Today in History - June 23

1972:  President Nixon and White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman discussed a plan to use the CIA to obstruct the FBI's Watergate investigation. (Revelation of the tape recording of this conversation sparked Nixon's resignation in 1974.)

2006: Vice President Cheney denounced the revelation of an anti-terrorism program that tapped into an immense international database of confidential financial records.

An Ex-Member Calls Detainee Panels Unfair

…Stephen Abraham, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and a lawyer, said the military placed too much weight on unsubstantiated statements by intelligence agencies in deciding that the detainees were enemy combatants…Abraham, who helped review government intelligence about detainees in 2004 and 2005 and served on a Combatant Status Review Tribunal, is the first person who played such a role to publicly challenge the fairness of the reviews. He said in an interview yesterday that he felt compelled to disclose his misgivings after reading public claims about the fairness of the process made by Rear Adm. James M. McGarrah, who oversaw it…..(Washington Post, 23 Jun 07)

New Life for an Open-Government Law

…Using the law "to foia" (it's become a verb in many circles) records is important not just to reporters but to businesses, nonprofit agencies and citizens; all use it for their own purposes. Reporters use FOIA a lot less than businesses do, probably one reason the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports reform, along with about 100 other organizations…..(Washington Post, 23 Jun 07)

C.I.A. Chief Tries Preaching a Culture of More Openness

…Is next week’s release of documents a reflection of similar openness that he has now brought to the C.I.A., where he arrived little more than a year ago? Yes, says Mark Mansfield, agency spokesman, who adds that since last October the agency has cut by more than half the number of unresolved Freedom of Information Act petitions dating back five years or more, by systematically declassifying volumes of historical material…..(New York Times, 23 Jun 07)

New Russian prosecutor looking into Litvinenko death

A powerful Russian prosecutor said on Friday self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky could be behind the murder of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, a charge dismissed by a friend of Litvinenko. Litvinenko, a former Russian FSB security service officer exiled in Britain, published a Berezovsky-sponsored book accusing the Kremlin of exploding apartment houses in Moscow to justify a new war in the rebel Chechnya province…..(Reuters, 22 Jun 07)

Russia Probes Berezovsky Over Spy Death

Russian investigators are looking into allegations that Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky could have been involved in the poisoning death in London of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, a top law-enforcement official said Friday. Alexander Bastrykin, newly appointed head of the National Investigation Committee, criticized Britain's Scotland Yard for focusing on one suspect _ Andrei Lugovoi _ and ignoring others, the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies reported. "We have other versions," Bastrykin was quoted as saying….(AP, 22 Jun 07)

C.I.A. to Release Documents on Decades-Old Misdeeds

The Central Intelligence Agency will make public next week a collection of long-secret documents compiled in 1974 that detail domestic spying, assassination plots and other C.I.A. misdeeds in the 1960s and early 1970s, the agency’s director, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, said yesterday. In an address to a group of historians who have long pressed for greater disclosure of C.I.A. archives, General Hayden described the documents, known as the “family jewels,” as “a glimpse of a very different time and a very different agency.”….(New York Times, 22 Jun 07)

CIA to Air Decades of Its Dirty Laundry

…The documents, to be publicly released next week, also include accounts of break-ins and theft, the agency's opening of private mail to and from China and the Soviet Union, wiretaps and surveillance of journalists, and a series of "unwitting" tests on U.S. civilians, including the use of drugs. "Most of it is unflattering, but it is CIA's history," Hayden said in a speech to a conference of foreign policy historians….(Washington Post, 22 Jun 07)

U.S. general laments Google Earth capability

The head of U.S. Air Force intelligence and surveillance on Thursday said data available commercially through online mapping software such as Google Earth posed a danger to security but could not be rolled back. "To talk about danger is, if I may, really is irrelevant because it's there," said Lt. Gen. David Deptula, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance….(Reuters, 22 Jun 07)

Spy Director Ends Program on Satellites

The nation’s top intelligence official has decided to terminate a multibillion-dollar spy satellite program beset by spiraling costs and opposition from powerful lawmakers. Government officials and defense experts said that the official, Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, would cancel the next generation of a highly classified stealth satellite program, known publicly as the Misty system, because he had determined that the system was not worth the cost.….(New York times, 22 Jun 07)

