With Russia, Little Ever Really Changes

US Charges 11 in Russian Spy Case

By EVAN PEREZ

The Wall Street Journal -- JUNE 28, 2010, 4:47 P.M. ET

WASHINGTON—U.S. authorities charged 11 people Monday with being part of a Russian spy program to plant long-term undercover agents inside the U.S.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation alleged the Russian intelligence service known as the SVR provided extensive training, including in foreign languages and the use of codes and ciphers, to the alleged agents before dispatching them to the U.S. over the past decade.

Once inside the U.S., the alleged agents took on aliases and "deep cover" assignments to become Americanized in order to gather information about the U.S., and possibly recruit sources inside American "policy-making circles," an FBI affidavit filed in New York federal court alleged.

U.S. authorities arrested 10 of the 11 people in New York, Boston and northern Virginia in recent days.

The case grew from a years-long FBI investigation focused on Russian espionage capabilities in the U.S. since the breakup of the formidable spying operation of the former Soviet Union.

Write to Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com

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Espionage or Globalism?

Agents of Influence

The Ottawa Citizen -- June 24, 2010

Canadians are shocked to hear that some of their elected representatives are acting as agents of foreign governments, but no one should be shocked that foreign governments are after Canadian secrets in the first place.

Canada is not much of a military power, so foreign governments are likely not snooping for blueprints of futuristic weapons. Canada is, however, an economic power, a major exporter and manufacturer. It is trade secrets that our global competitors desire. The Cold War may be over but espionage -- economic espionage -- is still very much a growth industry.

Richard Fadden, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, revealed this week that a number of Canadian public officials are suspected to be working on behalf of foreign interests. At least two of the suspected "agents of influence" hold cabinet posts at the provincial level.

It's a sensational claim, to be sure. But as many security experts quickly noted, the source is impeccable: Richard Fadden himself. Fadden is an accomplished and respected public servant. His willingness to come out from the shadows, so to speak, and talk about foreign penetration of the political class, on the eve of Canada's hosting the G8 and G20 summits, suggests just how real a threat the security establishment deems this to be.

Fadden wasn't reckless. He didn't name names or identify the countries that have been poking around in our business. He didn't have to. China openly specializes in economic espionage, as Canadian companies such as aerospace giant Bombardier have discovered. There have been recent reports of Chinese technicians stealing secrets at one of Bombardier's Montreal plants, and of Bombardier negotiators being spied upon during trips to China.

While Fadden didn't name names, he did suggest that the problem of foreign influence is particularly conspicuous in British Columbia. The province is part of the Pacific Rim and is the Canadian epicentre of Asian immigration. As the University of Victoria political scientist Norman Ruff told the Canadian Press, "There are influences on public policy in British Columbia both on the local and provincial level which aren't solely in the interests of British Columbians."

Although communist China tops Canada's list of countries targeting us for economic espionage, democratic countries and even allies will spy on each other. In the 1990s, some business travellers stopped flying on Air France following reports French intelligence officers were bugging airline seats. Japan has been accused of recruiting technology workers to penetrate U.S.-based tech firms.

It might even be that, in some quarters, economic espionage is viewed simply as a form of government assistance to domestic businesses. In one reported case, a French and American firm were competing for a billion-dollar contract with the Indian government. The French government surreptitiously obtained information about the American bid and passed it on to the French firm, which then won the contract.

The danger of Fadden's warning is that it might be used, not by CSIS but others, as an argument against multiculturalism and immigration. That would be a mistake. Canada's diversity is a source of national strength, and has produced far more benefits, economic and otherwise, than costs.

Canada is right to welcome talent wherever it can be found. The integration of new and recent Canadians into the highest ranks of economic and political life is what makes us a successful country. Unfortunately, in a few instances, that integration might not be as thorough as was hoped.

Agents of influenceSphere: Related Content

Forgotten Heroes of Military Intelligence

Military Intelligence Fatalities Twice CIA's

They have no somber wall to represent personnel who have died on secret missions.

But military intelligence personnel are taking far greater -- and far less recognized -- casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan than the CIA, whose latest dead were honored in a headquarters ceremony last week.

In all, 22 CIA personnel have been killed in action since Sept. 11, 2001, not all of them in terrorism-related incidents, according to an agency official. Twelve stars, seven of them representing officers and contractors killed by a double-agent suicide bomber in Khost, Afghanistan, on Dec. 30, were added to the CIA's memorial wall last week.

Meanwhile, 41 military spy-handlers and other MI personnel have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to figures supplied by the U.S. Army Intelligence Command at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.

Five of them were women.

