Counterintelligence News for the week of: April 1-7, 2007

Read article--The Crossroads of History: The Struggle against Jihad and Supremacist Ideologies

"....The true challenge of Islamic supremacism to America and the free world is not about Islam, Islamism, or terrorism, but about us.

It is a historic challenge to determine whether we truly have the courage of our convictions on equality and liberty and we are willing to fight for these ideals, or if we will instead accept the continuing growth of anti-freedom ideologies here and around the world...."

Counterintelligence News for the week of:

April 1-7, 2007

Joseph A. Yager Foreign Service Officer

Joseph A. Yager, 90, a retired Foreign Service officer and an expert on China and Asian strategic issues, died April 5… During World War II, he worked in the Office of Price Administration, where he helped administer gas rationing. He also served in the Army in China. Working in collaboration with the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency, he collected information about roads, bridges and infrastructure in those areas of southern China not controlled by the Japanese…..(Washington Post, 7 Apr 07)

Author's info on China test site banned
Danny Stillman has been waiting a little more than seven years to hear if his book on the birth of the Chinese nuclear weapons program could be published… Last week, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., dismissed Stillman's challenge to the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense, about "23 passages" of the manuscript they claimed to be classified….(LA Monitor, 7 Apr 07)

Intelligence Chief Finds That Challenges Abound

…Some of the problems remain outside Mr. McConnell’s control. The White House has not selected a deputy to fill the vacancy created 10 months ago when Gen. Michael V. Hayden was tapped to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. Officials said the empty post was creating significant problems at the top of an intelligence apparatus installed just two years ago to protect the United States from another terrorist attack….(New York Times, 7 Apr 07)

U.S. Denies Iranian Claim of CIA Torture

An Iranian diplomat freed two months after being abducted in Iraq accused the CIA of torturing him during his detention, state television reported Saturday. The United States immediately denied any involvement in the Iranian's disappearance or release…..(AP, 7 Apr 07)

Accused spy charged with pretending to be with FBI

An Oak Lawn man accused of spying on Bridgeview grocer Mohammed Salah for the government now is jailed on charges he pretended to be an FBI agent. Jawad Al-Arouri, also known as Jack Mustafa, is charged with impersonating a federal officer after parading around with a gun and using his phony ties to the FBI to try to finagle some $500,000 from an unnamed individual about to travel overseas, according to the criminal complaint made public Friday…Al-Arouri was going to be a government witness against Salah, who faced racketeering charges alleging he conspired to raise money for the Palestinian militant group, Hamas….(Daily Southtown, 7 Apr 07)

On the Cuban Five and Luis Posada Carriles

...The case of the Five is one of the most unjust cases in the history of United States jurisprudence. The Five did not come to the United States, as the prosecutor on three different occasions stated in the trial, "to destroy the United States." ....(CounterPunch, 6 Apr 07)

Suspected spy worked for U.S. immigration

Federal investigators in Washington believe an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen suspected of being a spy was hired to screen and rule on U.S. asylum applications. Michael Maxwell, the former head of the Office of Security and Investigations at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told The Washington Times the unidentified man judged 180 asylum applications while at USCIS. That is the agency that also rules on green cards, citizenship and employment authorization….(UPI, 6 Apr 07)

Former spy shadows Putin for throne

Sergei Ivanov walks and talks like a man who wants to be the next president of Russia, except for one thing: he has not said he is running for the job......The 54-year-old worked as a spy in Scandinavia, Africa and Western Europe. The period left its mark: Ivanov speaks fluent English, though he prefers not to use it in public, and has a taste for English espionage novels.....(Reuters, 6 Apr 07)

Author Suggests Alger Hiss Wasn't a Spy

An author who has researched the Cold War's most famous espionage case said new evidence suggests another U.S. diplomat, not Alger Hiss, was the Soviet agent who fed U.S. secrets to Moscow......Author Kai Bird said there was new evidence to suggest that the real spy was another U.S. official named Wilder Foote. Hiss was accused of feeding secrets to the Soviet military intelligence agency GRU under the code name Ales......The key, according to Bird, was that Ales' contact at the Soviet embassy in Washington would have known that Hiss, a top-tier diplomat who later played a key role in founding the United Nations, had returned from Mexico City, whereas Ales was known to have remained there.....(AP, 6 Apr 07)

Online, no one knows you. Really?

.....Over the past few years, a number of Web sites -- Spyspace, Trakzor, ProfileSnoop, MixMaps, WhosViewedMe -- have sprung up to allow social networking site users to spy and be spied on.....(San Francisco Chronicle, 6 Apr 07)

2nd ex-Iraqi agent calls Des Plaines man spy
....The onetime agent, using the pseudonym "Mr. Ali," testified on the third day of the federal trial of Sami Khoshaba Latchin. He told jurors that Latchin was handpicked in the 1990s for a secret plan known as "the planting operation." "Mr. Sami would be sent to America, and he would stay there for a long period of time," Ali said through a translator. "And that plan came as a result of a command from President Saddam [Hussein] to plant certain individuals and sources and agents in certain capitals.".....(Chicago Tribune, 6 Apr 07)

Counterintelligence in an Uncertain World

....Counterintelligence, as a function of intelligence agencies, however, goes well beyond detecting and monitoring the activities of foreign intelligence services and investigating employees suspected of espionage. Counterintelligence is an integral part of the entire intelligence process.....(American Chronicle, 6 Apr 07)