Cheney Defiant on Classified Material

…Since 2003, the vice president's staff has not cooperated with an office at the National Archives and Records Administration charged with making sure the executive branch protects classified information. Cheney aides have not filed reports on their possession of classified data and at one point blocked an inspection of their office. After the Archives office pressed the matter, the documents say, Cheney's staff this year proposed eliminating it…..(Washington Post, 22 Jun 07)

Pentagon Cyber Attack Forces 1,500 PCs Off Line

As many as 1,500 computers in the Defense Department were taken off line because of a cyber attack, Pentagon officials said…Gates said the Pentagon sees hundreds of attacks a day, and this one had no adverse impact on department operations. Employees whose computers were affected could still use their handheld BlackBerries…..(AP, 22 Jun 07)

China cyber-war
Defense officials say new intelligence on China's cyber-warfare capabilities has triggered a major reassessment of Beijing's ability to penetrate and attack U.S. and allied defense computers. The intelligence also is prompting a reassessment of past intelligence shortcomings on the subject. "There appears to be a systematic underestimation by the U.S. intelligence community of the Chinese offensive cyber-warfare threat that is only now being understood,"….(Washington Times, 22 Jun 07)

Ashcroft Tells of Surveillance Disputes
Former attorney general John D. Ashcroft told the House intelligence committee yesterday about disputes in the Bush administration over aspects of its domestic surveillance program, which peaked in the March 2004 visit to his hospital bedside by White House officials seeking his change of heart……(Washington Post, 22 Jun 07)

Today in History - June 22

2006: The Bush administration confirmed it had gained access to international banking records as part of a classified program to choke off financial support for terrorism.

Justice Department Appoints National Export Control Coordinator as Part of Enhanced Counter-Proliferation Effort

The Justice Department has appointed Steven W. Pelak, an 18-year veteran federal prosecutor, to serve as the Justice Department�s first-ever National Export Control Coordinator to improve the investigation and prosecution of illegal exports of U.S. arms and sensitive technology, Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, announced today…..(Press Release, 22 Jun 07)

White House Wants Spying Lawsuits Tossed

The Bush administration on Thursday asked a federal judge to toss out lawsuits seeking to unearth information about the U.S. telecommunications industry's alleged participation in a warrantless government eavesdropping program. Five states want consumer records the telecommunications companies allegedly turned over to the National Security Administration as part of a domestic eavesdropping program President Bush authorized after Sept. 11, 2001…..(AP, 22 Jun 07)

Norton to Offer Bill Barring Felons From Running Security Firms

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said yesterday that she would introduce a bill to prevent felons from running government security contractors after one such company failed to pay its guards at federal buildings in the Washington area for several weeks…..(Washington Post, 22 Jun 07)

Cheney in Dispute on Oversight of His Office

For four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has resisted routine oversight of his office’s handling of classified information, and when the office in charge of overseeing classification in the executive branch objected, the vice president’s office suggested that the oversight office be shut down….(New York Times, 22 Jun 07)

THE GATES INHERITANCE, Part 1

… Like the Senate, the media welcomed Gates, in the words of the Christian Science Monitor, as the "Un-Rumsfeld". In the wake of his flinty predecessor, he arrived as a smiling, silver-haired cherub of Midwestern earnestness…..(Asia Times, 22 Kim 07)

A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America

Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America, by Christopher A. Finan

Ninety years ago, the U.S. government used the Espionage Act to jail hundreds of Americans for speaking out against World War I. Shortly after the war, during America's first Red Scare, U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer authorized arrests of thousands of citizens, primarily immigrants, suspected of being Communists….(Alter Net, 21 Jun 07)

How CIA ousted Left govt in Kerala

Ellsworth Bunker, by Howard B. Shaffer

The Communist success story in Kerala is now 50 years old and now, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and his colleagues are reopening an old wound. If the biography of former US Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker is to be believed, the CIA had performed a clandestine operation to topple the first elected Communist government in the world…..(CNN-IBN, 21 Jun 07)

