Counterintelligence News for the week of:

September 17-23, 2006

In 1780, British spy John Andre was captured along with papers revealing Benedict Arnold's plot to surrender West Point to the British….(AP, 23 Sep 06)

Man Arrested for Being Saddam Hussein's US Spy

…William Shaoul Benjamin, 64, was arrested by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agents took him into custody last week on charges that he conspired with others to act as an agent of the Iraqi government without notifying the Attorney General of the United States, as required by law…..(Common Voice, 23 Sep 06)

Feds Seek to Block Oregon Spying Case

U.S. Justice Department lawyers filed an appeal Friday aimed at blocking a lawsuit by a former Islamic charity that has challenged a Bush administration secret surveillance program….(AP, 23 Sep 06)

Peru Ex-Spymaster Sentenced to 20 Years

Peru's former spymaster was sentenced to 20 years in prison for engineering a deal that sent 10,000 assault rifles to Colombian guerrillas, the harshest verdict yet against the powerbroker behind ex-President Alberto Fujimori's autocratic regime. Vladimiro Montesinos, 61, appeared impassive as a tribunal of judges on Thursday declared him guilty…(AP, 22 Sep 06)

Briton was spy, says Bahrain

Authorities in Bahrain have charged a Briton of Sudanese origin with spying, a few days after he was expelled from the kingdom amid accusations of espionage….(Gulf-Times, 22 Sep 06)

National Memory Institute published communist files

Slovakia became the first post-communist state to have published the files of its former intelligence service after the National Memory Institute (ÚPN) revealed the secrets of the ŠtB secret agency yesterday….(Slovak Spectator, 22 Sep 06)

As Army Adds Interrogators, It Outsources Training

…One little-publicized problem in Iraq has been the paucity of intelligence for tactical, or day-to-day, use by commanders on the ground, and the lack of trained Army personnel to do the job. CIA officials have said privately that they have been forced to strip stations in Europe and elsewhere to provide case officers for tours in Iraq…..(Washington Post, 23 Sep 06)

China Tried To Blind U.S. Sats With Laser

China has fired high-power lasers at U.S. spy satellites flying over its territory in what experts see as a test of Chinese ability to blind the spacecraft, according to sources. It remains unclear how many times a ground-based laser was tested against U.S. spacecraft or whether it was successful….(Defense News, 22 Sep 06)

Libby Plans to Testify in CIA Leak Trial

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff plans to take the stand at his upcoming trial to tell jurors that he never lied to investigators in the CIA leak case…(AP, 22 Sep 06)

1,100 Laptops Missing From Commerce Dept.

More than 1,100 laptop computers have vanished from the Department of Commerce since 2001, including nearly 250 from the Census Bureau containing such personal information as names, incomes and Social Security numbers, federal officials said yesterday…(Washington Post, 22 Sep 06)

Another way to snoop

Here's another word to add to your vocabulary: pretexting. It's when an individual impersonates another person, employs false pretenses or otherwise uses trickery to obtain records. This form of espionage came to light with the snooping scandal at Silicon Valley's Hewlett-Packard Co….(Sacramento Bee, 22 Sep 06)

Pham Xuan An Dies at 79; Reporter Spied for Hanoi

Pham Xuan An, who led a double life as a trusted reporter for Western news organizations during the Vietnam War while spying for North Vietnam, died Wednesday in Ho Chi Minh City. He was 79.His death, at a military hospital, was reported by his son Pham Xuan Hoang An….(New York Times, 22 Sep 06)

White House, Senators Near Pact on Interrogation Rules
The White House and dissident Senate Republicans reached a tentative accord yesterday on legislation that President Bush said would provide for continued tough interrogations of terrorism suspects by the CIA at secret detention sites…(Washington Post, 22 Sep 06)

Hijackers Were Not Identified Before 9/11, Investigation Says

… In a 90-page report released yesterday, Pentagon officials said that the recollections of several officials involved in the "Able Danger" data-mining operation "were not accurate" and that a chart they said included a blurry image of Atta and his name never existed….(Washington Post, 22 Sep 06)

Supporters call for release of `Cuban Five'

A quest to see five Cuban men convicted in 2001 of spying on the United States freed from prison made it to the nation's capital Thursday, with advocates arguing that they were in this country to fight terrorism directed at Cuba….(Miami Herald, 21 Sep 06)

