John Fitzpatrick, 87; Navy Officer, Oil Executive

John P. "Jack" Fitzpatrick, 87, a retired Navy commander and oil executive with long ties to Spain, died July 30… Family members said that in 1969, Cmdr. Fitzpatrick earned a personal footnote in Spanish history books by being the person who broke the news -- then still a secret known to a few top Spanish officials -- to Prince Juan Carlos that Franco planned the following week to declare the prince his successor, thus restoring the Spanish monarchy after his death. Cmdr. Fitzpatrick never revealed how he acquired this information, but he had spent a career in naval intelligence, serving as naval attache in Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Lisbon, and as fleet intelligence officer for the U.S. 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean….(Washington Post, 4 Aug 07)

Key points in the surveillance bill passed by Congress this week

…..(AP, 4 Aug 07)

Broader Spying Authority Advances in Congress

A furious push by the White House to broaden its wiretapping authority appeared on the verge of victory on Friday night after the Senate approved a measure that would temporarily give the administration more latitude to eavesdrop without court warrants on foreign communications that it suspects may be tied to terrorism….(New York Times, 4 Aug 07)

Software spy suspect enters guilty plea

…Xiaodong Sheldon Meng, 42, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose to one count of violating the Economic Espionage Act and one count of violating the Arms Export Control Act. Thirty-four other counts he faced were dropped….(San Francisco Chronicle, 3 Aug 07)

U.S. arms software export guilty plea marks first

…..(Reuters, 3 Aug 07)

Chinese engineer pleads guilty to economic espionage in U.S.

….(AP, 3 Aug 07)

Former Chinese National Charged with Stealing Military Application Trade Secrets from Silicon Valley Firm to Benefit Governments of Thailand, Malaysia, and China

Third Foreign Economic Espionage Indictment in the United States Since the Enactment of Economic Espionage Act of 1996; Source Code Used for Military Combat Simulation and Banned for Export Without License…..(DOJ Press Release, 14 Dec 06)

FORMER CHINESE NATIONAL CHARGED WITH STEALING MILITARY APPLICATION TRADE SECRETS FROM SILICON VALLEY FIRM TO BENEFIT GOVERNMENTS OF THAILAND, MALAYSIA, AND CHINA

….(FBI Press Release, 14 Dec 06)

Feds accuse man of trying to sell software to Asian military buyers

…..(San Francisco Chronicle, 15 Dec 06)

Guilty plea in trade secrets theft

A Cupertino man who stole leading-edge trade secrets used for military flight-simulation training from a San Jose company and shopped it to the Chinese government pleaded guilty Thursday in a federal courtroom to charges of economic espionage. Xiaodong Sheldon Meng, 42, a Chinese national with Canadian citizenship, pleaded guilty to charges of violating the Economic Espionage Act and violating the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulation, according to the Department of Defense. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Meng faces a maximum term of 24 months in prison. He also is subject to a maximum fine of $1.5 million and a three-year term of supervised release. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 23 (2008)…"Mr. Meng is pleased that the government has agreed to dismiss 34 of the 36 counts against him and to recommend a sentence of no more than 24 months, rather than the more severe sentences with which he was originally threatened,"…..(Mercury News, 3 Aug 07)

Don't rush to modify FISA

As it shifts into overdrive before a summer recess, Congress is debating whether to oblige the Bush administration with changes in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a law that the administration ignored for five years as the National Security Agency -- without court approval -- monitored the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. residents suspected of ties with foreign terrorists…..(LA Times, 3 Aug 07)

Border Computers Vulnerable to Attack

The U.S. government's main border control system is plagued by computer security weaknesses, increasing the risk of computer attacks, data thefts, and manipulation of millions of identity records including passport, visa and Social Security numbers and the world's largest fingerprint database…..(Washington Post, 3 Aug 07)

Judge Backs C.I.A. in Suit on Memoir

Valerie Wilson may be the best known former intelligence operative in recent history, but a federal judge in New York ruled Wednesday that she was not allowed to say how long she worked for the Central Intelligence Agency in the memoir she plans to publish this fall. Although the fact that Ms. Wilson worked for the C.I.A. from 1985 to 2006 has been published in the Congressional Record and elsewhere, the judge, Barbara S. Jones of Federal District Court in Manhattan…..(New York Times, 3 Aug 07)

After his claim to the Arctic, Putin plans a warship base in the Med

Russia is to open a naval base on the Mediterranean for the first time since the Cold War. The day after the Kremlin staked a claim to the North Pole with a daring mission to plant a Russian flag on the Arctic seabed, military chiefs revealed Vladimir Putin's latest plan. The aim is to "restore the greatness of the Soviet era,"….(Daily Mail, 3 Aug 07)