Prosecutors to seek custody of CIA agents

German prosecutors said Thursday they will make a new attempt to bring 13 CIA workers to justice for the abduction of a German-Lebanese citizen mistakenly suspected of terrorism.....(DPA, 6 Apr 07)

Poland's Government Has To Prevent Outing Of Polish Spies

The Poland's Government is making a swift amendment to the new vetting law because it will expose current Polish secret agents that work in foreign countries....(Polish Outlook, 6 Apr 07)

Japan Passes Plan to Create National Security Council

Japan's cabinet passed a plan to create a National Security Council to strengthen the authority of the prime minister's office....(Bloomberg, 6 Apr 07)

Trading firm tied to spy training

Former employees of a Tokyo-based trading company, a front company established by an executive of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), said some of them had gone to North Korea for spy training.....(Yomiuri Shimbun, 6 Apr 07)

On issues of National Security Council

....The security system and institutions in countries like USA, UK, France, Germany, Israel, Turkey, have evolved to the present stage through necessary changes and improvements. We can study them keeping in mind our present and future needs under our special circumstances......(Financial Express, 6 Apr 07)

Spy chief still looking for deputy director

New U.S. national intelligence director Mike McConnell is searching for a deputy director, a position that has gone unfilled for almost a year, according to the Associated Press. The No. 2 slot has been open since May when Gen. Michael Hayden left the position to take the lead at the CIA. An official took over the job in an acting capacity but left in January when his term expired….(Global Security Newswire, 6 Apr 07)

Ex-Navy contractor gets year

A former U.S. Navy contractor was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Virginia to a year and a day in prison and ordered to pay $35,000 in fines and restitution for sabotaging a national security computer network at a Navy command center in Italy......(Washington Times, 6 Apr 07)

Defense: Feds Forced AIPAC to Fire Indicted Analysts to Save Itself

The FBI was considering expanding its investigation into AIPAC and classified information leaks in early 2005 when the pro-Israel lobbying powerhouse fired two staffers already under scrutiny, according to court documents....(JTA, 5 Apr 07)

Cuban intelligence

Cuba's intelligence service is stepping up activities in the United States because of the impending demise of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, according to intelligence officials....(Washington Times, 6 Apr 07)

UN rights council deliberates on Cuban 5

Cuba is determined to keep the case of the Cuban Five before the world. Its diplomats were in Geneva, Switzerland, from March 12-30 at the fourth session of the United Nation’s Human Rights Council.....(People's Weekly World, 5 Apr 07)

FBI Agent at Bank Robbery May Have Shot Colleague

An FBI agent may have accidentally shot and killed a fellow agent yesterday while trying to arrest suspected bank robbers in a quiet central New Jersey town, a bureau spokesman said....(Washington Post, 6 Apr 07)

Gunshot Kills F.B.I. Agent in a Stakeout

...In the 99-year history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. Bush, who was married and the father of two grown children, was the 51st agent killed in the line of duty, and the first to be fatally shot in 10 years. He had worked for the bureau for almost 20 years, in Newark, Kansas City, Mo., and elsewhere.....(New York Times, 6 Apr 07)

Sounds Like the Man for the Job

The White House has tapped Michael G. Vickers, a former Army Special Forces officer and CIA operations officer, to be assistant secretary of defense for SOLIC (Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict).....(Washington Post, 6 Apr 07)

Boos For Hiss

Leftist academics are determined to rehabilitate the reputation of Alger Hiss, the high-level U.S. diplomat and Soviet spy. Time may have passed, but this case was settled a long time ago.....(Investors Business Daily, 6 Apr 07)

New Evidence May Vindicate Cold War Figure Hiss

...In the most dramatic moment at the NYU symposium, Timothy Hobson, an 80-year-old retired surgeon who was Hiss's stepson and grew up in the family home in Washington, D.C., said that Whittaker Chambers, a former Time magazine editor whose bombshell allegations had broken the case open, had lied about his personal relationship with Hiss and had never visited the family home as he claimed...."It is my conviction that he was in love with Alger Hiss, that he was rejected by Alger Hiss and he took that rejection in a vindictive way," Hobson said......(CBS, 6 Apr 07)

After Nearly 60 Years, Alger Hiss's Stepson Is Finally Making His Case for the Innocence of the Notorious Alleged Spy

...If you were to dismiss the Alger Hiss case as a thing of history, an iconic Cold War drama with little resonance today, you would be deeply, terribly wrong. It's not over, never has been -- not for the aging liberals and progressives whose ideological underpinnings in Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal were torn asunder by the case; not for the scholars still skirmishing in culture wars over the impact of domestic Communism; and certainly not for the sons, Hobson and Hiss......(Washington Post, 5 Apr 07)

Alger, "Ales" And Joe

...Although Venona might have saved America a lot of internal strife had it been released years ago, it demonstrates beyond argument that the Soviet penetration into American life, government, science and industry during the '30s and '40s was deep, thorough and hostile....And so, in Venona No. 1822, dated March 5, 1945, we find an agent code-named "Ales." The message says Ales had worked for Soviet intelligence since 1935, being the leader of a small group of agents consisting mostly of family relations. Ales, according to the message, was one of four members of the U.S. delegation to Yalta who returned to the U.S. via Moscow. Hiss was one of those four Yalta delegates. No evidence or allegation has ever suggested that any of the other three could have been communists. Chambers says Hiss joined the party in late 1934, and Hiss's brother Donald and wife Priscilla were also said to be agents. Added to the earlier accumulation of evidence, the Venona message seems to remove reasonable doubt about Alger Hiss's guilt.....(Time, 1999)

