Counterintelligence News for the week of:

January 7-13, 2007

Spy Case Comes to U.S. as Agency Urges Testing

…Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said yesterday that the notification process began this week after health authorities in London gave them a list of people who may have been exposed to polonium 210, a radioactive substance that killed Alexander V. Litvinenko, the former spy. He died on Nov. 23…..(New York Times, 13 Jan 07)

Justice Dept. Concealing Leak Report

The Justice Department is fighting in court to keep secret a government report concluding that it leaked confidential and damaging information against a former prosecutor accused of bungling a high-profile terror trial…Two people who have seen the full report confirmed it rules out Convertino as a suspect in the leak case. Those people described the report's findings to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because it is sealed under a Justice Department protective order…..(AP, 13 Jan 07)

CIA Leak Witnesses

A list of potential witnesses in the obstruction and perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Prosecution and defense lawyers are not required to provide lists of their witnesses…..(AP, 13 Jan 07)

Alexander Wills Neale Jr. FBI Agent, Banking Executive

Alexander Wills Neale Jr., 89, a retired special agent with the FBI and a banking executive, died of congestive heart failure Jan. 6….(Washington Post, 13 Jan 07)

H.P. Investigator Pleads Guilty to Identity Theft and Conspiracy

Federal prosecutors scored their first victory in the investigation of boardroom spying at Hewlett-Packard on Friday, when a private investigator pleaded guilty to identity theft and conspiracy charges….(AP, 13 Jan 07)

Military takes over intelligence

The expected confirmation of retired Navy Adm. Mike McConnell as director of national intelligence will complete the Pentagon's takeover of the intelligence community and end any pretense of civilian influence, let alone control, of the community. Flag officers are now in control of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Counterterrorism Center as well as the key position of undersecretary of defense for intelligence…..(Miami Herald, 12 Jan 07)

British Solider Set to Face Iran Spy Trial

…Corporal Daniel James, 44, who worked for NATO's General David Richards, is accused of breaching Britain's Official Secrets Act by passing on secrets to an “enemy.” James, who became a British citizen in the mid-1980s, has an Iranian mother and speaks fluent Pashtun, the main language of southern Afghanistan, according to newspaper reports. On Friday, he appeared for a preliminary hearing at London's Old Bailey court via videolink from a prison in southwest London. Dressed in a red T-shirt, he spoke only to confirm his name and that he could hear the proceedings…..(Reuters, 12 Jan 07)

Curtain's Up As Libby Is Set for Trial

The trial set to begin in Washington next week of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., will be the first major showdown between two competing narratives about the Bush administration's tactics in responding to critics of the war in Iraq…The former White House official is charged with lying and obstruction of justice, not leaking….(New York Sun, 12 Jan 07)

HP figure to plead guilty in U.S. case

A self-described "little guy" in the corporate spying scandal at Hewlett-Packard Co. will plead guilty today to federal conspiracy and identity theft charges — an admission that could spark more deal-making in a case that has riveted Silicon Valley….(LA Times, 12 Jan 07)

Lithuania to extradite suspected Belarussian spy

A Belarussian man suspected of spying against Polish interests lost his appeal on Thursday against extradition to Poland from Lithuania where he was detained. Sergei Monich, 40, was detained in a joint operation by Lithuanian and Polish security services in Vilnius last November….(Reuters, 12 Jan 07)

US: Some countries fear revealing intelligence secrets to Hariri probe
Ten governments which have withheld information from the UN probe into the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri are apparently concerned about revealing intelligence secrets, a senior US official said Wednesday….(Agence France-Presse, 12 Jan 07)

North Korean spy agency execs ordered abduction of Hasuike

A North Korean suspect placed on an international wanted list over the abduction of Kaoru Hasuike and his wife Yukiko was ordered to carry out the abductions by two members of North Korea's intelligence agency, police investigators have learned…..(Mainichi, 12 Jan 07)

Defense Department Report Warns Of RFID-Enabled Spy Coins

…There's some question as to whether these "spy coins" represent a real threat. A report today in Canada's Globe and Mail says that defense contractors had been given "certain special-issue Canadian coins" and that these had prompted an investigation, but the investigators "found no evidence of any secret transmitters, or of any other tampering."…(TechWeb, 12 Jan 07)

Intelligence Chiefs Pessimistic In Assessing Worldwide Threats

…In their annual worldwide threat assessment before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Negroponte and other top intelligence chiefs provided a bleak assessment of regions and conflicts at the center of President Bush's foreign policy agenda. One day after Bush unveiled a plan to send more than 21,000 additional troops to work alongside Iraqi troops in an increasingly violent war, the head of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency said Iraqi forces could not combat the insurgency there. Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples said Iraqi security forces have been thoroughly infiltrated by Shiite militias….(Washington Post, 12 Jan 07)