West Hills Man Indicted on Charges of Spying for Hussein in the 1990s

A 64-year-old man from West Hills has been indicted on charges that he secretly worked for Saddam Hussein's intelligence services throughout the 1990s by infiltrating groups in the United States considered hostile to the former Iraqi regime, the FBI announced Wednesday. William Shaoul Benjamin was arrested Sept. 14 for allegedly acting as a foreign agent…(LA Times, 21 Sep 06)

DoD Cuts Ribbon on Joint Intelligence Resource Center
In keeping with the high-tech nature of intelligence collection today, officials snipped a ribbon in cyberspace to open U.S. Strategic Command's Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance here Sept. 13….( American Forces Press, 21 Sep 06)

Feds Ask Court to Drop Wiretapping Case

The Bush administration asked an appeals court Thursday to step in immediately and dismiss a lawsuit over the government's warrantless eavesdropping program, calling a lower judge's ruling dangerous and wrong…..(AP, 21 Sep 06)

Ex-Cheney Aide Handed Initial Victory

A ruling by a federal judge Thursday could make it easier for Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff to use classified documents in his trial in the CIA leak case….(AP, 21 Sep 06)

CIA officers refused to work at secret prisons: report

The Bush administration emptied its CIA prisons and transferred top terrorism suspects to Guantanamo Bay partly because CIA officers refused to carry out interrogations, the Financial Times reported on Thursday….(Reuters, 21 Sep 06)

US still lacks understanding of al Qaeda - report

…The intelligence community has only a single office devoted to understanding political Islam -- the CIA's Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program, created in 2004 to study the issue, advise policymakers and engage academics worldwide…(Reuters, 21 Sep 06)

House panel endorses controversial spy bill

Republicans on a key congressional committee on Wednesday approved legislation they described as a necessary rewrite to electronic surveillance law but attacked by Democrats, civil libertarians and technology advocacy groups as flawed and unconstitutional….(CNet, 21 Sep 06)

German police shadowed man before CIA seized him: witness

German police were shadowing Khaled el-Masri and exchanging information on him with U.S. authorities before he was seized by the CIA and taken to Afghanistan, a German federal policeman said on Thursday….(Reuters, 21 Sep 06)

Internal Probe into Alleged Spying

Justice Minister Clemente Mastella has tasked government inspectors with establishing whether ministry staff were involved in a network accused of illegally gathering data on thousands of Italians….(ANSA, 21 Sep 06)

Probe into Italy phone 'spy ring'

... The news comes a day after police said they had arrested 20 people as part of an investigation into the case. Prosecutors say the spy ring taped the phone conversations of politicians, industrialists and even footballers….(BBC, 21 Sep 06)

Briton charged with spying after Bahrain expulsion
Authorities in Bahrain have charged a Briton of Sudanese origin with spying, a few days after he was expelled from the kingdom amid accusations of espionage…(Agence Presse-France, 21 Sep 06)

New book reveals FBI did not suspect Pollard ties to Israel

Capturing Jonathan Pollard, by Ronald J. Olive

Prior to Jonathan Pollard's failed attempt to seek refuge in the Israeli Embassy in Washington on November 21, 1985, the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not suspect that he may have been spying for Israel. In fact, even though he was a civilian analyst for U.S. Naval Intelligence, the FBI did not even know that Pollard was Jewish….(Haaretz, 21 Sep 06)

Alleged US spy shot dead in Pakistani tribal area

A note saying the man was spying for the US-backed government in neighboring Afghanistan was left with the corpse dumped at a check-post near Miranshah, the main town in lawless North Waziristan district….(Agence France-Presse, 21 Sep 06)

Spies Among Us? Corporate Espionage Is Big Business

…Corporate spying to protect information crucial to a product's development or marketing is not new in America. It's sometimes called "competitive intelligence" and is practiced by no fewer than 5,000 corporate spies, according to Business Week magazine….(ABC, 21 Sep 06)

HP Spied on More Than Phone Calls

…Private investigators working for the company tailed HP's own directors, set up phony news sources and even tried installing spyware on the computer of one, according to an internal Feb. 10 report obtained by The Times….(LA Times, 21 Sep 06)

HP CEO Allowed 'Sting' of Reporter
…(Washington Post, 21 Sep 06)

The Journalist Who Spied

The Vietnam war produced astonishing stories and personalities. But nothing quite like Time correspondent Pham Xuan An. An's secret life as a spy for Hanoi was not uncovered till long after the fall of Saigon….(Time Magazine, 21 Sep 06)

