Counterintelligence News for the week of:

October 29-November 4, 2006

U.S. Analysts Had Flagged Atomic Data on Web Site

Two weeks before the government shut down a Web site holding an archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war, scientists at an American weapons laboratory complained that papers on the site contained sensitive nuclear information, federal officials said yesterday. Two documents were quickly removed.....(New York Times, 4 Nov 06)

Former navy captain arrested for spying

Unravelling further links in the navy war room leak case, the CBI has arrested a former navy captain for allegedly stealing "highly classified" documents.....(India Daily, 4 Nov 06)

Lyall Johnson; Atomic Energy Agency Chief

...From 1943 to 1945, Mr. Johnson managed counterintelligence and security activities, initially for the atomic bomb research being conducted at the Radiation Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley under the Manhattan Project,,,(Washington Post, 4 Nov 06)

US: How easy is it to leak documents from top secret facility?

In drug-raid on trailer home of Jessica Quintana, who works at Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in Texas, agents stumble upon extremely sensitive documents taken from facility …(YNet News, 4 Nov 06)

End of the NSA Program?

...The world of real-time intelligence moves almost as fast as the electrons that convey messages over phone lines. The problem is not so much that the FISA court won’t approve terrorist-suspect wiretaps, but the incredible amount of time it takes to pull together the application....(FP, 3 Nov 06)

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Beware the Podslurpers…

....Basically podslurping and camsnuffling are two variations on the same theme – using highly memory intensive mobile devices to connect into a USB or firewire port and remove large amounts of data from the machine or system....(ContractorUK, 3 Nov 06)

Fighting for minds in a war of fear

World War III is already upon us, but many simply refuse to accept it, says a former Israeli Mossad spy chief.....(Sydney Morning Herald, 3 Nov 06)

Leaks About Lawmakers Prompt Warnings

Director Robert S. Mueller III of the F.B.I. has issued a stern message to the bureau’s nearly 30,000 employees warning them against leaks of confidential information after recent news articles disclosed criminal inquiries involving incumbent lawmakers....(New York Times, 3 Nov 06)

Judge Excludes Memory Expert From Libby Trial

....Libby says he had national security issues on his mind and any misstatements he made about the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame's name were mistakes, not lies.....(AP, 3 Nov 06)

Militants behead teacher as alleged US spy in Pakistan tribal area

Pro-Taliban militants beheaded a Muslim seminary teacher after kidnapping him over suspicion that he was spying for the U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan....A letter found nearby read: "Anyone spying for America will face the same fate".....(AP, 3 Nov 06)

Pak Taliban behead "US spy" in Waziristan

....Taliban commanders in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, on Friday addressed a jirga, or tribal council, attended by some 300 tribal elders to issue new rules on punishing collaborators and criminals, as well as for collecting funds to finance their operations.....(Reuters, 3 Nov 06)

Lawyer says classified lab material included paper documents

A former nuclear weapons lab contract worker took home not only classified information on a portable computer storage drive, but also about 200 pages of printed documents, her lawyer said Thursday.....(AP, 3 Nov 06)

Attorney: Archivist under intense pressure

The woman involved in a security investigation at Los Alamos National Laboratory was overworked, not involved in drugs and faced a deadline to get her archiving work completed, her attorney said....(New Mexican, 2 Nov 06)

Probe Into Spy Case to Be Extended

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) Thursday requested a local court to extend the investigation period before indictment for three people who have been arrested on charges of contacting North Korean spies and violating the National Security Law.....(Korea Times, 3 Nov 06)

Labor Party Member Named in Spy Case

The national security branch of the Suwon prosecutors office (Head of department: Kim Ha-Jung) reported yesterday that they are in the middle of an investigation of Mr. Park, the Democratic Labor party member who was arrested by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) on suspicion of leaking military information by smuggling it into North Korea, and for posting propaganda posters on websites.....(Dong-A Ilbo, 3 Nov 06)