New Law in Poland Is Aimed at Former Secret Police Agents

Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski of Poland on Thursday promised a new law that would take aim at former secret police agents, excluding them from serving in numerous public posts and leaving many of them with reduced or no pensions…..(New York Times, 12 Jan 07)

Intelligence officials see growing sectarian split in Iraq

…The intelligence officials painted a dire picture of the insurgency in Iraq and spoke a day after President Bush announced a new plan to stabilize Baghdad with an additional 21,500 troops….(Washington Times, 12 Jan 07)

Russia seeks UK help in spy probe

Russian prosecutors have asked the UK for permission to question more than 100 witnesses over the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko. Russian investigators also want to examine "dozens" of places in Britain in connection with Litvinenko's death….(BBC, 12 Jan 07)

UK advises 48 countries on polonium tests

Britain is working with nearly 50 countries to help them assess the risk to some 450 people who fear they may have been exposed to the radioactive poison that killed former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko in London. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said on Thursday that tests in Britain alone had identified 116 people who had "probable contact" with the poison, Polonium 210, but only 13 of these showed levels that required further monitoring….(Reuters, 11 Jan 07)

Radiation: more than 100 test positive

Almost one in five of those tested for the radioactive substance which killed a former Russian spy have shown signs of contamination. Urine samples were taken from nearly 600 people who feared they may have been caught up in the scare and of those 120 tested positive with only 13 deemed to have any type of risk to health….(ITN, 11 Jan 07)

Top U.S. spy says Russian policies increasingly threaten Western interests

…In his annual review of global threats, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said high energy prices have allowed Russia to increase its assertiveness in foreign affairs. "A flush economy and perceived policy successes at home and abroad have bolstered Russian confidence, enabled increased defense spending and emboldened the Kremlin to pursue foreign policy goals that are not always consistent with those of Western institutions,"….(AP, 11 Jan 07)

Expensive new U.S. spy satellite not working: sources

U.S. officials are unable to communicate with an expensive experimental U.S. spy satellite launched last year by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), a defense official and another source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. Efforts are continuing to reestablish communication with the classified satellite….(Reuters, 11 Jan 07)

United States: Economic Espionage Act Convictions Announced

On December 14, 2006, Fei Ye and Ming Zhong, both residents of the State of California, pleaded guilty to two counts each of violating Section 1831 of the Economic Espionage Act (EEA). 18 U.S.C. § 1831. According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), these represent the first two convictions under this section of the EEA, which deals with the theft of trade secrets for the benefit of a foreign nation….(Mondaq, 11 Jan 07)

Investigator Faces Charges in HP Probe

A private investigator accused of posing as a journalist to access the reporter's private phone records as part of the boardroom spying scandal at Hewlett-Packard Co. was charged Wednesday with federal identity theft and conspiracy charges…(AP, 11 Jan 07)

The Mess at State

…While attention is focused on Iraq, American diplomacy is being tested worldwide -- in Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Korea and Sudan. The judgment by thoughtful Republicans is that Rice has failed to manage that endeavor. Rice's previous government duties had been as an analyst and staffer rather than as a manager…(Washington Post, 11 Jan 07)

Too Casual To Sit on Press Row?

When the trial of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice opens next week, scores of journalists are expected to throng the federal courtroom in Washington, far too many for the 100 seats set aside for the media. But for the first time in a federal court, two of these seats will be reserved for bloggers…..(Washington Post, 11 Jan 07)

Roberta Wohlstetter, 94, Military Policy Analyst, Dies

Roberta Wohlstetter, a military and foreign policy analyst whose work on the intelligence failures before the attack on Pearl Harbor was cited by the 9/11 commission, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 94….(New York Times, 11 Jan 07)

Edith Mott; Aided the Birth of the Atomic Bomb

Edith Grace Mott, 84, who worked on the Manhattan Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during World War II and who was known in Washington in the 1960s as the wife of the former judge advocate general of the Navy, died Dec. 22….(Washington Post, 11 Jan 07)

Protests over plans to let military spy on Swedes

…The Ministry of Defence department was set up to listen to military radio traffic around the world, primarily from the former Soviet Union, and its work constitutes what many people would consider as being spying….(Radio Sweden, 11 Jan 07)

UAE won’t allow US to use its territory to spy on Iran
The United Arab Emirates has reassured Iran that it will not allow the United States to use its territory to spy on the Islamic Republic as Tehran faces mounting pressure over its atomic program….(Reuters, 11 Jan 07)