French Government Blackballs BlackBerry on Espionage Fears

Out of fear that other countries' security agencies would spy on them, French government security experts have reportedly banned usage of BlackBerry devices in the country's ministries and presidential palace…Citing security concerns -- specifically, snooping by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) -- French government security experts have reportedly banned the ubiquitous devices in ministries and the presidential palace, Le Monde reported Tuesday. France's General Secretariat for National Defense issued a similar warning 18 months ago, according to reports, following a study carried out by France's head of economic intelligence, Alain Juillet. The study reportedly indicates that the devices posed a security threat. Members of several French government departments are still secretly using the devices….(TechNews World, 21 Jun 07)

Allied: No Yay or Nay in SEC Probe
Allied Capital Corp., the holding company embroiled in a long-running spat with a manager who short sold its stock, has settled an SEC probe without admitting or denying wrongdoing… In addition to the SEC probe, a separate criminal investigation into Allied Capital by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Washington, D.C, is ongoing. The office of the attorney is weighing the claim Allied Capital spied on Einhorn to obtain his personal data…..(Hedge Fund, 21 Jun 07)

BlackBerrys banned because of ‘real risk’ of US espionage

French counter-espionage chiefs have upset hundreds of ministerial staff by banning BlackBerry mobile devices for fear that the Americans may be spying on their e-mails...They were told by Alain Juillet, the government chief of economic intelligence, that BlackBerry communications were not secure because the system channelled its “push” e-mails through servers in the United States and Britain. This made them vulnerable to agencies such as the US National Security Agency. “The risk of interception is real. It’s economic war,” said Mr Juillet, according to Le Monde newspaper….(Times Online, 21 Jun 07)

Japan defense leak "serious problem": U.S. forces

The leak of data on the missile defense system Japan shares with Washington is a "serious problem," and both nations must work together to improve security, the U.S. forces commander in Japan urged on Friday. The leak of sensitive information on the high-tech Aegis radar system, used by the United States on ships fitted with SM-3 ballistic missile interceptors, came to light in March and Japanese police have been investigating…..(Reuters, 22 Jun 07)

Missing persons case: SC summons 2 secretaries

The Supreme Court on Thursday summoned the defence and interior secretaries for June 25 to explain why they had failed to comply with a court order for a lawyer to be granted access to his client, who has been convicted by a military court for espionage. The full bench also summoned the record of the proceedings of the military court and a report on the health of Imran Munir, who has been sentenced to eight years in prison….(Daily Times, 21 Jun 07)

Pakistani rights groups protest spying conviction

Rights groups on Wednesday criticised the conviction for espionage of a Pakistani man who was among hundreds of people allegedly abducted and held without charge by intelligence agencies. Imran Munir, 27, who went missing almost a year ago, was convicted a week ago by a military court….(Daily Times, 21 Jun 07)

Kyrgyzstan Detains Two On Suspicion Of Espionage

Kyrgyzstan says it has detained one of its citizens and a foreign national on suspicion of espionage. A statement by the Kyrgyz National Security Committee said the two were detained in Bishkek June 19 as they were exchanging classified materials…..(RFE/FL, 21 Jun 07)

The CIA and Fatah; Spies, Quislings and the Palestinian Authority

…They also discovered something far more valuable--- CIA files which purportedly contain "information about the collaboration between Fatah and the Israeli and American security organizations; CIA methods on how to prevent attacks, chase and follow after cells of Hamas and the Committees; plans about Fatah assassinations of members of Hamas and other organizations; and American studies on the security situation in Gaza."….(Global Research, 21 Jun 07)

Can DHS Protect Its Networks?

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's CIO was on the hot seat Wednesday on Capitol Hill after an independent audit found that a database that screens U.S. visitors lacked security controls. The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee called on DHS CIO Scott Charbo to explain why he should keep his job after persistent cybersecurity problems at the agency….(PC World, 21 Jun 07)

Military Intelligence Corps to celebrate hall of fame events

The U.S. Army Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca will be celebrating the 20th annual Military Intelligence Hall of Fame starting next Wednesday and running through June 29……(Sierra Vista, 21 Jun 07)

