Counterintelligence News for the week of: Feburary 11-17, 2007

Counterintelligence News for the week of:

February 11-17, 2007

The trustworthy face that tricked an FBI pro

As a baby-faced undercover FBI operative, Eric O'Neill, at the time just 27, duped America's most notorious double agent, Robert Hanssen, a paranoid egomaniac and sexual deviant who kept a stash of automatic weapons in his trunk…O'Neill, like all the agents on the case, was initially ordered to keep quiet about it, telling only family and friends, at least until the FBI went public with its version of events…..(LA Times, 16 Feb 07)

The back story of a spy tale

…The FBI's entrapment strategy was to create an "Information Assurance" section, put Hanssen in charge and make O'Neill his right-hand man. "They needed me," he says, "to get into his head." Not only was O'Neill Catholic, but he was the same age as one of Hanssen's sons, and, like that son, was a law student….(Baltimore Sun, 16 Feb 07)

C.I.A. Veteran Races Time to Rescue Fledgling Agency

…Instead of retiring after a half-century at the Central Intelligence Agency, where he helped assess threats overseas, Mr. Allen now leads the intelligence unit at the Department of Homeland Security, which is trying to predict where terrorists might strike inside the United States…(New York Times, 16 Feb 07)

VSNL employee ready to confess in espionage case

…Indulkar, the personal assistant to the managing director of Tata-owned telecom giant VSNL had revealed during interrogation of having received Rs 40,000 from Gaurav Wahi, vice-president (Corporate Communications) of rival Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) owned Reliance Communications for passing on "confidential information through e-mail and hard copy"…..(Hindustan Times, 16 Feb 07)

John W. Morrison CIA Training Officer

John W. Morrison, 88, a training officer for the Central Intelligence Agency from the early 1950s to the early 1970s, died Feb. 7…..(Washington Post, 16 Feb 07)

Thomas Phillips Armour CIA and Dept. of Defense Official

Thomas Phillips Armour, 58, a career intelligence officer at the Central Intelligence Agency who later served as a program manager with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, died Feb. 11…..(Washington Post, 16 Feb 07)

Kaczynski: Former spy agency overstepped jurisdiction

Poland's recently reformed Military Intelligence Service (WSI) significantly overstepped its jurisdiction by infiltrating political parties, the media and state-owned companies up for privatization, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said Friday….(Monsters & Critics, 16 Feb 07)

CIA flights controversy here to stay

The European Parliament's approval of a report accusing EU states of turning a blind eye to CIA rendition flights is not the end of the story. Although the parliament's committee investigating the flights, and reports of secret CIA prisons, is now being wound up, other investigations are under way which will ensure the issue stays in the news….(BBC, 16 Feb 07)

Industrial espionage case reads like spy thriller

The case against Gary Min, 43, who also went by the name Younggang, was unsealed Thursday. In it, he admitted to stealing data and thousands of DuPont documents relating to some of the company's best-known products -- Teflon, Kevlar and Lucite, among others -- worth at least $400 million….(Delaware Online, 16 Feb 07)

CIA agents to stand trial for kidnapping

…Among those indicted are the former heads of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in Rome and Milan, Jeff Castelli and Robert Lady, and the former head of Italy's SISMI military intelligence agency, Nicolo Pollari…The trial, set to begin on June 8, will be the first criminal trial over "renditions" -- one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush's war on terrorism….(Reuters, 16 Feb 07)

Testimony Is Said to Implicate C.I.A. in Seizure of Suspect in Italy

The Central Intelligence Agency spoke with Italy’s spy chief about kidnapping terrorism suspects in Italy and flying them abroad days after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to testimony being used to prosecute American and Italian agents….(New York Times, 16 Feb 07)

31 to Stand Trial in CIA Kidnapping Case

An Italian judge on Friday indicted 26 Americans and five Italians in the first criminal trial over the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. The judge set the trial date for June 8….(AP, 16 Feb 07)

