Algerian espionage suspect lawyer: “my client didn't give Israel security data
The lawyer of journalist Said Sahnoune, espionage suspect for Israel and Spain has filed an appeal in cassation before the Supreme Court in Algiers against 10-year jail sentence against the accused.  “My client was held in a military tribunal. In March 2006, the military tribunal ordered to transfer the case to a civil court because none of the information that the spy gave to Israel and Spain offended against national defense”, lawyer Messouss Saada told Echorouk Al Yaoumi…..(Echorouk Online, 14 Jul 07)

UC ticketed $3 million for security violations
The nation's nuclear weapons agency today proposed a $3 million fine against the University of California for its responsibility in a security violation uncovered during a drug investigation in Los Alamos in October 2007. An additional notice and penalty of $300,000 was imposed on Los Alamos National Security (LANS), LLC, the current management and operating contractor of Los Alamos National Laboratory. LANS faces further penalties under a separate compliance order that prescribes corrective actions and a timetable for protecting and securing classified information at carrying a penalty as much as $100,000 per day for each violation…..(Los Alamos Monitor, 14 Jul 07)

US Proposes $3.3M Fine for Los Alamos

The Energy Department proposed $3.3 million in fines Friday against managers of the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab because of a security breakdown in which classified documents were found in a trailer-park drug raid. The civil penalties, the bulk of them levied against the University of California, the longtime former manager of the lab, were the largest such fines the department has ever imposed. The enforcement action stems from an incident in October 2006, when police found more than 1,000 pages of classified documents and several computer storage devices in a trailer occupied by a former worker at the lab….(AP, 14 Jul 07)

UC fined $3 million for Los Alamos security breach

…UC gave up direct management of the lab in June 2006, but a Department of Energy investigation found that the incident resulted from poor management practices inherited from UC, which managed the lab for 63 years. "Had UC implemented adequate management controls, it might have prevented this from happening," said Julianna Smith, spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration, a branch of the DOE that oversees the nuclear weapons complex. The new manager, Los Alamos National Security LLC, is run by a partnership of UC, Bechtel National Inc., BSX Technologies Inc. and the Washington Group International Inc. The company was also fined $300,000 over the same incident and ordered to make specific changes to security practices…..(Media News, 14 Jul 07)

Why Putin Pulled out of a Key Treaty

…Putin's "extraordinary circumstances" are clear: first, he says missile shield in Europe will see through entire Russia's defenses all the way to the Urals; Russia seeks to counter that, but the treaty stands very much in the way. Second, NATO countries have failed to ratify the treaty's 1999 amended version — a failure that Putin insists upsets the balance of forces in Europe. For their part, NATO countries hold that the amended version required that Moscow withdraw troops from Moldova and Georgia, which it hasn't completed, and refuse to ratify until Russia fully complies…..(Time Magazine, 14 Jul 07)

Opening Up the CIA

Legacy of Ashes, by Tim Weiner

…Mr. Weiner, a Pulitzer Prize- winning reporter for the New York Times, lays out the agency's 60 years of operation, unearthing many newly declassified reports -- and he details exactly where he found them. He has written a powerful exposé of a secret arm of the American government without using anonymous sources, off-the-record interviews or blind quotes….(Wall Street Journal, 14 Jul 07)

Iranian 'spy': I refuse to recognize this court

An army interpreter accused of spying for Iran today claimed the Old Bailey had no authority to try him, as he denied two charges under the Official Secrets Act.  Daniel James, 44, who was born in Iran, is accused of communicating information "useful to an enemy" while working for General David Richards, British commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan…The Territorial Army soldier, who became a British citizen in 1986, is alleged to have communicated information useful to an enemy for a purpose prejudicial to the safety of the state, in November last year. The second Official Secrets Act charge alleges he collected the information on a USB computer device. He also faces a third charge of misconduct in public office in offering information to a representative of a foreign power….(Telegraph, 13 Jul 07)

UK soldier pleads not guilty to spying

…Corporal Daniel James, 44, worked as an interpreter for British general David Richards, who commanded the 30,000-strong NATO force in Afghanistan until earlier this year. James has an Iranian mother and took British citizenship in the 1980s. He is accused of passing secrets to an "enemy" -- Iran -- and is the first person charged with spying under the Official Secrets Act since 1984, when an MI5 officer was jailed for giving secrets to the Soviets….(Reuters, 13 Jul 07)

Spy Agency Link in Lee Myung-bak Leak Revealed

An agent of the National Intelligence Service is suspected of accessing databases at government agencies and looking up real estate purchase and holdings by Grand National Party frontrunner Lee Myung-Bak’s brother-in-law Kim Jae-jeong and other relatives….(Chosun, 13 Jul 07)