More Links:

"Alger Hiss and History" Conference agenda, 5 Apr 07, New York University

VENONA and Alger Hiss (aka ALES)

Alger Hiss Trials

The Alger Hiss Story

VENONA (NSA)

Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response (NSA and CIA book online)

Venona FOIA from FBI [.pdf]

Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy

Alger Hiss Trial radio report

Guilty as Charged

Hiss defenders covering for the 'old man'

Former CIA Polygrapher Files Lawsuit Against Agency

A former polygrapher for the Central Intelligence Agency has filed a lawsuit (pdf) alleging that the Agency unlawfully retaliated against him for publishing a critical account of CIA polygraph programs. John Sullivan, author of the forthcoming book "Gatekeeper: Memoirs of a CIA Polygraph Examiner," argued that his security clearance was improperly revoked in the course of a lengthy pre-publication review dispute, though it was ultimately restored......(Secrecy News, 5 Apr 07)

Press Release

Complaint

Letter

Spy Chief Pick for Aide Rejected

The new national intelligence chief is still searching for a deputy after six candidates were either rejected by the White House or turned down the job......While the full list of candidates is not known, it is said to have included a number of veterans of the CIA: former National Counterterrorism Center Director John Brennan; Leo Hazlewood, now with Science Applications International Corp., a government consulting firm, and Charles Allen, the Homeland Security Department's chief intelligence officer.....(AP, 5 Apr 07)

Russian tycoon offers help to Litvinenko case figures

Exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky Thursday pledged legal and other support for two key figures involved in the case of the murdered former secret agent Alexander Litvinenko....(RIA Novosti, 5 Apr 07)

Witnesses in Litvinenko Case Ask Berezovsky for Compensations

Two witnesses in the Alexander Litvinenko case are set to ask for compensations from a foundation set up by Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky in honor of the murdered former FSB agent.....(Kommersant, 5 Apr 07)

Findings of investigation impatiently awaited six months after Anna Politkovskaya’s murder
Six months after Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya’s murder in Moscow on 7 October 2006, Reporters Without Borders today voiced frustration with the lack of visible progress in the investigation and said the campaign on her behalf should not let up....(ROB, 5 Apr 07)

AIPAC Prosecution: Limited Access Is Constitutional

A government proposal to limit public access to evidence in the trial of two pro-Israel lobbyists is constitutional and represents a reasonable attempt....(New York Sun, 5 Apr 07)

Egyptian Man to Sue Over CIA Rendition From Italy

The lawyer of an Egyptian imam, believed to have been illegally abducted from Milan in 2003 by the CIA, has been in Italy to meet with Italian prosecutors....(VOA, 5 Apr 07)

Vetting law amendment on current secret services

President Lech Kaczyński has supported an amendment to the vetting law by which special agents currently serving outside Poland will not have to submit open vetting declarations.....(KAKA, 5 Apr 07)

Clandestine Services History: The Berlin Tunnel

The Central Intelligence Agency has released a newly declassified version of its closely-held internal history of the Berlin Tunnel Operation (pdf), which was an effort in the mid-1950s to tap into Soviet communications through a tunnel constructed in the Soviet sector of Berlin. The operation was famously compromised by a Soviet mole in British intelligence before it even began......(Secrecy News, 5 Apr 07)

Benefit cheats face telephone lie detector tests

....Voice-risk analysis (VRA) software, already used by the insurance industry, will be used to monitor telephone calls by claimants. It can detect minute changes in a caller's voice which give clues as to when they may be lying......(Daily Telegraph, 5 Apr 07)

The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt

He was the ultimate keeper of secrets, lurking in the shadows of American history. He toppled banana republics, planned the Bay of Pigs invasion and led the Watergate break-in. Now he would reveal what he'd always kept hidden: who killed JFK.....(Rolling Stone, 5 Apr 07)

Researcher Adds to Alger Hiss Debate

A Russian researcher, delving anew into once-secret Soviet files from the Cold War, says she has found no evidence that Alger Hiss spied or that Soviet intelligence had any particular interest in him. In a speech to be delivered at a New York University symposium Thursday, Svetlana A. Chervonnaya says neither Hiss' name nor his alleged spy moniker, Ales, appears in any of dozens of documents from Soviet archives that she has reviewed since the early 1990s.....(AP, 5 Apr 07)

Red menace - Jefferson Barracks exhibit brings Cold War to life

The Cold War has come to the Jefferson Barracks Park....(Suburban Journal, 5 Apr 07)

Berliners Go Deep to Recover Past

Behind a nondescript steel door next to a busy subway platform, a hidden passage leads to an underground complex straight out of the Cold War: a concrete bunker designed to shelter thousands of people from a nuclear attack....(Washington Post, 5 Apr 07)

Leon Gouré, 84; Sovietologist and Civil Defense Expert

.....In "War Survival in Soviet Strategy" (1973), he wrote: "The fundamental Soviet view is that the better the USSR is prepared for war, the greater and more credible is its ability to deter its adversary from risking military confrontation. This is the main reason why Moscow categorically rejects any concept of security based on a balance of 'mutual assured destruction.' "....(Washington Post, 5 Apr 07)