Zvi Magen: An identity shaped above all by his time in Military Intelligence

....Magen's knowledge of Russian and his experience as an intelligence officer caught the eye of David Bar-Tov, then head of Nativ. Magen joined the organization, holding posts in the research and intelligence section and then the staff branch, eventually reaching the position of deputy chief of Nativ....(Haaretz, 3 Nov 06)

Paris airport bars 72 employees

Some 72 airport staff, mostly Muslims, have lost their security clearance at France's main airport, Charles de Gaulle in Paris, since May 2005.....(BBC, 3 Nov 06)

'Extremists still working at Paris Airport'

Islamic extremists are likely still working at Paris's main international airport despite the recent withdrawals of security clearance from scores of suspected fundamentalists there....(AFP, 3 Nov 06)

Pak terrorists used codes

.....The duo had N series Nokia cell phones with facilities for sending spy messages. They also had a Hughes satellite phone and always moved together......(NMG, 3 Nov 06)

Khadr helped al-Qaeda with GPS

Abdullah Khadr used a global positioning system to measure the distance between the home of the Pakistani Prime Minister and a graveyard from where a missile attack was to be staged by al-Qaeda operatives....(National Post, 2 Nov 06)

Allow access to security risk files, court tells ASIO

ASIO's chief, Paul O'Sullivan, has suffered a significant defeat in the Federal Court after a judge ruled that lawyers for the US peace activist Scott Parkin can demand access to the spy agency's assessment that he was a security risk to Australia.....(Sydney Morning Herald, 3 Nov 06)

Yemen watch led to ASIO terror raids

LONG before he was arrested in Yemen this week, Marek Samulski was suspected by intelligence services of keeping bad company. The 35-year-old Sydney web-designer of Polish extraction, commonly known as Abdul Malik, was boarding a plane at Sydney airport with his wife and children in August 2004 when ASIO officers swooped.....(Australian, 3 Nov 06)

Kidnapping of Egyptian shines light on U.S. 'extraordinary renditions'

....The abduction of Osama Hassan Mustafa Nasr, known as Abu Omar, is one of the few known cases of supposed "extraordinary rendition" — the secret CIA program of apprehending foreign terror suspects and sending them to third countries, including those that practice torture, for interrogation without court approval.....(San Francisco Chronicle, 3 Nov 06)

U.S. Web Archive Is Said to Reveal a Nuclear Primer

....the site has posted some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb......(New York Times, 3 Nov 06)

US spy chief on secret Iraq mission

John Negroponte, the US national intelligence director, has made an unannounced visit to Baghdad for talks with Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister....(Al-Jazeera, 3 Nov 06)

Pentagon Widens Its Battle to Shape News of Iraq War

....Officials involved say the new effort, which was conceived by Assistant Secretary of Defense Dorrance Smith, is not primarily a response to negative coverage but rather is aimed at more aggressively challenging articles and broadcasts deemed inaccurate and at making better use of podcasts, blogs and other new outlets.....(New York Times, 3 Nov 06)

Discovery of remains causes family feud

The discovery of the remains of a New Jersey man, killed more than half a century ago flying for the CIA in Vietnam, is causing a family feud. James McGovern Jr., who grew up in Elizabeth, may have been the first U.S. casualty in Vietnam....(UPI, 3 Nov 06)

Weldon Gets It Right

I read the book before publication at Weldon’s request and my comment on its cover reads in part as follows: “[it] is a case study of an intelligence failure in the process of happening, with potentially catastrophic consequences for the United States.” Events in the intervening months have made Weldon look wiser and the book’s critics less so.....(Op-ed by former DCI James Woolsey, 3 Nov 06)

Rabinder Singh Charge-sheeted

More than two years after he fled to the US, the Research and Analysis Wing has filed a charge-sheet against dismissed Joint Secretary Rabinder Singh, accused of indulging in espionage....(Chennai Online, 2 Nov 06)

