Thursday, April 30, 2009

Some Things Never Change

NATO 'Expels Russian Diplomats'

Russia has confirmed Nato has expelled two of its diplomats from Brussels, reportedly in retaliation for a spy scandal involving an Estonian official.

Story from BBC NEWS
Published: 2009/04/30 15:29:20 GMT

In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry described the expulsions as "outrageous" and a "crude provocation".

Nato diplomats claimed the Russians were undercover intelligence agents.

The official, Herman Simm, was jailed for 12 years in February by an Estonian court for passing Nato defence and diplomatic secrets to Moscow.

The court where the former head of Estonia's national security system was tried did not reveal which country he spied for, but investigators said Mr Simm passed nearly 3,000 documents to Russia.

They said he received 1.3m kroons (£74,000; $110,000) for the data. The Kremlin denied any involvement.

Nato made no comment at the time, but the case, Estonia's biggest spy scandal since the Cold War, was seen as an embarrassment for the former Soviet state, which joined the alliance in 2004.

'Crude provocation'

On Thursday, Russia's foreign ministry confirmed that Nato had expelled two of its diplomats, but said the move was unjustified.

"A crude provocation has been made in relation to two employees of Russia's permanent mission to Nato on an absolutely trumped up pretext without any clear explanation," it said.

“ There will be a response to such steps, which Nato will learn about shortly ”
Dmitry Rogozin Russian ambassador to Nato

Russia's ambassador to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, said he had been informed by the alliance's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, on Wednesday that it had decided to withdraw the accreditation from two of his staff.

"I was told the following: 'Nato is outraged by Russia's spying activities against Nato and alliance member states'," he said.

Mr Rogozin identified the diplomats as Viktor Kochukov, a senior counsellor at the Russian mission and the head of its political section, and Vasiliy Chizhov, a lower-level attache and the son of Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's envoy to the European Union.

"There will be a response to such steps, which Nato will learn about shortly," he warned, adding that "someone in the West strongly dislikes how relations between Russia and individual countries of Western Europe are developing".

A Nato spokesman said he could not confirm the story because he could not comment on intelligence matters.

The move came as Nato held its first formal talks with Russian representatives since last summer's war between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Investigators said Simm, who used to be the chief of Estonia's police service, had been working for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) since 1995, when he joined the Estonian defence ministry.

Simm, who was convicted of treason, was ordered to pay 20.2m kroons (£1.15m; $1.71m) to the Estonian defence ministry for the cost of new security systems.

Sphere: Related Content

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Border Violence Increasing at Alarming Rate


Incursions of Border by Cops, Troops Rising
Feds sought to suppress, downplay report
By Torrey Meeks THE WASHINGTON TIMES | Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Excerpt: EL PASO, Texas -- Unauthorized border crossings by Mexican authorities such as soldiers and police spiked more than threefold in 2008, according to an annual report the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency sought to keep secret.

Now that the report is public, the result of a lawsuit by a public-interest group, the agency is attempting to downplay its significance.

"BorderStat Violence, FY 2008 Year in Review" says that 147 foreign government incursions occurred in 2008, a 359 percent increase from the previous year. Only 216 incursions were tallied in the previous nine years.

"There are a lot of places out there where the border isn't clearly marked," said Lloyd Easterling, spokesman for CPB. He said even accidental aircraft crossings from Canada were considered incursions.

Mexican authorities may come a few feet into the United States and be spotted by CBP surveillance systems, Mr. Easterling said. "You may see people moving back and forth across the border. You know, they're 50 or 100 feet inside, and they go right back out."

Mr. Easterling said he had no proof of any Mexican military crossings.

"Our agents out there are seeing people dressed up and acting in a military-like fashion," he said. "Whether they're in any kind of official uniform or something they bought that may look like fatigues ... I don't know," he said.

Investments in technology and manpower have enabled CBP to get more accurate numbers, Mr. Easterling said, contributing to the jump cited in the report.

Chris Farrell, director of research for Washington-based Judicial Watch, interprets the data differently, claiming it reflects a serious deterioration in border security just over the bridge from El Paso, Texas.

"On the Mexican side of the border, all hell is breaking loose. That's why [Ciudad] Juarez is under military occupation right now," Mr. Farrell said.

"To discount this report trivializes a very grave warning," said Mr. Farrell, whose organization won the report's release by filing a lawsuit to force CBP to honor a Freedom of Information Act request for a copy. (More . . .)