Pakistan intelligence agencies blamed for Lal Masjid arms dump

…Contrary to their primary role of doing espionage for the security of the country, the intelligence agencies here have been repeatedly caught napping as they have been more concerned with spying on judges, politicians, bureaucrats and even journalists….(Malaysia Sun, 13 Jul 07)

Ex-spy boss in call over borders

The former head of MI5 has called for stricter border controls to combat the threat from terrorists. While warning against the introduction of "draconian" terror laws such as detention without trial, Dame Stella Rimington delivered a stark assessment of the threat facing Britain…She called for improved border checks, a demand that will resonate strongly in the light of revelations that July 21 bomber Muktar Said Ibrahim was able to attend a jihad training camp in Pakistan despite being suspected of terrorism…..(Luton Today, 13 Jul 07)

SAP Confesses to Petty Theft, Not Industrial Espionage

SAP has admitted that its TomorrowNow (TN) subsidiary downloaded unauthorized "fixes and support documents" from Oracle's web site but claims there was a Chinese Wall between SAP and TN that prevented SAP from having access to Oracle's IP as Oracle contends. SAP made the admission in court papers filed right before the Fourth of July holiday last week and in conference calls between SAP CEO Henning Kagerman and the press….(SOA World Magazine, 13 Jul 07)

FIA charges McLaren in Formula 1 spy case

Formula 1's governing body has charged championship leaders McLaren with unauthorised possession of confidential Ferrari information. The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said in a statement yesterday that representatives of the team had been asked to appear before an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris on 26 July…..(Scotsman, 13 Jul 07)

Spy business has been in vogue for long

Formula One teams have always kept a close eye on rivals, eager for any gain that might make their cars go quicker, but the current ‘spy’ controversy goes well beyond that. As McLaren team boss Ron Dennis explained at the British Grand Prix last weekend, there is a clear dividing line between what is generally considered acceptable and what is evidently illegal….(Reuters, 13 Jul 07)

US deploys intelligence facility in Armenia to spy on Iran

The US Global Gold Corporation (GGC) will complete the gold exploration in Arevis village of Sisyan region, Armenia by the end of 2007…Unnamed source in Armenian environmental protection ministry said it is not informed of the Corporation’s activity as it is not allowed for that. Armenian defense ministry sources said the American company is working for the Pentagon and fulfilling errands on Iran in the territory….(APA. 13 Jul 07)

Commuting Libby's Sentence 'Fair,' Bush Says

President Bush acknowledged for the first time yesterday that "somebody" in his administration leaked the name of an undercover intelligence officer but declined to say whether he was disappointed in such an action and contended that it is time to move on……(Washington Post, 13 Jul 07)

Spies among us

…Niraj Kaushik, Country Head, Trend Micro says, “Spyware can cause loss of data. In a recent high profile case, a spyware Trojan was discovered harvesting e-mail and other confidential information from corporate computers and sending the information to a competitor. Even governments can be affected by spyware.”….(Express Computer, 13 Jul 07)

Who Killed Ashraf Marwan?

…like so much in the complicated life of Ashraf Marwan — a 62-year-old Egyptian who had been the most effective spy in the history of the Middle East — the mysterious circumstances of his death two weeks ago provoked further speculation…Mr. Marwan promised to reveal more about which country he was fighting for when we were to appear together on a news program in the United States. But two days before the taping, he called to tell me he would not speak in public until he had finished a book about the war. I never heard from him again. Now Scotland Yard — and, I suspect, other agencies — is trying to find the manuscript he said was writing at the time of his death…..(New York Times, 13 Jul 07)

Yes, We Do Have a Clue

In her recent Outlook article, Amy Zegart asserts that the United States' counterterrorism intelligence community is as ill-prepared to defend the nation as it was before Sept. 11, 2001…The very existence of my organization, the NCTC, is testament to how the intelligence community no longer views terrorism as it did before 9/11, when it was separated into foreign (the CIA) and domestic (the FBI) realms that were distinct from one another…..(Washington Post, 13 Jul 07)

What the Admiral Doesn't Say

…the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency -- have serious experience conducting all-source analysis; all the other representatives dispatched to NCTC have been learning on the job. What's more, different people from different agencies still see different pieces of information....(Washington Post, 13 Jul 07)

Man: I spied for Saddam

A Dearborn man faces up to 51 months in prison after he admitted in federal court Wednesday to spying in the United States for former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Ghazi Al-Awadi, 78, of Dearborn received thousands of dollars from the Iraqi government in 2002 for providing information about the activities of Saddam's opponents in the Dearborn area, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in April. "I am guilty," Al-Awadi told U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds through an Arabic interpreter. "How can I deny it?" Al-Awadi, who served time for a 1990 manslaughter conviction for stabbing and killing his son-in-law, told the Iraqi government in 1997 that he killed the son-in-law because the man was an Iraqi traitor….(Detroit News, 12 Jul 07)

