An Ex-C.I.A. Chief on Iraq and the Slam Dunk That Wasn’t

At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA, by George Tenet with Bill Harlow

…Alternately withholding and aggrieved, earnest and disingenuous, “At the Center of the Storm” is interesting less for any stunning new revelations than for fleshing out a portrait of the Bush White House already sketched by reporters and former administration members. Mr. Tenet depicts an administration riven by factional fighting between the State and Defense Departments, hard-liners and more pragmatic realists, an administration given to out-of-channels policymaking, and ad hoc, improvisatory decision-making…..(New York Times, 28 Apr 07)

Tenet Details Efforts to Justify Invading Iraq

…Although Tenet does not question the threat Saddam Hussein posed or the sincerity of administration beliefs, he recounts numerous efforts by aides to Cheney and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to insert "crap" into public justifications for the war. Tenet also describes an ongoing fear within the intelligence community of the administration's willingness to "mischaracterize complex intelligence information."….(Washington Post, 28 Apr 07)

Tenet Tries to Shift the Blame. Don't Buy It.

…My experience with Tenet dates to the late 1980s, when he was the sharp, garrulous, cigar-chomping staff director of the Senate intelligence committee and I was a junior CIA officer who briefed him on covert action programs in Afghanistan. Later, I worked directly for Tenet after he took over the CIA and I became the first chief of the agency's Osama bin Laden unit…..(Washington Post, 28 Apr 07)

Tenet book fires back at Cheney

…For the first time, Tenet offers an account of his own view of a historic moment in the run-up to war: Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's February 2003 speech to the U.N., with Tenet sitting just behind him. "That was about the last place I wanted to be," Tenet recalls. "It was a great presentation, but unfortunately the substance didn't hold up," in which Powell charged that Iraq had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction…..(Baltimore Sun, 28 Apr 07)

Former C.I.A. Chief’s Memoir Irritates Some High-Ranking Readers

…Mr. Tenet’s book, “At the Center of the Storm” (HarperCollins), portrays an administration in which many officials were skeptical about the views of the intelligence agencies. The skepticism put pressure on C.I.A. analysts to reconsider findings that did not suit some policymakers….(New York Times, 28 Apr 07)

CIA Held Al-Qaeda Suspect Secretly

An Iraqi man accused of being a key aide to Osama bin Laden and a top leader of al-Qaeda was arrested late last year on his way to Iraq and handed over to the CIA, the Pentagon announced yesterday, in what became the first secret overseas detention since President Bush acknowledged the existence of such a program last September. The disclosure revealed that the Bush administration reopened its detention program within three months of announcing that no secret prisoners remained in the CIA's custody…..(Washington Post, 28 Apr 07)

China Releases Mass.-Based Activist

A U.S.-based Chinese activist has been released after serving a five-year prison term on charges of spying for rival Taiwan and entering China illegally, his lawyer said Saturday. The U.S. government had appealed to Beijing to free Yang Jianli.l…(AP, 28 Apr 07)

Russia will counter U.S. missile shield: Putin

President Vladimir Putin on Friday renewed criticism of U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Eastern Europe, saying Russia would take "appropriate measures" to counter the system. Putin told Czech President Vaclav Klaus at a Kremlin meeting that the proposed missile shield would be used to track Russian military activities…..(Reuters 27 Apr 07)

Spy to be placed on Interpol wanted list

Police on Thursday got an arrest warrant for a North Korean woman who allegedly masterminded the abduction of two children from Japan to the reclusive state in 1974. The 59-year-old former spy, Hong Su Hye, whose Japanese name is Yoko Kinoshita, is believed to be living in North Korea now…..(Asahi Shimbun, 27 Apr 07)

Hungarian coalition party calls for spy files to be opened
Hungary's junior coalition party on Friday called for the nation's security archives to be opened up after the latest in a long line of public figures was accused of having spied for the communist authorities. "We have asked the same question countless times: should we reveal every spy one-by-one or finally solve the problem and bring openness to the issue of spying?" the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats said in a statement…..(DPA, 27 Apr 07)