FBI Agent Shot In N.J., Listed In Grave Condition

An FBI agent has been shot in Readington Township in Hunterdon County. Early reports indicate the officer is in grave condition and was shot by a suspect wanted in connection to multiple bank robberies....(WCBS-TV, 5 Apr 07)

Journalist Gets the Kafka Treatment
....Iranian journalist Ali Farahbakhsh was convicted of spying in a trial held behind closed doors on Mar. 26......(Inter Press, 5 Apr 07)

WB Left finds international conspiracy in Nandigram

......While Bose said that the US counterintelligence agency CIA has paid money to topple EMS’ government in 1959, even the present incidents at Singur and Nandigram have hands of “domestic and foreign reactionary agencies." Quoting from A Dangerous Place, a book by former CIA chief Patrick Moyhnihan....(Hindustan Times, 5 Apr 07)

Russia's rich the new Slav Rangers

A wave of Russian wealth - and Russian intrigue - is washing over what some call "Londongrad".....(Sydney Morning Herald, 5 Apr 07)

CIA hires terrorist group to operate inside Iran

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has hired a Pakistani terrorist group that has carried out a series of deadly terrorist attacks inside Iran, ABC News has reported on Wednesday.....(Iran Islamic Republic News Agency, 5 Apr 07)

Who remembers 2nd Secretary Ivanov?

.....In the first place, because Ivanov was stationed in Helsinki on intelligence business. His real employer was not the Soviet Foreign Ministry but the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, responsible for foreign intelligence gathering operations - and all his Finnish acquaintances seem to have been well aware of this fact....(Helsingin Sanomat, 5 Apr 07)

Students challenge CIA recruitment on campus

On Wednesday, when CIA recruiters came to the college to give an information session on careers within the agency, they were met with silent, black-hooded students observing a vigil in the back of the room with handcuffs....(Swarthmore College Phoenix, 5 Apr 07)

Don’t discriminate against those who respectfully disagree

Last Wednesday, a student invited me to the protest against the CIA. I declined and stated that I was possibly interested in working for the CIA, which I believed a person could do with his/her integrity intact....(Swarthmore College Phoenix, 5 Apr 07)

Auditors: Energy lost counterspies' PCs

....DOE’s apparent loss of 14 desktop computers that had processed classified information surfaced in a report titled “Internal Controls Over Computer Property at the Department’s Counterintelligence Directorate.”....(GCN, 5 Apr 07)

A look back at 17 years of working for the CIA

Looking back after 23 years with the Marine Corps and 17 years as a contractor for the Central Intelligence Agency, John McGee described his co-workers as “very dedicated, hardworking and talented” and said that, after all those years, he has a lot of respect for the U.S. government.....(Green Valley News, 5 Apr 07)

U.S. spy agencies widen recruiting

The director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, will soon unveil his "100-day plan" for intelligence reform. As part of it, he is expected to roll out new measures to increase hiring of first- and second-generation Americans with language and cultural fluency in critical areas, such as the Middle East, intelligence officials said...(Baltimore Sun, 5 Apr 07)

Face it: nothing is private

....Facebook is a veritable treasure trove of demographic information and consumer preferences. Everything from a user’s level of education, religious views, favourite television shows, and current address is available.....(Insider, 5 Apr 07)

Photos of the

"U.S. Out of Iraq Now" rally in San Francisco, 18 Mar 2007

Inside Wal-Mart's 'Threat Research' Operation

The Wal-Mart Stores Inc. worker fired last month for intercepting a reporter's phone calls says he was part of a larger, sophisticated surveillance operation that included snooping not only on employees, but also on critics, stockholders and the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. ....A company spokeswoman, Sarah Clark, characterized its security operations as normal: "Like most major corporations, it is our corporate responsibility to have systems in place, including software systems, to monitor threats to our network and our intellectual property so we can protect our sensitive business information," she said. "It is also standard practice to provide physical and information security for our corporate events and for our board of directors and senior executives."....(Wall Street Journal, 4 Apr 07)

Wal-Mart Defends Security Measures

Wal-Mart's normally low-profile security efforts were thrust into the limelight Wednesday when a fired technician alleged he had been part of a large surveillance operation that spied on company workers, critics, vendors and consultants. The company defended its security practices.....(AP, 4 Apr 07)

Corporate Security

…According to the FBI, corporate espionage costs U.S. companies between $24 billion and $100 billion annually. Interestingly, only about 20 percent of those losses are tied to cyber threats while the majority of them are associated with low-tech schemes such as stealing from trashcans….(Energy Central, 4 Apr 07)

Spy Chief Says Law Hinders Protection

Current law prevents the government from fully using its capabilities to protect the United States, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell said Wednesday. Speaking to a conference of federal officials, McConnell said he wants the government to have a more vigorous debate over laws and regulations for intelligence surveillance and similar activities.....(AP, 4 Apr 07)

CIA Blocks Book on Chinese Nuclear Weapons

....A federal court last week ruled (pdf) that the CIA was within its rights to block disclosure of 23 sections of a manuscript by former Los Alamos intelligence specialist Danny B. Stillman, who had brought a lawsuit asserting his First Amendment right to publish the volume.....(Secrecy News, 4 Apr 07)

Confessions of a CIA Agent

Larry Devlin was the CIA chief of station in DRCongo in 1960 when the American president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorised the assassination of the Congolese prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, by lethal poisoning.....(New African, 4 Apr 07)