In addition, the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has deployed analysts and other personnel to the war zones, has suffered 45 wounded from mortar attacks and other causes since March 2003, the bulk of them in Iraq.

The DIA has recorded no fatalities in the war zones, but it lost seven civilian personnel in one fell swoop on Sept. 11, 2001, when one of the hijacked airliners crashed into the Pentagon. Eight more DIA personnel, all but one civilians, were wounded, a spokesman said. A Patriot’s Memorial wall at Bolling Air Force Base honors the DIA's 21 fallen, by name, going back to 1970.

Presumably, the main reason MI casualties are so far greater than the CIA's is that military intelligence personnel are far more numerous in the war zones (although the agency had roughly 500 personnel assigned to Baghdad alone by 2005).

But the large number of MI casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan also suggests the conflicts are far more dangerous for military spies and support personnel than the last major counterinsurgency war, in Vietnam, where some never saw a bullet fired in anger.

In Afghanistan especially, there are no front lines. Nor are there safe havens in cities and towns, as was largely the case in South Vietnam, where many a military agent in slacks and Hawaiian shirts could dine in a local restaurant, go out for a drink and sleep on clean sheets.

In sharp contrast, MI personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan rarely stray far from their bases or units, and never unarmed. And like their uniformed brethren, they are mostly dying in Humvees from roadside bombs.

Such was the case of Cari A. Gasiewicz, 28, an Army counterintelligence agent and Arabic interpreter who died when two roadside bombs detonated near her convoy in Baqubah, Iraq, on Dec. 4, 2004.

“She was in the final weeks of her year-long deployment and the convoy was headed to Kuwait to prepare for redeployment in January,” according to Fort Huachuca.

In 2005, the 202nd MI Battalion at Fort Gordon, Ga., dedicated its headquarters building in her honor. Three years later, the Defense Language Institute also memorialized a building in her name.

Likewise in 2006, the Military Intelligence Library at Fort Huachuca was memorialized in honor of Warrant Officer Christopher G. Nason, a voice intercept technician and Arabic linguist who died in a vehicular accident near Mosul in November 2003.

Nason, 39, was the first MI soldier from the fort to die in Iraq.

Specialist Farid Elazzouzi, an MI interpreter-translator born in Morocco, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Kirkuk only two years after obtaining a U.S. visa in 2005, has no building named for him, but he was was posthumously awarded American citizenship.

The first MI agent to die in Afghanistan was Staff Sgt. Brian “Cody” Prosser, a 10-year veteran of military operations in Somalia, Haiti, Jordon, Kuwait, Kosovo, and "throughout Southwest Asia," according to Fort Huachuca.

Assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Prosser was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, 150 miles behind enemy lines, in December 2001.

The citation for Prosser’s Bronze Star for valor stated that “his actions leading up to the battle on the night of 3 December were key in allowing the advance team to move to and destroy an enemy strong point at Sayad Alma Kalay with complete success” while “outnumbered 50 to 1.”

Fort Huachuca renamed its academic complex Prosser Village in his honor.

A new spy-handler training site at the Army intelligence school will also be named for a fallen MI soldier, later this year.

Sgt. Nicholas Casey, a human intelligence collector, died on Oct, 28, 2008, when a suicide bomber detonated explosives while he and his team "were preparing to conduct operations in a police station in Baghlan, Afghanistan,” according to the base’s public affairs office.

“The suicide bomber, disguised as an Afghan police officer, walked unhindered into the police station and detonated himself, killing SGT Casey and SGT Kevin D. Grieco,” the announcement said. “SGT Casey was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, North Carolina.”

Beside Casey, eight other MI personnel have died in Afghanistan, including an intelligence analyst and three others involved with communications.

The 33 Iraq fatalities included two women listed as cryptologic linguists, two as signals intelligence analysts, and one as a “HUMINT Collector,” or spy handler.

Figures for Vietnam War MI casualties could not be readily obtained and may not be available in one place, authorities said.

One official history said “casualties among Military Intelligence personnel were not restricted to members of the Army Security Agency,” which eavesdropped on enemy communications.

“During the [1968] Tet offensive, the Hue detachment of the 525th MI Group was overrun and its members killed or captured,” it said.

“The first Medal of Honor ever granted to a Military Intelligence officer," it added, "was awarded posthumously to 1st Lt. George Sisler, assistant intelligence officer of a Special Forces team.”