Former intelligence officers urged to meet

Intelligence and security personnel who served under former leader Saddam Hussein have the right to attend a conference to discuss their problems, a senior official said. Rasheed Saleh al-Naseri, the head of the so-called “disbanded entities” ,said the government was ready to listen to all those who served the former regime as members of security and intelligence organizations…..(Azzaman, 3 Aug 07)

Putin ratifies creation of new spy agency

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree ratifying the creation of a new intelligence service…The service, connected to the prosecutor's office, will comprise a chief and 12 deputies, including one who will direct a department for military investigations, the Kremlin's press service said, cited by Russian news agencies…..(CanWest, 3 Aug 07)

'Intelligence Bureau among the top five in the world'

India's Intelligence Bureau has been identified as being among the top five such outfits in the world, says the private American intelligence news gathering entity Strategic Forecasting (STRATFOR). According to STRATFOR, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), India's main domestic security and counter-terrorism force, exhibits efficiency and a certain level of sophistication, but has a reputation for brutality…..(Times of India, 3 Aug 07)

Wife Plans Iran Trip to Find Husband

…Levinson last heard from her husband on March 8 just before he (Robert Levinson) boarded a flight from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Iran's Kish Island. A former FBI agent in New York and Florida who retired in 1998, Levinson usually called home twice a day and text-messaged his wife and the kids often from his cell phone on business trips…..(AP, 3 Aug 07)

Ruling Limited Spying Efforts

A federal intelligence court judge earlier this year secretly declared a key element of the Bush administration's wiretapping efforts illegal, according to a lawmaker and government sources, providing a previously unstated rationale for fevered efforts by congressional lawmakers this week to expand the president's spying powers. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) disclosed elements of the court's decision in remarks Tuesday to Fox News as he was promoting the administration-backed wiretapping legislation. Boehner has denied revealing classified information, but two government officials privy to the details confirmed that his remarks concerned classified information…..(Washington Post, 3 Aug 07)

Bush urges Congress to pass wiretap bill

Congress is rushing to expand the military's authority to wiretap phone calls and e-mails on US soil. The Bush administration, warning that terrorists may soon attack again, is pressuring lawmakers to approve the legislation before they leave town this weekend for their annual August vacations. The proposal, the details of which remain murky, had received little public discussion before this week and has not undergone the normal committee review process…..(Boston Globe, 3 Aug 07)

'A sad day for Zimbabwe'

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has signed into law a bill allowing the state to eavesdrop on private phone conversations and monitor faxes and e-mails….(News24, 3 Aug 07)

Benedict Arnold's 'spy papers' get rare public display

The papers that led to Benedict Arnold's downfall as America's most infamous traitor are getting a rare public viewing later today in Albany. The New York State Museum will display some of the most important artifacts from the Revolutionary War, including the papers British spy Major John Andre was carrying when he was caught by Continental Army soldiers in the Hudson Valley…..(AP, 3 Aug 07)

Pinochet-era general is caught

…Former Gen. Raul Iturriaga Neumann, 69, was arrested without incident in an apartment in the resort town of Viña del Mar, on Chile's Pacific coast…Once a high-ranking figure in the military's feared intelligence service, Iturriaga is one of the best-known convicted human rights abusers from the dictatorship of the late Augusto Pinochet, who ruled from 1973 to 1990. His case drew attention to right-wing discontent with human rights prosecutions….(LA Times, 3 Aug 07)

Controversy dogs investigator

In the covert and sometimes shadowy world of intelligence-gathering, it's rare to find an agent with a reputation as notorious as that of Juval Aviv. A U.S. citizen who bills himself as an expert on international terrorism, and a former agent of Mossad, Israel's highly secretive intelligence agency, Mr. Aviv has had a difficult time keeping his name out of the limelight during his 36-year controversial career…..(Globe & Mail, 2 Aug 07)

Trial Date Set In Aipac Case

A federal judge has set a trial date early next year for two former pro-Israel lobbyists under indictment for trafficking in classified information. At a hearing Tuesday, Judge Thomas Ellis III said the ex-staffers for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, will go on trial beginning January 14, 2008, at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va…..(New York Sun, 2 Aug 07)

Protect Our Technologies From Competitors

The National Intelligence Service apprehended and handed over to prosecutors a former executive of a shipbuilding company who tried to pass on key Korean shipbuilding technology to China. The man is a former head of the technology planning team at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. He is accused of copying blueprints for 69 vessels and a shipyard copying altogether 360,000 files worth W517.5 billion (US$1=W925) in research and development costs alone….(Chosun, 2 Aug 07)

Espionage cloud hangs over Alonso Formula 1 title revival

The Formula One circus arrives in Budapest this weekend as the 'espionage' case between Ferrari and McLaren drags on and the title race really begins to hot up… Predictably the two team's responses to this decision were polar opposites. McLaren expressed regret that the issue has not been swept away while Ferrari claimed a victory for justice…..(Euro Sport, 2 Aug 07)