Former KGB prison In Germany To Be Converted To Memorial

A former prison operated in East Germany by the Soviet KGB intelligence service is to be restored as a memorial, the church which owns the building said Wednesday.....(DPA, 4 Apr 07)

Des Plaines man is called secret agent

Sami Khoshaba Latchin worked for years as a gate agent at O'Hare International Airport, but he was really a "sleeper spy" recruiting operatives to gather information on groups opposing Hussein's regime from inside the United States, prosecutors said. Secret documents that fell into American hands after the 2003 invasion of Iraq point to Latchin as an Iraqi operative, first in Greece and then in the Chicago area, Assistant U.S. Atty. James Conway told jurors…Before his arrest in 2004, Latchin had been planted in the U.S. as a long-term operative, directing collaborators and awaiting further instructions from Baghdad, Conway said. He is charged with lying on documents to obtain American citizenship, lying to the FBI, and being an unregistered foreign agent in this country….(Chicago Tribune, 4 Apr 07)

'Sleeper Agent' Trial Under Way

...Latchin is not accused of espionage _ an offense that involves obtaining U.S. military secrets. Prosecutors say his spying was aimed only at Iraqi civilians in the United States….(AP, 4 Apr 07)

Des Plaines resident's spy trial begins

"There’s a spy in this room,” began Assistant U.S. Attorney James Conway Tuesday in the trial of Des Plaines resident Sami Khoshaba Latchin...(Daily Herald, 4 Apr 07)

Prosecution’s Argument in Mak Trial Makes Exports of 757s to China Illegal

We have criticized before the prosecution’s claim in the Chi Mak prosecution that the public domain exclusion doesn’t apply to exports of technical data to China.....(Export Law Blog, 4 Apr 07)

Des Plaines man is called secret agent

European charges make case for CIA reform

Once again, the United States has trouble in Europe. Two allies in American counter-terrorism, Italy and Germany, have filed criminal charges against dozens of CIA officers alleging they abducted and mistreated two European residents.....(Newsday, 4 Apr 07)

Ex-Sailor Plea: Not Guilty of Terrorism

A former Navy sailor pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges alleging he supported terrorism by disclosing secret information about the locations of Navy ships and ways to attack them......(AP 4 Apr 07)

Ex-sailor denies terror/spying charges

A former U.S. Navy signalman accused of supplying a support cell linked to al-Qaida detailed information on the firepower, personnel, and vulnerability of his battlegroup as it made its way to the Middle East pleaded not guilty Wednesday in federal court today....(Connecticut Post, 4 Apr 07)

How the FBI failed us -- and how we can fix it

NOW WE KNOW why the government failed to stop 9/11. Embattled FBI Director Robert Mueller told a Senate committee last week that what prevented his agency from halting the attack was its inability to issue warrant-less search orders with the profligacy of a parking ticket officer.....(Boston Globe/Richard Clarke, 4 Apr 07)

Convicted spy released on parole
After serving one year in prison for espionage and treason, Simon Kiladze, former employee of the PR department of the President's Administration, was released on parole on March 27. After confessing his guilt on video last year, he arranged a plea-bargain which allowed him to serve only one year in prison and five on parole. …(Messenger, 4 Apr 07)

Department Of Energy Loses 20 Classified PCs

A government counterintelligence office in charge of protecting information about nuclear technology from foreign espionage has lost 20 desktop computers -- most of them containing classified information, according to a report from the department's Office of Inspector General…This isn't the first computer loss for the DOE's Counterintelligence Directorate, which is part of the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, Friedman noted. In 2004, some 269 computers were reported missing from the Idaho National Laboratory. In 2005, Los Alamos discarded an Apple Mac G4 computer only to have it sold at auction with its hard drive intact. In the past four years, audits have found more than 10 incidents of lost computers that had been used in designing, building, managing, or administering nuclear technology. …(Information Week, 4 Apr 07)

Man Missing in Iran Named; He Worked for DEA and FBI

A former FBI agent missing in Iran since early last month has been identified as Robert A. Levinson of Coral Springs, Fla., according to U.S. officials and a former colleague. Levinson was a 28-year veteran of both the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, according to a biography on the Web site of Business Integrity International, a consulting firm where he worked until two years ago...The State Department said Levinson was in Iran to meet someone to set up an interview for a project involving a book and a documentary by a producer and author believed to be from Canada….(Washington Post, 4 Apr 07)

Pilot and NSA Employee Latimer William Glowa

... From 1950 to 1953, he served on the director's staff of the Central Intelligence Agency and later worked at the Air Force Scientific Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio… After retiring in 1963, he joined the NSA, where he served as a manager of research and development and as executive secretary of the National Electronic Intelligence Group….(Washington Post, 4 Apr 07)

Fired Wal-Mart worker claims surveillance ops: report

Terrorist group operating in southeastern Iran hired by CIA

America says its Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has hired a Pakistani gang to carry out terrorist operations inside Iran. The gang, called Jondollah, includes members of Baluch tribes and is led by Abdul Malek Rigi who is operating from Pakistan's part of the Sistan and Baluchistan province in southeastern Iran, the ABC News said on Wednesday.....(Iran Press TV, 4 Apr 07)

Department Of Energy Loses 20 Classified PCs

Who Cares About Omar Hayssam?