Breach at lab called significant

A significantly larger amount of classified information from a nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico was discovered in a residential trailer during a police search on Oct. 17 than was disclosed by law enforcement officials….(LA Times, 2 Nov 06)

Hong Kong jailed reporter denied chance to defend himself in court, wife says

A Hong Kong reporter jailed by mainland China on spying charges will not have the opportunity to defend himself in person at his appeal hearing, his wife said Thursday. Ching Cheong, a correspondent for Singapore's The Straits Times newspaper, was writing out a statement in his own self-defense…(AP, 2 Nov 06)

Probe Into Spy Case to Be Extended

…The three arrested on charges of contacting North Korean agents in China are: Korean-American businessman Chang Min-ho, 44; student activist-turned-businessman Sohn Chong-mok, 42; and former Democratic Labor Party (DLP) member Lee Jung-hoon, 43. Chang was also charged for visiting North Korea without permission….(Korea Times, 2 Nov 06)

Ned Charles Helf, CIA Editor

Mr. Helf, who worked for the Directorate of Science and Technology in the broadcast service his entire career, was a bureau chief in London, Vienna and Cyprus.....(Washington Post, 2 Nov 06)

Researcher detained over industrial espionage loses suit

The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday turned down a damages suit against the government by a medical researcher who was detained for 57 days in 2004 after being wanted by the U.S. on suspicion of industrial espionage….(Kyodo News, 1 Nov 06)

Los Alamos computer disk was 'traded for meth'

Classified data from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the first US nuclear-weapons lab, turned up last week at the home of a drug dealer in New Mexico. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the breach, the latest in a string of security-related embarrassments for the lab….(Nature, 1 Nov 06)

Spy agencies now share the Wikipedia way

…The system, dubbed Intellipedia because it is built on open-source software from Wikipedia, was launched earlier this year. It already is being used to assemble intelligence reports on Nigeria and other subjects, according to U.S. intelligence officials who on Tuesday discussed the initiative in detail for the first time….(LA Times, 1 Nov 06)

CIA creates computer spy system using Wikipedia's software

The U.S. intelligence community on Tuesday unveiled its own secretive version of Wikipedia saying the popular online encyclopedia format known for its openness is key to the future of American espionage…(Pravda, 1 Nov 06)

Lawyer: Woman in Nuclear Probe Not a Spy

…The FBI began investigating a security breach at the nuclear weapons laboratory after police seized three portable computer storage drives during a drug bust at Jessica Quintana's home on Oct. 17…(AP, 1 Nov 06)

Background Checks Take Too Much Time, GAO Says

The Bush administration appears at risk of missing a deadline set by Congress aimed at shortening the time it takes to investigate federal employees and contractors for security clearances and determine whether they can be trusted with classified information…..(Washington Post, 1 Nov 06)

Will Porter Goss Tell All?
…The former director of the Central Intelligence Agency — and the last man to head the U.S. intelligence community in the storied old post of Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) — tells TIME he's giving serious consideration to writing a book about his experience….(Time Magazine, 1 Nov 06)

Professor in Practice of Intelligence Established

Georgetown University’s Center for Peace and Security Studies (CPASS) and the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) announce the establishment of the INSA Professor in the Practice of Intelligence for the 2006-2007 academic year. Distinguished Professor Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr., USAF (Ret.), formerly director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, will hold the one-year position and teach three courses exposing Georgetown students to the complex concerns of intelligence professionals…(Georgetown University, 1 Nov 06)

Spy Suspects Receive Money From North

Three people who were accused of being North Korean spies received at least $19,000 from the North for their spying, according to the prosecution and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) yesterday….(Korea Times, 1 Nov 06)

South Korea President Names New Security Team

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Wednesday named a new security team in his cabinet just as North Korea announced it would return to talks to end its nuclear weapons program…(Reuters, 1 Nov 06)