U.S. Refuses to Free 5 Captured Iranians Until at Least October

The United States will not release five Iranians detained in a U.S. military raid in northern Iraq until at least October, despite entreaties from the Iraqi government and pressure from Iran, U.S. officials said. The delay is as much due to a communication and procedural foul-up within the U.S. government as a policy decision, they added…During his Washington visit this week, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari appealed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to free the Iranians, who were arrested in Irbil in January…..(Washington Post, 21 Jun 07)

Bush, Senate head for showdown on domestic spying

President George W. Bush headed toward a showdown with the Senate over his domestic spying program on Thursday after lawmakers approved subpoenas for documents the White House declared off-limits. "The information the committee is requesting is highly classified and not information we can make available," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said in signaling a possible court fight…..(Reuters, 21 Jun 07)

Fight Over Secret Satellite Program Is Revived

It has been more than two and a half years since John D. Rockefeller IV and Ron Wyden took to the Senate floor to criticize a secret intelligence program that, they said, was inefficient, too expensive and, in any case, unnecessary…Now, Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, has done essentially the same thing the senators did back then: talked about a major spy program without indicating which one. And McConnell didn’t just criticize it; he said he was killing it….(Congressional Quarterly, 21 Jun 07)

Austria Will Free Suspect in Spy Probe

Austria will free a suspected Russian spy after the United Nations confirmed that he has diplomatic immunity...Vladimir Vozhzhov, who was detained June 11 in Salzburg, will be released from custody "by Friday at the latest," a prosecutor's office spokesman said by telephone from Vienna. The sudden turnaround occurred after the Austrian Foreign Ministry received a report from the UN's Legal Counsel in New York that said Vozhzhov was protected by diplomatic immunity….(Moscow Times, 21 Jun 07)

Austria frees Russia spy suspect

Austria has released a Russian space agency official who was arrested last week on suspicion of spying…He was suspected of receiving sensitive information from an Austrian military officer, arrested on the same day. The Russian official was a member of the Russian delegation to the 50th session of the UN's Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space…(BBC, 21 Jun 07)

Roskosmos expert detained in Austria to be released from custody

Expert of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos), who was arrested in Austria last week on spy charges, should be released from custody on Thursday and set free because he had a status of diplomatic immunity at the moment of his arrest…..(ITAR-Tass, 21 Jun 07)

Austria Releases Russian National Arrested For Spying

Austria says it has released a Russian citizen arrested last week on suspicion of spying. The Russian, whom authorities have not publicly identified, was a member of the official Russian delegation to a meeting of the United Nations space committee in Vienna this month. His arrest prompted a protest from Moscow, which said he was covered by diplomatic immunity. The man was released after the UN's legal office on June 20 ruled he did indeed enjoy immunity during his stay in Austria…..(RFE/FL, 21 Jun 07)

Life of South Korean spy arrested in US to be made into film
A movie director said Wednesday he will make a film about a Korean-American who spent almost eight years in a US prison for spying for South Korea. Robert Kim, a former US Navy computer specialist, was jailed from 1997 until July 2004 for passing classified US naval documents to a South Korean military attache in Washington. But many South Koreans consider him a patriot. "It is a symbolic case which makes us reflect on various issues including South Korea-US ties and the division of the Korean peninsula," the director, Jeong Yun-Chul, told Yonhap news agency… He said he will begin shooting the film on Robert Kim late next year for screening in 2009 and had already interviewed the 67-year-old Kim several times at his residence in Virginia…..(Agence France-Presse, 20 Jun 07)

Libby Files Appeal to Delay Prison

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who faces prison soon in the CIA leak case, asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to delay his serving of the sentence. The former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, Libby was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for lying and obstructing an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity. A federal judge has denied a request to stay the sentence while Libby appeals his conviction…..(AP, 20 Jun 07)

The Remote Viewing Archives

" Remote Viewing " (mental spying) was initially carried out by Eastern Block countries at the height of the " Cold War."  Secret PSI research associated with the state security and defense establishment was going on in the former U.S.S.R. and its many satellite communist countries since the early 50's……(American Chronicle, 20 Jun 07)

DHS Acknowledges Own Computer Break-Ins

The Homeland Security Department, the lead U.S. agency for fighting cyber threats, suffered more than 800 hacker break-ins, virus outbreaks and other computer security problems over two years, senior officials acknowledged to Congress…All the problems involved the department's unclassified computer networks, although DHS officials also have acknowledged to lawmakers dozens of incidents they described as "classified spillage," in which secret information was improperly transmitted or discussed over nonsecure e-mail systems……(AP, 20 Jun 07)