FBI: LA man allegedly worked for Saddam Hussein's regime
A man accused of collecting intelligence for Saddam Hussein's regime during the 1990s was indicted on charges of failing to register as an agent of a foreign government, authorities said Wednesday. William Shaoul Benjamin, 64, of Los Angeles also faces charges of making false statements and conspiracy…(AP, 20 Sep 06)

Brother gives glimpse of Ching's patriotic side
Behind bars somewhere in Beijing, Hong Kong-based journalist Ching Cheong has become a cause celebre in the pages of the local and international press. But for a year and a half, he has only been heard from in glimpses and snatches….(Standard, 20 Sep 06)

Earle Franklin Thorsen CIA Finance Officer

Earle Franklin Thorsen, 72, a former finance officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, died Sept. 7…(AP, 20 Sep 06)

Extensive Spying Found At HP
The Hewlett-Packard Co. spying effort that has sparked criminal investigations was wide-ranging and included physical surveillance, photographs and spyware sent via e-mail, and it also targeted wives and other relatives of HP board members and reporters, according to a consultant's report prepared for the company….(Washington Post, 20 Sep 06)

Lockyer Probe of HP Spying Reaches to '05

The criminal investigation into corporate spying at Hewlett Packard Co. extends as far back as early 2005, suggesting that the company began prying into private phone records long before the current scandal….(LA Times, 20 Sep 06)

Court acquits SAS unit of stealing trade secrets; orders fine on lesser charge

A Norwegian court on Wednesday cleared a local unit of Scandinavian Airlines Systems of stealing trade secrets from a smaller rival….(AP, 20 Sep 06)

Senators Seek to Declassify Report Info

… It's the first time lawmakers have appealed to the Public Interest Declassification Board since it was established in 2004 as a place for members of Congress to appeal if they think federal agencies are unnecessarily classifying material in the name of national security….(AP, 20 Sep 06)

White House Drops a Condition on Interrogation Bill

… The new White House position, sent to Capitol Hill on Monday night, set off intensified negotiations between administration officials and a small group of Republican senators. …(New York Times, 20 Sep 06)

Compromise Offered on Surveillance Bill

….(AP, 20 Sep 06)

Dissidents' Detainee Bill May Face Filibuster

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist signaled yesterday that he and other White House allies will filibuster a bill dealing with the interrogation and prosecution of detainees if they cannot persuade a rival group of Republicans to rewrite key provisions opposed by President Bush…..(Washington Post, 20 Sep 06)

DHS aims to keep more about security clearance applications secret

...In a recent proposed rule published in the Federal Register, DHS stated that it is seeking to exempt parts of its Office of Security File System from the privacy law. The file system will be used beginning Oct. 12 and will contain documentation of background reviews for clearances and espionage investigations, …(Gov Exec, 20 Sep 06)

Vietnam Double-Agent Pham Xuan an Dies

Pham Xuan An, who led a remarkable and perilous double life as a communist spy and a respected reporter for Western news organizations during the Vietnam War, died Wednesday at age 79….(AP, 20 Sep 06)

Pentagon to release report on September 11 claims

The Pentagon's inspector general will release a report in the coming days that is expected to refute claims that an Army intelligence unit had information that could have thwarted the September 11 attacks…(Reuters, 20 Sep 06)

Administration Opposes Shield Law

The No. 2 official at the Justice Department said Wednesday that a shield law for reporters would encourage leaks of classified information….(AP, 20 Sep 06)

Wartime Vietnamese spy An dies at 78: official

Pham Xuan An, a Vietnamese spy who worked for Reuters and Time magazine in Saigon during the U.S. war in Vietnam, died on Wednesday after a long illness…(Reuters, 20 Sep 06)

Enemies Within

Bill Gertz is long-time defense and national-security reporter for the Washington Times. Today he is out with a new book, Enemies: How America’s Foes Steal Our Vital Secrets—and How We Let It Happen, about which he took some questions from NRO editor Kathryn Lopez….(National Review, 20 Sep 06)

ENEMIES

(Part 3 of 3)

Bill Gertz, defense and national security reporter for The Washington Times, describes a growing threat posed by foreign agents and terrorists who exploit U.S. weaknesses in this second of three excerpt from his new book, "Enemies: How America's Foes Steal Our Vital Secrets -- And How We Let It Happen" (Crown Forum), out this week.…(Washington Times, 20 Sep 06)

ENEMIES

(Part 2 of 3)

….(Washington Times, 19 Sep 06)

