….(New York Times, 20 Oct 06)

Gun-Control Advocate Edward Welles, 85

Edward O. Welles, 85, a former CIA officer who later become the first executive director of the antihandgun organization now known as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, died Oct. 11…After serving in World War II with the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner of the CIA, Mr. Welles joined the spy agency in 1950…..(Washington Post, 20 Oct 06)

Hermann F. Eilts, Adviser to Kissinger on Mideast, Dies

Hermann Frederick Eilts, who as a diplomat in the Middle East helped Henry A. Kissinger with his shuttle diplomacy, nursed President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt through the Camp David peace talks and dodged a Libyan hit team, died Oct. 12…New York Times, 20 Oct 06)

Parts of Canada Secrecy Law Struck Down

…The Ontario Superior Court judgment quashed three sections of the so-called leakage provisions of the federal Security of Information Act, which passed following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks…..(AP, 19 Oct 06)

US slams trial of Bangladeshi editor

…As The Jerusalem Post first reported last month, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the Weekly Blitz newspaper, an English-language publication based in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, faces multiple counts of espionage and sedition in connection with his articles critical of Islamic extremism and favorable to Israel…(Jerusalem Post, 19 Oct 06)

Universities 'asked to act as spies for intelligence services'

…The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) had invited 100 academics to bid for £1.3 million of funding for a research project entitled Combating Terrorism by Countering Radicalization. The project asked academics to “scope the growth in influence and membership of extremist Islamist groups in the past 20 years”, to “name the key figures and groups” and to “understand the use of theological legitimization for violence”….(Times Online, 19 Oct 06)

Terror Suspect Says CIA Recruited Him

A former university professor charged with plotting to bankroll Hamas terrorists was once asked by the CIA whether he wanted a job as a spy, his attorney told a jury Thursday….(AP, 19 Oct 06)

Judge Orders Cheney Visitor Logs Opened

…U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina said Wednesday that, by the end of next week, the Secret Service must produce the records or at least identity them and justify why they are being withheld…(AP, 19 Oct 06)

Intelligence Plan Targets Training, Keeping Personnel

...Among the problems cited by the "Strategic Human Capital Plan" prepared for John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, is an inability to compete with the private sector for the "best and the brightest" workers in language, scientific and technological skills. Security-clearance restrictions have impeded hiring a diverse workforce, including noncitizens with critical expertise in other countries and cultures….(Washington Post, 19 Oct 06)

CIA aims to recruit new spies in area

There are a few things to consider if you're interested in becoming a spy. "Are you persuasive/able to manipulate?" asked the CIA recruiter Wednesday, reading from his Power Point presentation to students at Azusa Pacific University, a private Christian college….(SGV Tribune, 19 Oct 06)

New CNI Poll Shows Americans Wary of Israel Lobby

…The poll suggests that the espionage charges against two employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the publicity given to a new study of the power of the Israel lobby by two mainstream academic professors has had an affect on people’s awareness of the lobby…(American Muslim, 19 Oct 06)

'Earthquake McGoon' Remains Return Home

More than half a century after he died in the flaming crash of a CIA-owned cargo plane and became one of the first two Americans to die in combat in Vietnam, a legendary soldier of fortune known as "Earthquake McGoon" is finally coming home….(AP, 19 Oct 06)

Rafael Quintero, 66, Secret Agent Who Stalked Castro for C.I.A., Dies

Rafael Quintero, a daring secret agent in the most dangerous American covert operations against Fidel Castro, died Oct. 1 in Baltimore. He was 66…In 1960, Mr. Quintero, not yet 21, signed up with the C.I.A. He worked against Cuba side by side with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in the days when the United States tried to kill Mr. Castro….(New York Times, 19 Oct 06)

WSJ Reporter Told HP Leak Probe Details

…In a first-person story on the front page of Thursday's newspaper, reporter Pui-Wing Tam said HP disclosed to her on Wednesday that it hired a security firm that rummaged through the garbage of her suburban home, hoping to glean possible details about her reporting efforts….(AP, 19 Oct 06)

Defendant in Coca-Cola trade secrets theft case seeks trial delay

A former secretary at The Coca-Cola Co. charged with conspiring with two other people to steal trade secrets from the world's largest beverage maker in an effort to sell them to rival PepsiCo Inc. asked Tuesday for her trial to be delayed several months…(AP, 18 Oct 06)

Museum set to add Oswald documents

In 1981, Lee Harvey Oswald's rotting coffin was dug out of a Fort Worth cemetery to put to rest one of the more fanciful conspiracy theories surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination – that a Soviet agent posing as the former Marine sharpshooter was sent to Dallas to kill the president…(Dallas Morning, 18 Oct 06)