Court puts limits on surveillance abroad

A special court that has routinely approved eavesdropping operations has put new restrictions on the ability of U.S. spy agencies to intercept e-mails and telephone calls of suspected terrorists overseas…The previously undisclosed ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has prompted concern among senior intelligence officials and lawmakers that the efforts of U.S. spy agencies to track terrorism suspects might be impaired at a time when analysts have warned that the United States is under heightened risk of attack…National Intelligence Director J. Michael McConnell has called attention to the issue in public testimony, telling a Senate committee May 1 that U.S. spy agencies are "actually missing a significant portion of what we should be getting" because of legal obstacles.…..(LA Times, 2 Aug 07)

Interim Wiretap Plan Proposed

…The proposed interim law would let a secret court that administers the 1978 FISA law, not the attorney general alone, as the Bush administration would prefer, approve procedures governing surveillance of telecommunications between people abroad, and in the U.S., Democrats say they will update FISA later this year with a more permanent solution. The Bush administration says the update is needed to fix the unforeseen applications of a law written almost three decades ago. With the advent of cellphones and the Internet, communications overseas may be routed through the U.S., where they would be subject to much stricter privacy rules…..(Wall Street Journal Online, 2 Aug 07)

House Panel Approves Reporter Shield

Legislation to shield reporters from being forced by prosecutors to reveal their sources was approved Wednesday by the House Judiciary Committee. Media companies and journalism groups have argued that the measure is needed to keep the public informed about government corruption, but the Bush administration and other opponents say it could harm national security…..(AP, 1 Aug 07)

Reporters Could be Prosecuted Under Espionage Law, DoJ Says

The espionage statutes concerning classified information could be employed against journalists who publish such information without authorization, a Justice Department official told Congress recently, elaborating on remarks made last year by Attorney General Gonzales…..(FAS, 2 Aug 07)

Nominee Defends Ending Programs

Donald M. Kerr, the Bush administration's nominee to be principal deputy director of national intelligence, said yesterday that as director of the National Reconnaissance Office over the two past years, he recommended ending two multibillion-dollar secret intelligence satellite contracts because he believed they could not be successfully completed…..(Washington Post, 2 Aug 07)

Growing cellphone use a problem for spy agencies

Rapid growth in cellphone use in South Asia and the Middle East has spurred a battle in Congress over whether foreign communications of suspected terrorists can be intercepted by intelligence agencies without court order…The debate is driven by huge telecommunications growth in nations, especially Pakistan, where U.S. agents collect intelligence on al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The number of cellphone users there grew from fewer than 3 million in 2003 to nearly 50 million this year….(USA Today, 2 Aug 07)

Democrats Offer Compromise Plan On Surveillance

…The proposal, according to House and Senate Democrats, would permit a secret court to issue broad orders approving eavesdropping of communications involving suspects overseas and other people, who may be in the United States. To issue an order, the court would not need to identify a particular target overseas, but it would have to determine that those being targeted are "likely," in fact, overseas……(Washington Post, 2 Aug 07)

Tapping into terror

By every official assessment, there is a growing risk that a resurgent Al Qaeda will try an attack on the U.S. The danger is great enough that a week ago, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell warned he has "deep concern about the current threat situation." Out there, somewhere, the followers of Osama Bin Laden are plotting, and America's spy agencies bear the awesome responsibility of preventing a strike. They need to be at the top of their games, but they are not…..(New York Daily, 2 Aug 07)

Quick Fix for Terrorist Surveillance Law?

…the FISA applications can be a slow, burdensome process, the new Democratic proposal would require the FISA court to approve the methods that the attorney general would use to determine whether the intended terrorist target is indeed overseas. The attorney general would not have to apply for individual warrants but would have to submit to the FISA court the methods he intends to use to “reasonably determine” that a suspect is outside the United States. FISA approval would be good for up to a year…..(US News, 2 Aug 07)

Israeli-Iranian ‘Intelligence War’ Gains Momentum

The “intelligence war” between Iran and Israel is gaining momentum, as both countries’ intelligence services are increasing efforts to recruit Hebrew and Persian speakers to their ranks, a report said yesterday. According to the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, the Iranian authorities need Hebrew speakers to work as translators, intelligence agents and as part of its propaganda machine against Israel….(Arab News, 2 Aug 07)

India said to have intelligence posts in Iran: report

India has developed intelligence outposts in Iran, including the Indian consulate in Zahedan and a relatively new consulate in Bandar Abbas, which provides India significant power-projection advantages in any future conflict with Pakistan, according to Christine Fair of the US Institute of Peace….(Daily Times, 2 Aug 07)