$400 million corporate espionage incident at DuPont

…A 10-year veteran with DuPont at the time of the crime, Min accessed 16,706 documents and more than 22,000 scientific abstracts between August and December 2005 with the intention of giving them to Victrex, a DuPont rival. Min had been in discussions with the company for a new job since July 2005 and eventually signed an agreement in October 2005 with an intended start date in January 2006, but he left his superiors oblivious of the upcoming career change for months…..(SC Magazine, 16 Feb 07)

“Stay Alert For Communist Spying Tactics,” Says Hong Kong Rights Leader

…“It is one of the Communist Party’s evil natures, espionage. The communist regime is accustomed to disintegrating from inside organizations and political parties it finds unfavorable. They use two strategies. One is to plant a spy inside those organizations and the other is to buy people from the organizations to work for them. These kinds of espionage tactics have been frequently used during the past decades…The regime is hostile to democratic organizations. It always attempts to sabotage them and absorb them.”…(Epoch Times, 16 Feb 07)

Defendants Are Dealt a Blow In Aipac Case

A federal judge in Virginia has dealt two blows to the defense of a pair of pro-Israel lobbyists accused of illegally trafficking in classified information. In one ruling this week, Judge Thomas Ellis III rejected defense motions to demand testimony from Israeli government officials. In another decision, the judge refused to suppress statements the FBI obtained in 2004 from the two lobbyists, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, who were later fired from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee…..(New York Sun, 16 Feb 07)

Not Just Analysis

This writer has reported extensively on a 2001 meeting in Rome between two then-members of the office of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar, Iranian intelligence operatives, and the Italian intelligence service…..(Middle East Online, 15 Feb 07)

Former Chinese national pleads to espionage at DuPont

A former Chinese national working for DuPont has pleaded guilty to corporate espionage in U.S. District Court in Delaware, admitting to trying to steal $400 million worth of information. Gary Min entered his guilty plea to stealing trade secrets in November...Min, who also went by the first name Younggang, had worked as a research chemist for DuPont for 10 years when he accepted a job in October 2005 with a DuPont competitor, Victrex PLC, in Asia, according to prosecutors. But he did not tell DuPont about his new job until December 12, 2005….(News Journal, 15 Feb 07)

Former DuPont chemist faces up to 10 years in prison for stealing trade secrets

A former DuPont Co. chemist faces up to 10 years in prison after admitting that he stole trade secrets from the company…Gary Min, also known as Yonggang Min, pleaded guilty in November to stealing trade secrets, but the case was not unsealed by federal prosecutors in Wilmington until Thursday….(AP, 15 Feb 07)

A Walk in the Dark
Why did the FBI's top spy hunter -- a Cold War warrior who repeatedly professed his love of God, family, country and J. Edgar Hoover -- sell his nation's most sensitive secrets to the Russians?...that question is further compounded by the enigma of (Robert) Hanssen himself -- a counterintelligence officer who passed classified materials to the Soviet and Russian governments undetected for 22 years; a devotee of the Catholic order of Opus Dei who encouraged a friend to secretly observe him having sex with his wife; who bought a Mercedes-Benz for a Washington stripper; and who was obsessed with pornography….(Washington Post, 15 Feb 07)

Translator Who Faked Identity Pleads Guilty To Having Secret Data

An Arabic translator who used an assumed identity to get work as a contractor for the U.S. Army in Iraq pleaded guilty yesterday to federal charges of possessing classified national defense documents, including sensitive material about the insurgency that he took from an 82nd Airborne Division intelligence group in 2004….(Washington Post, 15 Feb 07)

Egypt trailed alleged spy for years: transcript

If the interrogation transcript of accused spy Mohamed el-Attar is to be believed, Cairo's secret agents spied on the Egyptian-Canadian for years, photographing and tracking his movements – and marriages – across Canada as he tried to recruit Arabs into espionage for Israel's Mossad. A man accused of being a spy told Egyptian interrogators that he recruited several new agents while living in Canada, targeting gays and those he knew were in financial trouble within Arab communities. The alleged scheme was to find Canadians to help him spy for Israel's intelligence service, the Mossad….(Globe & Mail, 15 Feb 07)