Museum Adds Oswald Autopsy Records

Records documenting the 1981 exhumation and autopsy of Lee Harvey Oswald's body will be turned over to a Dallas museum focused on President John F. Kennedy's life and assassination, officials said….(AP, 18 Oct 06)

Chinese Spies Infiltrating US Businesses

The almost legendary MI5 British counterintelligence service is said to be deeply concerned over an increase in spying by Chinese operatives in the United Kingdom. Although intelligence experts aren’t certain how widespread the problem is, they believe the espionage is rampant and a serious consequence of the global economy….(Menswear Daily, 18 Oct 06)

China to blacklist those making, distributing "spyware"

China will blacklist the producers and distributors of spy software, or spyware, in a bid to safeguard Internet safety, Wednesday People's Daily reported…(Xinhua, 18 Oct 06)

We Don't Need Our Own MI5

…Today, FBI intelligence analysts sit side by side with LAPD and sheriff's analysts in a Joint Regional Intelligence Center here. Our investigations are intelligence-driven…(Washington Post, 18 Oct 06)

Six Nigeria spy suspects granted bail

A court in Nigeria's capital Abuja has granted bail to six suspects, including three foreigners, charged with espionage last week, court officials and diplomats said on Tuesday….(IOL, 18 Oct 06)

"Peace loving" grannies arrested at spy base

Two peace campaigning grandmothers were arrested at a US spy base on the day a new Act aimed at terrorism prevention came into force, a court heard yesterday. (Wednesday) Helen John, 68, and Sylvia Boyes, 63, were detained at the Menwith Hill base, near Harrogate, on April 1 and charged with trespassing….(Northeast, 18 Oct 06)

A chink of light in the very secret world of MI5

…A crucial issue in the transformation of the police concerned intelligence sharing - or lack of it - between Special Branch and the rest of the police….(Belfast Telegraph, 18 Oct 06)

NGOs face suspension in Russia

Dozens of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia have been required to suspend operations after missing a deadline to register. ..(BBC, 18 Oct 06)

Romania wants EU-wide intelligence agency

...The EU, rocked by Islamist bombings in Spain and Britain since 2004, has established a small intelligence unit in the office of foreign policy chief Javier Solana to help share counter-terrorism information. But periodic calls from smaller states to establish a "European CIA" have met with no enthusiasm because of the traditional reluctance of intelligence agencies to share their knowledge widely and risk compromising their sources.…(Reuters, 18 Oct 06)

Privacy Group Sues FBI for Database Info

A privacy-advocacy group has sued the U.S. government for information about an FBI database of more than 700 million personal records set up after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks….(AP, 18 Oct 06)

EU delegation takes probe of CIA prisons to Romania
A European Parliament delegation met with Romanian lawmaker Norica Nicolai [in Romanian] on Tuesday as part of its ongoing investigation into allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency held terror suspects in secret prisons throughout eastern Europe as part of its rendition program…(Jurist, 17 Oct 06)

Cunningham Said to Help Two Contractors

…The investigations into Cunningham, Wade and Wilkes have included a number of figures whose alleged roles are only slowly coming into focus. They include the former No. 3 official at the CIA, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who retired this year under a cloud. Five federal agencies are looking into whether he used his position to improperly award classified CIA contracts to Wilkes, a close friend, and to others….(AP, 17 Oct 06)

NATO Intelligence Fusion Center opens in England
U.S. and European military and political leaders gathered here Monday to mark the opening of the NATO Intelligence Fusion Center....(Stars and Stripes, 17 Oct 06)

OSS CEO Announces 15th International Conference on Information Operations, Open Source Intelligence and Peacekeeping Intelligence

Roberto David de Steele y Vivas, former spy, founder of the USMC Intelligence Command, #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction, and CEO of OSS.Net, Inc., is pleased to announce the 15th international conference on Information Operations (IO), Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), and Peacekeeping Intelligence (PKI). Known as IOP '07, this event will take place 14-20 January 2007 in Virginia, just west of Washington, D.C….(Press Release, 17 Oct 06)

Gulf War hostages demand inquiry into British spy claims

…Iraqi soldiers seized the British Airways' Boeing 747 when it landed in Kuwait on August 2, 1990, the day of the invasion. The plane had been carrying more than 300 people and many of them were held for several months and used as human shields against allied bombing of strategic Iraqi sites...(Reuters, 17 Oct 06)