Fumbled China spy probe an intelligence failure

Enemies: How America's Foes Steal Our Vital Secrets -- And How We Let It Happen, by Bill Getz (Part 1 of 2)

…Investigators say Tai Mak's brother, Chi Mak, headed a family spy ring in Los Angeles. After his Oct. 28 arrest by the FBI, Chi Mak, a naturalized citizen and electrical engineer with a major American defense contractor, told investigators that he had supplied sensitive Navy weapons secrets to the Chinese since 1983….(Washington Times, 18 Sep 06)

French spy, Resistance heroine dies in New York hospital at 85

Helene Deschamps Adams, a daring World War II spy and French Resistance fighter who saved American fliers from capture and Jews from execution by the Nazis and played a role in secret preparations for Allied invasions of France, died Saturday…(AP, 19 Sep 06)

Intelligence 'at core' of terrorism prevention

…Professor Desmond Cahill, from RMIT University, has told the fifth Homeland Security Summit in Canberra that the use of intelligence and technology are at the core of the solution….(ABC, 19 Sep 06)

Catholic Church Reveals World War II Secrets

While the Vatican this week has been dealing with the controversy surrounding Pope Benedict's comments on Islam, it also is bracing for another potentially divisive issue: Nazi's, Jews and the Catholic Church during World War II. This week, the keepers of the secret archives, acting on orders from the late John Paul II, opened files covering a 17-year period preceding the war….(ABC, 19 Sep 06)

Bakersfield men accused of selling secrets to Yemen

Two Bakersfield men and a third from Texas are accused of sending secret defense information and stolen military equipment to Yemen. Under indictment by a Fresno federal grand jury are Amen Ahmed Ali, 56, and Mohamed Al-Rahimi, 62, both of Bakersfield along with a Fort Worth, Texas, man, says U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott in Fresno….(Central Valley Business Times, 19 Sep 06)

Beware The Ipod. Undetectable Corporate Espionage Now Possible

Your ipod and many other mp3 players are a soon-to-be corporate nightmare for many big or high potential companies. Why….(Security Pro News, 19 Sep 06)

Mediware of Lenexa sues over trade secrets

…The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in Kansas City, Kan., claims that McKesson obtained Mediware trade secrets “through improper means.:…(Kansas City Star, 19 Sep 06)

Espionage at HP

…Faced with the likelihood that one of her board members leaked information, Dunn should have confronted the board directly, required that they respect proprietary information, asked the leaker to make himself known, and kicked him off the board. Instead, she engaged in espionage, and thereby turned a internal board flap into a possible criminal case….(Tennessean, 19 Sep 06)

Investigations of employees aren't unusual

…McLaughlin says the job of corporate investigators is more necessary than ever, given growing problems such as corporate espionage, piracy, counterfeiting, and physical theft.…(Mercury News, 19 Sep 06)

New Chief Is Critical Of Barriers Within CIA

...Four months after taking over, Hayden presented his strategic vision to a CIA workforce that has been battered by years of investigations into the failures of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and prewar intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs, as well as a reorganization that lowered the agency's status with the creation of a director of national intelligence….(Washington Post, 19 Sep 06)

White House Offers New Proposal on Interrogations

White House officials sent Congress a revised proposal last night on rules governing the interrogation of detainees at secret CIA prisons, bending to the opposition of a growing group of Republicans who have balked at President Bush's proposal on military trials for suspected terrorists….(Washington Post, 19 Sep 06)

Experts Say Bush’s Goal in Terrorism Bill Is Latitude for Interrogators’ Methods

In his showdown with rebellious Senate Republicans over bills to bring terrorism suspects to trial, President Bush has repeatedly called for clarity in the rules for what he calls “alternative interrogation techniques” used by the Central Intelligence Agency ….(New York Times, 19 Sep 06)

CHINA: Ching wants spy verdict quashed, not just leniency

Journalist Ching Cheong is fighting for his conviction of spying for Taiwan to be dropped in his appeal, not just for a more lenient sentence, his wife said yesterday….(South China Morning Post, 18 Sep 06)

Attorney to seek bail in case of defense secrets

…Attorney David Torres said Monday he plans to request another hearing to consider bail for Amen Ahmed Ali before the next court date in the case scheduled for the end of October. A status conference scheduled for Monday was moved to Oct. 30 so Torres can review what has been described as volumes of evidence in the case….(Bakersfield, 18 Sep 06)