Court to deal with case of alleged intelligence agent again

The Supreme Court today decided that the Prague City Court will have to deal again with the case of Jaroslav Benak, an alleged former military intelligence officer suspected of divulging classified information….(Ceskenoviny, 11 Jan 07)

Berlin 'Helped CIA' With Rendition of German Citizen

Classified documents show that German authorities provided the CIA with the information it needed to abduct German citizen Mohammed Haydar Zammar and take him to Syria. Now the German government is facing some tough questions….(Spiegel, 11 Jan 07)

Montreal woman seeks class-action approval over CIA mind control experiments

… Stein is seeking court approval for a class-action lawsuit on behalf of his client, Janine Huard, one of the hundreds of patients of Dr. Ewen Cameron to be subjected to the Cold War-era experiments….(Canadian Press, 11 Jan 07)

Chavez Would Abolish Presidential Term Limit
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, sworn in to another six-year term on Wednesday, said he would seek a constitutional amendment that could extend his tenure as he hastens his country's transformation into what he calls "21st-century socialism."…(Washington Post, 11 Jan 07)

Poisoned spy's contact released from radiation treatment

A key figure in the poisoning death of a former KGB agent has left the hospital where he was reportedly being treated for radiation exposure. Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB bodyguard questioned by Scotland Yard detectives and Russian authorities last month, told the Associated Press Tuesday he was released from a Moscow hospital and was "resting," but did not elaborate. He said he would make further comment on Sunday…..(CBC, 11 Jan 07)

Leak Probes Stymied, FBI Memos Show

A lack of cooperation from one or more intelligence agencies led the FBI to abandon several recent criminal investigations into leaks of classified information to the press, records obtained by The New York Sun indicate. In January 2005, a top FBI official asked the Justice Department to close three pending leak inquiries because the "victim agency" repeatedly refused to assist the probes …..(New York Sun, 11 Jan 07)

Related Documents

Daylight Sought For Data Mining
Key senators introduced legislation yesterday that would require the government to disclose data-mining programs to Congress in an effort to protect Americans' privacy and prevent misuse of personal information….(Washington Post, 11 Jan 07)

DoD Warns About Spy Coins

The Defense Department is warning its American contractor employees about a new espionage threat seemingly straight from Hollywood: It discovered Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside. In a U.S. government report, it said the mysterious coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada.….(AP, 11 Jan 07)

Warning: Spies using coins with hidden transmitters

Money talks, but can it also follow your movements? That's a question the Associated Press is asking this morning following a warning from the Pentagon that someone used "Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside" to spy on Americans…(USA Today Blog, 11 Jan 07)

Is That A Hacker Next To You!

…another common reason is industrial espionage. What organization has time to do professional, in-depth background checks on every temporary IT consultant? Often this part-time help is called upon when times are roughest, and corners are most easily cut. The result are people who get easy access to the most sensitive and impenetrable systems (more on that later.)…(On Record, 10 Jan 07)

Corporate Security: Risk and Cost Tolerance in India

…However, the danger of attacks by Kashmiri militants (or even Maoist Naxalites) is not the only threat that foreign multinational corporations -- and particularly technology companies -- now face in India. These companies are confronting what is effectively a multi-pronged security threat that also includes growing concerns about personal security and kidnappings, a greater recognition of risks to intellectual property that stem from corporate espionage, and issues related to privacy and the risks of criminals stealing sensitive customer information…..(Stratford, 10 Jan 07)

2007: Security Threats Are on the Rise

…Targeted threats can be so narrowly focused as to constitute industrial or even political espionage, trying to gain sensitive information from a single company or individual rather than the indiscriminate approach of letting a worm loose to randomly find victims wherever it may go….(Tech News World, 10 Jan 07)

Cuba slams payment for American Bay of Pigs dead

Cuba on Wednesday condemned as "theft" the use of frozen Cuban assets in the United States to compensate the families of two Americans killed in the 1961 U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion …(Reuters, 10 Jan 07)

Former KGB agent Lugovoy leaves hospital

A Russian former KGB bodyguard at the centre of a probe into the murder of ex-agent Alexander Litvinenko has left hospital where he was treated for suspected radiation poisoning, Interfax news agency said on Tuesday. It cited unidentified medical sources as saying Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB bodyguard for the Kremlin elite, was discharged at the end of December from a Moscow hospital….(Reuters, 10 Jan 07)

In Poland, New Wave of Charges Against Clerics

…And the stream of disclosures now promises to become a torrent: here in Krakow, the Rev. Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski is preparing to publish a book that will identify 39 priests whose names he found in Krakow’s secret police files, three of whom are now bishops in the Polish church. Perhaps the most explosive assertion by people in the church is that the taint of collaboration was known for decades but kept quiet….(New York Times, 10 Jan 07)