Confession likely obtained through torture, experts say

The confession of Mohamed Essam Ghoneim el-Attar, the Egyptian-Canadian arrested and imprisoned after allegedly spying for Israel, was likely extracted through coercion and torture, lawyers and human-rights activists say….(Globe & Mail, 15 Feb 07)

Michael T. Butkiewicz CIA Officer

Michael Thomas Butkiewicz, 87, who worked for the CIA's directorate of operations from the early 1950s to the early 1970s, died Feb. 8….(Washington Post, 15 Feb 07)

Europe's solution to the SWIFT problem

The European Parliament has recommended that the only logical way to stop US anti-terrorist investigators from illegally snooping on European financial transactions is to get the firm handling them to remove its data from US shores….(Register, 15 Feb 07)

CIA Sounded - Out Italy About "Renditions" in 2001

The CIA spoke with Italy's spy chief about kidnapping terrorism suspects in Italy and flying them abroad days after the September 11 attacks, according to testimony being used to prosecute U.S. and Italian agents….(Reuters, 15 Feb 07)

E.U. Report Faults 16 Nations in Probe Of Secret CIA Flights

…The legislative body for the European Union's 27 countries said many member states have been "turning a blind eye" to the CIA-operated flights carrying prisoners who were subjected to "incommunicado detention and torture" during interrogations, violating E.U. human rights standards…..(Washington Post, 15 Feb 07)

Putin amends law on foreign intelligence

…The federal law is aimed at regulating existing peculiarities of military service in foreign intelligence units and specifying the procedure of enforcing some norms of the federal legislation for the regulation of the foreign intelligence activities…..(ITAR-TASS, 15 Feb 07)

Positive polonium test on guest

…The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said the test had been carried out on a guest at The Pine Bar at the Millennium Hotel in London's Mayfair. Alexander Litvinenko drank there with associates on the day he is believed to have been poisoned, 1 November…..(BBC, 15 Feb 07)

Executive Overview: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense

In December 2006 London witnessed its first radiological dispersal event (RDE) following the poisoning of a Russian dissident, Alexander Litvinenko, with the rare isotope, Polonium-210. Litvinenko died at University College Hospital, London on 23 November of multiple organ failure having been irradiated by a massive dose….(Jane’s, 15 Feb 07)

Defense Attorneys Rest Libby's Case
Attorneys for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby rested their defense in his perjury trial yesterday after giving jurors a stripped-down version of their case that the vice president's then-chief of staff was too preoccupied with sensitive national security issues in 2003 to remember conversations he had about undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame….(Washington Post, 15 Feb 07)

Saying He Was Misled by Defense, Judge in Libby Case Puts Some Evidence Off-Limits

…The judge, Reggie B. Walton, expressed in the strongest terms yet that he had been misled by the defense team about whether Mr. Libby would take the stand in his own defense….(New York Times, 15 Feb 07)

US military's use of domestic intelligence
The US Patriot Act 2001 granted the FBI extensive authority to issue national security letters (NSLs)…the US media recently revealed that the US Department of Defense and to a much lesser extent the CIA has also been issuing its own form of NSL to obtain the financial records of people it suspected of involvement in terrorism or espionage activities….(Jane’s, 15 Feb 07)

Democrats Criticize Lack of Alternatives in Intelligence Estimate

…"Framing the analysis in terms of 'rapid withdrawal,' " he wrote, "presented an oversimplified assessment of one course of action without considering any elements of a redeployment strategy, including shifts in mission, stay-behind counterterrorism or training capabilities or regional diplomatic initiatives."….(Washington Post, 15 Feb 07)

Iraq War Planner Was Hired by Military University, Briefly

Last June, Douglas J. Feith, a former top Pentagon official involved in planning the Iraq war, was hired by a Defense Department graduate school for military officers and diplomats, with a four-year contract that was to pay him half a million dollars, Pentagon records show…..(New York Times, 15 Feb 07)

U.S. ARMY TRANSLATOR PLEADS GUILTY TO UNAUTHORIZED POSSESSION OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS CONCERNING IRAQI INSURGENCY

