Thursday, May 28, 2009

How Things Work (or Don't)





Comment: During the Cold War, U.S. Intelligence was always extremely leery of sharing information and operational details with their Italian colleagues in SISMI (and SISDE) because of the Italian Parliament's Intelligence Oversight Committees (that were thoroughly penetrated by members of the Italian Communist Party). Communist Party members would dutifully report every snippet of information they came across to Moscow Center.  [Ask yourself how we knew that.]  As one might imagine, that made things "awkward" on occasion.  Unilateral [U.S. only -- no "host country coordination"] operations were the norm, with the Italian services brought in on operations at the last minute or after-the-fact.  There were occasional instances of special cooperation and trust between U.S. and Italian intelligence officers -- but, they were rare.  Here's some remarkably insightful follow-up reporting in the LA Times on post-9/11 agency relationships (and their consequences) as previously reported re: the CIA's "Italian Job."


From the Los Angeles Times

Trial of CIA, Italian agents provides rare look at intelligence work
Testimony about the alleged 'rendition' of Egyptian Abu Omar features feuds and rogue conduct in a case that has apparently made and crushed careers.
By Sebastian Rotella

May 19, 2009

Reporting from Milan, Italy — The two spies were allies and kindred spirits.  Robert Seldon Lady, the CIA station chief in Milan, and Col. Stefano D'Ambrosio, the local head of the SISMI, Italy's intelligence agency, shared pride in their fight against terrorism and disdain for self-serving bosses.

On a fall day in 2002, the American made an explosive revelation. He told D'Ambrosio that, over his objections, a CIA team was in Milan doing reconnaissance for the "rendition" of an Egyptian extremist ideologue. The American was worried that the risky operation would ruin his carefully built alliances, D'Ambrosio testified years later, and could even lead to a shootout between the Americans and the Italians if things went awry on the street.

With an urgent look, spy to spy, Lady said: "Talk to your people."

D'Ambrosio recalled that he got the unspoken message: "In other words, he says . . . 'This whole thing is so crazy that if . . . two operational chiefs in the field, who know the area, who work in this territory, say that an action is completely crazy, probably they will back off.' "

Four months after the conversation in Milan, the CIA allegedly abducted the cleric and flew him to Egypt, where he was tortured for months. An international scandal ensued: The accused abductors left a sloppy trail of phone activity, credit card charges and photo IDs that allowed Milan authorities to prosecute 26 Americans (in absentia), including the now-retired Lady, and seven Italian officials.

The brazen nature of the alleged rendition has gotten much attention. But the trial has also revealed how the Bush administration's drastic tactics shook up the secret world of U.S. intelligence work overseas. Testimony has featured remarkable allegations about feuds and rogue conduct. The case apparently made and crushed careers and spread betrayal and suspicion among U.S. and Italian anti-terrorism officials.

On the witness stand in October, D'Ambrosio summed it up: "We were between the tragic and the ridiculous."

The case arose from an extrajudicial practice known as "extraordinary rendition," in which U.S. intelligence officials have secretly abducted terrorism suspects and transported them to secret detention facilities or to countries that subject the suspects to harsh interrogation and, sometimes, torture.

Unless otherwise noted, the following account is based on testimony during the trial, which has slogged on almost two years.

Tragic figure

Lady seems a rather tragic figure at the heart of the case: a veteran spy who, after the Sept. 11 attacks, established himself as a point man in the shadows of the battle against the Islamic extremist underworld. Although he took risks to try to stop the abduction, in the end he allegedly became one of its dutiful architects.

The bearded, curly-haired Lady, now 55, spoke excellent Italian. He thrived in the convivial culture of Italian law enforcement, doing business over espresso and long lunches, hosting barbecues. He cultivated bonds with anti-terrorism units of agencies that are wary of one another: the SISMI spy service, the paramilitary Carabinieri and the national police. He passed along valuable leads from U.S. intercepts and offered cash and high-tech equipment for costly stakeouts.

"We all had excellent relationships with him because this was a very affable and professionally accessible person," testified Luciano Pironi, a Carabinieri lieutenant who confessed to a hands-on role in the abduction. "I think he had given CIA souvenirs to half of Milan."

Lady also developed his own agents at a mosque that was a European hub for Al Qaeda, targeting a network suspected of sending militants to training camps in northern Iraq. He helped Milan anti-terrorism police build a case against the rendition target, Abu Omar, regarded as a vehement ideologue in the group.