CIA says war crimes suspects were protected
The Croatian authorities failed to arrest war crimes suspect Tomislav Mercep, a former paramilitary commander and one of former Croatian president Franjo Tudjman's closest associates, because he was protected by his powerful political friends, according to a newly declassified US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) document….(AKI, 10 Jan 07)

Charles Denholm; Top General at Army Security Agency

Maj. Gen. Charles J. Denholm, 92, a U.S. Military Academy graduate, World War II veteran and a former commanding general of the Army Security Agency, died Dec. 28…(Washington Post, 10 Jan 07)

CIA gets the go-ahead to take on Hizbollah

The Central Intelligence Agency has been authorized to take covert action against Hizbollah as part of a secret plan by President George W. Bush to help the Lebanese government prevent the spread of Iranian influence. Senators and congressmen have been briefed on the classified "non-lethal presidential finding" that allows the CIA to provide financial and logistical support to the prime minister, Fouad Siniora…"There's a feeling both in Jerusalem and in Riyadh that the anti-Sunni tilt in the region has gone too far," said an intelligence source. "By removing Saddam, we've shifted things in favor of the Shia and this is a counter-balancing exercise.…(Telegraph, 10 Jan 07)

House Passes Bill to Implement More of 9/11 Panel's Suggestions

In a lopsided vote that masked underlying divisions, House Democrats approved legislation yesterday to implement many of the remaining recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission even as portions of the sprawling package faced immediate problems in the Senate….(Washington Post, 10 Jan 07)

The CIA in the Dock

A Milan prosecutor is making the CIA nervous. Despite the opposition of his own government he wants to indict 26 US agents and five Italian secret agents for the kidnapping of a terror suspect. Rome and Washington would prefer that the embarrassing trial would just go away…If the court takes the case, it would be the first time anyone has been tried in connection with the CIA's controversial "extraordinary renditions" program. Under the secret renditions program, suspected terrorists were kidnapped and interrogated at secret "black" sites….(Spiegel, 10 Jan 07)

Details emerge in Italian abduction

…Lawyers for the American and Italian defendants attempted to halt the proceedings on constitutional grounds but failed. A decision on whether to hold what would be the first trial involving renditions could come as early as next month. The Italian government also may demand the extradition of the accused Americans, including an Air Force colonel and 25 CIA operatives, among them the former station chiefs of Rome and Milan. All are fugitives….(LA Times, 10 Jan 07)

Advocate Criticizes Govt Data Mining

The government's ability to use computers to gather personal information about citizens and act on it has far outstripped the federal laws designed to protect them from secret federal dossiers, a privacy advocate says….(AP, 10 Jan 07)

The new intelligence challenge

The Office of Director of National Intelligence, soon to be vacated by Ambassador John Negroponte, was born in controversy and never endowed with the full authority that the responsibilities of the office require. Struggling with the inherent limitations, Negroponte made some headway in enhancing U.S. intelligence capabilities but leaves much for his likely successor, retired Vice Adm. Mike McConnell, to accomplish. In an era when intelligence is at the center of nearly all foreign and many domestic challenges, an enormous amount rides on the DNI's success or failure….(SacBee, 10 Jan 07)

Changes in Latitude and Attitude

While the media and the Congress are focused almost entirely on the political ramifications of President George W. Bush's upcoming Iraq strategy speech, the consequences of the administration's recent personnel changes in our defense and intelligence communities have significant long-range implications…..(Military.com, 10 Jan 07)

Timing of Iraq Intelligence Estimate Questioned

…As the White House puts the finishing touches on his speech, the nation's top intelligence analysts are toiling away on a document of their own — a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq…This is the first NIE on Iraq in two and a half years. But it won't be ready until the end of the month, after the President proposes his new Iraq policy. That's leading some to question whether the NIE is being held back, to avoid embarrassing the president….(NPR, 10 Jan 07)

Leahy Questions Secret Service Policy

Sen. Patrick Leahy asked the Secret Service on Wednesday why the agency signed an agreement with the Bush administration to keep White House visitors logs secret… Signed last May 17 in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, the memorandum of understanding says the logs are "at all times presidential records; are not federal records; and are not the records of an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act."….(AP, 10 Jan 07)

The spy who stayed out in the cold

Thirty years ago, Philip Agee, then a 41-year-old former CIA officer living in Cambridge, was told that he was to be deported from Britain as a threat to the security of the state. After a high-profile but unsuccessful attempt to fight the order, he and his young family left Britain for ever…It was his book, Inside the Company, published in 1975, that first revealed in detail many of the dirty tricks that his colleagues had been involved in across the world. Agee, a former philosophy and law student from a comfortable Florida family, had been in the CIA for more than a decade, working mainly in Latin America, before making his momentous decision to quit and tell….(Guardian, 10 Jan 07)