Documents Were Taken from 82^nd Airborne in Iraq and Found in Defendant’s Brooklyn Apartment; Defendant Communicated with Numerous Iraqi Phone Numbers Linked to Insurgency after Bringing Classified Documents to U.S......(DOJ Press Release, 14 Feb 07)

Latest Breach Compromises Veterans Data

The Department of Veterans Affairs says a computer hard drive missing in Alabama since last month was not encrypted, the latest in an embarrassing series of data breaches sparking concern in Congress….(AP, 14 Feb 07)

U.S. to build military base in Australia

…The new base will relay signals and intelligence to U.S. forces in the Middle East and Asia from Geraldton, 400 km (248 miles) north of the West Australian state capital Perth….(Reuters, 15 Feb 07)

Secret new US spy base to get green light

Australia’s close military alliance with the United States is to be further entrenched with the building of a high-tech communications base in Western Australia…The Age has been told the base, which will be built on defense land at Geraldton, will provide a crucial link for a new network of military satellites that will help the US's ability to fight wars in the Middle East and Asia…..(Sydney Morning Herald, 14 Feb 07)

Chinese Lecturer-Turned-Spy Flees to Australia Seeking Asylum

A former Chinese intelligence agent has defected to Australia from Hong Kong in an urgent attempt to expose the under-the-carpet espionage tactics used by the Chinese communist regime. His story carries all the traits of the former Soviet-style intimidation—abduction, coercion, blackmail and, ultimately, death threats. Thirty-two year old Wang Lian, who arrived in Sydney on February 7 on a visitor's visa, explains how he was forced to provide information about the inner workings of The Epoch Times Hong Kong news bureau.…(Epoch Times, 14 Feb 07)

Macau Professor: How the Chinese Regime Forced Me to Spy

Regime seeks to destroy independent paper. Part I….(Epoch Times, 14 Feb 07)

Switzerland Approves Probe of CIA Flight

…The Swiss Cabinet authorized the start of criminal proceedings against those responsible for the abduction in Italy of an Egyptian Muslim preacher allegedly taken on CIA flights through Swiss airspace…..(AP, 14 Feb 07)

U.S. to upgrade Korea spy plane radar

…The RC-800 is a military variant of the Hawker RC-800XP business jet that is crammed with high-tech eavesdropping gear and synthetic aperture radar, or SAR. The plane combines a high cruising speed and operational ceiling of 41,000 feet for special intelligence-gathering missions and maritime patrols….(UPI, 14 Feb 07)

Cuban Information Minister Blasts US Digital Espionage
…The Cuban minister pointed out that the CIA manipulates information technologies so as to intercept communications and to gain access to data bases in countries around the planet……(Ahora, 14 Feb 07)

Former Top CIA Official Indicted

The CIA's former executive director and a defense contractor were indicted yesterday by a San Diego grand jury for allegedly corrupting the intelligence agency's contracts, marking one of the first criminal cases to reach into the CIA's clandestine operations in Europe and the Middle East. Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, a longtime logistics officer who was the CIA's top administrator from November 2004 until last May…(Washington Post, 14 Feb 07)

Truth and Credibility

… Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England writes in a Jan. 25 directive, is a whole new way to see if someone is lying, by combining lie detectors with "credibility assessment" -- CA for short. CA is a "multi-disciplinary field of existing as well as potential techniques and procedures to assess truthfulness" -- or at least truthiness -- "that relies on physiological reactions and behavioral measures to test the agreement between an individual's memories and statements,"…(Washington Post, 14 Feb 07)

Cheney Ally Blasts Pentagon Report

…In a blistering internal memo obtained by NEWSWEEK, Eric Edelman, under secretary of defense for policy, characterized portions of the inspector-general's report as “egregious.”… The protests of Edelman—and his success in getting acting Pentagon Inspector-General Thomas Gimble to drop recommended policy changes from his report—shows how current and former Cheney aides still wield their clout throughout the government….(Newsweek, 14 Feb 07)

Libby Defense to Rest Without Testimony by Him or Cheney

…The defense's announcement in court, partway through the fifth week of the celebrated trial of the vice president's former chief of staff, represented an abrupt shift from the witness strategy that Libby's lawyers laid out in hearings and court papers during the months leading up to the trial….(Washington Post, 14 Feb 07)