Bush Officials May Face New Subpoenas

Lawyers for two former lobbyists at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee have asked federal judge T.S. Ellis III to subpoena the highest-ranking foreign policy players in the administration, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, Hadley’s deputy, Elliott Abrams, and other top officials from the White House, State Department and Pentagon. The two Aipac lobbyists, Keith Weissman and Steve Rosen, are on trial for allegedly receiving classified information from government officials and relaying it to diplomats, journalists and other Aipac staff members….(Forward, 2 Aug 07)

Spies who never came in from the cold

…While Eastern Europe has so far been spared from acts of terrorism such as those suffered by the United States Sept. 11, 2001, by the United Kingdom July 7, 2005, or by Istanbul, Jakarta, Karachi and dozens of other cities in recent years, it makes sense that the country’s security services would want to track and monitor the telephone calls made by certain individuals. Still, caution against unwarranted wire tapping should be the order of the day…..(Prague Post, 2 Aug 07)

Mossad vet recalls Ethiopian 'exodus'

Mossad Exodus, by Gad Shimron

A retired Israeli spy has published a memoir on his role in rescuing Ethiopian Jewish refugees. Gad Shimron's "Mossad Exodus," just out in English, tells of how thousands of Jews who had fled their native Ethiopia to neighboring Sudan were secretly spirited to Israel by sea and air between 1982 and 1984. The mission, codenamed Brothers, would be followed by Operation Moses and Operation Solomon, in which some 22,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to their ancestral homeland…..(JTA, 1 Aug 07

Justice defends statute used in AIPAC case

The Justice Department defended prosecutions under a statute it is using for the first time against two former AIPAC staffers...The response was to questions the senators posed at a June 2006 hearing arising from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' statement on a television news show a month earlier in which he said prosecution of journalists under espionage statutes is a "possibility." In its response, the Justice Department said two statutes "on their face do not provide an exemption for any particular class of persons, including journalists," adding that it was policy to investigate leakers and not members of the press who receive the leaks. However, one of the statutes cited is being used to charge as "leakees" Steve Rosen, the former foreign policy chief for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Keith Weissman, its former Iran analyst. The Rosen-Weissman case is considered unprecedented in its use against individuals alleged to have received classified information…..(JTA, 1 Aug 07)

The Scapegoat Femme Fatale

Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari, by Pat Shipman

Mata Hari, the femme fatale convicted of espionage and executed by the French during World War I, is hardly a virgin subject for biography. She is a perennial of children's books devoted to famous spies and secret agents and no less of a draw in biographies for adults….(New York Sun, 1 Aug 07)

Prosecutors Make Apologies After Spy Charges Dropped

Regional prosecutors have issued an apology to Novosibirsk researcher Oleg Korobeinichev, who was accused -- and then cleared -- of spying for the Pentagon…Korobeinichev is one of several scientists to have been investigated on suspicion of espionage and divulging state secrets in recent years -- but one of the few to have the charges dismissed…..(Moscow Times, 1  Aug 07)

Russian subs near Arctic target

Submarines accompanying a Russian naval mission aimed at boosting Moscow's claim to Arctic territory are shortly expected to dive below the North Pole… Melting polar ice has led to competing claims over access to Arctic resources. Russia's claim to a vast swathe of territory in the Arctic, thought to contain oil, gas and mineral reserves, has been challenged by other powers, including the US…..(BBC, 1 Aug 07)

Intelligence needs human touch

The day of the spy-in-the-sky approach to intelligence gathering may be coming to an end, plagued by cost overruns and systems so complex they take too long to perfect and probably, most importantly, are increasingly less useful in the age of terrorism…The age of electronic spying began because of exciting technology that fired the imagination and promised unlimited possibilities without the stigma of traditional cloak-and-dagger operations that might go wrong. This was a much cleaner approach….(Washington Times, 1 Aug 07)

NSA Spying Part of Broader Effort
…In a letter to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), McConnell wrote that the executive order following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks included "a number of . . . intelligence activities" and that a name routinely used by the administration -- the Terrorist Surveillance Program -- applied only to "one particular aspect of these activities, and nothing more. This is the only aspect of the NSA activities that can be discussed publicly, because it is the only aspect of those various activities whose existence has been officially acknowledged," McConnell said…McConnell's letter also underscored that the full scope of the NSA's surveillance program under Bush's order has not been revealed. The TSP described by Bush and his aides allowed the interception of communication between the United States and other countries where one party is believed to be tied to al-Qaeda, so other types of communication or data are presumably being collected under the parts of the wider NSA program that remain hidden…..(Washington Post, 1 Aug 07)

Iraqi, Yemeni Men Join Lawsuit Over CIA Flights

Two men who say they were flown by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to secret overseas prisons where they were interrogated and tortured joined an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit on Wednesday…resident and Iraqi citizen Bisher al-Rawi, 39, and Yemeni citizen Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, 38, had joined the complaint…..(Reuters, 1 Aug 07)

A double agent, a businessman or both?