Germany Halts Online Computer Spying by Intelligence Agents

…German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble faced massive criticism this week after it was revealed that German intelligence agencies were secretly snooping on terrorism suspects via the Internet. Schäuble has ordered a temporary halt to the practice…..(Duetsche Welle, 27 Apr 07)

Report: China names its U.S. ambassador as foreign minister

China's government abruptly replaced its foreign minister Friday, appointing former ambassador to the United States Yang Jiechi to the post in an early reshuffling of senior positions ahead of key political meetings…..(AP, 27  Apr 07)

China frees US-based activist after serving five years for spying

China released US-based pro-democracy activist Yang Jianli Friday after he served five years in prison for alleged spying, his lawyer said. Officials in Beijing had freed Yang upon the completion of his full five-year sentence, his lawyer Mo Shaoping told Deutsche Presse-Agentur….(DPA, 27 Apr 07)

U.S. prison commander in Iraq faces misconduct charges

… Lt. Col. William H. Steele was arrested last month and accused of nine violations of U.S. military code, including keeping classified information in his living space, failing to monitor funds, disobeying an order and possessing pornographic videos…The most serious accusation, that of aiding the enemy, arose from allegations that Steele provided an unmonitored cellphone to detainees between October 2005 and October…(LA Times, 27 Apr 07)

Witnesses: Engineer did not need approval to export submarine propulsion system document to China

Testimony in the case of a Chinese-born engineer accused of stealing U.S. defense secrets focused on whether he needed government approval to export a document on a quiet submarine propulsion system to China. Authorities believe Chi Mak, a naturalized U.S. citizen, stole thousands of pages of defense documents from his defense contractor employer, Power Paragon, and gave them to his brother, who passed them along to Chinese authorities over a number of years. Chi Mak was arrested in 2005 in Los Angeles after FBI agents stopped his brother and sister-in-law as they boarded a flight to Hong Kong. Investigators said they found three encrypted CDs in their luggage containing documents on the propulsion system, which would make U.S. submarines virtually undetectable underwater….(AP, 27 Apr 07) 

A Spy’s Journey: A CIA Memoir

For thirty-five years, Floyd Paseman served his country as an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency. Two decades of his distinguished career were spent in foreign countries as an officer in the Directorate of Operations (DO), now known as the National Clandestine Service…Readers who are looking for in-depth discussions of specific operations or detailed explanations of sources and methods will be sorely disappointed. Paseman is extremely, perhaps overly, careful in his memoirs. Countries and people won’t be identified by name, but from the context a reader armed with Google should be able to figure things out….(Stanford Review, 27 Apr 07)

Outside View: The real Axis of Evil

In his 2002 State of the Union Address, President George Bush used the term “Axis of Evil” to describe the regimes of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, saying that all three countries were sponsoring terror and pursuing weapons of mass destruction. Since that groundbreaking speech, a new and potentially more dangerous “Axis of Evil” has emerged - China, Russia and Iran - that increasingly pose not only a threat to U.S. national security interests, but world peace and global stability as well…..(Monsters & Critics, 27 Apr 07)

Tapping into fibre optic cables is very easy

…The notion that optical cable is particularly secure when compared with the traditional copper is not true and the risk of being detected is very slight, if not non-existent.
The necessary tools can be easily found on the internet and it is sufficient to simply bend and clamp the fiber in order to be able to track the exchange of information without being detected. Eavesdropping on fiber optic cables is a great deal simpler than was previously thought with optic cables even being labeled at access points normally every 3km!....(Infoguard, 27 Apr 07)

Experts warn US lawmakers about the possibility of crippling cyberattacks

The US government needs to take action now to avoid crippling cyberattacks that could shut down major communications systems nationwide, a group of cybersecurity experts tells US lawmakers. "We are a nation unprepared to properly defend ourselves and recover from a strategic cyberattack,"….(Computer World, 27 Apr 07)