Libby and Cheney Won’t Testify, Says the Defense

…The decision means that Mr. Libby’s defense, which will formally end on Wednesday, will have spanned barely three days….(New York Times, 14 Feb 07)

EU Report Says Some Colluded With CIA

The European Parliament on Wednesday approved a controversial report accusing Britain, Germany, Italy and other European nations of turning a blind eye to CIA flights transporting terror suspects to secret prisons overseas in an apparent breach of EU human rights standards….(AP, 14 Feb 07)

Rel VP was in touch with VSNL 'spy'

Vice President of Reliance Communication, 33-year-old Gaurav Wahi, is finding it a bit difficult to face the cameras. The reason - a VSNL employee named Prashant Indulkar has alleged that Wahi paid him Rs 40,000 in return for leaking sensitive information about VSNL. Indulkar is now in custody and Wahi's plea for extension of bail has now been extended to February 27. Says Joint Commissioner Mumbai Police, Arup Patnaik, "It appeared to be a simple case in the beginning, but it is much more deep and bigger than we had anticipated."….(CNN-IBN, 14 Feb 07)

Qatar jails American for industrial espionage

John Willis Donez gets life sentence after attempting to sell important oilfield information to embassy of foreign country…The engineer who worked for the government-owned Qatar Petroleum was caught red-handed "attempting to sell important information about an oilfield to an embassy of a foreign country,".…(Middle East Online, 13 Feb 07)

Minister testifies American had access to sensitive info

A senior Qatar minister testified in Qatar's Criminal Court that John Willis Donez, an American, had access to "very sensitive information" which, if successfully handed over to foreign powers, would have cost Qatar's national economy several billion riyals…(Gulf News, 13 Feb 07)

Qatar jails American for industrial espionage

Long a Target Over Faulty Iraq Intelligence, Ex-C.I.A. Chief Prepares to Return Fire

For the past two years, George J. Tenet has maintained a determined silence even as senior White House officials have laid the blame for the prewar mistakes about Saddam Hussein on him. But now Mr. Tenet, the nation’s former spy chief, is preparing to return fire. Mr. Tenet was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom at a grand White House ceremony in December 2004, after stepping down as director of central intelligence, only to have Vice President Dick Cheney appear on “Meet the Press” 21 months later and pin the mistake about the Iraq intelligence squarely on him. Now, as he races to complete a memoir due out this spring…(New York Times, 13 Feb 07)

U.S. helps Pakistan spy planes upgrade

…"It provides a world-class maritime surveillance capability to the Pakistan Navy, and will be an important contributor to allied operations," said Tom Pillion of the Pentagon's International Programs section. The P-3C Orion is a workhorse naval reconnaissance plane that can put in long hours patrolling wide areas of open ocean….(UPI, 13 Feb 07)

Family fears for safety of alleged spy in Egypt

…The United Nations refugee agency has confirmed to The Globe and Mail that Mohamed Essam Ghoneim el-Attar was granted asylum in Canada in 2002, after he expressed fears he would be persecuted in Egypt. He was arrested Jan. 1, after he flew to Cairo of his own volition. It is not clear why he travelled to Egypt. Ottawa has not commented on the case…..(Globe & Mail, 13 Feb 07)

Harlow Grosvenor Farmer CIA Analyst

Harlow Grosvenor Farmer, 83, a retired Central Intelligence Agency analyst, died of pneumonia Jan. 31…(Washington Post, 13 Feb 07)

FBI Reports On Missing Laptops and Weapons

The FBI said that 160 laptop computers were lost or stolen in less than four years, including at least 10 that contained sensitive or classified information -- one of which held "personal identifying information on FBI personnel," according to a report released yesterday…In addition to the 10 laptops that were confirmed to contain sensitive information, the FBI could not say whether 51 other computers may also contain secret data…(Washington Post, 13 Feb 07)

Bill Would Make ISPs Keep Data On Users
A House Republican is pushing a measure that echoes a long-sought Bush administration goal: to require all Internet service providers to keep records on their subscribers…The provision would require Internet service companies to provide at a minimum the Internet subscriber's name and address, which can be linked to an Internet protocol address -- an identification number associated with a particular computer at a given time…(Washington Post, 13 Feb 07)