Edward Andrew Mazur, 61, a rich American businessman born in Poland and holding U.S. and Polish passports, spent nine months under arrest, pending his extradition to Poland. Then, on July 20, he was set free by an unquestionable decision of Judge Arlander Keys of the Chicago District Court. In Poland, Mazur was accused of complicity in the murder of a former Polish Police Chief, General Marek Papala, shot dead on June 25, 1998 in front of his Warsaw home. The investigation of this crime is nine years old and not concluded yet…Top secret documents on Edward Mazur, held in Polish (and probably also in Soviet/Russian) archives, reportedly indicate his recruitment by the then Polish political intelligence, operating in the United States. He was allegedly recruited in the early 1970s, soon after being granted U.S. citizenship (in 1969, at the age of 23)…his long-time high position in the establishment of the Communist Poland could be also very attractive to other intelligence services, in particular to the American CIA and to the Soviet/Russian KGB…..(Oracle, 1 Aug 07)

Iran: Kurdish cousins face execution for being 'at enmity with God'

…The men, Adnan Hassanpour, a journalist, and Hiwa Butimar, a Kurdish rights activist and environmentalist, both from Iran's Kordestan province, were sentenced to death last month on charges of espionage and for being 'at enmity with god' (Moharebah)…..(Amnesty, 1 Aug 07)

Democrats Scrambling to Expand Eavesdropping

…Under the program of wiretapping without warrants, which began soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, the N.S.A. eavesdropped on the transit traffic without seeking court approval. But in January, the administration placed the program back under the FISA law, which meant warrants were required for surveillance of the transit traffic. In the Senate, talks were under way on Tuesday on proposed legislation among members of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as Mr. Reid and the Senate leadership, Congressional aides said. Similar talks are under way in the House......(New York Times, 1 Aug 07)

U.S. Justify Missile Defense Deployment in Europe by Intelligence

Over the recent missile defense consultations held in Washington, the U.S. negotiators presented to Russia’s counterparts intelligence confirming the threat to their country and justifying deployment of missile defense components in Europe…The missile defense consultations that were held in Washington Monday and Tuesday were the first get-together of Russia’s-U.S. taskforce set up under agreement of presidents of the United States and Russia and committed to sort out most combustible issue of stationing interceptors and a radar in Eastern Europe…..(Kommersant, 1 Aug 07)

A Push to Rewrite Wiretap Law
…The proposal, submitted by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to congressional leaders on Friday, would amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for the first time since 2006 so that a court order would no longer be needed before wiretapping anyone "reasonably believed to be located outside of the United States." It would also give the attorney general sole authority to order the interception of communications for up to one year as long as he certifies that the surveillance is directed at a person outside the United States……(Washington Post, 1 Aug 07)

Congress Works To Give NSA Some Leeway on FISA Taps

…The director of National Intelligence, Admiral Mike McConnell, requested the authorities from Congress on Friday, urging them to pass a short-term fix what he described as a "significantly narrowed proposal focused on the current, urgent need of the intelligence community to provide warning." The "urgent need" he referred to is believed to be a Qaeda plot to be orchestrated on American soil; Admiral McConnell recently told Congress that he believes sleeper cells are either here or on their way to America. Neither Admiral McConnell nor the NSA has said they know the specific plot or plotters, and the request to intercept and listen to phone calls and read e-mails from overseas without a court warrant, even if the recipient is an American citizen, is thought to stem from that lack of knowledge……(New York Sun, 1 Aug 07)

White House says spying broader than known: report

…"That is the only aspect of the NSA activities that can be discussed publicly because it is the only aspect of those various activities whose existence has been officially acknowledged," McConnell wrote, according to the Post. Bush acknowledged the existence of a program that monitored domestic phone calls and e-mails without court oversight in December 2005. The administration has not confirmed other secret spying efforts reported by news outlets, such as one that searched millions of telephone records. Bush signed an executive order that authorized "a number of ... intelligence activities" following the hijacking attacks of September 11, 2001, McConnell wrote….(Reuters, 1 Aug 07)

McLaren spy verdict to be appealed

Last week's controversial decision by the World Motor Sport Council not to punish McLaren in the spy scandal affair has been referred to the Court of Appeal by FIA president Max Mosley. The unorthodox move follows a plea by the Italian Automobile Club and Italian Motor Sport Commission (ACI-CSAI) on behalf of Ferrari, which was openly critical of the decision by Ferrari…..(TSN, 31 Jul 07)

Journalists Unearth Rare Terrorism Trial Tapes From 1970s

Over 30 years after a high-profile trial against leading Red Army Faction (RAF) members, two journalists, digging around in German archives, have discovered rare recordings of their testimony. The tapes, thought to have been destroyed, were discovered by two documentary filmmakers and posted on national broadcaster ARD's Web….(Deutsche Welle, 31 Jul 07)