In the past two weeks, the Israeli lawyer of Omar Hayssam stated a lot of things that targeted important people inside the Romanian secret services as well as President Traian Basescu…Omar Hayssam seems to have offered valuable information for the security of Israel to the Israeli secret services interested in it with the help of Tzivin….(Jurnalul, 4 Apr 07)

MI6 cold war spy revealed as 'big fish' double agent

Hitler had just been defeated, Stalin was victorious and Viktor Bogomolets was down on his luck. After more than three decades spying for British intelligence, Bogomolets, who began working for MI6 shortly after the Russian revolution, was curtly informed that he had been stripped of his British citizenship. It was at this point that Bogomolets decided to betray his British masters. According to papers declassified yesterday by Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, he became one of Moscow's most accomplished double agents.....The double agent also betrayed the man who had recruited him to MI6 in the first place, Colonel Harold Gibson. Gibson was responsible for a network of undercover British agents working deep inside the Soviet Union. Soviet intelligence tracked Gibson closely until his death in 1960, the documents show.......(Guardian, 3 Apr 07)

Russian spy's treachery revealed

An inept Soviet "triple agent" passed vital British secrets to Moscow in the late 1940s, Russian intelligence officers said yesterday as they unveiled details of one of the Cold War's most effective counter-espionage operations. Viktor Bogomolets was regarded as such a vital intelligence source that his dispatches were handed directly to Stalin himself, the Russian foreign intelligence service, the SVR, revealed yesterday. More details of Bogomolets's treachery are to be revealed in a new book written by SVR Major-General Lev Sotskov. It will tell for the first time the full story of Operation Tarantella, which fed Soviet misinformation to several western spy agencies for two decades.....(Daily Telegraph, 3 Apr 07)

2 Indians charged in missile-technology export

Two Indian nationals have been arrested on charges of illegally exporting U.S. missile technology to India in a case that U.S. officials say could affect a pending deal on nuclear and space cooperation between the two nations. Parthasarathy Sudarshan, 46, and Mythili Gopal, 36, both of Simpsonville, S.C., were arrested March 23 based on a 15-count federal grand jury indictment in the District of Columbia unsealed Friday….(Washington Times, 3 Apr 07)

Wilkes, Foggo Could Face Summer Trial

The judge (Burns) said that the fact that details of the impending indictments were leaked to reporters "was a great mistake in this case." Burns also expressed concern that the CIA might not allow Foggo to discuss top secret intelligence secrets with his attorney, Mark MacDougall….(10News, 3 Apr 07)

Dismissal sought in CIA fraud case

A lawyer for a defense contractor accused of bribing a congressman and committing fraud with a top CIA official said Monday that he would seek dismissal of the charges because details of the investigation were leaked to news organizations. Attorney Mark Geragos said he believed the information was leaked to pressure Justice Department officials in Washington into approving criminal charges sought by prosecutors in San Diego against defense contractor Brent Wilkes and his best friend Kyle ''Dusty'' Foggo….(AP, 3 Apr 07)

Police Log Confirms FBI Role In Arrests

A secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain a group of war protesters in a downtown Washington parking garage in April 2002 and interrogated some of them on videotape about their political and religious beliefs, newly uncovered documents and interviews show. For years, law enforcement authorities suggested it never happened. The FBI and D.C. police said they had no records of such an incident…(Washington Post, 3 Apr 07)

Police Surveillance Before Convention Was Larger Than Previously Disclosed

…The surveillance program accumulated files on a small number of people who were planning to cause trouble, but it also tracked the political views of others who had not expressed any intention of breaking the law, according to police documents….(New York Times, 3 Apr 07)

'Spy' woman protests innocence

A human-rights worker accused of spying in Angola has protested her innocence. Sarah Wykes, 41, was arrested in the African nation on 18 February but later released on bail….(BBC, 3 Apr 07)

Poisoned Spy's Wife Pushes for Justice

…Marina Litvinenko was joined by Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky and her husband's close friend, Alex Goldfarb, to announce the creation of the Litvinenko Justice Foundation. “We will campaign to make sure that governments take all possible steps to ensure that this crime is never repeated,'' she said in a statement. Alexander Litvinenko, 43, died at a London hospital Nov. 23. from a lethal dose of radioactive polonium-210. In a deathbed statement, he accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being behind his death, allegations the Russian government has denied….(AP, 3 Apr 07)

Berezovsky intends to bring lawsuit against Russian television

…Last Sunday Rossiya channel in its Vesti news program showed an interview with a new anonymous witness in the case of a former Russian security officer, Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned in London last year. "I have turned to my lawyers and they are currently preparing a lawsuit, which I intend to file with the court already this week," Berezovsky said…(RIA Novosti, 3 Apr 07)

Putin's rival implicated in Litvinenko death

Telling a convoluted tale of poisoned pens and drugged coffee, a mystery witness in the Alexander Litvinenko murder investigation has implicated one of President Vladimir Putin's chief rivals in the ex-KGB defector's death. His face hidden, the witness - who was only identified as Pyotr - told Russian state television that Litvinenko may have been killed because he knew too much about a fabricated attempt to kill an exiled oligarch living in London….(Telegraph, 3 Apr 07)

Foundation in memory of ex-spy

The wife and friends of murdered former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko have launched a campaign in his name. At the London launch of the Litvinenko Justice Foundation, his widow, Marina, said: "I will not rest until Sasha's killers are brought to justice."….(BBC, 3 Apr 07)

Russian spy's treachery revealed

…More details of Bogomolets's treachery are to be revealed in a new book written by SVR Major-General Lev Sotskov. It will tell for the first time the full story of Operation Tarantella, which fed Soviet misinformation to several western spy agencies for two decades…..(Telegraph, 3 Apr 07)

Cold War has ended, spying has not: 140 foreign agencies target the US

…'Espionage did not go away with the end of the Cold War,' Joel Brenner, mission manager for counterintelligence in the Office of the Director for National Intelligence (DNI), told a committee of the American Bar Association last week. 'It is older than Joshua's reconnoitering of the Promised Land, and it will be with us forever.'….(India e-News, 3 Apr 07)

UK court: Alleged hacker can face charges in U.S.