Sphere: Related Content

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Scheuer's Clarity on the Politics & Practicalities of Interrogation


Say It's Osama. What If He Won't Talk?
By Michael Scheuer
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Washington Post

In surprisingly good English, the captive quietly answers: 'Yes, all thanks to God, I do know when the mujaheddin will, with God's permission, detonate a nuclear weapon in the United States, and I also know how many and in which cities." Startled, the CIA interrogators quickly demand more detail. Smiling his trademark shy smile, the captive says nothing. Reporting the interrogation's results to the White House, the CIA director can only shrug when the president asks: "What can we do to make Osama bin Laden talk?"

Americans should keep this worst-case scenario in mind as they watch the tragicomic spectacle taking place in the wake of the publication of the Justice Department's interrogation memos. It will help them recognize this episode of political theater as another major step in the bipartisan dismantling of America's defenses based on the requirements of presidential ideology. George W. Bush's democracy-spreading philosophy yielded the invasion of Iraq and set the United States at war with much of the Muslim world. Bush's worldview thereby produced an enemy that quickly outpaced the limited but proven threat-containing capacities of the major U.S. counterterrorism programs -- rendition, interrogation and unmanned aerial vehicle attacks.

Now, in a single week, President Obama has eliminated two-thirds of that successful-but-not-sufficient national defense troika because his personal ideology -- a fair gist of which is "If the world likes us more we are more secure" -- cannot tolerate harsh interrogation techniques, torture or coercive interviews, call them what you will. Surprisingly, Obama now stands alongside Bush as a genuine American Jacobin, both of them seeing the world as they want it to be, not as it is. Whereas Bush saw a world of Muslims yearning to betray their God for Western secularism, Obama gazes upon a globe that he regards as largely carnivore-free and believes that remaining threats can be defused by semantic warfare; just stop saying "War on Terror" and give talks in Turkey and on al-Arabiyah television, for example.

Americans should be clear on what Obama has done. In a breathtaking display of self-righteousness and intellectual arrogance, the president told Americans that his personal beliefs are more important than protecting their country, their homes and their families. The interrogation techniques in question, the president asserted, are a sign that Americans have lost their "moral compass," a compliment similar to Attorney General Eric Holder's identifying them as "moral cowards." Mulling Obama's claim, one can wonder what could be more moral for a president than doing all that is needed to defend America and its citizens? Or, asked another way, is it moral for the president of the United States to abandon intelligence tools that have saved the lives and property of Americans and their allies in favor of his own ideological beliefs?

Before enthroning Obama's personal morality as U.S. defense policy, of course, some dirty work had to be done. Last Sunday, Obama's hit man and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel led the charge by telling the American people that the interrogation techniques are a major recruiting tool for al-Qaeda and its Islamist partners. Well, no, Mr. Emanuel, that is not at all the case. The techniques surely are not popular with our foes and their supporters -- should that be a concern in any event? -- but they do not even make the Islamists' hit parade of anti-U.S. recruiting tools. That list is headed by Washington's support for Arab tyrannies in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, its presence on the Arabian Peninsula and its unqualified support for Israel. Still, Emanuel's statement surely sounded plausible to Americans who have received no education about our Islamist enemy's true motivation from Obama, George W. Bush, Clinton or George H.W. Bush.

Next, the president used his personal popularity and the stature of his office to implicitly identify as liars those former senior U.S. officials who know -- not "argue" or "contend" or "assert" but know -- that the interrogation techniques have yielded intelligence essential to the nation's defense. The integrity, intellect and reputations of Judge Michael Mukasey, Gen. Michael V. Hayden and others have now been besmirched by Obama because their realistic worldview and firsthand experience do not mesh with the president's desire to install his personal "moral compass" as the core of U.S. foreign and defense policy. And after visiting CIA headquarters last week, the president made it clear that he rejected statements surely made by CIA officers who risked their careers to tell him how many successful covert operations against al-Qaeda have flowed from interrogation information. As with all Jacobins, Obama cannot allow a hard and often brutal reality -- call it an inconvenient truth -- to impinge on his view of how the world should and must be made to work.

And so as the Justice Department memos farce plays out over the coming weeks, Americans can be confident that both parties will play politics to the hilt while letting the nation's safety take the hindmost. Obama and his team will "reluctantly" agree to a congressional investigation of former Bush officials and serving CIA officers, politically targeted indictments from Holder's minions and perhaps even a truth commission to prove that even the United States can aspire to be a half-baked Third World country.