At a discreet sit-down with D'Ambrosio in October 2002, however, Lady said that his CIA bosses had decided to circumvent the police and abduct Abu Omar, supposedly hoping to force him to become an informant. As a result, Lady was embroiled in a feud in his own agency. The American told D'Ambrosio that he had an "awful" relationship with the CIA's Rome station chief, who resented Lady's criticisms of the planned rendition and had sent a tough deputy to Milan to make sure he followed orders.

D'Ambrosio was dumbfounded. When Lady told him that the SISMI had dispatched Italian agents to help a team from the CIA's paramilitary "special operations group" stalk the Egyptian, D'Ambrosio realized that his own bosses were keeping him in the dark about the plan.

Warning issued

Lady said he warned higher-ups that the idea was a colossal mistake.

He said "it would eliminate from the area a subject who was known to counter-terrorism forces," D'Ambrosio said. "We knew what [Abu Omar] did, who he met, where he met them. . . . It would cause grave harm, because at the moment Abu Omar was substituted in his post, we would have to start all over again, with the risk that terrorist projects perhaps in the initial stage could be executed. . . . The subject they wanted to abduct was not certainly a subject who posed an imminent danger. Abu Omar did not go around with an AK-47 ready to shoot children."

CIA bosses dismissed objections and got clearance from top officials in Washington. D'Ambrosio testified: "I'll tell you my impression. . . . The only motive was career advancement. That is, to show Washington that [the Rome station chief] was a tough enough and skilled enough person to pull it off."

D'Ambrosio said he hurried to Bologna to urge his boss, Marco Mancini, to abort "an action in my territory . . . [that] was not only wrong but extremely dangerous. I expressed complete dissent."

Mancini seemed surprised only that the American had confided in D'Ambrosio. A few weeks later, Mancini ordered D'Ambrosio's transfer to Rome. Commiserating in Milan, Lady told his friend that the CIA chief in Rome had demanded D'Ambrosio's head. And Lady made a startling disclosure about Mancini, who soon became the No. 2 chief of the Italian spy agency.

"He told me that Mancini had offered himself to the CIA as a double agent," D'Ambrosio recalled. "And he said the CIA had made a negative response to the offer. . . . An analysis done by CIA psychologists based on conversations with Mancini had revealed according to them that Mancini had an extremely venal character."

Mancini and other Italian officials deny that allegation. In addition to the Abu Omar case, Mancini has been charged with criminal conspiracy in a corruption scandal involving illegal wiretaps and an Italian telephone company.

Despite Lady's initial objections, he is accused of setting up the abduction on Feb. 17, 2003. He allegedly recruited Pironi, the Carabinieri lieutenant, who confessed to using his badge to stop Abu Omar before masked men dragged him into a van. Pironi testified that Lady rewarded him with a paid six-day trip to the United States featuring a visit to CIA headquarters, where two top officials for European operations thanked him.

Meanwhile, the CIA's former Rome station chief -- a defendant in the Milan trial -- was promoted after the rendition, Italian investigators said.

American and Italian spymasters have been accused of efforts at a cover-up. Two weeks after the disappearance, the CIA allegedly sent Italian agencies a false report indicating that Abu Omar had gone to the Balkans.

It took a year until Abu Omar was freed from prison in Egypt and resurfaced. The official story began to unravel. But Lady's hard-won alliances and friendships with Italian police had already fallen apart amid suspicion and silence.

The U.S. government has refused to comment. The Italian government has tried to scuttle the prosecution in the name of state secrecy laws. Responding to a high court decision on a government appeal, the judge here will decide Wednesday whether the trial can continue and what evidence can be used.

Sphere: Related Content

A Technical Eyewitness


Agency Using Satellites to Zoom in on Crime at the Border
Military spy agency tracks drug smugglers from space
By Dennis Wagner - May. 18, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Excerpt: A relatively obscure U.S. intelligence agency has begun using satellite photographs to help authorities bust drug runners along the nation's Southwest border.

R. Scott Zikmanis, a deputy director of operations with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, said pictures from space can be used along with other intelligence to pinpoint Mexican narcotics operations and anticipate smuggling forays into the United States.Sphere: Related Content

Monday, May 25, 2009

Memorial Day, 2009


"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."


Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Lawsuit Over CIA's "Italian Job"










Woman in Rendition Case Sues for Immunity
By Scott Shane
Published: May 13, 2009
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — A former American official charged with kidnapping in Italy in the 2003 seizure of a radical Muslim cleric filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to force the State Department to invoke diplomatic immunity to halt the prosecution.

Italian prosecutors have claimed that the former official, Sabrina De Sousa, 53, was a C.I.A. officer serving under diplomatic cover in the United States Consulate in Milan at the time the cleric, known as Abu Omar, was grabbed on the street by American counterterrorism officers.