Former CIA Official, Contractor Indicted
The CIA's former No. 3 official and a defense contractor were charged Tuesday with fraud and other offenses in the corruption investigation that sent former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to prison…Federal indictments named Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, executive director of the CIA until he resigned in May, and his close friend, San Diego defense contractor Brent Wilkes….(AP, 13 Feb 07)

Expansion of local intelligence-sharing centers sparks controversy

…Federal intelligence officials say they are also sensitive to the concerns about domestic intelligence-gathering, and they insist that the fusion centers are intended to support state and local law enforcement and homeland-security activities. The centers are "not going to be a platform by the intelligence community to carry out domestic intelligence activities,"…(National Journal, 13 Feb 07)

Freed Cleric Is Planning Lawsuit
A radical Muslim cleric who Italian prosecutors say was abducted by the CIA in Milan in 2003 and flown secretly to Cairo has been freed from an Egyptian jail and plans to sue the U.S. and Italian governments for damages….(Washington Post, 13 Feb 07)

Iran arrests economic ‘spies’

…IRNA quoted an unnamed Intelligence Ministry official as saying the 'spy network' had gathered sensitive information about projects from the Telecommunications Ministry and sold it to 'big European communication companies'….(Trade Arabia, 13 Feb 07)

Journalists Testify That Libby Never Mentioned CIA Officer
Six journalists testified yesterday that Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, never mentioned an undercover CIA officer to them -- and some said they learned about her identity from other administration sources….(Washington Post, 13 Feb 07)

Libby Lawyers Open Case With Denials by Reporters

Lawyers for I. Lewis Libby Jr. opened their case Monday with a parade of prominent Washington reporters who testified that Mr. Libby never mentioned the identity of a Central Intelligence Agency operative when they interviewed him during the period the officer’s identity was leaked to the news media….(New York Times, 13 Feb 07)

Arrested PKK members claimed to be informers

There were informers working for the French counter-espionage agency, the Directorate of Territorial Security (DST), among the 13 people who were arrested last week on suspicion of belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), reported the French daily Le Parisien….(Turkish Daily News, 13 Feb 07)

Pakistani "spies" handed over to officials at Torkham

Two Pakistani nationals arrested on charges of espionage last year, have been handed over to Pakistani authorities at the Torkham border crossing….Online News, 13 Feb 07)

No Proof of C.I.A. Illegality, Portuguese Premier Says

Prime Minister José Sócrates said Monday that his government had no concrete evidence to support allegations that the United States had conducted illegal counterterrorism activities on an American air base on Portuguese soil….(New York Times, 13 Feb 07)

Alfred L. Conte Army Colonel

Army Col. Alfred L. Conte, 85 a World War II veteran who in later years helped compile an analytical study of Soviet industrial capabilities, died of cardiac arrest…Col. Conte's study, completed in 1971, was made available to President Richard M. Nixon's national security staff and was used as background material for discussions during the president's historic trip to China in 1972….(Washington Post, 12 Feb 07)

'Post' reporter identifies Fleischer as source for CIA leak

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer leaked the identity of a CIA operative to Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus during a 2003 phone call, Pincus testified Monday as the first defense witness in the CIA leak trial...Pincus said he learned her identity July 12, 2003 but did not immediately write about it. Plame was outed by syndicated columnist Robert Novak two days later….(AP, 12 Feb 07)

Armitage Outs Agent in Woodward Tapes

…Woodward, who famously kept the identity of his "Deep Throat" Watergate source a secret for decades, testified that in June 2003, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage disclosed that the wife of a prominent Iraq war critic worked for the CIA….(AP, 12 Feb 07)

Libby Believes NBC News Could Clear Him

…Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, wants a federal judge to let his lawyers question Andrea Mitchell, NBC's foreign affairs correspondent, about when she learned that the wife of an outspoken Bush administration critic worked for the CIA….(AP, 12 Feb 07)