Republicans will welcome the Democrats' actions as a chance to reclaim their mantle as the most reliable protectors of U.S. national security. They will seek to prove that Obama and his party are eager to persecute the men and women who defend America and will denounce Democratic actions as a "witch hunt." Those words were used last week by Sen. John McCain, a man who seems to have forgotten that as a presidential candidate he, more than anyone, persuaded Americans that the interrogation techniques amounted to torture and gloried in calling the CIA and its officers a "rogue institution."

Americans and their country's security will be the losers. The Republicans do not have the votes to stop Obama, and the world will not be safer for America because the president abandons interrogations to please his party's left wing and the European pacifists it so admires. Both are incorrigibly anti-American, oppose the use of force in America's defense and -- like Obama -- naively believe that the West's Islamist foes can be sweet-talked into a future alive with the sound of kumbaya.

So if the above worst-case scenario ever comes to pass, Americans will have at least two things from which to take solace, even after the loss of major cities and tens of thousands of countrymen. First, they will know that their president believes that those losses are a small price to pay for stopping interrogations and making foreign peoples like us more. And second, they will see Osama bin Laden's shy smile turn into a calm and beautiful God-is-Great grin.

Michael Scheuer, the chief of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit from 1996 to 1999, is the author of "Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraq."Sphere: Related Content

Friday, April 24, 2009


FACTBOX: Five facts about Russian Military Intelligence
Fri Apr 24, 2009 10:24am EDT

(Reuters) - Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday sacked Valentin Korabelnikov, the head of Russia's powerful military intelligence service.

Following are some key facts about the service:

* Russian military intelligence service is known by its Russian acronym GRU, which stands for Main Intelligence Directorate. Moscow's other, better-known Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is the successor to the KGB's First Chief Directorate.

Unlike the KGB, GRU was not split up when the Soviet Union collapsed. It has a special status and answers directly to the chief of the general staff, one of the three people who control Russia's portable nuclear control. GRU chiefs are picked by the president.

* Russian military intelligence has a spy network abroad that is believed by espionage experts to be several times bigger than that of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service.

Its experts decipher and analyze espionage information gathered by dozens of Russian military space satellites.

GRU also has several elite special forces units that fought in many post-World War Two conflicts including Afghanistan and Chechnya.

Sulim Yamadayev, who was shot dead last month in Dubai, was commander of GRU's Vostok battalion which fought in Chechnya and Georgia.

* GRU, whose official emblem features a bat hovering above the globe, was founded as the Registration Directorate in 1918 after the Bolshevik Revolution. Revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin insisted on its independence from other secret services, and ever since GRU has been seen as a rival by other Soviet secret services.

* GRU has confirmed or tacitly accepted it was behind some major spy operations abroad. But it has also suffered several humiliating blows to its reputation when some of its top agents defected to the West.

One such defector was Oleg Penkovsky, a friend of the then GRU chief. He informed Washington of a Moscow operation to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. The scandal led to the Cuban crisis and the world balanced on the brink of a full-blown nuclear war for several days. Penkovsky was arrested in 1962 and executed in 1963 after being found guilty of high treason and espionage.

* Vladimir Rezun, a GRU officer who defected to the West in the 1970s, published a partly autobiographical book about the spy service under an assumed name of Viktor Suvorov. He called the then GRU headquarters the "aquarium," the nickname given to the Moscow compound by those working in it.Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Harman's Phony Call for Transcripts

Comment: In an outrageously disingenuous, phony attempt to appear as a "victim" of U.S. government eavesdropping -- Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) is "demanding" the release of wiretap transcripts concerning her possible complicity in a conspiracy centering on espionage by agents of Israel against the United States (among other things).

Harman knows the Justice Department will not release any transcripts -- & that is precisely why she is "demanding" it.  A brilliant media strategy.  It's also totally dishonest.

The transcripts won't be released for two very good reasons:
1.  There's an on-going criminal investigation.  Release of any transcripts would/could compromise those efforts and undermine any prosecution.
2.  Other parties to the wiretap have privacy interests that Harman cannot trump or waive.

Harman's "demand" is a fraud.  The Media is not calling her on it.  Ask yourself why.

Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

More on the Saberi Affair



Iran Orders Appeal for U.S. Reporter in Spying Case
By Thomas Penny and Henry Meyer
Bloomberg

Excerpt: April 20, 2009 -- Iran’s judiciary ordered an immediate appeal for American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi, who was jailed for eight years for espionage.

Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahrudi, head of the judiciary, issued the order today in a statement cited by the state-run Iranian Students News Agency. The appeal must be heard “fairly and quickly,” he was quoted as saying.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intervened yesterday in the case, saying in a letter to Tehran’s prosecutor that the 31- year-old reporter should be given “justice,” including the right to defend herself.

Analysts say the Iranian authorities appear to be anxious to defuse a potential conflict with the U.S. sparked by the conviction. The Obama administration, which is making efforts to ease the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program and end a 30-year diplomatic freeze, has condemned the journalist’s treatment.

“We believe that she was wrongly accused and wrongly convicted,” Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary, said during a briefing today, according to a transcript.

Saberi, who holds both U.S. and Iranian citizenship, was convicted of spying last week after a closed trial. She had reported from Iran for National Public Radio, the British Broadcasting Corp. and Fox News.Sphere: Related Content

Rep. Jane Harman Complicit in Israeli Espionage?


Lawmaker Is Said to Have Agreed to Aid Lobbyists
By NEIL A. LEWIS and MARK MAZZETTI
The New York Times
Published: April 20, 2009

Excerpt: WASHINGTON — One of the leading House Democrats on intelligence matters was overheard on telephone calls intercepted by the National Security Agency agreeing to seek lenient treatment from the Bush administration for two pro-Israel lobbyists who were under investigation for espionage, current and former government officials say.

The lawmaker, Representative Jane Harman of California, became the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee after the 2002 election and had ambitions to be its chairwoman when the party gained control of the House in 2006. One official who has seen transcripts of several wiretapped calls said she appeared to agree to intercede in exchange for help in persuading party leaders to give her the powerful post.

One of the very few members of Congress with broad access to the most sensitive intelligence information, including aspects of the Bush administration’s wiretapping that were disclosed in December 2005, Ms. Harman was inadvertently swept up by N.S.A. eavesdroppers who were listening in on conversations during an investigation, three current or former senior officials said. It is not clear exactly when the wiretaps occurred; they were first reported by Congressional Quarterly on its Web site.

The official with access to the transcripts said someone seeking help for the employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group, was recorded asking Ms. Harman, a longtime supporter of its efforts, to intervene with the Justice Department. She responded, the official recounted, by saying she would have more influence with a White House official she did not identify.

In return, the caller promised her that a wealthy California donor — the media mogul Haim Saban — would threaten to withhold campaign contributions to Representative Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who was expected to become House speaker after the 2006 election, if she did not select Ms. Harman for the intelligence post.Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Counterespionage Review Initiated


Comment: The commissioning of this review means that a foreign espionage service "has eaten, or is eating our lunch." Something very grave has compromised national security -- and the U.S. Government has elected not to make public. It will leak out over time, of course. We shall see. . .

Inside the Ring
By Bill Gertz
Washington Times
Thursday, April 16, 2009

Counterspy Review

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair has formed a panel of former officials to review troubled U.S. government efforts to counter foreign spying.

The panel is headed by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who recently appeared in a PBS television documentary as a spokesman for Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a former Saudi ambassador in Washington and a national-security adviser to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.

In the "Frontline" program that aired last week, Mr. Freeh said claims that "my client," Prince Bandar, was paid $2 billion and an Airbus 340 as bribes "are totally false."

The program revealed that the Justice Department is conducting an international corruption investigation into an $80 billion jet-fighter deal between Britain's BAE Systems PLC aerospace company and Saudi Arabia.

Former federal Judge Eugene R. Sullivan, a law partner of Mr. Freeh's at the Freeh Group International, said Mr. Freeh is not a spokesman for Prince Bandar but his personal attorney. He declined to comment on Mr. Freeh's role as chairman of the director's counterintelligence panel.

Mr. Blair has come under criticism for two other appointees. Charles "Chas" W. Freeman Jr. withdrew as his pick for a top intelligence post following reports Mr. Freeman was on the board of a state-run Chinese oil company and headed a think tank that got some funding from Saudi Arabia.

Several members of Congress also criticized Mr. Blair for appointing former CIA Director John M. Deutch to an advisory group. Mr. Deutch was pardoned by President Clinton in 2001 of charges he had compromised Pentagon and CIA secrets by improperly e-mailing highly classified documents to his home in the 1990s.