Multi-agency rule affects intelligence community

Hundreds of job openings for members of the intelligence community who must gain experience at multiple agencies before advancing into executive positions are expected to be posted on a new Web site beginning July 1, said Ronald Sanders, chief human capital officer for the director of national intelligence, during a press briefing this month. Requiring workers to complete temporary assignments at another agency is part of Director Mike McConnell's 100-day plan….(Baltimore Sun, 27 Apr 07)

Robert Riedenauer, 70; military pilot who flew top-secret military aircraft

Robert L. Riedenauer, 70, a test pilot who flew top-secret aircraft that were later used in military missions, died Monday….(Washington Post, 27 Apr 07)

George Chesnut, Spy, Linguist, Dies at 89

George Leoni Chesnut Jr., 89, a spy by day and a translator of biblical Greek by night, died April 20…A translator of more than 50 languages, both ancient and modern, he used his linguistic skills at the National Security Agency for more than 30 years as a civilian director of the agency's analytic section….(Washington Post, 26 Apr 07)

FBI's technology upgrade delayed again

…FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the agency that deploying the first phase of the so-called Sentinel program will be delayed until at least next month "due to some unforeseen technicalities." He did not elaborate….(National Journal’s Technology Daily, 26 Apr 07)

Army lieutenant colonel under investigation for giving ‘aid to the enemy’

A U.S. Army lieutenant colonel has been charged with nine offenses, including aiding the enemy…Lt. Col. William H. Steele, who commanded Camp Cropper, the massive U.S. Army detention center in Baghdad, was accused of providing “aid to the enemy” by supplying an unmonitored cell phone to detainees, a U.S. statement said. The other charges included unauthorized possession of classified information, fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee, maintaining an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter, storing classified information in his quarters, as well as possessing pornographic videos…..(AP, 26 Apr 07)

Ex-commander of U.S. Prison in Iraq Detained: Military

The former commander of a major U.S. military detention center in Baghdad has been detained and charged with "aiding the enemy,"…Lieutenant-Colonel William Steele is also charged with having an improper relationship with a translator and with the daughter of a detainee, providing mobile phones to prisoners, and unauthorized possession of classified information…..(Reuters, 26 Apr 07)

Bogus spy wins kidnap sentence appeal

A bogus spy who conned unsuspecting men and women out of more than £500,000 "protection" money after telling them their lives were under threat from terrorists was cleared yesterday on charges of "kidnapping by fraud"…..(Scotsman, 26 Apr 07)

Tenet: Aggressive Interrogations Brought U.S. Valuable Information

A CIA program to administer aggressive interrogations to top Al Qaeda leaders brought America more valuable information about planned terror plots than all of the government's other intelligence gathering efforts, a former director of central intelligence, George Tenet, has declared…..(New York Sun, 26 Apr 07)

German Intelligence Must Stop Computer Spying, Lawmakers Say

Intelligence agencies said they have been monitoring suspects' computers via the Internet, but lawmakers called for an immediate stop to the controversial practice….(Deutsche Welle, 26 Apr 07)

'Chinese spies' actually illegal immigrants

The "5,000 Chinese spies" alleged to be operating in Taiwan are actually "escaped illegal immigrants," rather than "genuine" spies, a National Security Bureau (NSB) official said yesterday. Wang Hsi-tien, a deputy secretary-general of the NSB, said during an interpellation session at the Legislative Yuan that there are roughly 5,000 Chinese citizens who have been living a clandestine existence in Taiwan since entering the country illegally….(China Post, 26 Apr 07)

Tokyo police obtain arrest warrant for N. Korean spy over abduction of 2 children

Tokyo police obtained an arrest warrant on Thursday accusing a North Korean spy of playing a leading role in abducting two children from Japan…(Mainichi, 26 Apr 07)