The Tiny Airline Spy that Spots Bombers in the Blink of an Eye

Tiny cameras the size of a fingernail linked to specialist computers are to be used to monitor the behavior of airline passengers as part of the war on terrorism. Cameras fitted to seat-backs will record every twitch, blink, facial expression or suspicious movement before sending the data to onboard software which will check it against individual passenger profiles…They say that rapid eye movements, blinking excessively, licking lips or ways of stroking hair or ears are classic symptoms of somebody trying to conceal something. A separate microphone will hear and record even whispered remarks….(This is London, 12 Feb 07)

Cheney Testimony in Libby Trial Would Carry High Risk

One figure has dominated the trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. without even showing up in the courtroom. Day after day, the jury has heard accounts of the actions of Vice President Dick Cheney, watched as his handwritten notes were displayed on a giant screen, heard how he directed leaks to the news media and ordered the White House to publicly defend Mr. Libby, his top aide and close confidante….(New York Times, 12 Feb 07)

Moscow Asks U.S. for Clarification

Moscow has asked the United States for a clarification following remarks in which U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested that Russia's future course is uncertain and lumped the nation together with Iran and North Korea, the Foreign Ministry said Monday…..(AP, 12 Feb 07)

Czechoslovak military intelligence trained secret commandos-press

The Czechoslovak communist military counter-intelligence (VKR), part of the then secret police (StB), trained secret commando units, including some 100 special agents, for kidnapping, killing enemies and sabotage in the then West Germany from 1972, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes....(Ceskenoviny, 12 Feb 07)

EU anti-terror coordinator to step down

The EU's first anti-terrorism coordinator, Gijs de Vries, is to step down next month after three years on the job. His decision not to renew his contract comes as MEPs are this week to vote on a report on the activities of the CIA in Europe…..(EU Observer, 12 Feb 07)

Imam in alleged CIA kidnap case says he is a wreck

A Muslim cleric freed from prison in Egypt on Sunday four years after he was grabbed in a Milan street in a suspected CIA kidnapping said on Monday the ordeal had made him a wreck. Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, has alleged that Egyptian guards tortured him with electric shocks, beatings, rape threats and genital abuse…..(Reuters, 12 Feb 07)

Life sentence for American in espionage case

A senior American engineer with Qatar Petroleum has been sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of espionage. John Willis Donez, 51, endangered Qatar’s national economic security by attempting to sell information about the North Field energy project to foreign embassy officials, according to the Criminal Court. The project is jointly administered by Qatar and Iran…..(Gulf Times, 12 Feb 07)

Corporate espionage goes undetected in India

The arrest of a Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited employee for allegedly leaking information to a competing company is one of the few cases of corporate espionage that have come to light….(Rediff, 11 Feb 07)

Tata firm catches 'Reliance spy'

It’s a fight between two of India's biggest business houses. Tata Group company VSNL has caught one of their employees allegedly passing on sensitive corporate information to arch rival Reliance Communications…..(CNN, 11 Feb 07)

Ex-Pentagon Official Defends Iraq Stance

A former Pentagon official on Sunday defended his prewar assessment of a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida, calling it a much-needed critique of the CIA's intelligence on the subject. "It's healthy to criticize the CIA's intelligence," said former Pentagon policy chief Douglas Feith. "What the people in the Pentagon were doing was right. It was good government.”….(AP, 11 Feb 07)

US Intelligence to Hire More Arab-Americans

…At the FBI, if one counts the agents there who know a handful of Arabic words — including those who scored zero on a standard proficiency test — just 1 percent of the FBI’s 12,000 agents have any familiarity with the language….(Arab News, 11 Feb 07)

Libby Trial Sheds Light on White House

Sworn testimony in the perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has shone a spotlight on White House attempts to sell a gone-wrong war in Iraq to the nation and Vice President Dick Cheney's aggressive role in the effort….(AP, 11 Feb 07)

Two held for Politkovskaya death

Two Chechens are reported to have been arrested on suspicion of killing investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya…Ms Politkovskaya was a critic of Kremlin policy in Chechnya, where she alleged officials used abduction and torture in a campaign against separatist insurgents….(Telegraph, 11 Feb 07)