CIA Defends Document Secrecy at Trial

The CIA cannot reveal "alternative interrogation methods" used on terrorists because doing so would cause exceptionally grave damage to national security by telling enemies how the agency gathers intelligence, the government has told a judge….(AP, 10 Jan 07)

Roberta M. Wohlstetter; Military Intelligence Expert

Roberta Morgan Wohlstetter, 94, whose classic analysis of how military intelligence failed to predict the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 became newly relevant after the attacks of Sep. 11, died of complications of pneumonia Jan. 6…(Washington Post, 10 Jan 07)

Tenet memoir under scrutiny

The CIA has submitted portions of a book manuscript by George J. Tenet to the White House for review amid speculation the former CIA director's memoirs will be critical of President Bush. The book, "At the Center of the Storm," is still being analyzed by the CIA's Publications Review Board. It was during that process that portions of the manuscript were sent to the White House's National Security Council (NSC)….(Washington Times, 9 Jan 07)

How one man insinuated himself into poisoning case

Mario Scaramella was the last person to meet with the former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko before the Russian was hospitalized for, and later died from, polonium 210 poisoning. They had had lunch together at a London sushi bar on Nov. 1. Scaramella, too, was contaminated by the radioactive substance, and as a result gained world attention — as either a possible accomplice to a crime or an intended victim…On Christmas Eve, Scaramella was arrested by the Italian police as he stepped back onto his home soil after a flight from London….(International Herald Tribune, 9 Jan 07)

Book to Tell Litvinenko’s Story

A friend and the widow of the former K.G.B. officer Alexander V. Litvinenko are collaborating on a book to be published by Free Press in May, "Death of a Dissident: Alexander Litvinenko and the Death of Russian Democracy." Alex Goldfarb with Marina Litvinenko will tell the story of Mr. Litvinenko and his career as a spy…(New York Times, 9 Jan 07)

Lebedev did not say someone tried to poison him like Litvinenko

…According to him, he remembered that while being abroad in the end of last spring and in the beginning of the summer, he had to turn for medical assistance because of constantly feeling ill and losing weight. There was a suspicion he had been poisoned but it was not confirmed later…(Regnum, 9 Jan 07)

Iran Says It Has Arrested a Nuclear Spy

Iran said Tuesday it has arrested a man on suspicion of selling nuclear secrets to an exiled Iranian opposition group, state radio reported. The report didn't identify the suspected spy, but said he had been working at the Iranian Parliament's Research Center, an organization that advises lawmakers on foreign and strategic issues….(AP, 9 Jan 07)

Italian Lawyer in CIA Case Withdraws

A lawyer for a CIA agent accused in the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan withdrew from the case shortly after a court opened hearings Tuesday on whether to indict him and 25 other Americans…Five Italian secret service officials also are facing indictment in the case that highlights the CIA's alleged extraordinary rendition program, in which terror suspects are transferred to third countries where critics say they may face torture….(AP, 9 Jan 07)

Italian, U.S. agents urge govts to stop CIA trial

…Judge Caterina Interlandi must decide if there is enough evidence for a trial. If so, it would be the first criminal procedure over renditions, one of the most controversial aspects of the U.S. global "war on terrorism." The agents are accused of involvement in abducting Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr and sending him to Egypt, where he says he was tortured….(Reuters, 9 Jan 07)

Italian Lawyer in CIA Case Withdraws

A lawyer for a former CIA station chief accused of involvement in the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian terror suspect withdrew from the case Tuesday, saying statements by Italian spymasters implicating U.S. agents had undermined her attempts to head off a criminal trial….(AP, 9 Jan 07)

Judge Rejects Media Request

…News organizations had asked that recordings of testimony and arguments be released for broadcast. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton denied the request, saying the only recording of court proceedings is done by the court stenographer to help ensure an accurate transcript…..(AP, 9 Jan 07)

British spy offered to blow up Hitler

A British secret agent who offered to blow up Adolf Hitler at the height of World War II was dissuaded from carrying out the assassination by MI5. Newly released wartime archives show the offer to kill Hitler in a suicide mission was made by Eddie Chapman, a professional criminal and safe-breaker who was trained by the Nazis as a spy and went on to become one of Britain's most successful double agents, codenamed Agent Zigzag….(The Times, 9 Jan 07)