Trashed maps spur TSA damage control

Homeland Security officials are being warned not to toss secret documents that could compromise transportation security into the ordinary trash after hundreds of such papers marked "sensitive" reportedly were found in a city trash container near the Orlando International Airport in Florida. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) used its most recent newsletter to tell employees not to throw away outdated materials stamped as "Sensitive Security Information" (SSI)…..(Washington Times, 20 Jun 07)

Nominee for C.I.A. Counsel Offers Few Details in His Senate Confirmation Hearing

As a 31-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, John A. Rizzo is privy to some of the nation’s most closely held secrets. As the top lawyer at the agency for much of the last six years, he had a central role in C.I.A. detention and interrogation of prisoners in secret jails abroad…..(New York Times, 20 Jun 07)

Senators Question CIA Nominee on Torture

…"I saw firsthand the tremendous damage my agency sustained -- and all of it stemmed from the fact that, as an institution, CIA had kept the intelligence committees in the dark," he said. "Worse yet, a few senior CIA officers -- people I had worked with and admired for years -- wound up being prosecuted for misleading Congress." Careers were ruined along with the agency's reputation, Rizzo said…The "indelible" lesson he learned, he said, was that the "CIA courts disaster whenever it loses sight of the absolute necessity to inform the intelligence communities on a timely basis what they need to know in order to perform effective, constructive oversight."….(Washington Post, 20 Jun 07)

China princeling emerges from defection scandal

With an impeccable Communist pedigree, Yu Zhengsheng was a rising star in the mid-1980s until his brother, a senior Chinese intelligence official, defected to the United States. His wings clipped by the scandal, Yu spent years biding his time in ministerial-level posts. Now, two decades later, he has emerged as a candidate to join the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee at a Party congress slated for the autumn…In a country where people were commonly purged for the faults of relatives during the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, the 1985 defection of Yu Qiangsheng could easily have scuttled his brother's political career. The defector exposed a retired analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, Larry Wu-tai Chin, who committed suicide in his cell in Virginia in 1986, days before a U.S. court was to sentence him for spying for China for about 30 years. Thanks to his close ties to Deng Pufang, the wheelchair-bound eldest son of Deng Xiaoping, Yu Zhengsheng was spared the full political repercussions but fell off the fast track….(Reuters, 20 Jun 07)

Larry Wu-Tai Chin

ASIO files reveal ABC, journalist monitoring

...In the 1960s anti-communist fear was high and concerns that the ABC might be harboring communist sympathizers were taken seriously. SBS's Dateline program has reviewed recently declassified ASIO files and discovered the organization had moles in the ABC spying on their colleagues, and that the head of the broadcaster discussed his employees with his counterpart at ASIO…..(ABC, 20 Jun 07)

NIA to train state officials to vet staff

The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has released more details of its cabinet-approved vetting strategy - a grand plan to assign security agents to key government departments in an attempt to safeguard state secrets and stamp out corruption…Manzini said the vetting of government officials was standard practice around the world…..(IOL, 20 Jun 07)

Bulgaria's Military Counter-Intelligence Head Removed from Post

Bulgaria's defense minister removed Wednesday the director of the Military Counter-Intelligence Service Orlin Ivanov from his post…..(Novinite, 20 Jun 07)

Intelligence breakdown left dots unconnected, ex-Mountie says

The Air India bombing, the worst peacetime intelligence failure in Canadian history, might have been averted if police and intelligence agencies were sharing more of their secrets, a former senior Mountie believes…..(Globe & Mail, 19 Jun 07)

Iran reacts harshly to growing dissent

The government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in the midst of a sweeping crackdown that both Iranian and U.S. analysts compare to a cultural revolution in its attempt to steer the oil-rich theocracy back to the rigid strictures of the 1979 revolution…The campaign includes arrests, interrogations, intimidation and harassment of thousands as well as purges of academics and new censorship codes for the media. It has quashed or forced underground many independent groups, silenced protests over issues such as women's rights and pay rates, quelled academic debate and sparked fear about several aspects of daily life… Universities have been hard hit by purges of faculty and student detentions, Iranian analysts and international human-rights groups say. Professors still on campus have been warned about developing relationships with their foreign counterparts, who may try to recruit them as spies…..(Seattle Times, 19 Jun 07)