Man Pleads Guilty in Iraq Espionage Case

…Ghazi Al-Awadi, 78, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Iraq, pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of the government of Iraq under Saddam's regime…Under terms of the plea agreement in U.S. District Court, Al-Awadi, of Dearborn, faces up to 51 months in prison at sentencing on Nov. 8. Al-Awadi and Najib Shemami, 58, were charged based on Iraqi intelligence documents captured by U.S. forces in Iraq in 2003 and later authenticated by former members of the Iraqi Intelligence Service… A pretrial conference for Shemami, of Sterling Heights, was scheduled for Thursday….(AP, 12 Jul 07)

Military Files Left Unprotected Online

Detailed schematics of a military detainee holding facility in southern Iraq. Geographical surveys and aerial photographs of two military airfields outside Baghdad. Plans for a new fuel farm at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan…In a survey of servers run by agencies or companies involved with the military and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Associated Press found dozens of documents that officials refused to release when asked directly, citing troop security… among the documents the AP found were aerial photographs and detailed schematics of Camp Bucca, a U.S.-run facility for detainees in Iraq. One of the documents was password-protected, but the password was printed in an unsecure document stored on the same server. They showed where U.S. forces keep prisoners and fuel tanks, as well as the locations of security fences, guard towers and other security measures…..(AP, 12 Jul 07)

Russia Claims the North Pole

Late last month, Moscow signaled its intentions to annex the entire North Pole, an area twice the size of France with Belgium and Switzerland thrown in — except all of it under water. The ice-frozen North Pole is currently a no man's land supervised by a U.N. Commission…..(Time Magazine, 12 Jul 07)

The C.I.A.’s Missteps, From Past to Present

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the C.I.A., by Tim Weiner

…The author has impressively studied the archival record, teased out newly declassified primary documents and done numerous interviews to glean as much as can be publicly known about the agency’s history. Some of the most damning criticism of the C.I.A.’s past performance in this book comes not from gadflies or ideologues but from ex-officials and long-secret authorized accounts by C.I.A. historians….(New York Times, 12 Jul 07)

FIA summon McLaren in Ferrari 'spy' probe

Formula One's governing body has charged championship leaders McLaren with unauthorised possession of confidential Ferrari information…..(Reuters, 12 Jul 07)

U.S. spy master says intrigue over the Kremlin successor deepens

…Speaking before U.S. lawmakers, Thomas Fingar, National Intelligence Council deputy director for analysis, gave an analytical assessment of the current situation in Russia as part of a report about global security threats facing the United States. "As Russia moves toward a presidential election in March 2008, succession maneuvering has intensified and increasingly dominates Russian domestic and foreign policy,"….(RIA Novosti, 12 Jul 07)

16 intelligence agencies' report bleak on chances of U.S. success in Iraq

The Shiite Muslim-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has made only "halting efforts" to end the power struggle fueling the war between Iraq's religious and ethnic communities…The report, reflecting the consensus of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, cast new uncertainty about the chances of success for President Bush's plan to contain the war through the deployment of an additional 28,000 U.S. troops, mostly in and around Baghdad…(McClatchy Newspapers, 12 Jul 07)

Sectarian rivalries blight Iraqi intelligence 'services'

In a further sign of Iraq's deepening sectarian divisions, security chiefs in Iraq's Shia-dominated government have formed a shadow intelligence service to rival the Iraq National Intelligence Service (INIS), created and funded by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and that is manned largely by Sunnis and former members of Saddam Hussein's mukhabarat (secret police). The head of the INIS is General Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani. The hostility between these two services is intense….(Jane’s, 12 Jul 07)

'Carlos the Jackal' wants transfer to Paris prison

The convicted Venezuelan terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal who is serving a life sentence in an eastern French jail wants a transfer to a prison in central Paris…In a letter to justice minister Rachida Dati, the lawyer, Francis Vuillemin, said Carlos's distance from Paris made if difficult for lawyers to prepare his defense in forthcoming trials…..(Agence France-Presse, 12 Jul 07)

A Criminal-Diplomatic Affair

The British authorities are treating Russia's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi as a provocation. Yesterday the British Embassy in Moscow told Kommersant that the matter of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, which until now has been considered a purely criminal case, is now on the level of relations between the two countries' foreign ministries….(Kommersant, 12 Jul 07)