Spy recalls secret mission saving Ethiopian Jews

While other Israeli spies spent the early 1980s stalking Arab foes through Europe, Gad Shimron was deep in Africa on a secret mission to save lives. Thousands of Ethiopian Jews had fled the Eritrean conflict to neighboring Sudan, only to be stranded in teeming camps. Shimron, then a young Mossad operative, was sent to the Muslim state to find a way of spiriting the refugees away to Israel…..(Reuters, 31 Jul 07)

Intelligence given by the US to Pak need not always be accurate: Aziz

Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has hinted that the intelligence provided to his country by the United States with regard to terrorist hideouts in Pakistan may not have always been accurate, though the intention was honorable…"All I can say is that we keep getting intelligence. And, as you know, intelligence does not mean that it is always -- I'm not saying it's inaccurate, but it need not always be accurate," Aziz said, adding that such intelligence, whenever received, had to be actionable, but after due verification…..(Daily India, 31 Jul 07)

The birth of Middle East strife viewed through the conflict of two men

Lawrence and Aaronsohn: T.E. Lawrence, Aaron Aaronsohn, and the Seeds of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, by Ronald Florence

…As a spy, Aaronsohn had an equal in his younger sister, Sarah. She was, writes Florence, "a beautiful and sensuous woman" who was also "a fearless and adventurous horsewoman." Forced into a joyless and loveless marriage with a Constantinople merchant, at the first opportunity she returned to Palestine. With her brother on military missions in Cairo and London, she soon took over the espionage operations of NILI -- the Hebrew initials for "The glory of Israel does not deceive" -- an underground group made up of recruits from her brother's agricultural research station…Both he (Aaronsohn) and Lawrence had prepared maps outlining their rival territorial proposals for Palestine (both are printed in this book). Lawrence's proposed borders created a narrow coastal Palestine, wedged in front of expansive Arab desert kingdoms…As it turned out, neither Lawrence's "righteous passion" nor Aaronsohn's "precise science" prevailed, and the region was carved up between the British and the French. Their legacies, Florence suggests, are more political than territorial…..(Boston Globe, 31 Jul 07)

Report: Hamas establishes new intelligence force in Gaza

Hamas is working towards establishing a new security intelligence force in the Gaza Strip, a report published on Tuesday by the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Arabic language newspaper said. The new intelligence branch, which will be responsible for relaying information among different security forces in the Gaza Strip, is expected to be operated within a few weeks…..(Xinhua, 31 Jul 07)

Pining for Lawrence of Arabia

…Lawrence roamed the deserts of what is now Iraq and, because of his inspired leadership of local Arab guerrillas in World War I, was made a "Companion in the Order of the Bath," a much coveted and rarely given British political award… After the war, in 1929, he wrote about guerrillas for an encyclopedia. He wrote that for the then-Turkish government to control Iraq would require "a fortified post every four square miles" and an army of 600,000 men. This is heard today as an echo of President George Bush's surge. But "fortified posts" ended in Vietnam and we only have 150,000 troops available. Lawrence predicted other activities of al-Qaida: "The printing press is the greatest weapon in the guerrilla commander's armory." He also wrote that battles against guerrillas were a mistake, as "men almost forget that war gave them a license to murder." ….(Dateline, D.C., 31 Jul 07)

Robert Fisk: TE Lawrence had it right about Iraq

Back in 1929, Lawrence of Arabia wrote the entry for "Guerrilla" in the 14th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. It is a chilling read - and here I thank one of my favourite readers, Peter Metcalfe of Stevenage, for sending me TE's remarkable article - because it contains so ghastly a message to the American armies in Iraq…..(Independent, 31 Jul 07)

Whither Noriega?

Remember Manuel Noriega, the former general and de facto military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989? He who worked for the CIA from the 1960s to the 1980s? He whom George Bush the Elder overthrew in 1989 by invading Panama when Noriega had outlived his usefulness? He who has been languishing in a Miami jail since he was convicted of cocaine trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering in 1992….(Trinidad Express, 31 Jul 07)

New-age Ball spy satellite tests A-OK

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. said it has completed the final assembly and testing of a next-generation commercial spy satellite for DigitalGlobe and will deliver the spacecraft for a mid-September launch. The high-resolution spacecraft will be launched from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base…….(Rocky Mountain News, 31 Jul 07)

Congress weighs move to plug intelligence gap

…President Bush is expected to lobby congressional leaders tomorrow on his plan to overhaul the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which he has said "is badly out of date." That law requires the government to obtain a warrant to eavesdrop on communications in the United States. With advances in digital technology, the law has kept the government from monitoring some communications between foreigners, the administration contends…..(Baltimore Sun, 31 Jul 07)