The Case Of The Missing Agent

…The purpose behind ex-FBI agent Robert (Bobby) Levinson's trip to Iran’s Kish Island remains murky, though his associates tell NEWSWEEK he was working with a former NBC News producer on what may have been a quixotic plan to coax the fugitive, Dawud Salahuddin—charged in the 1980 Washington, D.C.-area murder of an Iranian dissident—to return to the United States and turn himself in. The Iranian government has harbored Salahuddin for more than 25 years, and some U.S. officials believe he has been a low-level asset for Iranian intelligence…..(Newsweek, 26 Apr 07)

Contractors playing major role in U.S. intelligence

…The number of government employees in intelligence work also is secret. What is known is that the survey, presented to intelligence committees in Congress last week, found that about 40% of all contract intelligence officers have been hired to collect or analyze information, traditionally the province of career employees at the major intelligence agencies such as the CIA and National Security Agency….(USA Today, 26 Apr 07)

Government Keeps a Secret After Studying Spy Agencies

Ronald P. Sanders, chief human capital officer for the director of national intelligence, said that because personnel numbers and agency budgets were classified, he could not reveal the contractor count… Mr. Sanders said the study did find that about 25 percent of the intelligence work now contracted out resulted from personnel ceilings imposed by Congress. But 25 percent of what, he said he could not disclose….(New York Times, 26 Apr 07)

Ex-security official may have defected, say friends

After months of confusion over the fate of a former Revolutionary Guard commander missing since December, friends and former officials in Tehran are concluding that he has defected to foreign intelligence services. They told the Financial Times that Ali Reza Asgari, 46, was frustrated and angry after spending about 18 months in jail between 2003 and 2005 on charges of espionage and corruption….(Gulf News, 26 Apr 07)

Russia in defense warning to US

Russia may stop implementing a key defense treaty because of concerns over US plans for a missile shield in Europe, President Vladimir Putin said…"There is a growing influx of foreign cash used to directly meddle in our domestic affairs," Mr Putin said. "Not everyone likes the stable, gradual rise of our country…There are some who are using the democratic ideology to interfere in our internal affairs." …(BBC, 26 Apr 07)

Tough US interrogation ‘saved lives’

George Tenet, the former CIA director who masterminded the interrogation of terror suspects after the September 11, 2001, attacks, broke his silence last night….(Times Online, 26 Apr 07)

NSA plans San Antonio Data Center

The National Security Agency/Central Security Service said it has picked a facility in San Antonio as the site of a new data center. Before picking the San Antonio facility, NSA analyzed plans of commercial data centers and evaluated sites around the country….(GCN, 25 Apr 07)

AIPAC Trial Likely to be Postponed

The unprecedented trial of two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who are charged under the Espionage Act with unlawful receipt and disclosure of national defense information, is likely to be postponed from its scheduled start date on June 4. The need to resolve disagreements between the parties over the handling of classified information involved in the case will "knock the trial date into a cocked hat," said Judge T.S. Ellis, III at an April 19 hearing….(FAX, 25 Apr 07)

Pentagon to End Talon Data-Gathering Program

Less than two weeks after being sworn in as undersecretary of defense for intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr. is moving to end the controversial Talon electronic data program, which collected and circulated unverified reports about people and organizations that allegedly threaten Defense Department facilities…Talon -- which stands for Threat and Local Observation Notices -- is operated under the direction of the Counterintelligence Field Activity, which was established in September 2002 by then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz. CIFA was originally charged with coordinating policy and overseeing the domestic counterintelligence activities of Pentagon agencies and the armed forces. The agency's size and budget are classified, but congressional sources have said that CIFA had spent more than $1 billion through last October. One counterintelligence official at that time estimated that CIFA had 400 full-time employees and 800 to 900 contractors working for it…..(Washington Post, 25 Apr 07)

Pentagon Intelligence Chief Proposes Ending a Database

…The decision is one of the first moves by James R. Clapper since he took over as the Pentagon’s top intelligence official earlier this month. Department officials said Mr. Clapper had recommended to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that the database, called Talon, be dismantled. A Pentagon spokesman, Bryan Whitman, said Mr. Gates would make the ultimate decision about Talon and called the program “controversial and often misunderstood.”….(New York Times, 25 Apr 07)