Britain risks a Cold War clash to get justice for poisoned spy

Western sources acknowledged that the two countries were on “a path to confrontation” after President Putin refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoy to stand trial in London. Britain is expected to underscore official anger at the Kremlin by imposing punitive measures on Russia within days…..(Times Online, 12 Jul 07)

Analysis: Russia rediscovers its swagger

…Putin, the Russian president, has been openly scornful, deriding Britain as "a haven for terrorists and criminals" and dismissing a request for Andrei Lugovoi's extradition as "stupid". The Kremlin believes it has a genuine gripe against London for refusing to extradite Boris Berezovsky, Mr Putin's most implacable rival, who has been granted political asylum by a British court…..(Telegraph, 12 Jul 07)

Nixon and Chambers: Parting Ways

… Alone among the congressman on those pivotal days in August 1948, Nixon saw the lawyerly evasiveness of Alger Hiss.  Visits to Westminster farm, the future site of the Pumpkin Papers, convinced Nixon that Chambers knew Hiss.  From this came their comradeship in battling an administration eager to shut off the investigation and indict Chambers on espionage…..(FrontPage, 12 Jul 07)

Nixon and the Chiefs

In the last days of 1971 President Richard Nixon and his closest aides met to discuss the astonishing discovery that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been spying on the White House. Transcripts of Nixon's secret tapes of these meetings, published here for the first time, offer a case study in Nixon's paranoid style of governing—and his surprisingly successful efforts to salvage advantage from misfortune…(Atlantic Monthly, 12 Jul 07)

Russian spy agency lets out secrets, for select few only

Russia’s FSB security service, successor to the KGB, has opened its archives on the mass persecution of political 'enemies' during the rule of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, but only relatives of victims will be allowed to see any information. Thousands of applications have already been submitted to study the formerly super-secret files...More than half a century after Stalin's death, many Russian families remain in the dark about the fate of family members taken away by the secret police during the years that many remember simply as the "Terror". It is not clear how much information will actually be made available, since Khristoforvo insists that no data naming secret KGB operatives or the details of secret police operations will be handed over — even though it is many decades old….(Hindustan Times, 11 Jul 07)

China protests unfriendly FBI advertisements

An ad placed by the FBI in three Chinese-language newspapers in San Francisco is drawing critisizm from Beijing. The ad asks for information about Beijing-sponsored espionage targeting the United States. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang says the ad's allegation of spying is completely unfounded…..(CCTV, 11 Jul 07)

Video: China protests unfriendly FBI advertisements

FBI Plans Initiative To Profile Terrorists

The Federal Bureau of Investigations is developing a computer-profiling system that would enable investigators to target possible terror suspects...The System to Assess Risk, or STAR, assigns risk scores to possible suspects based on a variety of information, similar to the way a credit bureau assigns a rating based on a consumer's spending behavior and debt. The program focuses on foreign suspects but also includes data about some U.S. residents….(Washington Post, 11 Jul 07)

Spy museum's boss

The National Security Agency operates the National Cryptologic Museum, one of only two intelligence museums open to the public in the United States. Weadon is one of three full-time NSA employees who staff the museum. About 50,000 to 60,000 visitors come annually to view exhibits about cryptology - the making and breaking of codes….(Baltimore Sun, 11 Jul 07)

Web Site: National Cryptologic Museum

Lugovoy Accuses Britain Of Poor Detective Work

The main suspect in the London murder of ex-agent Alexander Litvinenko said on Wednesday that Britain was trying to cover up for its poor detective work in the case by complaining about Moscow's refusal to extradite him…..(Reuters, 11 Jul 07)

F1 spy row goes to court

A bitter row between Formula One's top two teams, Ferrari and McLaren, over alleged espionage went to London's High Court yesterday. Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney was sacked after being accused of supplying McLaren's chief designer, Mike Coughlan, with secret Ferrari technical information in April. It is believed the row centers on two computer discs containing 780 pages of material…..(Telegraph, 11 Jul 07)

Irene A. Werthmann CIA Officer

Irene A. Werthmann, 94, a former CIA officer, died of respiratory failure June 16…Mrs. Werthmann began at the agency in 1960 as a telephone operator and rose to supervisor, section manager and chief operator…..(Washington Post, 11 Jul 07)

Federal Court Skeptical of CIA Bid for Secrecy

A federal appeals court is expressing skepticism about the CIA's claim that its technique for briefing presidents is so sensitive that it must be protected from public scrutiny, even 40 years after the fact. Two judges considering a lawsuit seeking access to so-called Presidential Daily Briefs provided to President Johnson during the Vietnam War era cast doubt yesterday on the spy agency's assertion that the way it updates the nation's chief executive is itself an intelligence method entitled to blanket secrecy under the law….(New York Sun, 11 Jul 07)

