Brig Gen Ali-Reza Asgari - "Gold Mine for Western Intelligence"

The Iranian Nuclear Defector

On February 7, 2007, in Istanbul, Turkey, Brigadier General Ali-Reza Asgari of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and former Deputy Defense Minister of Iran, defected to "Western intelligence services." It is speculated that General Asgari had been run as a defector-in-place by Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) since 2003.

Watch "Subversion & Espionage" in the coming days for additional details on this critically important -- and now public -- HUMINT victory.

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Brave Questions on Espionage from a Journalist in Zimbabwe

Comment: While the author may have a very flawed understanding of the unfortunate realities concerning foreign financing of American politicians, campaigns, parties, etc. -- he does raise excellent questions for his own countrymen to consider and their government to answer. One imagines that he does so at substantial personal risk. Courageous.

Foreign Payments and Risk of Espionage
September 26, 2009, The Zimbabwe Times
Jupiter Punungwe

RECENTLY there was an outcry over allegations that some people working in the Prime Minister’s office were being paid astronomical stipends directly by foreign governments or some other non-Zimbabwean entity.

As is now common in Zimbabwe, the debate over the issue was heavily partisan, with very little attention paid to matters of principle. The risk of having someone with access to security sensitive information, or mere physical access to security sensitive buildings, being paid by foreign entities was not clearly analysed and debated. Clearly the Prime Minister’s office is a security sensitive area.

In short, there is need to thoroughly investigate whether the money is a benign stipend or maybe payment for espionage activities. It is not uncommon for government officials to receive money for supplying sensitive information to foreign governments. The case of Zanu-PF stalwart, Philip Chiyangwa comes to mind.

If the Prime Minister is actually allowing people in his office to get stipends from foreign governments, then he is dangerously naive. Such payments provide ample opportunity to cover for payments in return for espionage activities, such as those Chiyangwa was once alleged to have conducted.

Most governments, including the British and American governments do not allow any kind of foreign entity to even merely sponsor a political party, let alone directly pay high ranking government officials. These governments recognise the inherent espionage risks that are inevitably part and parcel of such activity.

One is also left with no choice but to call into question the competence of our security services. Where were they while the Prime Minister was allowing such a high risk setup to brew in his offices? Mind you it is their duty to appropriately advise all senior government officials on security matters. Do they even have proper security clearance and evaluation procedures? If those procedures allow someone, being paid by a foreign entity, daily unsupervised access to sensitive government buildings and installations, then those procedures might as well be flushed down the toilet.

A competent security establishment would have detected the anomaly and provided correct advice to the Prime Minister long before the matter was splashed in news headlines. As it is, it took a Namibian to correctly evaluate the dangers of the setup and make the issue public.

In their defence, the Prime Minister’s office complains that the Public Service Commission has not ‘formalised’ the appointment of some people in the Prime Minister’s office. I would expect that the PSC has a set of established rules and procedures to follow when recruiting people to fill the posts it controls. Posts that are not controlled by the PSC are usually sworn in, for example ministerial and judicial posts.

The PSC is a non-partisan commission, which is supposed to pick the most suitable candidates based on specific requirements for the post, interview procedures and advertising requirements. It is supposed to ensure a fair process for all the qualified people who may wish to apply. The PSC should not be part of a process in which a senior government official picks someone for reasons of personal favouritism and then wants the PSC to rubberstamp the charade. What would stop government officials from appointing their small-houses (mistresses), goat herding nephews, muchaiwa or beer-guzzling uncles and even political bum-lickers, who would be absolutely not suitable for the posts?

If the Prime Minister’s office went through the proper laid down recruitment procedures and then the PSC failed to formalise that process then I would agree that they have an issue to complain about. If not then they actually have a case to answer for.
Mind you unaccountable favouritism, nepotism and cronyism are the very practices through which Zanu-PF has progressively mismanaged Zimbabwe, with disastrous consequences which I do not need to repeat here.

I will not delve too much into the credibility of the Prime Minister given his past claims that everyone in government was surviving on a hundred American dollars a month. At that time I pointed out a number of simple facts, such as the amount of school fees required for the children of certain officials, which made his claims implausible.