Contractor Wants Indictments Dismissed

Lawyers for a defense contractor accused of bribing a congressman and committing fraud with a top CIA official have asked a judge to dismiss charges. The lawyers claim the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego deliberately and illegally disclosed grand jury secrets to the news media….(AP, 25 Apr 07)

Egyptian injustice

Egypt says it is proud of its justice system and the independence of its judiciary. That would be the same system that has just condemned Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed el-Attar to 15 years in prison after he was found guilty of being part of an Israeli spy ring operating in Turkey and Canada. The key to his espionage conviction was a confession that in all likelihood was obtained through torture and would have been dismissed by any truly independent trial judge….(Globe & Mail, 25 Apr 07)

Blair secrets leak 'risked lives'

The leaking of a secret memo detailing talks between George Bush and Tony Blair could have put lives in danger, the Old Bailey has heard…Sir Nigel described how the leaking of such a secret and sensitive document could have damaged Britain's alliances within the world and destroyed the trust needed for governments to speak openly to each other…...(BBC, 25 Apr 07)

Security Police spending more money on fighting espionage

Counterespionage is taking an increasingly large proportion of the resources of Finland's Security Police (SUPO). According to its fresh annual report, SUPO spent about EUR 5 million on counterespionage activities last year, which is more than one third of its entire budget….(Helsingin Sanomat, 25 Apr 07)

Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office increasingly exploited for industrial espionage

According to the report "Targeted Attacks March 2007" by service provider MessageLabs, the number of targeted attacks through manipulated Excel, Word and PowerPoint files in email attachments, that exploit Office vulnerabilities, is on the rise. If recipients open such documents, their PCs can be infected with malware used to spy out data on the system or even the network….(Heise-Security, 25 Apr 07)

MI5 Security Service gets new Director General

Jonathan Evans has taken over from Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller as the new Director General of the Security Service (MI5). As the head of the Service, Mr. Evans is responsible for leading and directing its work against threats to the UK's national security….(Public Technology, 25 Apr 07)

Iraq memo leak at 'delicate' time

The leak of a secret memo from a summit between George Bush and Tony Blair came at an "extremely delicate" period in Iraq's occupation, a court has heard. Martin Howard, then deputy chief of intelligence, was giving evidence at the Old Bailey trial of two Northampton men accused of leaking the document….(BBC, 24 Apr 07)

Iran Journalists Call For Colleague's Release

More than 250 Iranian journalists have called in an open letter to Iran's top judiciary official for the release of jailed colleague Ali Farahbakhsh, Radio Farda reported. Farahbakhsh was sentenced in March to three years in prison on espionage charges. His fellow journalists say the judiciary has not provided evidence to support the conviction. Farahbakhsh was arrested in November after returning from an economics conference in Thailand. …(Payvand, 24 Apr 07)

'Spy' conman appeals conviction

A man who is serving a life sentence after duping men and women out of more than £1 million by pretending to be an MI5 agent is challenging his 'kidnapping by fraud' conviction. Robert Hendy-Freegard, 36, was convicted in September 2005….(Metro, 24 Apr 07)

Egypt's Pro-Israel Spy Trials Raise Questions

...Earlier this week, he (Mohamad El Attar) was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The prosecution said El Attar used his position at a Toronto bank and his ties to the gay community to track information on Arabs living in Canada. El Attar claimed he had been tortured and coerced into confessing to a crime he did not commit…Said Haddidi, a researcher with Amnesty International, says the country's emergency law has created a parallel emergency justice system that does not respect a suspect's right to a fair trial. "People are not allowed prompt access to lawyers and the lawyers on the other hand are not allowed fair access to the documents," he said. "And when these defendants come before the court, they deny the charges brought against them, they say they have been tortured by state security services and there is no proper investigation in these allegations of torture." Aside from questions of a fair trial, many are questioning the reasons and the timing behind the recent spy cases in Egypt.….(VOA, 24 Apr 07)