Espionage case goes to High Court

The legal case involving Ferrari and McLaren’s suspended chief designer Mike Coughlan has been adjourned at London’s High Court this morning…The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow morning to allow Coughlan to submit an affidavit….(ITV, 11 Jul 07)

From cybermischief to cybercrime

… In September, Time magazine wrote about Titan Rain, a series of attacks against U.S. government computer systems. Quoting anonymous officials and unnamed documents, the report described a pattern of highly professional, well-coordinated and often successful attempts over several years to penetrate both open and secure systems. According to one researcher working on his own, the source of the attacks appeared to be about 10 operators working through one network in China…..(Inter Gov World, 11 Jul 07)

The spy goes to Wall Street

…Her name is Jami Miscik. Her title - global head of sovereign risk - may be cryptic, but her role is clear. She is both über-analyst and seer, forecasting from fuzzy data about yesterday's crisis in the Middle East or today's trouble in Thailand or next year's election in Russia…. Before she joined Lehman in 2005, Miscik ran the intelligence directorate of the Central Intelligence Agency under CIA chief George Tenet…..(Fortune, 11 Jul 07)

U.S., Iran do Persian Gulf squeeze

Iran and the United States remain so far apart on so many issues that they refuse to talk about them. But in the cramped sea routes of the Persian Gulf, U.S. and Iranian warship sailors and fighter pilots speak to each other daily. They have to. They're practically jostling one another in courteous games of surveillance, counter-surveillance and geopolitical posturing...Tensions between Iran and the U.S. lie barely beneath the surface of the delicate maritime protocol. Both Iran and the U.S. regularly dispatch spy planes to watch each other. A photograph of an Iranian T-12 reconnaissance plane is posted outside the intelligence office of the Stennis. "Image of the day,"…(LA Times, 11 Jul 07)

Miscik's secret CIA memo

In November 2004, Jami Miscik, in charge of the CIA's intelligence unit, caught flak from her boss, new CIA Director Porter Goss, for refusing a request from Dick Cheney's office to declassify a section of a CIA report that would have helped the Administration justify the Iraq war….(CNN, 11 Jul 07)

A conservative's mother lode

…To liberals who remember the red hunts of the '50s, much material seems wrongheaded and paranoid, and some items appear racist and anti-Semitic, although relatives insist Koenig was neither. Many may seem ludicrous today, including a 1962 handbill warning shoppers to avoid such communist products as Polish hams and a 1960 pamphlet from a group called the Minute Women estimating communist control of the U.S. at "30% to 50%."….(LA Times, 11 Jul 07)

Analysis: Intelligence and Israel's image

Israel's Shabak security agency has been pretty effective in preventing suicide bombings and other terror attacks. It runs a massive operation protecting the prime minister's life and it is anyone's guess on how good it has been at catching spies. But is it also supposed to "preserve Israel's identity as a Jewish state"? Or, put it this way: Should a secret intelligence service, in a country that takes pride in its democratic system, spy on Arab citizens who wish to change the state's character?....(UPI, 11 Jul 07)

Lawyer: Italy Cannot Try U.S. Soldier

A lawyer defending a U.S. soldier charged in the 2005 killing of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq argued in court Tuesday that Italy does not have jurisdiction in the case. Members of multinational forces operating in Iraq are under "exclusive jurisdiction" of the country that sent them….(AP, 11 Jul 07)

Iran Widens Investigation Of Two Jailed Americans

Iran announced yesterday that it had uncovered new evidence against two imprisoned Americans and had launched an expanded investigation into their alleged activities against the Islamic republic…..(Washington Post, 11 Jul 07)

New charges brought against US citizens detained in Iran

New charges have been brought against four US citizens who have been detained in Iran on suspicion of espionage, ISNA news agency reported Tuesday. ISNA quoted judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi as saying that the deputy prosecutor of Tehran has found new evidence against the detained Iranian-Americans which required further investigation. No further details of the charges were given…The detainees include Haleh Esfandiari, Middle East director of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington, and Kian Tajbakhsh, a sociologist and urban planning consultant with George Soros' Open Society Institute. Also charged with national security offences is Ali Shakeri, a peace activist and board member at the University of California…..(DPA, 10 Jul 07)

Iran Claims Spy Networks Disrupted

Iran has reportedly discovered five new espionage networks allegedly linked to Western intelligence services. Iran's Fars and IRNA news agencies quoted the head of the intelligence service in the western province of Kermanshah as saying a total of 20 people have been arrested, including Iranians and foreigners. The official, identified only as Karimi, said the alleged spies were trained for economic, military, political, cultural, and social espionage…..(RFE/RL, 10 Jul 07)

