A U.S. Navy sailor has agreed to plead guilty to some of the charges against him.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann is facing charges of espionage, desertion, failing to properly secure classified information, copying classified information, communication of classified information to a foreign agent, and stealing and destroying a laptop computer.
Weinmann was assigned as a fire control technician aboard the USS Albuquerque, a Connecticut based submarine, when he deserted and allegedly gave classified information to a representative of an undisclosed foreign government in Vienna.
You can find more about the case here.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Saturday, November 25, 2006
China Calls U.S. Allegations "Irresponsible"
A recent NBC news report titled US worries about Chinese espionage outlines the threat China poses with it's espionage activities. The report says that China is specifically targeting technologies it can use to upgrade its Navy and Air Force.
Former FBI Counterintelligence Chief Dave Szady was interviewed as part of the story, there is also a link to the video on the page.
In their response, the Chinese say that they do not engage in espionage in the U.S., and that the allegations are "irresponsible."
Former FBI Counterintelligence Chief Dave Szady was interviewed as part of the story, there is also a link to the video on the page.
In their response, the Chinese say that they do not engage in espionage in the U.S., and that the allegations are "irresponsible."
Former-Spy's Death Spotlights Russian Espionage Activities
The poisoning, and subsequent death, of Former-KGB Colonel Aleaxander Litvinenko has put an unwelcome spotlight on Russian intelligence activities in the UK.
A report in London's Telegraph newspaper says there are "30 or more" spies working out of the Russian embassy located in Kensington.
"There is still a significant Russian spy presence in Britain, mainly represented by the GRU military intelligence and the SVR, the new name for the overseas operations of the old KGB.A similar Financial Times article says President Putin has increased the intelligence service's budgets and that,
The FSB, which some claim was behind the alleged assassination plot, is Russia's internal security apparatus - the equivalent of MI5 in Britain."
"...the [UK] activities are in three main areas: traditional efforts aimed at gathering government information; the collection of sensitive scientific and technological information; and a growing effort to monitor the activity of Russian dissidents in London."
B2 or not B2...
It appears that China has managed to purchase B2 stealth technology from one of the aircraft's engineers. A report in the Washington Times says that Noshir S. Gowadia, a former defense contractor, sold China information on the B2 Bomber's exhaust system that may allow China to develop countermeasures for the aircraft.
Gowadia allegedly also provided assistance to the Chinese to develop a cruise missile with an exhaust system that will make it extremely hard to detect, and also a second missile China could use to intercept air-to-air missiles.
Is it a coincidence that Mr. Gowadia worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1990's?
Mr. Gowadia's trial is scheduled to begin in July.
Photo Source: http://cicentre.com
Friday, November 24, 2006
Former KGB Officer Dies in London
Former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko passed away on Thursday in a London hospital. According to the BBC,
Additional BBC coverage can be found here.
"Mr. Litvinenko's death has been linked to the presence of a "major dose" of radioactive polonium-210 in his body."Polonium-210 is a naturally occurring radioactive material that emits highly hazardous alpha (positively charged) particles; there are very small amounts are present in the soil, the atmosphere and our bodies. Polonium can be used as a poison if it is ingested or inhaled.
Additional BBC coverage can be found here.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Not So Fast...
British doctors say that former-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko's condition continues to deteriorate and that the patient is now on a ventilator to help him breathe.
Doctors are also now saying the the cause of Mr. Litvinenko's illness is most likely NOT thallium poisoning, and that the cause is still unknown.
You can find continued coverage by the BBC here.
Doctors are also now saying the the cause of Mr. Litvinenko's illness is most likely NOT thallium poisoning, and that the cause is still unknown.
You can find continued coverage by the BBC here.
Monday, November 20, 2006
And of Course the Denial...
In a follow up to the last post, Russia denies any involvement in the poisoning of former-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko.
Litvinenko was moved to an intensive care ward over night and has been given a 50/50 chance of surviving over the next few weeks.
Catch the entire story here.
Litvinenko was moved to an intensive care ward over night and has been given a 50/50 chance of surviving over the next few weeks.
Catch the entire story here.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Seems Like Old Times...
A story on BBC News is very reminiscent of the 1978 Georgi Markov assassination; a former KGB officer is suspected of having been poisoned.