Air India an intelligence disaster, retired Mountie tells inquiry

The 1985 Air India bombing represented an intelligence failure and could have been averted by better investigative work, says the man who was second-in-command at the time for the RCMP… He pointed the finger at politicians who had "gutted" the RCMP by taking away its security service, and at the new civilian spy agency CSIS that took over the job just a year before the tragedy…..(Guelph Mercury, 19 Jun 07)

MIB: Reports on spy arrests are inaccurate

…The report said that over thirty mainland-based Taiwan businessmen were arrested by mainland China following Chen's announcement in 2003 on the locations and numbers of missiles aimed at Taiwan along the mainland China coast. Months before the 2004 presidential elections, Chen said that over four hundred cruise missiles were aimed at Taiwan, citing intelligence…..(China Post, 19 Jun 07)

Newly Discovered Nuances to the Camp David Accords

Recently declassified documents in the Carter Library and Center in Atlanta reveal that Begin made Carter and Sadat swear never to use the phrase “Palestinian State” during their talks or in their accords… President Carter finds himself obliged to perform “shuttle diplomacy” between principals who refuse to talk directly with each other at Camp David. By dint of sheer persistence, he brings Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat to an agreement in October 1978 that a few months later will produce the first peace treaty between Israel and one of its most implacable foes…..(Baltimore Chronicle, 19 Jun 07)

Kidnapping Trial of C.I.A. Agents Is Suspended by Judge in Italy

An Italian judge on Monday suspended the kidnapping trial of 25 Central Intelligence Agency operatives, a United States military officer and some of Italy’s former top spies, to await a ruling on whether prosecutors overstepped their bounds and violated state secrecy laws as they gathered evidence…..(New York Times, 19 Jun 07)

Rocket hiccup puts US spy sats in wrong orbit

In an expensive technical mishap, a brace of top-secret American spy satellites was fired into incorrect orbits last Friday. According to a report in Aviation Week and Space Technology, the two spacecraft in question were ultra-classified ocean surveillance jobs, described as "critical to tracking ships that may conceal al Qaeda terrorists...[or] Iranian and Chinese sea-based military operations"…..(Register, 19 Jun 07)

Question Time for Nominee Linked to Interrogations

In the months after the Sept. 11 attacks, at a time when the Central Intelligence Agency had long been out of the interrogation business, senior C.I.A. officers scrambled to build a program to question terror suspects in secret jails abroad. To check on the legality of the harsh interrogation techniques they proposed, they turned to John A. Rizzo, who was then acting as the agency’s top lawyer…..(New York Times, 19 Jun 07)

Administration Struggles With Interrogation Specifics

…The CIA program remains in limbo, awaiting an executive order about the techniques that has become the subject of tense discussions within the administration and between the White House and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The issue is expected to receive a rare public airing today as the committee holds a confirmation hearing for John A. Rizzo, nominated by Bush in March 2006 as the CIA's legal counsel. Senators plan to ask Rizzo, a 30-year CIA veteran who is serving as acting counsel, about his involvement in past interrogation policymaking as well as the pending guidelines…..(Washington Post, 19 Jun 07)

Computer security law may come under Hill scrutiny

The federal law governing information security policies at agencies could come under scrutiny during a House subcommittee hearing Wednesday that will focus on cybersecurity incidents at the Homeland Security Department. The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity and Science and Technology is scheduled to hear testimony from DHS Chief Information Officer Scott Charbo and the Government Accountability Office….(Gove Exec, 19 Jun 07)

FSB Probes Britain In Spy Flap

The Federal Security Service is investigating accusations of British espionage on Russian soil in what appears to be a tit-for-tat exchange after London demanded the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi, the chief suspect in the poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko. The FSB said in a statement Friday that it had opened the criminal investigation based on “Lugovoi’s statement and additional information from him about intelligence activity by the British special services on the territory of Russia.” No other details were given……(St. Petersburg Times, 19 Jun 07)