Other members of the counterintelligence review panel include former CIA officer John MacGaffin; electronic- and computer-security specialist James. R. Gosler; retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Harding, a former director of operations at the Defense Intelligence Agency; and Mary Margaret Graham, a former CIA official who briefly headed CIA counterintelligence.

According to an administration intelligence official, the panel will hold its first meeting April 23 and will produce a report for Mr. Blair within 60 days.

"The director has asked several people to give him some advice regarding counterintelligence, an important issue to the United States," said spokeswoman Wendy Moragi. She said Mr. Blair regards counterintelligence as "critical to the nation's security."

"Louis Freeh is one of the people he is speaking with. There is not a formal group, and those being consulted will offer their own thoughts," she said.

Mr. Freeh has extensive experience in counterintelligence, and "Director Blair appreciates his advice and perspective," Ms. Moragi said. She declined to comment on Mr. Freeh's work for the Saudis.

Mr. Freeh was FBI director from 1993 to 2001 under Mr. Clinton, a time when the bureau suffered through several extremely damaging and long-running spy cases. They included the cases of FBI turncoats Robert Hanssen and Earl Edwin Pitts and the Chinese spying case of FBI informant Katrina Leung, who sexually compromised two senior FBI counterintelligence agents.

Kenneth E. deGraffenreid, former deputy director of the National Counterintelligence Executive office (NCIX), said most of the DNI counterintelligence panel members, including Mr. Freeh, Mr. MacGaffin and Miss Graham, opposed the counterintelligence reforms enacted into law in 2002 in the aftermath of several damaging spy cases.

"In seeking to reform counterintelligence, the new administration should have chosen people who did not oppose the very reforms that were enacted into law by the Congress, and who were not associated with past counterintelligence failures," Mr. deGraffenreid said.

Former National Counterintelligence Executive Michelle Van Cleave said: "The NCIX has been utterly marginalized, and the DNI is doing exactly the right thing in seeking outside advice on how to fix that before U.S. counterintelligence backslides even more."

Formation of the review panel followed the abrupt departure in February of two senior counterintelligence officials under National Counterintelligence Executive Joel Brenner.

In February, Marion E. "Spike" Bowman, the No. 2 official inside NCIX, left the agency, and NCIX chief of staff Robert L. Hubbard was reassigned to another post.

The departures followed an inspector general's report that was critical of management at the agency, which is charged with coordinating U.S. governmentwide counterintelligence and counterespionage efforts.
Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Panetta Seems to be Reconsidering Some of the Uncomfortable Realities


Obama Tilts to CIA on Memos
Top Officials at Odds Over Whether to Withhold Some Details on Interrogation Tactics
By EVAN PEREZ and SIOBHAN GORMAN
Wall Street Journal
APRIL 15, 2009

Excerpt: WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is leaning toward keeping secret some graphic details of tactics allowed in Central Intelligence Agency interrogations, despite a push by some top officials to make the information public, according to people familiar with the discussions.

These people cautioned that President Barack Obama is still reviewing internal arguments over the release of Justice Department memorandums related to CIA interrogations, and how much information will be made public is in flux.

Among the details in the still-classified memos is approval for a technique in which a prisoner's head could be struck against a wall as long as the head was being held and the force of the blow was controlled by the interrogator, according to people familiar with the memos. Another approved tactic was waterboarding, or simulated drowning.

A decision to keep secret key parts of the three 2005 memos outlining legal guidance on CIA interrogations would anger some Obama supporters who have pushed him to unveil now-abandoned Bush-era tactics. It would also go against the views of Attorney General Eric Holder and White House Counsel Greg Craig, people familiar with the matter said.

Top CIA officials have spoken out strongly against a full release, saying it would undermine the agency's credibility with foreign intelligence services and hurt the agency's work force, people involved in the discussions said. However, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair favors releasing the information, current and former senior administration officials said.
Sphere: Related Content

That Was Fast . . .


IRAN: Official Says Verdict Due in Spy Trial of Journalist Saberi
Los Angeles Times
By Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Excerpt:   Just like that, the trial of imprisoned Iranian American journalist Roxana Saberi appears to be over, according to a government official.

A spokesman for Iran's judiciary told reporters at a press conference that the North Dakota woman, a graduate of Northwestern University's journalism program, said Saberi's trial on espionage charges began Monday, with a verdict to be declared in the next few weeks.

"Apparently, the court has heard her final defense, but I will announce further reports in the next session," spokesman Ali-Reza Jamshidi told reporters, according to Iran's Mehr News Agency.