…Gary McKinnon, who was been indicted in New Jersey and northern Virginia, had claimed he could face prosecution under U.S. anti-terror laws if sent to the United States…McKinnon, 41, is accused of illegally accessing around 100 government computers between February 2001 and March 2002, causing around $700,000 in damages. It remains one of the largest cyber attacks on the U.S. government….(AP, 3 Apr 07)

US firm accused of aiding India weapons programs

…Prosecutors say that between 2003 and 2006, Sudarshan was buying the equipment for three Indian government agencies: the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, which researches spacecraft and ballistic missiles, Bharat Dynamics Ltd, a key agency in the nation's guided missile programme, and the Aeronautical Development Establishment, which is developing the Tejas combat jet. The US Commerce Department restricts exports to these agencies. The equipment included heat-resistant memory chips, microprocessors, capacitors and semiconductors used in missile guidance systems and firing systems….(India Times, 3 Apr 07)

U.S. says India broke law to get weapons technology

The Justice Department has charged that agencies of the Indian government participated in a conspiracy to sidestep U.S. export regulations and obtain secret weapons technology from American companies over several years. The indictment, disclosed Monday, charges that a private electronics firm, Cirrus Inc., operating in Singapore, South Carolina and Bangalore, India, was working as an agent of the Indian government to obtain sensitive missile and weapons technology for its military programs…(New York Times, 3 Apr 07)

Missile technology export case may affect India n-deal

…The Indian duo, Parthasarathy Sudarshan, 46, and Mythili Gopal, 36, both of Simpsonville, South Carolina, were arrested Mar 23 based on a 15-count federal grand jury indictment in the District of Columbia unsealed Friday.....According to the indictment, the two conspired with at least two other Indians to circumvent the US Arms Export Control Act between 2002 and 2006 by purchasing US electronic components used in missiles, sending them to Singapore and then re-exporting them secretly to India's missile and space-launch manufacturer…..(India e-News, 3 Apr 07)

U.S. Stance in Spy Case Sparks Concern in Academia

Concern about the government's aggressive legal stance in a Chinese espionage case is spreading from industry to academia, where some fear that the prosecution's position undermines a long-standing consensus about unfettered access to scientific research… The sharp reaction is to the Justice Department's arguments against a Chinese-born electrical engineer, Chi Mak, who is accused of conspiring to send data on submarine propulsion and other subjects to the Chinese government. Prosecutors have asserted that Mr. Mak cannot defend himself against the export control charges by arguing that the information was in the public domain. "If you take their line of argument, you can't have Chinese students at a university studying and learning information in a textbook,"…(New York Sun, 3 Apr 07)

China's Spying Overwhelms U.S. Counterintelligence

…Mak, his wife, brother, sister-in-law and nephew were indicted on charges of conspiring to export U.S. defense articles to China's government. In court papers, prosecutors say he copied submarine data from L-3's Anaheim, California-based Power Paragon unit onto compact discs and enlisted the other family members to encrypt the information and help smuggle it to China. Brenner says the disks also contained information on the U.S. Navy's next-generation DD(X) warship. Under questioning, Mak admitted sending information to Chinese operatives since 1983 on technology that included radar systems of Aegis cruisers, which are used to defend against multiple missile attacks….(Bloomberg, 2 Apr 07)

First They Came for the Jews

Early in June 2004, an employee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC -- better known by its media tag, "the powerful Israeli lobby" -- received an urgent phone call. Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin, a specialist on Iran, informed AIPAC lobbyist Keith Weissman that they had better meet because he had news of the most important kind to disclose......(Opinion Journal, 2 Apr 07)

Canada helping alleged spy's defence

…For months, Egypt has trumpeted allegations that the Toronto bank teller worked as an Israeli secret agent. But Canadian officials have been mostly silent about the case of Mohamed Essam Ghoneim el-Attar, the dual citizen who has complained he was held incommunicado and tortured with electric shocks until he confessed to espionage…..(Mail & Globe, 2 Apr 07)

Russian Witness Accuses Berezovsky, Poisoned Spy Litvinenko of Conspiracy to Get Asylum in UK

In an interview aired by Russian state television on Sunday a man identified only as Pyotr said that former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko had offered him millions of dollars to falsely confess that he had been assigned to kill Boris Berezovsky, a critic of the Kremlin, with a poisoned fountain pen…Pyotr said he had refused Litvinenko’s offer but was dosed with psychotropic drugs and forced to falsely confess on tape….(MosNews, 2 Apr 07)

A prosecution under the Espionage Act threatens the First Amendment.