F1 men found guilty of espionage

Mauro Iacconi and Angelo Santini have been found guilty in a Modena court of stealing design information from Ferrari before switching to Toyota in 2002, according to Italian newspapers on Tuesday. Their combined 25-month sentences were suspended, but both men will reportedly appeal…..(Flag World, 24 Apr 07)

Pentagon intel chief seeks end to TALON database

…James Clapper, U.S. undersecretary of defense for intelligence, said in an April 18 memo the program should end due in part to its image in Congress and the media…TALON is a database of raw reports of possible threats to U.S. military bases. It contains thousands of records of suspicious activities around bases that could involve terrorist threats, including information about some U.S. citizens….(Reuters, 24 Apr 07)

Governments making moves to combat cybercrime

…In the US, the 'SPY ACT' anti-spyware legislation put forward in 2004 continues its slow crawl through the approval process, and is already picking up criticism for loopholes and a lack for comprehensive coverage. Now a multi-agency task force on identity theft has issued a briefing document offering schemes and strategies to battle the growing problem of personal data….(Virus Bulletin, 24 Apr 07)

FBI Improving Hiring of Intel Analysts

The FBI has made strides in hiring intelligence analysts to look for clues about terror attacks but is still about 400 jobs short of reaching its authorized staffing level, a Justice Department audit concluded Monday. Steps have been taken to hire, train, use and keep intelligence analysts, yet progress has been "slow and uneven" in some cases….(AP, 24 Apr 07)

White House security violations alleged

… Henry Waxman, chairman of the House oversight committee, said interviews with current and former White House security personnel raised questions about alleged failures by the Bush administration to investigate security violations….(Financial Times, 24 Apr 07)

Poison: KGB men to face Litvinenko murder charges

Scotland Yard detectives are to issue arrest warrants against three former KGB officers suspected of poisoning ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko…The move will damage the already strained relationship between Downing Street and the Kremlin, which is almost certain to block any request for the men's arrest and extradition. Warrants are expected to be issued against Andrei Lugovoy, Dmitri Kovtun and Vyacheslav Sokolenko within the next few weeks. All three former agents have vehemently protested their innocence of any involvement in the murder plot. They all claim that they, too, were contaminated with the deadly radioactive material polonium-210 which poisoned Mr Litvinenko, a strong critic of President Vladimir Putin's regime….(Daily Mail, 23 Apr 07)

Cairo court sentences Canadian to 15 years

A Cairo court sentenced an Egyptian-Canadian to 15 years in prison on charges of espionage, finding him guilty of belonging to an Israeli spy ring operating in Turkey and Canada…Mr. el-Attar, 31, was stopped at the Cairo International Airport in January on a flight from Toronto. He was held and interrogated by Egyptian intelligence officers, and not given access to lawyer for more than a month during which he says his captors tortured him using electric shocks and forcing him to drink his own urine….(Globe & Mail, 23 Apr 07)

Iran may be holding ex-FBI agent, U.S. official says

…Florida resident and ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson went missing early in March while on a visit to the Gulf island of Kish in Iran. U.S. officials have said they believe he is in Iran but they have no credible information about his exact whereabouts. It is not clear why Levinson visited Iran….(Reuters, 23 Apr 07)

U.S. Knew of China’s Missile Test, but Kept Silent

After a Chinese interceptor smashed into a target satellite in January, Bush administration officials criticized the test as a destabilizing development…What administration officials did not say is that as the Chinese were preparing to launch their antisatellite weapon, American intelligence agencies had issued reports about the preparations being made at the Songlin test facility….(New York Times, 23 Apr 07)

British Police See Russian Agents as Main Suspects in Litvinenko Poisoning Case — Report