Czech woman on trial for her work in 1949

An 80-year-old Czech woman was accused of being a prosecutor at the death-penalty trial of an anti-communist activist in 1950, Prague Radio said. Former prosecutor Ludmila Brozova-Polednova has been charged with the "judicial murder" of Milada Horakova, an anti-communist politician who was executed by the Czech communist regime in 1950, the radio said. If convicted Brozova-Polednova could face up to 15 years in jail for complicity to murder. Horakova was arrested in 1949 when communists took over the power. She was charged with high treason and espionage and sentenced to death in a show trial….(UPI, 31 Jul 07)

Radio: Milada Horakova answering to charges of treason and espionage

Over five decades later, Horakova's prosecutors face charges of judicial murder

Milada Horakova was the only woman ever to be executed for political reasons in the former Czechoslovakia. In 1950, she was tried and found guilty of treason and espionage, charges which were later proven to be false. The Communist government annulled the verdict in 1968, but it wasn't until the fall of communism, more than 30 years later, that Milada Horakova was fully exonerated….(Radi0 CZ, 31 Jul 07)

Congressmen Call For More Answers On Lax DHS Security

After it was revealed last month that the Department of Homeland Security suffered 844 security breaches in a two-year span, two congressmen are prodding the agency's CIO for information on how he plans to fill some gaping holes…..(Information Week, 31 Jul 07)

Maine intel fusion center now operating

As Maine is building its state intelligence fusion center, a new report from the Congressional Research Service is warning that while the concept of intelligence sharing is good, its execution so far has been uneven and needs further direction from Congress… The purpose of the Maine center and the 39 others that are operating at some level is to "fuse" federal, state and local intelligence to facilitate the war on terrorism… But a study released earlier this month from the Congressional Research Service indicates that process is key to making fusion centers work, and has been made very difficult by varying security classifications throughout the federal government. Libby agrees. "DOD [Department of Defense] classifies intelligence and makes it difficult at times to share it with other members of the intel fusion center,"…..(Bangor Daily, 30 Jul 07)

U.S. judge orders Polish murder suspect freed

A U.S. judge denied a request on Friday from Poland's government to extradite a Chicago businessman for allegedly soliciting the murder of a former Warsaw police chief, denouncing the key witness as "a known scoundrel" and chastising prosecutors over faulty evidence. Polish authorities, represented by U.S. prosecutors, failed to produce proof required under treaties to justify the extradition of Edward Mazur, U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys said in his scathing 69-page ruling……(Reuters, 20 Jul 07)

The Cutting Edge: Spying on the Home Front

Type: Documentary,  Channel: SBS,  Date: Tuesday July 31,  Time: 8:30 PM

…The FBI has been called to account for thousands of "national security" letters, which allowed them to spy on people in the name of defeating terrorism. The country's Government Accounting Office also found that dozens of government agencies were involved in "data-mining" projects - scattergun attempts to glean any useful information from huge amounts of public data…..(Australian, 30 Jul 07)

Russia Tries to Go After Berezovsky - Linked Mansion

...Russia has repeatedly sought Berezovsky's extradition from Britain, where he was given political asylum in 2003. He has used London as a base to berate President Vladimir Putin. Prosecutors this month charged Berezovsky in absentia with fraud and money laundering, Berezovsky's lawyer, Andrei Borovkov…..(Reuters, 30 Jul 07)

Gaddafi's Son Says Libya - U.S. Ties Warming

…Libya was confident it would be proven innocent of the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing and its top priority now is the release of its jailed agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi… Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the bombing over Scotland, won the right in June to launch a new appeal he said would prove his innocence…..(Reuters, 30 Jul 07)

Bulgaria's spy chief says foreign agencies helped free medics

Bulgaria's intelligence chief said Monday that security services from about 20 countries worked to help free six foreign medics from life imprisonment in Libya in a long-disputed AIDS case. The fate of the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian-born doctor was nothing more than "a grain of sand in the eye of an enormous hurricane bringing together major interests" in Libya, including arms sales and oil concessions….(Agence France-Presse, 30 Jul 07)

Malaysia Cracks Down on Camera Phones

Government agencies across the country have implemented the necessary measures to ensure they are in compliance with a directive, requiring visitors to surrender camera-embedded communication devices when they enter high-security areas in government buildings. The country earlier this year barred all gadgets with camera facilities from being brought into high-security government premises. The ban will prevent spying and the leaking of sensitive information or official secrets, which could jeopardize national security, Chief Secretary Mohamed Sidek Hassan, explained….(Business Week, 30 Jul 07)

Czech court to deal with prosecutor in Horakova's political trial

Prague- Former prosecutor Ludmila Brozova-Polednova has been charged for having taken part in the framed-up trial of Czech democratic politician Milada Horakova, who was sentenced to death by the Communist regime in 1950… Horakova was sentenced to death on the basis of false charges of treason and espionage and executed on June 27, 1950, at the age of 49, despite a wave of protests from all over the world….(Ceskenoviny, 30 Jul 07)