Darrell R. Eglin CIA Analyst

Darrell R. Eglin, 85, an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency who later wrote about economics of foreign countries, died Oct. 18…(Washington Post, 1 Nov 06)

Ex-FBI Agent Gets Probation, Fine In Spy Leak Case

A federal judge sentenced a former FBI agent to a year of probation and fined her $1,000 yesterday for disclosing details of an espionage investigation to the target of the probe. Lawyers for the ex-agent, Denise Woo, said the outcome was a triumph for their client, who pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge in a plea bargain with prosecutors….(New York Sun, 31 Oct 06)

Ex-FBI agent is sentenced in plea agreement

Seven years after she was suspended for allegedly disclosing classified material to a suspected Chinese spy, former FBI agent Denise K. Woo was sentenced Monday to probation and a $1,000 fine for improperly sharing confidential information, a misdemeanor….(LA Times, 31 Oct 06)

Attorneys: No Backstory in CIA Leak Case

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby agree on something: keeping Libby's perjury trial in the CIA leak case focused solely on his actions….(AP, 31 Oct 06)

U.S. intelligence unveils spy version of Wikipedia

The office of U.S. intelligence czar John Negroponte announced Intellipedia, which allows intelligence analysts and other officials to collaboratively add and edit content on the government's classified Intelink Web much like its more famous namesake on the World Wide Web…..(Reuters, 31 Oct 06)

Bahrain clamps down on talks of 'spy' allegations

Bahrain has censored local and foreign Internet sites for discussing a report by an alleged British spy who claimed to have uncovered a plot to maintain Sunni domination of the Gulf kingdom…(Agence France-Presse, 31 Oct 06)

More requests for phone tapping documents

Several prominent Icelanders, relatives of deceased persons suspected of having had their phones tapped during the Cold War, have requested that the National Archives of Iceland hand over documents concerning whether or not their relatives were the focus of espionage....(Iceland Review, 31 Oct 06)

South Korean party hit by spy case heads North

Top officials of a leftist South Korean political party, some of whose members have been arrested on suspicion of spying for the North, arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday for high-level talks and a possible meeting with leader Kim Jong-il….(Reuters, 31 Oct 06)

Classified info leak: Colonel held guilty
…The court martial, chaired by Brigadier P S Minhas, has held that Colonel Deepak Raina should be dismissed from service for allowing his clerk, Lance Naik Mohammed Javed Khan, to leak classified material to Pakistan….(1^st Times News, 31 Oct 06)

Appeal postponed for Hong Kong reporter convicted in China

…The Beijing High Court was to have finished hearing the appeal of Ching Cheong, a correspondent for The Straits Times newspaper of Singapore, by the middle of October….(AP, 31 Oct 06)

Former KGB officer visits Patrick Henry College

Anonymous letters and death threats still find their way into the now-peaceful suburban life of Oleg Kalugin, serving as reminders of his 32 years with the KGB….(Times Community, 31 Oct 06)

Voting Machine Firm Denies Chavez Ties

The nation's third-largest supplier of electronic voting machines said yesterday that it asked the federal government to review its purchase by a company controlled by Venezuelans to allay concerns that it is influenced by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez….(Washington Post, 31 Oct 06)

Prosecution shares phone evidence in case

Copies of more than 100 phone calls intercepted by the government were handed over Monday to the defense attorney representing Amen Ahmed Ali, the Bakersfield man accused of trying to acquire and sell defense secrets and stolen military equipment. The calls are part of the prosecution's evidence against Ali and were recorded under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act…..(Bakersfield Californian, 30 Oct 06)

Washington and Beijing hope for espionage-proof embassies

...In a bid to keep out eavesdropping devices and prevent other espionage threats at the new embassies, they have imported their own workers and building materials and equipment for the construction of key portions of the missions in Washington and Beijing, officials and experts say….(Agence France-Presse, 30 Oct 06)