Saberi was detained in late January after living and working in Iran for six years as a journalist, two of them without official accreditation. [See S&E Post of April 9th: "American Journalist Roxana Saberi Charged with Spying in Iran"]

*   *   *

Her parents, Reza and Akiko, arrived in Tehran on April 6. A few days later, she was formally charged with espionage, a weighty accusation with potentially dire consequences for the 31-year-old former Miss North Dakota.

"She is charged with spying for foreigners. Her case was heard and an indictment has been issued," Jamshidi said today.

Jamshidi also said the public won't be able to evaluate the evidence for themselves.

*   *   *

Analysts have described four possible explanations for Saberi's arrest and the serious charges leveled against her:
  • The soft-spoken Saberi might have been leading a double life as a U.S. intelligence operative.
  • Journalists' legitimate work -- interviewing officials and sending reports here and there -- might superficially resemble espionage. 
  • Intelligence officers might have built up a body of circumstantial evidence -- visits to embassies, ministries, calls to the U.S. -- that, although factually accurate, was conceptually wrong.  Domestic Iranian politics can be vicious. One faction in the establishment might be using Saberi to try to undermine any possible rapprochement with the U.S. by another faction.
  • Iran might want a bargaining chip to trade for its officials arrested and held by the U.S. in Iraq as spies over the last few years.
Jamshidi called U.S. demands for her release "ridiculous and against international laws."Sphere: Related Content

Keep Your Friends Close, Keep Your Enemies . . .


Talking to the Taliban
Why the Pakistan intelligence agency's close ties with the Taliban should not be condemned
by Robert D. Kaplan
The Atlantic, April 6, 2009

Excerpts: The U.S. demands that Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), its spy agency, sever relations with the Taliban. Based on Pakistan’s own geography, this makes no sense from a Pakistani point of view. First of all, maintaining lines of communications and back channels with the enemy is what intelligence agencies do. What kind of a spy service would ISI be if it had no contacts with one of the key players that will help determine its neighbor’s future?

* * *
Remember, it wasn’t radicals burrowed deep within the ISI who made the decision to help bring the Taliban to power in the mid-1990s: it was the democratically elected government of the western-educated Benazir Bhutto who did that, on the theory that the Taliban would help bring stability to Afghanistan.

* * *
Of course, we can and should demand that Pakistan cease helping the Taliban to plan and carry out operations. But cutting links to the Taliban altogether is something the Pakistanis simply cannot do, and trying to insist upon it only worsens tensions between our two countries.Sphere: Related Content

"Extremists"? -- Anyone We Know?


Take your pick:



Another public relations victory for the so-called "Department of Homeland Security."

Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Commodore Bainbridge Spinning in His Grave


Comment: A veteran CIA Case Officer gives us an uncomfortable history lesson on Commodore Bainbridge -- the commander of the task force that President Jefferson sent to fight the Barbary pirates of Tripoli.

Pirates and the CIA: What Would Thomas Jefferson Have Done?
By Ken Silverstein
Harper's Magazine
April 9, 2009

Excerpt: For months, a former senior CIA officer has been telling me that pirate activity off Somalia was a problem that needed to be aggressively dealt with. By chance, I had a meeting with him yesterday as the Maersk Alabama hijacking was unfolding.Sphere: Related Content

Espionage Campaigning in "The Long War"

Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated By Spies
By SIOBHAN GORMAN
Wall Street Journal
April 8, 2009

Excerpt:  WASHINGTON -- Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.

The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven't sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war.

"The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid," said a senior intelligence official. "So have the Russians."Sphere: Related Content

The New Cold War (with Iran)


American Journalist Roxana Saberi Charged with Spying in Iran
And here's the reporting:
Saberi case exposes Iran’s rights failings

Ms. Saberi is not alone.  The Iranian CI Service has also detained Ms. Esha Momeni, another dual national,  suspected of subverting the public through campaigning for women’s rights in the Islamic republic.

Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Misplaced Hopes for the National Clandestine Service













DCI Leon Panetta Knows Cover-ups, But Not Leadership or Reform for Clandestine Service 

Veteran CIA Clandestine Human Intelligence Case Officer and former Deputy Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Homeland Security – Joseph W. Augustyn – has made a compelling case for reform of the Central Intelligence Agency’s National Clandestine Service (NCS). The Case Officers of the NCS run foreign agents engaged in espionage on behalf of the United States.