Early in June 2004, an employee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC--better known by its media tag, "the powerful Israeli lobby"--received an urgent phone call. Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin, a specialist on Iran, informed AIPAC lobbyist Keith Weissman that they had better meet because he had news of the most important kind to disclose….(Wall Street Journal, 2 Apr 07)

Trade Group Does Who Knows What

…The group (Intelligence and National Security Alliance), a nonprofit professional association for members of the intelligence community -- including private contractors, academics and members of U.S. spy agencies -- is largely unknown. That's quite a feat, because its chairman, retired Navy Vice Adm. John M. McConnell, the former head of the National Security Agency, left recently to be sworn in as director of national intelligence, the president's top intelligence adviser….(Washington Post, 2 Apr 07)

DOD should clarify role in covert actions

The man nominated to be the next Pentagon spy chief says the U.S. military needs to clarify its role in clandestine operations. Retired U.S. Air Force Gen. James Clapper told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that "clarify(ing) roles and responsibilities in clandestine activities" was a major challenge for the whole U.S. intelligence community, as America's sprawling and sometimes squabbling collection of 16 spy agencies is called….(UPI, 2 Apr 07)

Pentagon: Taking a Hard Look at CIFA

…The Counter-Intelligence Field Activity (CIFA) was supposed to "coordinate" counterintel and antiterrorist reporting by myriad Pentagon spy outfits—including intel divisions maintained by all four military services. But CIFA seemed to overreach…..(Newsweek, 2 Apr 07 Issue)

Robert J. Linden Document Preservation Specialist

Robert J. Linden, 89, a retired document preservation specialist with the National Archives and the CIA, died March 26….(Washington Post, 2 Apr 07)

Alton Dean Davis, 68; Cryptologist for the NSA

Alton Dean Davis, 68, a cryptologist and intelligence official with the National Security Agency for more than 30 years, died March 26…He retired in 1993, receiving one of the NSA's highest honors, the Meritorious Civilian Service Award….(Washington Post, 2 Apr 07)

Russia lifts lid on Cold War agent in Britain

Russia's foreign spy service released previously classified files on Monday on a double agent who, under the codename "Britt", passed secrets to Moscow from inside British intelligence in the 1940s......(Reuters, 2 Apr 07)

Russia declassifies Cold War-era Soviet mole in British intelligence

......(AP, 2 Apr 07)

Russia Declassifies Files on Spy Who Worked in British Intelligence

.......(MosNews, 3 Apr 07)

Canada watchdog says SWIFT upheld privacy law

…Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddard said SWIFT, a European-based financial cooperative that provides messaging services and software to financial institutions, did not wrongfully disclose personal details to U.S. authorities, who were searching for terrorism-related transactions following the New York attacks. However, she urged U.S. authorities to use Canada's existing anti-terrorism financing laws in the future instead of relying on court orders to get information….(Reuters, 2 Apr 07)

New face in CIA press office

…Public Affairs Director Mark Mansfield announced in a note to reporters that George E. Little had joined the agency as a spokesman, following a two year stint at the National Counter-Terrorism Center, "where he played an instrumental role in U.S. Government-wide counter-terrorism planning efforts."….(UPI, 2 Apr 07)

FCC Adopts New Phone Privacy Rules

…The provision requires that law enforcement agencies like the FBI and the Secret Service be informed of a privacy breach before consumers are. The delay would be seven days or perhaps indefinite, depending on the circumstances. “As some have described it, it is akin to not telling victims of a burglary that their home has been broken into because law enforcement needs to continue dusting for fingerprints,”….(AP, 2 Apr 07)

Inspector Lists Computers With Atomic Secrets as Missing

The office in charge of protecting American technical secrets about nuclear weapons from foreign spies is missing 20 desktop computers, at least 14 of which have been used for classified information…This is the 13th time in a little over four years that an audit has found that the department, whose national laboratories and factories do most of the work in designing and building nuclear warheads, has lost control over computers used in working on the bombs….(New York Times, 1 Apr 07)

The Moscow plot

The Litvinenko File by Martin Sixsmith

The murder of Alexander Litvinenko horrified the world — and spurred former Moscow correspondent Martin Sixsmith into a dangerous hunt for the killers. As he reports in this extract from an explosive book on his findings, the clues lead into the heart of Russia’s secret police…(Sunday Times, 1 Apr 07)

British DNA Workers Accused Of Espionage

Five employees of Britain's national DNA database agency have been suspended amid allegations they had engaged in industrial espionage….(UPI, 1 Apr 07)

NKorea raps US, SKorea over spy flights

…The Korean Central News Agency said US espionage planes carried out 110 spy missions in March and South Korean aircraft a further 50. It denounced the "aerial espionage acts" as "a grave military provocation" …(France24, 1 Apr 07)

In Reconciling Its Past, Poland Is Divided Anew

…Millions of pages of security archives have been placed in the custody of the Institute of National Remembrance, an agency with authority to prosecute crimes committed against Poles during the years of Nazi and communist rule. Under the new anti-communist vetting law, the institute will be required to publish a comprehensive list of collaborators this year….(Washington Post, 1 Apr 07)

In Mideast, a Growing Linguistic Divide

Military intelligence recruits serve in safer posts than their classmates in the infantry. The classical Arabic taught in high school does not help with conversation in a language complicated by various dialects. But it is the form used in TV and radio news broadcasts in the Arab world, which the recruits monitor…..(Washington Post, 1 Apr 07)

Russian Intelligence Opens Files about Its Agent in UK

Russian émigré Vik