Prosecutor Argues Issues for Leak Trial

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald told a federal judge Monday that he shouldn't have to explain during the upcoming trial of a former White House aide why nobody was charged with leaking the identity of a CIA operative….(AP, 30 Oct 06)

Clearance applications not processed within target times

Processing times for security clearance requests exceed Bush administration goals, and Pentagon contractors with unresolved issues in their applications are granted Top Secret credentials frequently, according to a new Government Accountability Office report….(Gov Exec, 30 Oct 06)

China court denies espionage appeal for Singapore reporter
A Beijing court has denied an appeal hearing for Ching Cheong, who was convicted in August on charges of spying for Taiwan. Ching, the chief China correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times, was sentenced to five years in jail by a Chinese court in August after being convicted of selling state secrets….(Jurist, 30 Oct 06)

The European Commission has said it will not be looking into the procurement of the Security Service’s interception technology – the eavesdropping equipment being supplied by Israeli company Verint, which has reportedly close links to the Israeli government….(Malta Today, 30 Oct 06)

Colonel dismissed for leaking information
A general court martial has dismissed a colonel from service over the leak of highly sensitive military information, which was reportedly passed on to Pakistani intelligence by an army jawan posted as a clerk in his office, it is learnt…..(Tribune India, 30 Oct 06)

Espionage probe

…One of them is suspected of being a resident agent for the past 10 years, the intelligence agency says. Two others are an incumbent and a former official of the leftist Democratic Labor Party, which has been most vocal in demanding assistance for North Korea…(Korea Herald, 30 Oct 06)

Book Paints Escape-Artist Houdini As Spy

Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero, by William Kalush and Larry Sloman

…A new biography of the legendary performer suggests that Houdini worked as a spy for Scotland Yard, monitored Russian anarchists and chased counterfeiters for the U.S. Secret Service _ all before he was possibly murdered….(AP, 29 Oct 06)

U.S. Investigates Voting Machines’ Venezuela Ties

…The concerns about possible ties between the owners of Smartmatic and the Chávez government have been well known to United States foreign-policy officials since before the 2004 recall election in which Mr. Chávez, a strong ally of President Fidel Castro of Cuba, won by an official margin of nearly 20 percent….(New York Times, 29 Oct 06)

Hey, Let's Play Ball

...Dubbed the Summer Hard Problems workshop, or SHARP, the program is modeled after a highly successful project by the code-breaking National Security Agency, which for years has brought in top mathematicians to tackle cutting-edge issues in encryption. SHARP similarly threw together leading specialists, but from the social sciences: experts in anthropology, social psychology, insurgency, and Islamic thought, among other fields.….(US News, 29 Oct 06)

The Eye of The Storm

…Housed in an unmarked office complex in Northern Virginia, the National Counterterrorism Center has become the centerpiece of reform efforts to integrate the far-flung intelligence community. The NCTC was created in the wake of the September 11 attacks to reduce the gulf between America's spy agencies and domestic law enforcemen…..(US News, 29 Oct 06)

Cecil Wilson FBI Administrator

Cecil Train Wilson, 87, an administrator for FBI field service agents, died Oct. 23…(Washington Post, 29 Oct 06)

South Florida a hotspot for retired intelligence agents
Where do former CIA agents go when they come in from the cold? Many are finding steamy South Florida the ideal place to parlay intelligence skills into second careers and business rewards …..(Monterey Herald, 29 Oct 06)

Jailed HK reporter's appeal to be heard in Nov.: report

…The Straits Times said the appeal by its chief China correspondent Ching Cheong was originally scheduled to be heard by the end of October, but his lawyers said the Beijing High Court had applied for a 30-day extension. …(China Post, 29 Oct 06)

Operation Conspiracy
A Canadian family of one-time Polish aristocrats has claimed in court that the CIA conspired with Poland’s former Communist regime to imprison their father and acquire his stately home for the U.S. Embassy….(Canadian Press, 29 Oct 06)