Here’s the crux of Mr. Augustyn’s appeal for reform:
“To effect meaningful change in a culture steeped in tradition and legend, it will take a leader within the CIA willing to take on the challenge. A bold leader willing to break crockery. One who can accept risk-taking and well-intentioned but sometimes unproductive operational activity. And, equally important, a leader willing to impose penalties on those inside the NCS who clearly stray from mandated and officially approved "rules of engagement." The strong hope is that new CIA Director Leon Panetta is that person.”

Well, it seems Mr. Augustyn will have to go on hoping. Leon Panetta is the antithesis of the leader Mr. Augustyn seeks. Panetta, 71 years old, is a professional Democratic Party political operative, politician, lawyer, and professor. He served as President Clinton’s Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997. Panetta was a nine-term congressman representing the San Jose/Santa Clara district of California, concentrating mostly on budget issues, civil rights, education, health, and environmental issues, particularly preventing oil drilling off the California coast. Panetta is a budget and administration expert. He’s served as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and was Chairman of the US House Committee on the Budget.

Panetta is hardly a “. . . bold leader willing to break crockery. One who can accept risk-taking and well-intentioned but sometimes unproductive operational activity . . . a leader willing to impose penalties on those inside the NCS who clearly stray from mandated and officially approved ‘rules of engagement.’” Panetta is a bean-counter, administrator and master political cover-up artist. Panetta has demonstrated his facility at glossing-over and obfuscating damaging, embarrassing and potentially criminal conduct as both Clinton White House Chief of Staff and as a Director of the “National Review Board for the Protection of Children & Young People” established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. If you are looking for a well-orchestrated cover-up, Panetta is your man.

If Panetta were to have any intelligence role in the current administration it should have been as the Director of National Intelligence – a position occupied by Admiral Dennis C. Blair. And while the Office of the Director of National Intelligence ought never have been created in the first place, its primary role is budgetary and policy related. Admiral Blair should be out at Langley running the CIA. He certainly has far more experience as an intelligence “consumer” and is much more familiar with the “pointy end of the sword” than which Panetta ever dreamed. Pat Buchanan famously (and accurately) joked that Condi Rice was “home-schooling” George W. Bush on foreign policy before he assumed office. No doubt the remarkably unqualified Mr. Panetta has had to undergo lengthy and extensive tutorials to take on the position of DCI.  All DCI predecessors have been more qualified.  Admiral Blair has probably forgotten more about clandestine and paramilitary operations than Panetta will learn in his term as DCI. Here’s a snippet from Admiral Blair’s official biography:
"Admiral Blair served as Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command, the largest of the combatant commands. During his 34-year Navy career, Admiral Blair served on guided missile destroyers in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and commanded the Kitty Hawk Battle Group. Ashore, he served as Director of the Joint Staff and as the first Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support at the CIA. He has also served in budget and policy positions on the National Security Council and several major Navy staffs."
It is difficult to imagine two Obama administration officials in more need of a job exchange flip-flop. I am not alone in my assessment of Panetta’s lack of qualifications to be the DCI. In a shockingly frank and unfiltered reaction to the announcement of Panetta’s nomination, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence stated:
“I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA Director. I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read. My position has consistently been that I believe the Agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”
Someone from the Obama White House must have had a long chat with Senator Feinstein because, on February 12, 2009, Panetta was confirmed in the full Senate by voice vote.

Back to Mr. Augustyn’s case for reform. His analysis is excellent and the recommendations he makes – for five "C's:" collection, commercial operations, covert action, career development, and collaboration – could be applied to the Defense HUMINT Service and any number of activities engaged in offensive counterespionage operations, as well as some Special Mission Units.

Where Mr. Augustyn errs is in placing any hope and confidence for bold leadership from DCI Leon Panetta. The best interests of the NCS and the broader security interests of the United States are not being well served.Sphere: Related Content

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

A Bold Move Against Our Creditors


Comment: Anyone check to see if Barney Frank or Chris Dodd wrote some waiver language into the TARP authorization to give LIMMT a little break on this awkward business?

Chinese Firm Indicted for Misusing Banks, Aiding Iran
By Karen Freifeld

Excerpt:  April 7 (Bloomberg) -- A Chinese company that supplies banned weapons to Iran and its manager were charged with concealing the company’s identity from U.S. banks, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said.

Morgenthau announced a 118-count indictment today against LIMMT Economic and Trade Company Ltd., and Li Fang Wei, commercial manager at the Dalian, China-based company.