SPY CATCHING KYRGYZ STYLE

Accusations of espionage against Dzhyparkul Arykova, a consultant to the Kyrgyz parliamentary press service arrested on June 19, has thrown the national intelligence community into crisis…In recent days the authorities have tried to distance themselves from media reports that the case centers on Arykova’s involvement with Chinese intelligence. She allegedly passed information to a Chinese agent….(Eurasia Daily Monitor, 10 Jul 07)

Iran starts new probe over detained U.S.-Iranians

…"We have received fresh evidence about (Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh's charges)... fresh investigations have started based on this evidence," judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi told a weekly news conference…..(Reuters, 10 Jul 07)

New dish joins golf balls at spy base

Marlborough's listening "golf balls" have acquired a new set of ears, with the addition of another satellite dish at the Waihopai Spy Base…It would continue with the bureau's collection of intelligence, and "it's very common knowledge that satellite collections is a way of doing that,"….(Marlborough Express, 10 Jul 07)

Former Defense Official Robert S. Cooper, 75

Robert S. Cooper, 75, former assistant secretary of defense and director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency during the Reagan administration's Star Wars initiative, died of prostate cancer July 2…Dr. Cooper led DARPA from 1981 to 1985, testifying repeatedly before Congress on such matters as the Stealth bomber and supercomputers….(Washington Post, 10 Jul 07)

Michael Charles States Senior Project Manager

Michael Charles States, 67, a project manager who worked for 25 years with the CIA until 1990, died of complications of throat cancer June 7….(Washington Post, 10 Jul 07)

China Applies Muscle in America

China is becoming increasingly aggressive in trying to shut down anti-government activities overseas. Nothing official, of course, but the evidence is piling up. Some of the operations are violent, like attacks on Falungong information activities. The Falungong is a religious movement that has become the target of Chinese anger…China has also been putting pressure on Chinese language newspapers in the U.S. to publish more pro Chinese government material…..(Strategy, 10 Jul 07)

Russia refuses to extradite Litvinenko spy

…"This was a crime that was committed in London, the evidence and the witnesses are in the United Kingdom and we do not have confidence that a trial in Moscow would meet the standards of impartiality and fairness that we would deem necessary." The Prime Minister's spokesman added that Britain was now considering further options following Russia's decision not to hand over Mr Lugovoi, who is wanted over the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London. The spokesman hinted that Britain may take retaliatory measures…..(Telegraph, 10 Jul 07)

Controversy rages over Italian political spy scandal

Tension rose Monday over an Italian political espionage scandal as two government ministers urged a parliamentary committee of inquiry into allegations that the SISMI intelligence service had spied on leftwing politicians and magistrates but the former Parliamentary speaker, Luciano Violante, said such a commission would only generate pointless political squabbling…..(il Velino, 10 Jul 07)

Charges of Spying Shake Up a Circuit

…Ron Dennis, the McLaren owner and director, said before the race Sunday that no “intellectual property” — that is to say, original engineering ideas — from Ferrari had made its way onto the McLaren car. Dennis also said the spying scandal had nothing to do with his team as a whole, which meant it could be an individual acting alone…..(New York Times, 10 Jul 07)

U.K. condemns Russian decision on spy murder suspect

Britain condemned Russia's refusal to extradite the main suspect in the murder of emigre Alexander Litvinenko as "unacceptable" on Tuesday and said it was reviewing cooperation with Moscow. A spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Russia's response was "extremely disappointing" and Britain was unsure that suspect Andrei Lugovoy, a former state security agent, would get a fair trial if it was held in Russia…..(Reuters, 10 Jul 07)

NSA working on two super-secure, spy-worthy handhelds

…the NSA has been working with two handheld manufacturers to bring two super-secure handhelds into the field. The “spy-gear” is reportedly in the final certification stages, and are expected to be deployed throughout the Defense Department soon…..(Into Mobil, 10 Jul 07)

Looking for Quite a Few Good Men and Women

…Over the next two years, federal agencies expect to hire nearly 193,000 new workers in almost every occupational field, according to a report from the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group that urges young Americans to consider careers in government. More than 83,000 of the jobs are expected to be filled at Defense and Homeland Security….(Washington Post, 10 Jul 07)

China responds to ads for espionage information in SF newspapers

China denied it has spies working to infiltrate the U.S. government, responding Tuesday to advertisements that the FBI ran in San Francisco newspapers asking readers to provide information about Beijing-sponsored espionage. The ads appeared in three Chinese-language newspapers this month….(AP, 10 Jul 07)