UK spy chief said no terror threat before 7/7: paper

…Eliza Manningham-Buller, director general of MI5, had been speaking at a private meeting of members of parliament for the governing Labor Party on the morning of July 6, the Guardian said, citing a number of those present….(Reuters, 9 Jan 07)

Accused of espionage for Russia, Pyotr Mocalov sentenced to 12 years in jail
Trial on the case of Azerbaijani Army reserve officer Pyotr Mocalov accused of espionage for Russian special service in Military Court for Grievous Crimes has finished, the court told APA….(Azer-Press, 9 Jan 07)

Chavez Sets Plans for Nationalization

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on Monday announced plans to nationalize the country's electrical and telecommunications companies, take control of the once-independent Central Bank and seek special constitutional powers permitting him to pass economic laws by decree. "We're heading toward socialism, and nothing and no one can prevent it," (said) Chávez….(Washington Post, 9 Jan 07)

Krakow priest 2nd to quit in scandal

A second prominent Catholic clergyman quit his post yesterday amid accusations that he collaborated with Poland's communist-era secret police, a day after Warsaw's new archbishop resigned after admitting that he had cooperated with the despised agency….(AP, 9 Jan 07)

Adapt, Change Or Die
As our republic enters 2007, Washington is still primarily organized to prevail in the Cold War against the former Soviet Union. Yet today, America and the community of democracies face very different threats -- evolving terrorism, global warming and energy supply disruptions….(Washington Post, 9 Jan 07)

The Archbishop's Bargain -- and Poland's

...Coming now, more than two years after Poland's accession to the European Union, this little morality play also usefully illustrates the weird crossroads at which the citizens of formerly communist Europe find themselves…..(Washington Post, 9 Jan 07)

House Panels Delay Response to Subpoenas

Three House committees are delaying responding to grand jury subpoenas issued in connection with the bribery case against jailed former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. The subpoenas were issued to the Appropriations, Armed Services and Intelligence committees by the federal grand jury in San Diego…(AP, 9 Jan 07)

CIA Digs In Its Heels

A federal criminal investigation of the Central Intelligence Agency's former third-highest official has stalled because of CIA reluctance to turn over classified documents requested by prosecutors, people close to the investigation say. The U.S. attorney's office in San Diego has been investigating former CIA Executive Director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo to determine whether he committed illegal acts in influencing the awarding of CIA covert contracts….(Wall Street Journal, 9 Jan 07)

Bush Picks Reagan White House Counsel Fielding to Succeed Miers

President Bush has selected Fred F. Fielding to be his White House counsel…Fielding served as deputy to White House counsel John W. Dean III under President Richard M. Nixon and was the first to tell Dean about the Watergate break-in. Yet Fielding was one of the few to emerge untainted by Watergate. In fact, he was suspected, wrongly, of being "Deep Throat," the inside source who helped Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the scandal….(Washington Post, 9 Jan 07)

House Nears Passage of Resolution To Add Intelligence Oversight Panel

The House is scheduled to pass a resolution as early as today to add a select intelligence oversight panel within the Appropriations Committee, but this change is far different from the proposal to enhance congressional oversight of intelligence proposed in 2004 by the Sept. 11 commission….(Washington Post, 9 Jan 07)

House Bill Backs Additional Reforms From 9/11 Report

House Democrats announced legislation yesterday aimed at implementing many of the remaining reforms suggested by the Sept. 11 commission, including calls for more thorough cargo screening, better emergency communications and more money for cities at the highest risk of terrorist attack…..(Washington Post, 9 Jan 07)

For Windows Vista Security, Microsoft Called in Pros

When Microsoft introduces its long-awaited Windows Vista operating system this month, it will have an unlikely partner to thank for making its flagship product safe and secure for millions of computer users across the world: the National Security Agency. For the first time, the giant software maker is acknowledging the help of the secretive agency, better known for eavesdropping on foreign officials and, more recently, U.S. citizens as part of the Bush administration's effort to combat terrorism….(Washington Post, 9 Jan 07)

Special Forces clash with the CIA

U.S. Special Forces teams sent overseas on secret spying missions have clashed with the CIA and carried out operations in countries that are staunch U.S. allies, prompting a new effort by the agency and the Pentagon to tighten the rules for military units engaged in espionage, according to senior U.S. intelligence and military officials….(Journalismus, 9 Jan 07)

Lawyer says Russians cannot be involved in Litvinenko case

A lawyer to Andrei Lugovoi, one of the main witnesses in the former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko poisoning case, insists that there are no grounds to day that Russian citizens may be involved as suspects. Lawyer Andrei Romashov made the statement in connection with Western media reports claiming that there were grounds to suspect two Russian citizens in the case.…(ITAR-Tass, 8 Jan 07)