He was flown to Egypt, where he later contended that he was tortured. The case became a symbol of the American practice of rendition, in which a terrorism suspect is captured and delivered to another country for interrogation.

In the lawsuit, filed in United States District Court in Washington, and in an interview, Ms. De Sousa described herself as a diplomat and denied that she had worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. A spokesman for the agency declined to comment on Ms. De Sousa or her lawsuit, but former agency officials said that she had worked for the C.I.A. in Italy.

The lawsuit asks the court to order the government to invoke diplomatic immunity, provide her with legal counsel in Italy and pay her legal bills and other costs associated with the case.

Italian investigators found Ms. De Sousa’s phone number in the cellphone of a C.I.A. officer involved in the rendition, and she was among 25 alleged C.I.A. officers and one American military officer indicted in the case in 2006. In lurid Italian news accounts, Ms. De Sousa has been described as “Sabrina the tiger, with stiletto heels and fists of steel” and as the case’s Mata Hari.

But she insists that she played no role in the episode, which occurred in February 2003. In fact, Ms. De Sousa said, she had been skiing with friends at the time, and she showed a reporter for The New York Times credit card bills from that time for ski rental and a hotel in Madonna di Campligio, 130 miles from Milan.

Ms. De Sousa, who grew up in India and became a naturalized American citizen in 1985, said that most of her family lived overseas and that since the indictment government officials had strongly advised her not to travel abroad for fear of arrest or other legal complications. She said she resigned from government service in February because she felt torn between the government’s instructions and her desire to visit her family.

“I had to choose between my job and my family,” Ms. De Sousa said in an interview at the Washington office of her lawyer, Mark S. Zaid. “The government sent me to Italy to represent this country and then basically abandoned me.”

Ms. De Sousa called it “inexplicable” that the government had not invoked diplomatic immunity. “I’m still at a loss as to why this country is allowing the case to head toward conviction,” she said.

State Department officials declined to comment, noting that the case is at a highly sensitive stage. In March, Italy’s Constitutional Court ruled that Italian prosecutors had violated state secrecy in gathering evidence in the case, and it is uncertain whether the prosecution will continue.

But the State Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, that they had been very active and “are pursuing every avenue to try to bring this case to a satisfactory resolution.” They noted that most of the alleged officers charged in the rendition were not under diplomatic cover and would not qualify for immunity.

Legal experts said that intelligence officers serving under diplomatic cover often claim immunity when facing criminal charges overseas. But Curtis A. Bradley, a Duke law professor specializing in international law, cautioned that “consular immunity,” the category that presumably would apply to Ms. De Sousa, was limited by treaty to “acts performed in the exercise of consular functions.”

Mr. Bradley said the rendition might not qualify under that definition, suggesting that pressing the immunity issue might not automatically free Ms. De Sousa from the prosecution.


Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Al Qaeda Returns to Somalia







Extremists Said to be Eyeing Somalia as New Base
By Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press
Posted on Wed, Apr. 29, 2009

Excerpts: WASHINGTON - There is growing evidence that battle-hardened extremists are filtering out of safe havens along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and into East Africa, bringing sophisticated terror tactics that include suicide attacks.

The shift, according to U.S. military and counterterrorism officials, fuels concern that Somalia, in particular, could become the next Afghanistan - a sanctuary where al-Qaeda-linked groups could train and plan attacks against the West.

So far, officials say, the number of foreign fighters who have moved from southwest Asia and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region to the Horn of Africa is small, perhaps two to three dozen.

But a similarly small cell of plotters was responsible for the devastating 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

* * *

Officials said that in recent years they have seen signs that terror techniques bearing al-Qaeda's signature are gaining ground in East Africa. The harbingers include coordinated suicide bombings in Somalia in October.

* * *

But on Oct. 29, 2008, suicide bombers killed more than 20 people in five attacks in Somalia, targeting a U.N. compound, the Ethiopian consulate, the presidential palace in Somaliland's capital, and two intelligence facilities in Puntland.

The incident also marked the first time that a U.S. citizen - a young Somalian man from Minneapolis - carried out a suicide bombing.
Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

DIA HUMINT Chief Visiting Rwanda



Rwanda: U.S. DIA Boss in Country
Edwin Musoni, 13 May 2009
The New Times

Kigali — The United States Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), Deputy Director for Human Intelligence, William Huntington, is in the country for a four day visit aimed at expanding his awareness of Africa.

According to the U.S. Defence Attaché at the American Embassy Maj. Ronald Miller, Huntington is visiting Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda but will spend more days in Rwanda than in the rest of the countries.

All U.S. Defence Attachés directly report to Huntington's office and so far the US has 138 Defence attachés across the world.