LIMMT was sanctioned in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for providing material support for Iran’s missile program. However, between November 2006 and September 2008, Morgenthau said, LIMMT sent and received dozens of illegal payments through U.S. banks by using aliases and shell companies. He said that because LMMT was prohibited from dealing with U.S. banks, transfers in its name would have been banned.Sphere: Related Content

"Mother Jones" Meets CREST


Inside the CIA's (Sort of) Secret Document Stash
What the Agency thinks of MoJo, and other tidbits I found in a digital vault in Maryland.
—By Bruce Falconer
Mother Jones
Fri April 3, 2009 7:25 AM PST

Excerpt:  In a quiet, fluorescently lit room in the National Archives' auxiliary campus in suburban College Park, Maryland, 10 miles outside of Washington, are four computer terminals, each providing instant access to the more than 10 million pages of documents the CIA has declassified since 1995. There's only one problem: these are the only publicly available computers in the world that do so. At a time when Google is scanning and posting the contents of entire libraries to the Web, the agency refuses to link this large collection of documents—accessible through the CIA Records Search Tool, or CREST—to the Internet. This has effectively placed the CIA's declassified library beyond the reach of most Americans. So is the agency covering up what it has already uncovered?
Sphere: Related Content

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Well, I Certainly Hope So

Russian TV Says U.S. Spying at Kyrgyzstan Air Base
By Guy Faulconbridge

Excerpt:  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian state television accused the United States on Friday of using its only remaining air base in Central Asia as cover for a large-scale spying operation.

Rossiya television released a clip of a documentary to be aired on Sunday which it said shows how the United States ran intelligence operations from the Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan, used for supplying foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Kyrgyzstan told Washington in February to close the air base after it secured a $2 billion economic aid package from Russia, a setback for the United States as it seeks new supply routes.Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, April 2, 2009

The Director of National Intelligence is an Abject Failure

This paper identifies the critical leadership and management challenges currently facing the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) as leader of the Intelligence Community (IC) and as head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

Comment: ODNI should never have been established. It added yet another layer of bureaucracy and filtration to an already over-encumbered intelligence "community" unable to deliver its product in a timely, meaningful way to the National Command Authority.  Now, there is documentary evidence detailing the failures of the office and an opportunity to undo an error that hinders our national security interests. “More” is not necessarily “better.” This is precisely such a circumstance.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL Office of the Director of National Intelligence OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL Yahya Sheikho (U) This paper identifies the critical leadership and management challenges
Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

This Story Has Been Largely Overlooked -- Why?

Espionage Sentence Shortened for Man Who Faces Extradition
Former Filipino officer accused of ordering murder in homeland
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
BY JOE RYAN
Star-Ledger Staff

Excerpted portions: A federal judge in Newark yesterday reduced the espionage sentence of a former Philippine National Police officer, clearing the way for a hearing to determine if he will be extradited to his homeland to face murder charges.

Michael Ray Aquino, who has been imprisoned since 2005 for possessing classified U.S. military documents, was resentenced to three years and 10 months, which would have made him eligible for immediate release.

Aquino, however, will remain in custody pending an extradition hearing. He is wanted in the Philippines for the death of two men authorities say were slain as part of a political vendetta.

Yesterday's proceeding stems from Aquino's 2006 guilty plea to possessing a military document. The classified document was stolen by a U.S. military analyst authorities say was linked to a plot to overthrow the Philippines government.

. . .

He once headed an elite anti-organized crime task force for the Philippines National Police and is charged in the 2000 murder of a high-profile publicist, Salvador Dacer, and Dacer's driver, Emmanuel Corbito. Authorities say the two men were killed by rogue members of the national police loyal former president Joseph Estrada.

. . .

Aragoncillo [recruited by Aquino] grew up in Manila and moved to New Jersey as a young man. He joined the Marines, became a citizen and eventually worked as a military analyst under Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney. In 2004, he took a job as an FBI intelligence analyst detailed to Fort Monmouth.

At some point, Aragoncillo began stealing classified and national security documents. Aquino's role was never fully disclosed, but authorities said the espionage was part of a larger plot to overthrow Philippines President Gloria Arroyo.
###

Comment:  Kudos to  reporter Joe Ryan.  Now if only the Star-Ledger would send him to Manila to get the rest of the story.
Sphere: Related Content

What Would Gehlen Do?

Germany to Tighten Control of Spy Agencies
BERLIN, March 24 (UPI) -- Germany plans to tighten parliamentary control of its intelligence services.Sphere: Related Content