Police believe Litvinenko poisoned twice

…Tests have found radiation at all three hotels where Mr Lugovoi stayed after flying to London on October 16. Polonium-210 was also discovered aboard two aircraft on which he had travelled. Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun have admitted meeting Mr Litvinenko on November 1. Both men, and Vyacheslav Sokolenko, a third former KGB officer who was with them in London, have denied any involvement in the murder. Mr Lugovoi claims he is being framed….(Telegraph, 8 Jan 07)

Ex-spy was involved in 'blackmail scheme'

Murdered ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was involved in a blackmail scheme before his death, a US television documentary has claimed. A 60 Minutes report aired on CBS last night claimed that in the months before his death Mr Litvinenko needed money and a job….(This is Local London, 8 Jan 07)

Ex-spy was involved in 'blackmail scheme'

British Detectives Know Litvinenko Killers

British detectives, after weeks of investigation, reportedly are "100 percent" certain they know who poisoned Russian spy-turned-reporter Alexander Litvinenko. Litvinenko died Nov. 23 in a London hospital after being exposed to radioactive polonoium-210. Scotland Yard sent nine detectives to Moscow before Christmas to conduct interviews and they are to submit their report to the Crown Prosecution Service….(UPI, 8 Jan 07)

Spy Chief Inherits a Work in Progress
If confirmed as the nation's top spy, Mike McConnell will inherit a work in progress - a new agency that is supposed to streamline the nation's intelligence defenses but which has been beset by bureaucratic resistance in its first two years….(AP, 8 Jan 07)

Bush to Name Khalilzad for U.N. Job

President Bush will nominate Zalmay Khalilzad to be the U.S. envoy to the United Nations and veteran diplomat Ryan Crocker to replace him as ambassador to Iraq, the administration said Monday….(AP, 8 Jan 07)

Navy Lawyer Faces Court-Martial

A Navy lawyer charged with passing secret information about Guantanamo Bay detainees to an unauthorized person was ordered on Monday to face a court-martial, the Navy said. Lt. Cmdr. Matthew M. Diaz, who was stationed at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay from July 2004 until January 2005, could face more than 36 years in prison if convicted. No trial date was set….(AP, 8 Jan 07)

Final forgiveness for spy

There can be few marriages quite as strange or as burdened by history as that of the German politician, Vera Lengsfeld, and her former husband, who spied on her for the East German secret police…Ms Lengsfeld’s husband, Knud Wollenberger, codenamed Donald by the Stasi, had tried to warn her not to attend a peace rally in 1988. Today it is clear that he knew from his Stasi masters that the woman he claimed to love, the mother of his two children, was about to be arrested….(The Times, 8 Jan 07)

New Intelligence Czar brings new hope

…John Negroponte is giving way to Admiral Michael McConnell as the nation's Intelligence Czar or Director of National Intelligence (DNI), a position responsible for overseeing the work of several agencies charged with intelligence gathering and analysis….(Canada Free Press, 8 Jan 07)

Pakistan Criticized Over Missing People

The Supreme Court on Monday criticized as insufficient efforts by authorities to trace at least 16 people believed to be held by Pakistani intelligence agencies for suspected links with Islamic militants….(AP, 8 Jan 07)

Milan CIA Abduction Case Starts Amid Service Overhaul

A judge in Milan this week will hold the first hearings on whether to press charges against 35 U.S. and Italian intelligence agents for kidnapping an Egyptian cleric, while Italian lawmakers will start debating the first overhaul of the country's intelligence service in 30 years….(Bloomberg, 8 Jan 07)

Spy suspect denies pro-North activities

In dramatic courtroom testimony yesterday, Chang Min-ho refused to admit that he was ever actively spying for North Korea. Prosecutors struggled to obtain solid testimony from Chang, a Korean-American businessman, who claimed to not remember last year "in detail." The 44-year-old man, who also goes by the name Michael Chang, is accused of contacting North Korean spies in China last March and June and of breaking the anticommunist law…..(Korea Herald, 8 Jan 07)

New Warsaw Archbishop Quits Over Communist Collaboration

The newly appointed archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus, abruptly resigned on Sunday at a Mass meant to celebrate his new position after having admitted two days earlier that he had worked with the Polish Communist-era secret police….(New York Times, 8 Jan 07)

The spy who came in from the boardroom

The Bush administration's choice last week of J. Michael McConnell to be director of national intelligence is a major blunder -- and not just because the man who will be overseeing 16 different spy agencies, including the CIA, took the job after a "personal approach" from an old friend named Dick Cheney….(Salon, 8 Jan 07)