FSB Probes Britain in Spy Flap

The Federal Security Service is investigating accusations of British espionage on Russian soil in what appears to be a tit-for-tat exchange after London demanded the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi, the chief suspect in the poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko. The FSB said in a statement Friday that it had opened the criminal investigation based on "Lugovoi's statement and additional information from him about intelligence activity by the British special services on the territory of Russia." ….(Moscow Times, 18 Jun 07)

Troubles in Italy

A new storm is due to break this week in Italy where we hear a new espionage scandal is about to break with a former Ferrari team member being accused of having sold designs to rival teams. No more details are currently available….(Grand Prix, 18 Jun 07)

Spy agencies come under fire in NA

Intelligence agencies came under fire in the National Assembly on Saturday when a ruling party MNA, Rehana Aleem Mashhadi, accused them of interfering in the political affairs of the country during her speech on the budget 2007-2008…“It is very unfortunate that our intelligence agencies become active after an elected government hardly completes half of its tenure, and incite the opposition to topple the government….(Daily Times, 18 Jun 07)

Yomiuri TV apologizes over Chinese spy accusations

Yomiuri TV has offered an on-air apology for accusing Chinese journalists of being spies. Yomiuri TV said it had not interviewed the journalists nor confirmed facts before implying they may be spies during the April 22 episode of "Takajin no Soko Made Itte Iinkai."…(Mainichi, 18 Jun 07)

4 Christian Activists Charged For Breaking Into Spy-Base

Four Christians from an activist group, Christians Against All Terrorism, were charged by the Northern Territory Supreme Court for breaking into a secret spy base near Alice Spring but have avoided a jail-sentence. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that the four activists; Adele Goldie, Donna Mulhearn, James Dowling and Bryan Law…(Christian Today, 18 Jun 07)

Judge Suspends Key Trial On ‘Extraordinary Renditions

A Milan judge on Monday suspended the first trial ever involving the US extraordinary rendition program - the abduction and secret transfer by the CIA of terror suspects to detention centres around the world - ruling that Italy's constitutional court must first decide whether state secrets can be used as evidence in the case. The trial was adjourned to 24 October…..(AKI, 18 Jun 07)

Another ‘Spy’ Act is introduced

First you had the I-SPY Act and the SPY ACT, each passed in the house and later, stalled in the Senate. Adding to that, there was another ‘Spy’ bill announced last week, by Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR), the Counter Spy Act. The Counter Spy Act of 2007 makes it illegal for companies or fraudsters to implant Spyware on a person’s computer without consent, following on the tails of the I-SPY Act and SPY ACT which already had technology and political opponents talking. Anohter interesting note to the new bill is that it has many of the same aims and goals of the other two….(Monsters & Critis, 18 Jun 07)

Is Assassination Allowed or Not?

It's been almost six years since 9/11, and the national intelligence director only now has gotten around to thinking about rewriting Executive Order 12,333, the intelligence community's bible issued under President Reagan in 1981, which lays down the duties and authorities of 14 of our intelligence agencies (two of them did not exist when E.O 12,333 was written)….(Time Magazine, 18 Jun 07)

We must stand up for Chinese Canadians

…A young Chinese diplomat -- ex-diplomat in fact -- has emerged as a significant thorn in the side for the People's Republic of China. Chen Yonglin defected from the Chinese consulate in Sydney, Australia, in May 2005. He professed to dislike his official duties, which included keeping tabs on and harassing the local Falun Gong movement…..(Ottawa Citizen, 18 Jun 07)

Austria Scolded and Implored Over Arrest

Austria's arrest of a high-ranking space official on spy charges is putting considerable strain on relations between Moscow and Vienna, which President Vladimir Putin had just last month praised as "problem-free."… The suspect, identified by Austrian investigators as Vladimir V., was detained last Monday on a German warrant as he arrived in Salzburg by train. He is accused of offering an Austrian warrant officer 20,000 euros ($26,600) for classified information, according to Austrian media reports….(Moscow Times, 18 Jun 07)