British detectives are set to issue arrest warrants for three Russians they suspect killed former Russian agent Alexander V. Litvinenko, the France Presse news agency reported quoting an article in The Mail on Sunday newspaper. The police have told sources close to Mr. Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, that they intend to charge the three men with murder and poisoning, the Mail said on its front page. Andrei K. Lugovoi, Dmitri V. Kovtun and Vyacheslav G. Sokolenko, all wealthy businessmen and former agents in the K.G.B., the defunct secret police and spy agency, met Mr. Litvinenko three weeks before his agonizing death from radiation poisoning in London last year. They have denied any wrongdoing…(MosNews, 23 Apr 07)

Afghan Intelligence Officer Beheaded

Assailants abducted and beheaded an Afghan intelligence service employee and struck one of the agency's vehicles with a remote-controlled bomb in a separate attack, killing six employees and wounding three…(AP, 23 Apr 07)

UC Davis Professor Relates Vietnam War from 'Perfect Spy's' Eyes

One of modern history's most sympathetic, clever and ultimately luckiest spies, Pham Xuan An, successfully hoodwinked the CIA, American journalist colleagues and the South Vietnamese establishment for more than two decades, according to a new biography by Larry Berman, a political science professor at UC Davis. Berman's book, "Perfect Spy, The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter & Vietnamese Communist Agent," is being released April 24 by Smithsonian Books….(UC Davis, 23 Apr 07)

Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan

Mr. Berman is Professor of political science at the University of California Davis and the author of three well-received books on Vietnam. His latest book is Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent (Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins, 2007). He made more than a dozen trips to Vietnam in the course of writing this book….(History News Network, 23 Apr 07)

'ISI creating trouble in India'

Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence is working with Bangladesh's intelligence agencies to facilitate cooperation between northeast militant groups like ULFA and other jihadist outfits in the South Asian region besides Tamil rebels in Lanka, US news intelligence service Startfor has said. In its latest forecast titled "India: The Islamization of the Northeast", it observes that there is a growing Islamization in the region…(Times of India, 23 Apr 07)

Spy one of many, says her nemesis

…Carmichael is in Miami to read from his new account of the Montes case, True Believer, at Books & Books tonight. He spent 2 ½ years wrangling with the DIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies to get the book into print, he says, because he's trying to sound an alarm about Castro's spies -- an alarm the government isn't taking very seriously…..(Miami Herald,  23 Apr 07)

Dearborn man one of two charged with spying for late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime

…A federal grand jury indictment accuses Shemami of four espionage-related charges for activity between March 2002 and early 2003, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Detroit and the FBI. A criminal complaint filed against Al-Awadi says he told the Iraqi Intelligence Service in 1997 that he killed his son-in-law because the man belonged to an anti-Saddam political party….(AP, 22 Apr 07)

Iran is not holding missing ex-FBI agent: minister

Iran is not holding a former FBI agent, who went missing on a visit to the Gulf island of Kish in Iran, but is investigating the case, the country's intelligence minister was quoted as saying on Sunday….(Reuters, 22 Apr 07)

Spain civil war exhibition probes role of reporters

Spies and soldiers, politically engaged and deeply partisan -- such is the way a new exhibition portrays some of the intriguing band of foreign correspondents who risked their lives to report on the Spanish Civil War.….(Reuters, 22 Apr 07)

The Iron Archives

Since the end of the cold war, historians have mined the Russian archives for insights into the nature of the Soviet empire and its global reach. New documents have shed light on such matters as the Alger Hiss and Rosenberg spy cases and also illuminated the relationships between Moscow and revolutionary movements in other countries — sometimes fueling old debates more than settling them…(New York Times, 22 Apr 07)

Spies who went out into the cold

Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins, The Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War Two, by William Stevenson,A Spy's Wife: The Moscow Memoirs of a Canadian Who Witnessed the End of the Cold War, by Janice Cowan and American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA,Watergate and Beyond, by E. Howard Hunt with Greg Aunupa Wiley

It's easy to trivialize and debase the world of espionage. So many have had a hand in such dumbing-down operations over the decades. Their legions include hack spy novelists, Hollywood film producers, popular biographers and even, on occasion, retired denizens of the secret world themselves…(Globe & Mail, 22 Apr 07)