Alexander Litvinenko, a former Colonel in the KGB, is in serious condition in a London hospital after having ingested a potentially lethal dose of what is believed to be thallium. Litvinenko has been an outspoken critic of Russian President Putin.
Thallium is a tasteless, odorless poison found in rat poisons and insecticides; according to a toxicologist interviewed for the story,
Alexander Litvinenko, a former Colonel in the KGB, is in serious condition in a London hospital after having ingested a potentially lethal dose of what is believed to be thallium. Litvinenko has been an outspoken critic of Russian President Putin.
Thallium is a tasteless, odorless poison found in rat poisons and insecticides; according to a toxicologist interviewed for the story,
You can find the complete story here.
"... [it] only takes about a gram - you know, a large pinch of salt like in your food - to kill you."
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Cold War Tradecraft
Continuing on the topic of Cold War tradecraft from the last post, there is a great article on the CIA's Web site that outlines some very in-depth tradecraft used in Moscow in the 1970's and 1980's.
The article was written by Barry G. Royden, a former Associate Deputy Director of Operations for Counterintelligence, and first appeared in the agency's journal, Studies In Intelligence (Vol. 47, No. 3, 2003).
The article is about A. G. Tolkachev, a Russian engineer who volunteered to spy for the U.S., who was eventually compromised by a disgruntled CIA employee in 1985; Tolkachev was executed in 1986.
The article is 31 pages long, but it's worth the read; you can find it here.
The article was written by Barry G. Royden, a former Associate Deputy Director of Operations for Counterintelligence, and first appeared in the agency's journal, Studies In Intelligence (Vol. 47, No. 3, 2003).
The article is about A. G. Tolkachev, a Russian engineer who volunteered to spy for the U.S., who was eventually compromised by a disgruntled CIA employee in 1985; Tolkachev was executed in 1986.
The article is 31 pages long, but it's worth the read; you can find it here.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Invisible Ink
Scientists at Michigan State University think they have duplicated the formula and technique the East German Stasi used to communicate during the Cold War.
On a separate note, there is a good three-part series on espionage on the Discovery Times channel this month. The series is called CIA Secrets and is broken down in to the stealing, hiding and passing of secrets. Check for programming times on the Discovery Times Web site.
"Agents traced notes onto a piece of paper through a film infused with a chemical solution, much like carbon paper. The writing was revealed by the reader using another special mixture. the scientists explained this week."You can find the complete article here.
On a separate note, there is a good three-part series on espionage on the Discovery Times channel this month. The series is called CIA Secrets and is broken down in to the stealing, hiding and passing of secrets. Check for programming times on the Discovery Times Web site.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
MI5 Working Over 200 Terror Networks
In a rare interview the head of MI5 says her organization is watching approx. 200 networks comprised of more than 1,600 people, and have thwarted five major terror conspiracies since the July 7, 2005 tube bombings.
Read the entire article here.
Read the entire article here.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Jihadi Forums Tune into History Channel for Counter-Terrorism Intelligence
From the latest edition of the Jamestown Terrorism Monitor:
Recent chatter on jihadi websites has focused on monitoring the counter-terrorism strategies of the United States and its allies in the global war on terrorism. Jihadi websites and forums are studying and translating the texts of Western analysts who assess current counter-terrorism efforts. The jihadis use these self-critiques by Western analysts to find areas of weakness and tension in U.S.-led counter-terrorism strategy; through this information, they are better able to devise physical and psychological operations to exploit these weaknesses. Additionally, their monitoring of U.S.-led counter-terrorism efforts is an attempt to lift the morale of jihadis by: showing that vulnerable points in the U.S.-led terrorism coalition exist; disseminating false analysis on the plans and intentions of those states allied against the mujahideen; and publicizing artificial casualty accounts of these states, especially those of the U.S. military.