Debate over disclosure of Stasi material heats up as Security Police director resigns

Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) sees the debate over the material held by the Finnish Security Police (SUPO) on contacts between Finns and the former East German security police Stasi to be exaggerated……(Helsingin Sanomat, 30 Jul 07)

Hidden story behind conspiracies

…It is true that there are many sinister and unpleasant conspiracy theories. These are usually the ones that seek to blame all the world’s ills on a single racial or social group – Jews, Catholics, Freemasons. But there are also conspiracy theories that are delightfully dotty. A friend in Ankara tells me many Turks are convinced that, during the cold war, the Russians infested the Sea of Marmara with a sturgeon-devouring predator that sent these valuable fish fleeing into the Russian bit of the Black Sea – thus allowing the Russians to control the world’s supply of caviar…..(Financial Times, 30 Jul 07)

Abduction: The Mullah's Strategic Weapon

Iran takes hostages because stealing people has proven to be a politically powerful weapon.  Expect the mullahs to take more hostages as tensions between our countries grow. Tehran has enjoyed considerable success abducting Westerners because it gets what it wants and seldom pays a penalty.  Iran has seized hostages in order to obtain arms and the release of prisoners.  It also kidnaps for political manipulation or to divert attention from pressing matters like nuclear weapons development…..(Human Events, 30 Jul 07)

Russian Special Service Thrive In Quasi-Cold War Setting

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pivotal role in running the country is beyond doubt for the vast majority of Russians, but the institution they see as the next in importance, according to a recent Levada Center poll, is not the government or the church – but the Federal Security Service (FSB) (Levada.ru, July 26). It is not the old fears and shadows that shape this perception, and not even Putin’s loyalty to the special services and his demonstrated pride of his formative experience in the KGB…..(Eurasia Daily Monitor, 30 Jul 07)

Independent US experts cast doubt on NIE findings

Independent security experts in Washington are not convinced by the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that accuses Pakistan of facilitating the relocation of Al Qaeda in its tribal areas. They say that the people on the job at the CIA are “incompetent” and not sufficiently experienced to give such sweeping “findings”…There is also concern that the saber-rattling on display by certain elements of the Bush administration, particularly Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend, is the administration’s determination to hold the line domestically. With President Bush’s approval ratings in free fall and the war in Iraq progressing badly, the NIE’s findings of an Al Qaeda resurgence for which Pakistan is to be blamed rather than the Bush administration seems quite convenient……(Daily Times, 30 Jul 07)

Congressional Report Finds Jury Still Out on Effectiveness of Intel 'Fusion' Centers

A new 100-page report on local and regional intelligence fusion centers by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), "Fusion Centers: Issues and Options for Congress," concluded the centers are far from being able to identify potential terrorist activity from the morass of data they collect, and may not be getting the kind of federal support they were promised. "It is unclear if a single fusion center has successfully adopted a truly proactive prevention approach to information analysis and sharing,"…..(HS Today, July 07)

Report: Fusion Centers: Issues and Options for Congress .pdf

Need for linguists stymied by Cold War procedures

…Mike McConnell, the nation’s top intelligence officer, said last month his agencies need more linguists but are stymied by Cold War rules. Agencies, he said, still discriminate against applicants who have family abroad… The NSA has an especially critical need for linguists since it intercepts huge volumes of phone calls and e-mails in Arabic, Farsi and other Middle Eastern languages…..(Examiner, 30 Jul 07)

Mining of Data Prompted Fight Over U.S. Spying

…It is not known precisely why searching the databases, or data mining, raised such a furious legal debate. But such databases contain records of the phone calls and e-mail messages of millions of Americans, and their examination by the government would raise privacy issues. The N.S.A.’s data mining has previously been reported. But the disclosure that concerns about it figured in the March 2004 debate helps to clarify the clash this week between Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senators who accused him of misleading Congress and called for a perjury investigation…..(New York Times, 29 Jul 07)

Data Mining Figured In Dispute Over NSA

A fierce dispute within the Bush administration in early 2004 over a National Security Agency warrantless surveillance program was related to concerns about the NSA's searches of huge computer databases, the New York Times reported today. The agency's data mining was also linked to a dramatic chain of events in March 2004, including threats of resignation from senior Justice Department officials and an unusual nighttime visit by White House aides to the hospital bedside of then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft….(Washington Post, 29 Jul 07)

Lawsuit says employee took cancer treatment secrets

An American company has filed a lawsuit against a former employee it accuses of turning over trade secrets of an experimental cancer drug to Chinese firms. Serenex sued former contract chemist Yunsheng Huang, contending he engaged in "international industrial espionage" and gave information to companies that sought overseas patents using the stolen data. Corporate espionage is a serious and increasing problem for companies whose fortunes are tied to their intellectual property, especially as more firms compete in a global market…..(AP, 29 Jul 07)

In tech field CIA spied a chance for growth