Iran arrests spies, bombers in Kurdish area

Iran has arrested 20 people for espionage and three members of a Kurdish militant party for a bombing last year in the western city of Kermanshah…"The spies belonging to these gangs have internal and foreign elements that were bribed and briefed by the enemy's intelligence services for economic, military, political, cultural, and social aims inside the country," he said. The official added that Iran had arrested three members of Pejak - the Kurdish militant party linked to Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - over a May 2006 bomb explosion in government offices in Kermanshah that injured seven. ….(Agence France-Presse, 9 Jul 07)

Crime info trumps terror data at fusion centers

… State governors created the centers, and the Homeland Security Department provides part of the funding. Their purpose is to fuse federal, state and local intelligence against terrorism, but CRS found the fusion centers have gravitated more toward collecting and analyzing criminal intelligence and all-hazards intelligence…..(Washington Technology, 9 Jul 07)

Judge Removes Attorney in CIA Fraud Case

A judge removed a high-profile defense attorney on Monday from the case of a contractor charged with conspiring to defraud the CIA because the lawyer refused to submit to background checks… The move may delay the trial against former top CIA official Kyle "Dusty" Foggo and his best friend, contractor Brent Wilkes, Burns said. Burns repeatedly asked Geragos to reconsider his refusal. The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 23…..(AP, 9 Jul 07)

US closer to cracking Iran's nuclear secrets

Defecting intelligence general reveals new ways in which Iran is trying to enrich uranium, build nuclear bomb. Has no new information regarding Ron Arad. Iraqi general, Ali Reza Asgari, who disappeared in Istanbul last February, has defected and is being held by the United States….(YNet, 9 Jul 07)

Iran foils spy networks in west of country

Iran has broken up spy networks and detained 20 people, an intelligence official was quoted as saying on Monday, speaking from a region in the west of the country where Teheran has said U.S.-backed groups operate. The head of intelligence in Kermanshah, a province next to the border with Iraq, said ‘five spying networks in this province have been found and destroyed’….(Reuters, 9 Jul 07)

Iran Arrests 20 on Spying Allegations

Iran has arrested 20 people _ including some foreigners _ near the border with Iraq and accused them of belonging to a spy network, the state-run news agency reported Monday…..(AP, 9 Jul 07)

Ex-N. Korean spy arrested in Seoul believed to have seen Japanese abductees

A former North Korean spy, who has been arrested in Seoul for drug trafficking, is likely to be An Myong Jin, who has testified that he saw Japanese abduction victim Megumi Yokota at Pyongyang's spy training school….(Mainichi, 9 Jul 07)

Chechen emissary dismisses MI6 spy story

Chechen separatist envoy Akhmed Zakayev said claims by a former major in the Russian tax police and self-confessed spy, that he cooperated with MI6 are ridiculous…Vyacheslav Zharko, who earlier admitted working for British intelligence, said Saturday the murdered defector Alexander Litvinenko and fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky introduced him to MI6. "Zharko's statements have been made to lend credence to the theory floated by the Russian authorities alleging that MI6 was involved in Litvinenko's death,"….(RIA Novosti, 9 Jul 07)

Russia tax inspector 'spy' probed

Authorities in Russia are investigating allegations that a former Russian tax inspector spied for Britain. The Federal Security Service (FSB) said Vyachaslav Zharko was recruited by agents from Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence service. Correspondents say the move is part of a row between Britain and Russia over the murder in London last year of Russian ex-agent Alexander Litvinenko…..(BBC, 9 Jul 07)

KGB against new imperial line
Chairperson of the National Security Committee (KGB) Stsiapan Sukharenka exposed the organization’s priorities, such as espionage, secret service and constitutional system protection, in an interview to the magazine “Soyuznoye Gosudarstvo” (“Union State”)…..(Charter 97, 9 Jul 07)

Spy data used to 'dig deep' on visa applicants

No other country will drill as deep into the backgrounds of visa applicants to identify terrorists than Australia, Prime Minister John Howard says. Howard yesterday fast-tracked changes to immigration screening that match spy data with a person's travel and financial history to determine if they might be a security threat to Australia……(New Zealand Herald, 9 Jul 07)

Wife of Ex-Spy Says CIA Blocked Her From Lawyer

In a brief filed in a Manhattan federal court on Friday, the wife of a former covert CIA official, identified in the heavily blacked-out case only as Jane Doe, says the agency violated the attorney-client relationship by prohibiting her lawyer from contacting her by phone or e-mail. Ms. Doe sued the CIA last April for denying her medical coverage and forcing her and her family to live in a foreign country after her husband was fired from the agency….(New York Sun, 9 Jul 07

Colombia re-arrests ex-spy chief

The former head of the Colombian intelligence service, Jorge Noguera, has been re-arrested over his suspected links to death squads. The ex-spy chief had been under house arrest since being granted a conditional release from jail in March. He denies accusations of making resources of the intelligence services available to right-wing paramilitaries…..(BBC, 9 Jul 07)