Pakistani national gets 7 yrs RI for procuring Indian passport

A Pakistani national, already facing jail term in an espionage case, was today sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment by a court here for obtaining an Indian passport on the basis of fake documents. "I hereby sentence Munir Ahmed for the offence of cheating for obtaining an Indian passport on the basis of fake identity documents,"….(Zee News, 18 Jun 07)

Abusing The Secrets Shield

…The Reynolds decision, as that case came to be known, set a precedent establishing the executive branch's ability to restrict, in the name of national security, what evidence can be considered at trial…In the 1990s, the privileged documents of the Reynolds case were declassified. The only "sensitive" information in the accident report was that the aircraft carrying those contractors was in miserable condition before it took off…..(Washington Post, 18 Jun 07)

Spotlight on Special Forces and Intelligence

The structure of Army special operations forces, their capabilities and characteristic mission profiles, and the role of intelligence in supporting them are described in a newly disclosed U.S. Army field manual (pdf). There are nine distinct missions for Army special forces, including: unconventional warfare, direct action, counterproliferation, foreign internal defense, psychological operations, and "special activities," which is the DoD euphemism for covert action…..(FAS, 18 Jun 07)

Congress Seeks New Direction for Nuclear Strategy

Congress is moving to change the direction of the Bush administration's nuclear weapons program by demanding the development of a comprehensive post-Sept. 11, 2001, nuclear strategy before it approves funding a new generation of warheads."Currently there exists no convincing rationale for maintaining the large number of existing Cold War nuclear weapons, much less producing additional warheads,"….(Washington Post, 18 Jun 07)

Italian judge freezes CIA kidnap trial

…The Italian government has asked the Constitutional Court to throw out the indictments against the 26 American defendants, all but one identified by prosecutors as CIA agents. They are accused of kidnapping an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003. In an argument that would effectively scuttle the case, state lawyers have said that the judge who issued the indictments unlawfully relied on state secrets to justify the charges…..(AP, 18 Jun 07)

George B. Prettyman Jr. NSA Lawyer

George B. Prettyman Jr., 67, a longtime lawyer with the National Security Agency, died June 7…Mr. Prettyman joined the NSA in 1961 and worked early in his career as an intelligence analyst, country desk officer and intelligence officer. After receiving his law degree, he joined the agency's legal office and served as assistant general counsel from 1984 until his retirement in 2001. He received the agency's Exceptional Civilian Service Award…..(Washington Post, 18 Jun 07)

Spy agency's PR move: A calendar to track terrorism

…The free planner offers facts on everything from terrorists' methods and the blasting power of explosives to symptoms of Venezuelan equine encephalitis. The calendar is part of a public-relations campaign by the usually secretive spy agencies to explain what they do and what they're up against. It comes after a series of reports faulting them for failing to thwart the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and exaggerating Iraq's weapons programs. "It isn't just for government bureaucrats; it's for the guy on the street,"…To keep up with growing demand from law enforcement, intelligence and diplomatic officials in 32 countries, the center printed 30,000 copies this year, 10,000 more than in 2006, said Liz G., who helps manage distribution….(Bloomberg, 17 Jun 07)

Counterterrorism Calendar 2007

Blast fears as Nimrod planes leak fuel on spy missions

Nimrod spy planes flying over Iraq and Afghanistan have been losing hundreds of gallons of fuel during mid-air refuelling, according to leaked official reports (read them here: report 1 and report 2). The documents record large amounts of fuel running along the inside of the fuselage and pouring out of the rear of the aircraft leaving it at risk of fire or explosion…..(Times Online, 17 Jun 07)

US Internet Crime Complaint Center fields its millionth complaint

The Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3, was founded in 2000 as the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. It's a joint project of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center; it acts as a clearing house that helps both individual victims and law enforcement agencies find the appropriate agency to investigate online crimes…As the original name implies, fraud was the initial focus of the IC3, but the organization has broadened its scope to include a wide range of crimes, including intellectual property disputes, hacking and computer intrusions, economic espionage, online extortion, money laundering, and identity theft…..(ARS Technica, 17 Jun 07)

Today in History - June 17

2007:  Mir Aimal Kasi, the suspect in the shooting deaths of two CIA employees outside agency headquarters in January 1993, was brought to Fairfax, Va., to face trial after being arrested in Pakistan. (He was later convicted and sentenced to death.)