"The reason he is spending more time in Rwanda is because of the reputation the country has made in terms of development and restoration of peace in the region, including the Darfur contribution and the Umoja Wetu joint operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)," said Miller.

Huntington paid a courtesy call on Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. James Kabarebe, who gave him the overview of several success stories of his forces and how Rwanda is fairing in conducting regional peacekeeping missions.

"Rwanda and U.S have a good peacekeeping relations and the country being the heart of Africa meant a lot to him," said Miller.

He added that, Huntington is expected to tour several parts of the country including Gako Military Academy and meet with some officials from the government and the US embassy in Rwanda.

The DIA is an intelligence agency in the US Department of Defence (DoD) and is responsible for providing intelligence in support of military planning and operations.

The Directorate for Human Intelligence (DH) manages DIA's and the DoD's human source intelligence collection, including the Defence Attache System, and is the primary interface between the DoD and the National Clandestine Service.Sphere: Related Content

China Is Relentless



Pentagon Official Charged in Leak of Classified Info to China

Excerpt: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Pentagon official has been charged with leaking classified information to a business client who was taking orders from China's government, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

James Wilbur Fondren Jr., 62, is accused of "conspiracy to communicate classified information to an agent of a foreign government" from November 2004 until February 2008, department officials said in a written statement.

Fondren, who began working as a civilian deputy director for the Washington liaison office for U.S. Pacific Command in 2001 and has been on administrative leave with pay since mid-February of last year, turned himself in to federal agents Wednesday morning.

* * *

STORY HIGHLIGHTS:
  • Official in Pacific Command office accused of conspiracy to pass classified info.
  • James W. Fondren Jr., 62, has been on administrative leave since February 2008.
  • Authorities believe Fondren was part of espionage conspiracy from 2004 to 2008.
  • Affidavit: Fondren put classified information in "opinion papers" that he sold.
*      *      *  

Comment:  One would hope that the combined counterespionage efforts of the United States against the PRC would reap more than this.  A small fish, indeed.  Let's just hope that our successes are so profound and our penetrations of the Ministry for State Security so deep that today's Justice Department announcement was strictly for PR.  Fondren is charged with "conspiracy to communicate classified information to an agent of a foreign government."  By that standard, Rep. Jane Harman should call her office and have legal counsel standing by.  
Sphere: Related Content

Monday, May 11, 2009

Air Marshals: Who Are They & How Do They Communicate?


Air Marshals’ Secret Communication Weapon
By Kim Zetter
Wired; May 8, 2009 7:14 pm

Excerpt: If you’re a U.S. Air Marshal patrolling the friendly skies, you’ll want to communicate discreetly with fellow on-board marshals, airport ground crew, cockpit crew and flight attendants if you need to thwart an attack.

You might also want to tap into the plane’s digital system to know where you are at any time, how far the nearest airport is and how much fuel you have left on the plane.

To do this, you’ll want something like the Federal Air Marshal Service Communication System (FAMSCOM), an application that runs on any off-the-shelf wireless PDA.

* * *

Who is allowed to become an Air Marshal? From an investigation done last year by the nonprofit journalism group ProPublica.

Sphere: Related Content

Interesting Question That Raises Additional Questions


By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent and AP
Last update - 10:31 11/05/2009
Haaretz.com

Excerpt: Lebanon arrested five people over the weekend suspected of belonging to an intelligence cell transmitting information about Hezbollah to Israel, the most recent arrests in a two-month crackdown apparently aided by American training and equipment.

Al Jazeera TV broadcast images on Sunday of a small table containing hidden communication devices, a modem concealing transmission equipment and forged passports - all allegedly used by the suspects.

*      *      *

The United States has provided $1 billion in aid since 2006, including $410 million in security assistance to the Lebanese military and police. But U.S. officials have said they would review aid to Lebanon depending on the results of the June 7 election, which could oust the U.S.-backed government.

Israel has expressed reservations about American aid to the Lebanese army and security services, saying those organizations will ultimately be unable to contend with Hezbollah and that any aid is liable to serve Hezbollah's interests.

*      *     *

Comment:  More to this than the complimentary and corroborating reporting of Haaretz and Al Jazeera.  Very curious, indeed.  Great video of concealment devices and clandestine communications technology.   

Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Understanding Attacks in Afghanistan



Afghanistan -- Geospatial Analysis Reveals Patterns in Terrorist Incidents 2004-2008

Source: FAS Project on Government Secrecy

The Director of National Intelligence Open Source Center's geospatial analysis of incidents within the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Worldwide Incidents Tracking System (WITS) database provides insight into terrorist incidents in Afghanistan reported in open sources from 2004 through the end of 2008 and compares them against an OSC-developed predictive model. Various types of analysis of the WITS data revealed spatial patterns and a distribution of incidents that would be valuable to those interested in the dynamics of Afghanistan's security. Analyses included in this study are as follows: mapping incident density, identifying the dominant ethnic group where incidents occurred, mapping incidents by district, mapping incidents by province, identifying the mean center of incidents over time, calculating the standard deviation (spatial pattern/trend) of overall incidents, mapping total incidents by month, and computing the mean center of incidents by month.
Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Waiting for the New TV Series . . .


Wanted: A Doctor to Counsel Britain’s Stressed, Tired Spies
May 3rd, 2009 - 2:30 pm ICT by ANI

London, May 3 (ANI): Britain’s secret service, Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), is looking for an occupational health adviser to counsel spies, who are feeling worse for wear after taking on enemies such as Al-Qaeda and Chinese cyber-spies.

MI6 is advertising for the 40,000-pound job on the Secret Intelligent Service (SIS) website, which reads: “Here at SIS (or MI6 as you may know us), we operate across the globe. The variety of challenges extends to every corner of our organisation and occupational health is no exception.

“We are looking for a qualified occupational health adviser to cover an interesting mix of work, from specialised health surveillance and pre-travel briefings and clearances to sickness absence management.”

The new recruit will be given guidance on foreign travel - which might include checking for enemy tarantulas before settling down to sleep, reports The Times.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The SIS may be involved in some unique situations but they have a duty to protect their staff.”

An intelligence source said: “This is a very stressful job, especially as one cannot confide in your family. Many people turn to alcohol or even recreational drugs to cope.”

The post is based at the SIS’s Vauxhall Cross offices. (ANI)Sphere: Related Content

Misuse of the Term "Clandestine" -- But It's Still Pretty Cool


Clandestine Defense Hub Prepares to Open at UM
Research site to develop tools to fight future threats
By David Wood
April 28, 2009
Baltimore Sun

Excerpt: The projects to be launched at a top-secret University of Maryland research center would make "Q" - James Bond's owlish gadget-meister - blink with tears of envy.

In the coming months, teams of the nation's top theoretical mathematicians, behavioral scientists, software engineers and futurists will assemble to figure out how to make U.S. intelligence better, faster and more efficient.

Aston Martins with twin machine guns and ejector seats? Flamethrower bagpipes? Jet packs? The missile-firing leg cast?

Beyond that. Way beyond that.Sphere: Related Content

Friday, May 1, 2009

Getting Away With . . .

Comment: Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) breathes a deep sigh of relief and can go on pretending to be a "victim."  AIPAC can continue it$ front operation$.  Never mind, everyone -- this has all just been an unfortunate misunderstanding about the informal sharing of certain information that's really just in everyone's best interests.  Really!  Silly espionage laws!  
Convicted Israeli Spy Jonathan Pollard, call your attorney (again).     

U.S. to Drop Israel Lobbyist Spy Case

Fri May 1, 2009 8:32pm BST
By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Friday said it would drop charges in an espionage case against two pro-Israel lobbyists because it was unlikely to win at trial and classified information would have to be disclosed.

Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, former American Israel Public Affairs Committee officials, were accused of conspiring with a former Pentagon analyst to provide defense information to foreign government officials, policy analysts and the media.

"Given the diminished likelihood the government will prevail at trial under the additional intent requirements imposed by the court and the inevitable disclosure of classified information that would occur at any trial in this matter, we have asked the court to dismiss the indictment," Dana Boente, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement.

Last week, Representative Jane Harman asked the Justice Department to release secretly taped telephone calls to show she did not intervene in the case.

The New York Times had reported that Harman was overheard on calls intercepted by the National Security Agency in 2005 in which she appeared to agree to seek lenient treatment for the lobbyists.

A former Pentagon analyst, Lawrence Franklin, pleaded guilty to disclosing information to Rosen and Weissman from early 2002 through June 2004.

The defense for the lobbyists had argued that U.S. government officials regularly conveyed sensitive, nonpublic information to the defendants and others at AIPAC, with the expectation it would be disclosed to foreign government officials and the news media.

Defense attorneys said the case had taken a toll on their clients who had lost their jobs and were "shunned by many in their community."

Abbe Lowell, one of the defense lawyers, said he believed the change in administration had an impact on the outcome because President Barack Obama has stressed greater openness and the government likely took a fresh look at the case.

"I think it did matter that there was a new one (administration)," Lowell told reporters.

A Justice Department spokesman said: "This was strictly a legal decision and nothing more."Sphere: Related Content