If true, revelations that some officials, working in his office, are being paid stipends outside of their salaries, will only serve to confirm what some of us have suspected all along – that the Prime Minister’s affinity to straightforward statements is proving to be a lot like mercury’s affinity to a glass surface.

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Swift Justice: DoD Spy Fondren Convicted of Espionage for PRC

Comment: Follow-up to "All Just a Terrible Misunderstanding . . ."

Defense Department Official Convicted in Espionage Case
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 25, 2009 6:32 PM

A Defense Department official was convicted Friday of providing classified information to a Chinese government agent and lying to the FBI about it.

A federal jury in Alexandria convicted James W. Fondren Jr. on three counts, prosecutors said. He was acquitted on four other espionage-related counts. Fondren was the second Pentagon official charged in an espionage ring that provided highly sensitive military information to China.

Fondren, 62, faces as much as 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 22. He has been on paid administrative leave from his job as deputy director for the Washington Liaison Office of the U.S. Pacific Command.

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The Defection of Iranian Deputy Defense Minister, Brigadier General Ali Reza Asgari

Comment: Reporting where we learn the value of a defector -- and the incredible importance of, and operational imperative for a serious, patient, well-resourced HUMINT program. Nothing beats HUMINT. Nothing.

Also: I just finished reading "The Increment" by David Ignatius. Based on this reporting, Ignatius should be polyed -- just kidding, of course!

Iranian Nuclear Site Under Surveillance Since 2006
MI6 has been aware that the Iranians were building a secret underground enrichment facility at Qom in Iran for “some months” sources say and played a key role in identifying its use.

By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent
Published: 4:53PM BST 25 Sep 2009
The site, north east of Qom, off the Qom to Aliabad highway is a former missile site operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Building work “started in earnest” in the middle of 2006, sources said, with workers tunneling into the side of a mountain to excavate a space big enough for around 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium.

While that may sound large, sources say the amount produced would be “insufficient for a civilian fuel reactor,” particularly using the old P1 centrifuges based on a 1970s design developed by the Pakistani programme run by AQ Khan.
Intelligence also suggests that the site is “not yet operational.”

A National Intelligence Estimate by the US Government in December 2007 said Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons programme in 2003 but British intelligence has always been skeptical of that assessment.

The intelligence was said to have been gained through compromising Iran’s computer network and seizing a journal containing detailed notes.

The CIA has also been running a covert program known as the “Brain Drain” which was designed to entice Iran’s nuclear scientists to defect to the West, but had limited success.

In February 2008, further information was gained from a laptop computer slipped out of the country by an Iranian nuclear engineer that contained information said to be inconsistent with “any application other than the development of a nuclear weapon.''

MI6 has always set great store by human intelligence and among the defectors to the West has been Brigadier General Ali Reza Asgari, Iran’s deputy defence minister, who disappeared on a trip to Turkey two years ago and is thought to have been handled by a European intelligence agency rather than the Americans.

The last and perhaps most obvious piece in the intelligence jigsaw is satellite imagery which has existed of this site for some time and has been able top reveal the building activity. Such pictures cannot reveal what the site was being used for but the need to transport equipment to it means that communications can be intercepted.

Sources have said that on this occasion three intelligence services worked together - the CIA, MI6 and the DGSE of France - with MI6 playing a “very big part.”

A US official, who said the information had come from “a variety of sources and disciplines,” added: “The US and its partners have been observing and analysing this site for several years. Earlier this year, there was an accumulation of evidence that gave us high confidence that this was intended to be a uranium enrichment facility.”

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ChiCom's Threaten Isolation While Denouncing US Pride & Prejudice

Comment: Quasi-official analysis and commentary by an "organ" of the Communist Chinese Government concerning the recently released U.S. National Intelligence Strategy. The ChiCom's seem insulted and hurt. Aww! (See red highlighting) Normally I wouldn't be too worried -- only now, they own us.

Pride and Prejudice of U.S. Intelligence
www.chinaview.cn 2009-09-24 08:51:56

BEIJING, Sept. 24 -- The 2009 National Intelligence Strategy of the United States, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Sept 15, directly lists Iran, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), China and Russia as the nation-states with the ability to challenge U.S. interests in traditional and emerging ways.