EU lawmakers meet Romanian officials in probe of alleged CIA prisons

European Union lawmakers investigating claims that the CIA held terror suspects at secret prisons in eastern Europe met Tuesday with a senior Romanian lawmaker who led her country's own investigation….(AP, 17 Oct 06)

Georgia's NATO accession still an open question - official

…Speaking at a press conference in Moscow, Ray Henault said NATO's intensified dialogue with non-members is not a guarantee of accession. A decision to take in a new state is usually preceded by lengthy negotiations, and there are certain requirements for aspirants to meet, including interior stability and good relations with neighbors…( RIA Novosti, 17 Oct 06)

Interrogators Beware

On rare occasions, President Bush and his toughest critics agree on something. That will happen today when Bush signs the Military Commissions Act, while claiming "clear" authorization from Congress for "enhanced" CIA interrogations. Many critics claim the bill authorizes torture. Fortunately, both sides are wrong….(Washington Post, 17 Oct 06)

Scouting suit ruling sends wake-up call

…Even in this era of heightened sensitivity to corporate ethics, this form of corporate espionage unique to the ultra-competitive oil business remains widely used and condoned, largely on the premise that it's a long-standing practice….(Financial Post, 17 Oct 06)

Companies finding out the hard way that emails are forever

When new employees start at Goldman Sachs, among the first things they are told is that they should not put anything in an email that they wouldn't want to read in the newspaper….(Australian, 16 Oct 06)

Hayden leading CIA through tough times

It looks the same as ever: The marble floor with its big inlaid eagle emblem. The wall plaque honoring slain agents dating to the 1950s, some represented by stars because their names and missions remain secret….(Tribune Herald, 16 Oct 06)

The New Feudalism

…The system that Putin created in the name of stability may in fact turn out to be deeply unstable. A feudal society like Russia, with its vast network of tribute and patronage, ultimately depends on someone, or something, down near the bottom, actually working and producing money…(Newsweek, 16 Oct 06)

Loss of Personal Data at Federal Agencies Is Widespread

...In all, the committee reported 788 incidents involving the loss or compromise of sensitive information since Jan. 1, 2003. That was in addition to the "hundreds of security and privacy incidents" at the Department of Veterans Affairs….(Washington Post, 16 Oct 06)

Agency will end general screening of job applicants, employees

The Energy Department plans to end its across-the-board polygraph testing of job applicants and employees, according to a rule that department officials published in the Federal Register. The policy change becomes effective Oct. 30….(FCW, 16 Oct 06)

New NATO Intelligence Centre opens in Britain

A new centre to collate and distribute intelligence across NATO is launched by Adam Ingram, Minister for the Armed Forces, and General James Jones, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, at RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire today….(E-Gov Monitor, 16 Oct 06)

UK professors asked to spy on Muslims

Senior university personnel throughout Britain have been asked to spy on Muslim or Asian students who are suspected of being involved in terrorist activities….(Jerusalem Post, 16 Oct 06)

British plan to spy on radical Muslims

A British Government plan to use university staff to spy on "Asian-looking" and Muslim students has been compared with Soviet-style secret police collaborations….(The Age, 16 Oct 07)

Today in History - Oct. 15

In 1917, Dutch dancer Mata Hari, convicted of spying for the Germans, was executed by a French firing squad outside Paris.

FBI unit focuses on links to China
...Now investigators are asking the Department of Justice to charge Lee, an American citizen, and Ge, a Chinese national, with a more serious crime: economic espionage to benefit China. The case highlights China's role as the main adversary in a complex game of 21st-century espionage where many agents aren't trained spies in trench coats, but businessmen, students and researchers. Silicon Valley, counterintelligence experts say, is ground zero….(McClatchy Newspapers, 15 Oct 06)

Turncoat analyst an effective spy for Cuba, book says

Enemies: How America's Foes are Stealing Our Vital Secrets and How We Let it Happen, by Bill Gertz

Cuban spy Ana Belen Montes gave Havana detailed information on U.S. eavesdropping programs against the Castro government, allowing Cuba to mount effective counterintelligence and deception operations for years, according to a new book on U.S. intelligence failures...(Miami Herald, 15 Oct 06)

Women as WWII couriers, Enigma

A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII , by Sarah Helm

During World War II, the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), responsible for espionage and intelligence operations in Nazi-occupied Europe, made the painful decision to use women as couriers in enemy territory. Doing so ran totally counter to military policy. Although the army, air force and navy used uniformed women in clerical jobs, they were "barred from any armed combat." Indeed, no legal authority existed for the sort of guerrilla work that SOE had in mind for females….(Washington Times, 15 Oct 06)