By Jeff Stein | June 15, 2010; 6:30 AM ET
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/06/military_intelligence_casualti.htmlSphere: Related Content

German Left-Wing Crime Increase Adds to Public Security Concerns
An increase in crime and attacks on police officers by German left-wing extremists in 2009 was centered in Berlin and Hamburg, cities which also have seen conflicts with immigrants. Despite initial preventative measures by federal and regional authorities, calls for stronger action continue. -- 27 April 2010

Left-Wing Crime Increase Compounds Concern About Right-Wing, Immigrant Groups
German security authorities reported a substantial increase in crime and attacks on police in 2009 related to left-wing political groups and individuals, whom German counterintelligence agencies number at approximately 6,600. This increase in left-wing crime represents an additional concern alongside Germany's perceived problems with right-wing extremist and immigrant crime (dw-world.de, 19 January).

• According to Germany's Interior Ministry, more extremist crimes and acts of violence occurred in 2009 than in any year since 2001. The ministry reported that in 2009, leftwing extremist crimes increased by almost 40% to 9,375. Violent crimes by these individuals and groups, meanwhile, increased by more than 50% to 1,822, and the number of leftist attacks on police officers increased by 120% to 1,3503 (Bild, 23 March; bild.de, 30 January).
• Interior Ministry statistics indicate that although violent crimes tied to right-wing groups decreased by 14% to 959, overall crime by these groups is still twice as frequent as that committed by their left-wing counterparts. The Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) also reported that rightist attacks on police officers increased by almost 75% to 5305 (Bild, 23 March; bild.de, 30 January).
• Germany lacks publicly available official data on immigrant crime, but media reports reflect increasing concern about integration problems.a For example, media have cited statistics -- probably drawn from a controversial lecture by Senior Public Prosecutor Roman Reusch, former head of the Berlin Department for Multiple Offenders -- indicating that 80% of young multiple offenders in Berlin have a migration background (meideu.de, 16 October 2009; Focus, 12 October 2009).

More: http://www.fas.org/irp/world/germany/crime.pdfSphere: Related Content

Main Wikileaks Source Outed - Politics - The Atlantic

Main Wikileaks Source Outed - Politics - The AtlanticSphere: Related Content

500 Top Secret CIA Documents on Interrogation Briefings to Congress

Top Secret Records Detailing Congressional Briefings of CIA Enhanced Interrogation Techniques -- Released Friday Afternoon (of course) -- June 4, 2010Sphere: Related Content

French Secret Service Fear Russian Cathedral a Spying Front
The French secret service has reportedly expressed alarm over plans for a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Paris, fearing it will be used by Moscow as a front for spies.


Henry Samuel in Paris
Published: 12:58AM BST 28 May 2010

The go-ahead for the onion-domed cathedral – the first to be built in the French capital in more than a century – by the Eiffel Tower was considered a brilliant diplomatic coup in Russia as at least two other countries were vying for the prized property by the Seine.

But it sparked deep reservations at the Quai d'Orsay, France's foreign ministry, and the DCRI, its MI6, because the building is a stone's throw from a sensitive diplomatic compound.

As well as housing France's supreme magistrates' council, the Palais de l'Alma – Napoleon III's former stables – contains the Elysée postal service and above all, the 16 private apartments of top presidential aides. Chief among these is Jean-David Levitte, President Nicolas Sarkozy's top diplomatic adviser, who wields more power than the foreign minister, as well as his chief of staff.

French counterespionage was particularly concerned, according to Le Nouvel Observateur, the weekly magazine, as Vladimir Kozhin, the Russian in charge of trying to buy the 8,400 square metre (90,400 sq foot) plot, is a former KGB agent. Mr Kozhin is head of the hugely powerful Kremlin property department, which has 50,000 employees, an empire of hotels and manages all state property, including Russian churches overseas.

French intelligence concerns were compounded by the fact that it had detected a significant rise in Russian spy activity since the election of President Sarkozy in 2007, reaching heights not seen since the mid-1980s.

Mr Kozhin is a close associate of Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister and a former KGB officer, who was the property department's number two in the 1990s.

Mr Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev are said to have considered the construction of the Paris cathedral a key step in regaining control over the Russian Diaspora and legitimising their administration, as well as a spectacular display of Russian power in western Europe.

Such was the importance of the acquisition that it was reportedly the first subject President Medvedev broached with his French counterpart in December at the Copenhagen climate summit.

According to several sources, after the conversation Mr Sarkozy immediately phoned his budget minister who a few days later summoned Mr Kozhin to his office. Ten days later when the various tenders for the plot were examined, Russia's was top of the pile which included bids from Saudi Arabia and Canada – with an above-market offer of 70 million euros (£60 million).

The cathedral, which still needs final planning permission from Paris' town hall, stands to be the first Russian monument built in Paris since the Alexander III bridge in 1896, and is due to be built within the next three years.Sphere: Related Content