This is the first report on national intelligence strategy since President Barack Obama took office. Though the document itself would not necessarily represent the stance of the Obama administration, it will act as guidance for the president to formulate his intelligence strategy.

Through the report, we can conclude that although the United States has undergone a historic presidential election and a series of world-shaking events after 9/11, its strategic objective and modes of conduct have not changed, but continue to be enhancement of its global hegemony and prevention of any new emerging power.

In the present world of interdependence, national security is linked with more intercommunity relations, reciprocity and integrity. One nation's security can only be guaranteed in an overall safety environment.

According to the report, the major objectives of the United States intelligence service are to combat violent extremism, counter weapons of mass destruction proliferation, enhance cyber-security and integrate counterintelligence. All the objectives above, however, cannot be fulfilled by the United States alone. Though its anti-terrorism efforts have been going on for eight years, major international terrorist groups are still a headache. The worrisome situation in Iraq shows no sign of letting up and about 72 percent of Afghan territory is still under the control of al-Qaida. The soil breeding terrorism has not been cleared by the U.S.-led military campaigns.

It is strange that the world's largest nuclear power, the United States, is said to have now become the country most vulnerable to a nuclear threat. Shortly after he headed to the White House, President Obama outlined his vision of a nuclear-free world, appealing for worldwide nuclear disarmament.

However, we did not see any positive signs of the United States changing its strategic mentality in the new report stuffed with outdated pride and prejudice. The document claims that a number of nation-states have the ability to challenge U.S. interests in traditional (e.g., military force) and emerging (e.g., cyber operations) areas. In fact, the United States is the only country, which included high-tech network into military operations and was the first to set up a cyber-war command. The true objective of the United States is to obtain the capability that can threaten other nations' cyber security and to seek hegemony in this new emerging field.

It is said in the report that the objects of counterintelligence include not only governments of sovereign states, but also non-state players, violent extremist groups, cyber intruders, and criminal organizations, which are increasingly undermining U.S. interests in myriad ways. After the collapse of its old opponent - the Soviet Union, the United States found no effective solution to deal with the new security situation, but continued to seek "enemies", which might result ultimately in treating every other party as its "enemy". Guided by this kind of mentality, it is no surprise that together with Russia, Iran and DPRK, China also was blacklisted as a complex global challenge to U.S. interests.

The report reflects a kind of typical Cold War and power politics mentality, which not only runs counter to modern international political reality and hinders goodwill for cooperation among countries in the current crisis-torn world, but is also out of line with the U.S. long-term national interests. People who always assume others to be enemies may end up in isolation. The United States would not like to see its self-fulfilling prophecy come true someday.

(Source: China Daily)

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"The FBI declined to comment on the program . . ."

Newly Declassified Files Detail Massive FBI Data-Mining Project
By Ryan Singel September 23, 2009 | 7:00 am |

EXCERPT: A fast-growing FBI data-mining system billed as a tool for hunting terrorists is being used in hacker and domestic criminal investigations, and now contains tens of thousands of records from private corporate databases, including car-rental companies, large hotel chains and at least one national department store, declassified documents obtained by Wired.com show.

Headquartered in Crystal City, Virginia, just outside Washington, the FBI’s National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) maintains a hodgepodge of data sets packed with more than 1.5 billion government and private-sector records about citizens and foreigners, the documents show, bringing the government closer than ever to implementing the “Total Information Awareness” system first dreamed up by the Pentagon in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Such a system, if successful, would correlate data from scores of different sources to automatically identify terrorists and other threats before they could strike. The FBI is seeking to quadruple the known staff of the program.

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All Just a Terrible Misunderstanding, I'm Sure . . .

Trial Opens in VA for Officer Accused in Spy Case
Associated Press (September 21, 2009)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A former Air Force officer is on trial for providing secret military information to a New Orleans furniture salesman who turned out to be a Chinese spy.

Prosecutors told a jury in federal court in Alexandria on Monday that James Fondren of Annandale, Va., sold "opinion papers" containing classified information about U.S.-China military relations to Tai Shen Kuo, a New Orleans businessman.