By translating and posting reports about casualties from the United States and its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, jihadi websites are enhancing the mujahideen's arguments of their righteousness; this encourages more fighters to take up the jihad. These individuals are monitoring U.S. military casualty reports on the internet and reposting them in Arabic for their forum participants. One casualty report about an attack by Iraq's Islamic Army on the U.S. military's Falcon Base in Iraq on October 10 listed the names and ranks of 300 American soldiers who were allegedly killed in the attack (http://www.tajdeed.org.uk/forums, October 26). The U.S. casualty report, posted by a user nicknamed Fata al-Jazeera, was received victoriously by the internet jihadis, who expressed their joy with victory phrases such as "Allah Akbar." Another forum translated and posted the U.S. president's skeptical comments about Washington's performance in Iraq published in the National Review Online on October 27. The forum considered Bush's comments a confession of the U.S. defeat in Iraq (http://202.75.35.74/vb/index.php). In the same context, another jihadi website posted an article entitled "America Loses Control in Afghanistan and European Forces Refuse to Fight." The article highlighted the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald Neumann's frustration over British forces' uncoordinated withdrawal from Qala district in southern Afghanistan and the warning released by the supreme commander of NATO over the intention of Taliban fighters to use booby-trapped vehicles against coalition troops (http://www.muslm.net, October 27).
On the jihadi website al-Tajdeed, a translator by the nickname of "Morsi" translated an article entitled "How al-Qaeda Views a Long War in Iraq" by Dan Murphy, a journalist for the Christian Science Monitor. Murphy's article analyzed al-Qaeda's plans for a long war against the United States in Iraq. The analysis is based on a letter, confiscated by U.S. forces in Iraq, presumably sent to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi from al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and signed by the alias name "Atiyah." In the same context, some jihadi forum participants are cooperating by translating videotapes released by the History television channel in the United States and by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. To demonstrate their intentions, they provided a video for download that included a program from the History Channel that outlined the capabilities of the U.S. Navy. Information included in the video could be used by al-Qaeda and like-minded militants to improve their capabilities against naval forces. Additionally, the jihadis are always interested in Western articles and television shows that analyze al-Qaeda; by using the West's free press, they are able to find out what the "enemy" knows about their capabilities.
Commenting on a Washington Post article entitled "Letter Gives Glimpse of al-Qaeda's Leadership" from October 2, jihadis accused the "Zionist media" of disseminating false propaganda insinuating that al-Qaeda's leaders are in Pakistan's tribal Waziristan agencies. They argued that this "faulty" information about al-Qaeda's whereabouts is a pretext for "crusader aggression" on the Pakistani people to punish them for their support of the mujahideen. The jihadis argue that it is illogical for any al-Qaeda leader to reveal the whereabouts of al-Qaeda and that al-Zarqawi would never leave such an important letter behind. A forum participant nicknamed the "Hamburg Cell" warns that this press campaign against al-Qaeda's leaders is very suspicious and that "vicious" plans might be underway against those leaders.
Although irregular and non-systematic, the monitoring of Western media analysis helps jihadis learn from the enemy and to better prepare defensive counter-measures. The question, however, can be asked: what makes these forum comments significant, and are these participants actually operational? It is likely that many participants have been in contact with jihadi ideologues and field commanders since these leaders use the forums to communicate with each other and to post training manuals and other jihadi documents—such as in the recent cases of Muhammed al-Hakaima and his controversial book, the "Myth of Delusion"; Abu Yahia al-Libi, a leading member in al-Qaeda; and Yusuf al-Uyayri, ex-leader of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia and a renown ideologue of Salafi-Jihadis. Forum participants are constantly interested in subjects related to military tactics and terrorism, a fascination that non-violent individuals do not dwell on each time they log onto the internet.
Abdul Hameed Bakier is an intelligence expert on counter-terrorism, crisis management and terrorist-hostage negotiations based in Jordan.
Recent chatter on jihadi websites has focused on monitoring the counter-terrorism strategies of the United States and its allies in the global war on terrorism. Jihadi websites and forums are studying and translating the texts of Western analysts who assess current counter-terrorism efforts. The jihadis use these self-critiques by Western analysts to find areas of weakness and tension in U.S.-led counter-terrorism strategy; through this information, they are better able to devise physical and psychological operations to exploit these weaknesses. Additionally, their monitoring of U.S.-led counter-terrorism efforts is an attempt to lift the morale of jihadis by: showing that vulnerable points in the U.S.-led terrorism coalition exist; disseminating false analysis on the plans and intentions of those states allied against the mujahideen; and publicizing artificial casualty accounts of these states, especially those of the U.S. military.