EU's Barroso unaware of secret CIA flights

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso did not authorize and was not even aware of any secret CIA flights through Portugal when he was prime minister, his spokesman said on Monday….(Reuters, 18 Sep 06)

Banned spy novel published on net

Sacked spy Richard Tomlinson has defied the UK's secret services by posting the first chapter of his spy novel online. The ex-MI6 officer was fired in 1995 after four years in the foreign arm of British secret intelligence and spent a year in a maximum security prison for publishing a book about his time in the organization….(Register, 18 Sep 06)

US Army Counter Intelligence Officer Arrested in Moscow

A 29-year-old American Army intelligence officer, Christopher Garner, serving at US Fort Bragg Base, NC, has been arrested in Moscow with his Ukrainian wife Svetlana on charges of murdering the husband of Svetlana's aunt of in the Far-Eastern Russian town of Khabarovsk on September 7….(Kavkaz Center, 18 Sep 06)

Vodafone risks massive fine in Greek scandal

…Most of the spying, now dubbed the 'Greek Watergate' took place in the run-up to, and during, the August 2004 Athens Olympics when Greece was under intense pressure to purchase costly security systems from its NATO allies…(Guardian, 18 Sep 06)

New intelligence heads could be appointed in one month
During the weekend, the prime minister made several statements regarding hot political issues, such as the intelligence interims and the National Integrity Agency….(Bucharest Daily, 18 Sep 06)

New rule on spying goes to Congress

Under the pressure of a hotly contested national election, Congress is on the verge of approving the most sweeping changes to government spying powers in a generation….(Baltimore Sun, 18 Sep 06)

Security probes hold up diplomats

Dozens of Foreign Service officers say their careers are in ruins because their security clearances were suspended based on suspicions or unsubstantiated accusations. Several have accused the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) in interviews of "abusing the security clearance process" by punishing "whistleblowing, dissenting viewpoints or minor acts of possible misfeasance unrelated to national security."…(Washington Times, 18 Sep 06)

CIA Reviewing Use of Contractors

CIA Director Michael Hayden is reviewing his agency's use of private contractors and the number of people who are resigning to fill the often lucrative positions….(AP, 18 Sep 06)

Spy Agencies Outsourcing to Fill Key Jobs

…The post-9/11 period has brought sweeping changes to the U.S. intelligence community. Spy budgets have swelled by more than $10 billion a year, and agencies have seen their roles and authorities altered by legislation….(LA Times, 17 Sep 06)

A Guide to the Terrorism Bills

Much of Bush's war on terrorism has been waged in the shadows. But with secret surveillance and detention programs now exposed, the Administration has been forced to reckon with the lights, and the law….(Time Magazine, 17 Sep 06)

Witness: Iraqi spy agency was lacking

If an Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) agent who testified in a case against a Des Plaines man is to be believed, the much-vaunted intelligence agency wasn’t very good at the intelligence part of its job. Muhammed Al-Dani, a former secret agent of the IIS, testified Friday that his agency couldn’t even counterfeit a U.S. passport or keep agent files in order….(Daily Herald, 17 Sep 06)

Japan to consider easing spy-satellite law

…A bill drafted by the Liberal Democratic Party would allow Japan to use space for "defense purposes," which in this day and age would include monitoring the nuclear program of nearby North Korea with better imaging technology….(UPI, 17 Sep 06)

Vietnam TV makes documentary on famous spy

The state-run Ho Chi Minh City Television Film Studio is making a 10-part documentary on Pham Xuan An, a Vietnamese secret agent who contributed to the country’s victories over France and the US….(Thanh Nien News, 17 Sep 06)

The unforgiven spy

Goronwy Rees was a brilliant intellectual whose admission that he had spied for the Soviets along with Guy Burgess led to a spectacular fall from grace…(IC Wales, 17 Sep 06)

Navy Capt. Jay Coupe Jr.; Joint Chiefs Spokesman

Jay Coupe Jr., 65, who died Sept. 13…he was a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and had escorted U.S. prisoners of war home from North Vietnam in 1973…(Washington Post, 17 Sep 06)

Look at birth of the Cold War is simply chilly

HOW THE COLD WAR BEGAN: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies, by Amy Knight

On Sept. 5, 1945, Igor Gouzenko left his post at the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa for the last time. Gouzenko, a cipher clerk for Red Army Intelligence, the GRU, had, along with his wife, made a momentous decision - to defect and bring along documentation detailing the Soviet Union's extensive espionage operations in Canada….(Star-Banner, 17 Sep 06)