Kuo gave those papers to an agent working with the Beijing government.

Kuo has already pleaded guilty to espionage and been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison. Kuo was the first witness Monday against Fondren.

The defendant's lawyer Asa Hutchinson told jurors that Fondren was one of many people who was fooled by Kuo.

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" . . . an atmosphere of continuous jeopardy . . ."

How can anyone believe that Obama and Holder are not deliberately destroying our human intelligence collection capability?

Why won't Obama tell Holder: "No, stop."?

After the next terrorist attack on the United States, the same frauds, blowhards and dilettantes will bemoan our "intelligence failures" and paucity of HUMINT sources.

Letter by Former CIA Directors to President Obama

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Why Do I Think Hugo Chavez is Laughing?

Colombia to Dismantle Spy Agency
September 20, 2009
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — Amid a scandal involving illegal spying on government critics, Colombia’s domestic intelligence agency will be dismantled and a new agency will be set up to focus on intelligence and counterintelligence work involving national security, the agency’s director said Friday.

The director, Felipe Muñoz, said the majority of the current agency’s 6,000 employees would be transferred to the criminal investigative unit of the police and other investigative bodies.

On Thursday, President Álvaro Uribe said for the first time that he favored eliminating the spy agency, known as the DAS. He previously spoke of the need to restructure the troubled department.

The agency has been enmeshed in controversy over accusations that it used wiretaps to spy on government critics, judges and journalists. Mr. Uribe’s government, the United States’ main ally in South America, denied ordering the wiretaps.

Mr. Muñoz said the adminsitration would submit legislation to the Colombian Congress to authorize the president “to eliminate the present structure” of the agency. He said a new department would take over intelligence and counterintelligence.

The domestic spy agency was created in 1953 and reconstructed as the DAS in 1960. The wiretapping scandal involved allegations of illegal surveillance of human rights activists, reporters and magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice. Mr. Uribe’s first DAS director, Jorge Noguera, is in prison awaiting trial on charges including murder; he is accused of helping right-wing death squads assassinate three union leaders and a sociologist.

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Curiouser and curiouser . . .

Posted on Tue, Sep. 08, 2009
FBI Investigated Ex-Defense Official for Espionage

By JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@MiamiHerald.com

EXCERPT: Alberto Coll, a Cuban American who lost a senior job at the Navy War College after he was convicted of lying about a trip to Havana, was also investigated for espionage, according to an FBI document.

Coll was never charged with espionage, and has long denied any wrongdoing beyond the 2004 trip, which he declared was to see a sick aunt. His lawyer acknowledged he had visited a "girlfriend.''

Five years after the trip, the Department of Justice refuses to release details of the investigation of the former deputy assistant secretary of defense, saying the files are classified as "Secret.''

* * *

Coll, who was born in Cuba in 1955 and came to the United States in 1969, served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low intensity conflicts under President George H. Bush, and later as head of the strategic studies department at the Navy War College in Rhode Island. He held a secret clearance in both jobs.

* * *

On June 7, 2005, he pleaded guilty to the charge of lying about his trip to Cuba. He was sentenced to one year's probation and received a $5,000 fine, left the War College and now teaches at DePaul University College of Law in Chicago. The majority of people accused of illegal travel to Cuba face fines, not criminal charges.

Although he was perceived as a conservative when he worked at the Pentagon, while at the War College he often advocated for improved U.S. relations with Cuba. After his conviction, he continued to argue for easing or lifting U.S. sanctions on the island.Sphere: Related Content

This Didn't Take Too Long . . .

The Rendon Group's Contract is Cancelled

Excerpt: “The Bagram Regional Contracting Center intends to execute a termination of the Media Analyst contract,” belonging to The Rendon Group, said Col. Wayne Shanks, chief of public affairs for International Security Assistance Forces–Afghanistan.

The announcement follows a week of revelations by Stars and Stripes in which military public affairs officers who served in Afghanistan said that as recently as 2008 they had used reporter profiles compiled by The Rendon Group, a private public relations firm in Washington, D.C., to decide whether to grant permission to embed with troops on the battlefield. More . . .

Comment: The German's call it: "Schadenfreude."Sphere: Related Content