By translating and posting reports about casualties from the United States and its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, jihadi websites are enhancing the mujahideen's arguments of their righteousness; this encourages more fighters to take up the jihad. These individuals are monitoring U.S. military casualty reports on the internet and reposting them in Arabic for their forum participants. One casualty report about an attack by Iraq's Islamic Army on the U.S. military's Falcon Base in Iraq on October 10 listed the names and ranks of 300 American soldiers who were allegedly killed in the attack (http://www.tajdeed.org.uk/forums, October 26). The U.S. casualty report, posted by a user nicknamed Fata al-Jazeera, was received victoriously by the internet jihadis, who expressed their joy with victory phrases such as "Allah Akbar." Another forum translated and posted the U.S. president's skeptical comments about Washington's performance in Iraq published in the National Review Online on October 27. The forum considered Bush's comments a confession of the U.S. defeat in Iraq (http://202.75.35.74/vb/index.php). In the same context, another jihadi website posted an article entitled "America Loses Control in Afghanistan and European Forces Refuse to Fight." The article highlighted the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald Neumann's frustration over British forces' uncoordinated withdrawal from Qala district in southern Afghanistan and the warning released by the supreme commander of NATO over the intention of Taliban fighters to use booby-trapped vehicles against coalition troops (http://www.muslm.net, October 27).
On the jihadi website al-Tajdeed, a translator by the nickname of "Morsi" translated an article entitled "How al-Qaeda Views a Long War in Iraq" by Dan Murphy, a journalist for the Christian Science Monitor. Murphy's article analyzed al-Qaeda's plans for a long war against the United States in Iraq. The analysis is based on a letter, confiscated by U.S. forces in Iraq, presumably sent to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi from al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and signed by the alias name "Atiyah." In the same context, some jihadi forum participants are cooperating by translating videotapes released by the History television channel in the United States and by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. To demonstrate their intentions, they provided a video for download that included a program from the History Channel that outlined the capabilities of the U.S. Navy. Information included in the video could be used by al-Qaeda and like-minded militants to improve their capabilities against naval forces. Additionally, the jihadis are always interested in Western articles and television shows that analyze al-Qaeda; by using the West's free press, they are able to find out what the "enemy" knows about their capabilities.
Commenting on a Washington Post article entitled "Letter Gives Glimpse of al-Qaeda's Leadership" from October 2, jihadis accused the "Zionist media" of disseminating false propaganda insinuating that al-Qaeda's leaders are in Pakistan's tribal Waziristan agencies. They argued that this "faulty" information about al-Qaeda's whereabouts is a pretext for "crusader aggression" on the Pakistani people to punish them for their support of the mujahideen. The jihadis argue that it is illogical for any al-Qaeda leader to reveal the whereabouts of al-Qaeda and that al-Zarqawi would never leave such an important letter behind. A forum participant nicknamed the "Hamburg Cell" warns that this press campaign against al-Qaeda's leaders is very suspicious and that "vicious" plans might be underway against those leaders.
Although irregular and non-systematic, the monitoring of Western media analysis helps jihadis learn from the enemy and to better prepare defensive counter-measures. The question, however, can be asked: what makes these forum comments significant, and are these participants actually operational? It is likely that many participants have been in contact with jihadi ideologues and field commanders since these leaders use the forums to communicate with each other and to post training manuals and other jihadi documents—such as in the recent cases of Muhammed al-Hakaima and his controversial book, the "Myth of Delusion"; Abu Yahia al-Libi, a leading member in al-Qaeda; and Yusuf al-Uyayri, ex-leader of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia and a renown ideologue of Salafi-Jihadis. Forum participants are constantly interested in subjects related to military tactics and terrorism, a fascination that non-violent individuals do not dwell on each time they log onto the internet.
Abdul Hameed Bakier is an intelligence expert on counter-terrorism, crisis management and terrorist-hostage negotiations based in Jordan.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Spycast #2 - Tony Mendez
The International Spy Museum has posted their second podcast; this edition has a nice interview with Tony Mendez. Mr. Mendez is the former chief of disguise for the CIA and is the author of Spydust and co-author of Master of Disguise.
You can listen online (broadband connection recommended) here, or you can right-click here and save the file to your PC.
You can listen online (broadband connection recommended) here, or you can right-click here and save the file to your PC.
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