World: Former CIA Analyst Says West Misunderstands Al-Qaeda

Michael Scheuer is a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where for six years he was in charge of the search for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden….(RFE/RL, 8 Jan 07)

The New Intelligence Challenge

...Struggling with the inherent limitations, Negroponte made some headway in enhancing U.S. intelligence capabilities but leaves much for his likely successor, retired Vice Adm. Mike McConnell, to accomplish. In an era when intelligence is at the center of nearly all foreign and many domestic challenges, an enormous amount rides on the DNI's success or failure…(Washington Post, 7 Jan 07)

Wife: Cleric offered $2 million deal

According to Abu Omar's wife, a few months ago two Egyptian officials visited her husband in his Cairo prison cell and made him an offer they hoped he wouldn't refuse. The offer was $2 million cash, according to the radical cleric's wife Nabila Ghali. All Abu Omar needed to do was sign a paper saying he had come to Egypt of his own accord on Feb. 17, 2003, and to repeat that statement to the news media….(Chicago Tribune, 7 Jan 07)

Tycoon linked with Litvinenko ‘survived poisoning’

A Russian tycoon with shares in the Moscow newspaper that published the anti-government theories of poisoned former spy Alexander Litvinenko believes he survived a similar assassination attempt. Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB operative and a banking billionaire, says he believes he was poisoned about eight months ago. His home was checked for radiation but no trace was found and he recovered….(Sunday Times, 7 Jan 07)

New Top Spy Inherits an Office Still Finding Its Way
President Bush's choice to be the second director of national intelligence, retired Navy Vice Adm. John M. McConnell, must pick up the job of restructuring the nation's $42 billion intelligence community, which after 19 months is still very much a work in progress….(Washington Post, 7 Jan 07)

Biographical Info on Mike McConnell

…(AP, 8 Jan 07)

U.S. Agencies Should Share Intelligence
Five years have passed since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and while Congress, the intelligence community, and state and local governments have taken steps to make the country safer, there remains what the Sept. 11 commission called a "lack of imagination" in our homeland security efforts, especially in the area of information sharing….(Washington Post, 7 Jan 07)

CIA chiefs reportedly split over cleric plot

…For the future of American intelligence and the war on terrorism, the most consequential revelations may concern schisms within the CIA over the value and risks of "rendition," the agency's euphemism for its once-secret practice of snatching suspected terrorists abroad and transporting them to countries where they are likely to be interrogated under torture….(Chicago Tribune, 7 Jan 07)

MI official: Intelligence work during war was unprofessional

A senior intelligence officer says the performance of Military Intelligence during the war in Lebanon was "unprofessional and mediocre." Additionally, a senior Golani officer says that the absence of updated intelligence left the force without knowledge of Hezbollah's deployment and the extent of its forces….(Haaretz, 7 Jan 07)

Mossad-KGB double agent Zeev Avni dies at age 86

Zeev Avni, who was involved in one of Israel's most secret espionage affairs, died last week at age 86. Avni, a Mossad agent, was arrested in April 1956 on suspicion of being a KGB agent. It emerged that while he was cultivating former Nazis employed as military advisers by Egypt's army for the Mossad, he was also serving as a long-term Soviet mole….(Haaretz, 7 Jan 07)

Poisoning Of Ex-Agent Sets Off Alarm Bells
Ninety-seven percent of the legal production of one of the world's rarest industrial products -- the intensely radioactive isotope polonium-210 -- takes place at a closely guarded nuclear reactor near the Volga River 450 miles southeast of Moscow. In an average year, about three ounces of the substance is made at the Avangard facility, a former nuclear weapons plant, then sold under strict controls to Russian and foreign companies that prize it for its abilities to reduce static electricity…(Washington Post, 7 Jan 07)

Thomas B. Larson Foreign Service Officer

Thomas B. Larson, 92, a retired Foreign Service officer who was an authority on Soviet affairs, died Dec. 26…(Washington Post, 7 Jan 07)

Polish Ex-Spy: "Was My Son Poisoned in England?"

David Dastych (65) was the Polish intelligence agent in the 1960s-1980s, and since 1973 – also a double CIA agent. He was then working in Eastern Europe, in the USA, Vietnam, and China. Dastych was arrested in 1987 by the Polish counterintelligence on the charges of espionage for American and Japanese secret services. He was released from prison in 1990…(Axis Globe, 7 Jan 07)

Bad sign
The principal lesson learned in the aftermath of 9/11 was that the United States needed a central gathering place for intelligence. That place, unlike the CIA, had to avoid turf battles with spy agencies controlled by the Pentagon, and its director had to have the ear and confidence of the president….(Houston Chronicle, 7 Jan 07)