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Hearing on USA Patriot Act of 2001

Transcript - WITNESSES: ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO GONZALES; FBI DIRECTOR ROBERT MUELLER; CIA DIRECTOR PORTER GOSS….(Federal News Service, 9 Jul 07)

Moscow says it has MI6 spy 'recruited by Litvinenko'

…Vyacheslav Zharko is said to have turned himself in to the FSB, the successor to the KGB, 10 days ago and confessed to having worked for British intelligence since 2002. He claims that he was introduced to MI6 officers by Litvinenko during a trip to London in that year. Zharko said he met his British handlers regularly in Turkey, Finland and Cyprus and supplied them with analytical reports on Russia's economy and politics. In return, he claims, he was paid about £60,000. He estimates that MI6 spent an additional £150,000 on expenses. "I needed money so when Litvinenko told me that I could earn easy cash by collaborating with British intelligence I agreed," Zharko, 36, told The Sunday Times in his first interview with a western newspaper. "I saw myself as a consultant. I began to worry after Litvinenko's death because I feared I'd be sucked into something too dangerous. That's when I turned myself in."…..(Sunday Times, 8 Jul 07)

Cold War legacy lives on with son, museum

…Powers is named for the former U-2 spy plane pilot who was shot down May 1, 1960, while flying for the CIA over the Soviet Union. The elder Powers' capture, imprisonment and later his exchange for a famous Russian spy -- Soviet Col. Rudolf Abel -- provided some of the most dramatic moments of the Cold War…In 1996, he incorporated the Cold War Museum, and he's been working ever since to raise money, collect artifacts and find a place for the museum to call home….(Times-Dispatch, 8 Jul 07)

Report: Iran general gives nuclear info

Ali-Reza Asghari, the Iranian general who went missing in Turkey nearly half a year ago, is currently being held in a secure US intelligence facility, it was reported on Sunday. During his interrogation, Asghari gave over information on the running of the Iranian government and on the country's nuclear program, Yediot Aharonot reported. Since Asghari's disappearance while on vacation in Istanbul in February, reports have circulated that the missing general had defected to a Western country, most likely the US. However, there has as yet been no confirmation of these reports…Asghari has since revealed new and relevant information about Iran's nuclear progress, saying that in addition to reactors and uranium enrichment facility centrifuges being built in the country, Iran has also developed the technology to enrich uranium with lasers…..(Jerusalem Post, 8 Jul 07)

Who Runs the CIA? Outsiders for Hire.

…In April, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was poised to publicize a year-long examination of outsourcing by U.S. intelligence agencies. But the report was inexplicably delayed -- and suddenly classified a national secret… Although the contracting system is Byzantine, there's no question that the private sector delivers high-quality professional intelligence services. Outsourcing has provided solutions to personnel-management problems that have always plagued the CIA's operations side…..(Washington Post, 8 Jul 07)

Algerian linked with Mossad jailed

A court-martial in Algeria's troubled Kabylie region has sentenced an Algerian journalist to 10 years in prison for spying for Israel. Said Sahnoun, a correspondent for newspapers in sub-Saharan Africa, was found guilty of providing information to the Zionist regime's Mossad after a court-martial in the town of Tizi Ouzou 100 km east of Algiers…..(Press TV, 8 Jul 07)

Vanunu suffers yet another sentence

…His crime this time was to have given a number of interviews to the foreign press, including The Sunday Times, not one of which had the slightest security implications. His simple act of talking to foreign journalists was a transgression too far for a system bent on making him bow to its will. The first and most serious charge Vanunu faced related to an interview I arranged with him when he came out of prison three years ago. He had spent nearly 18 years in jail, 11½ in solitary confinement, for revealing the secrets of his country’s nuclear weapons production plant to this newspaper…..(Times Online, 8 Jul 07)

Boris Berezovsky Counted among the Spies

The FSB announced a new espionage case yesterday based on testimony from former major in the tax police Vyacheslav Zharko, who claims that the British MI6 tried to recruit him. According to Zharko, political emigrant Boris Berezonvsky and former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko introduced him to MI6 agents. Alexander Goldfarb, head of the Foundation for Civil Liberties, thinks the case is a smear campaign against Berezovsky…..(Kommersant, 8 Jul 07)

Sorry tale of espionage throws a spanner in the works of McLaren's success

…The team has launched its own inquiry to run alongside those being run by Ferrari, the Italian police and the FIA. Already, though, the British team has denied that the design of its cars has been influenced in even the slightest degree by the information allegedly passed on by Stepney….(Scotsman, 8 Jul 07)