Special Prosecutor Seeks 30 to 37 Months in Prison for Libby

Former top Bush administration aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby should spend 30 to 37 months in prison for obstructing the CIA leak investigation, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald contended in court documents filed yesterday… Libby was convicted in March of obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury, becoming the highest-ranking White House official convicted of a crime since the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal…..(Washington Post, 26 May 07)

Trial begins for Russian space company chief accused of leaking rocket technology to China

The head of a Russian rocket and space technology company went on trial Friday for allegedly leaking sensitive technologies to China _ the latest case involving a Russian scientist being targeted by security agencies, despite claims that the sensitive materials are in the public domain. Igor Reshetin, the head of the company TsNIIMASH-Export, accused authorities of fabricating the case, telling reporters at Moscow's Lefortovo District Court that the accusations were “sheer fiction”… Another company official facing charges, Mikhail Ivanov, also said the information transferred to China was the type usually presented at scientific seminars…..(AP, 26 May 07)

Analysts' Warnings of Iraq Chaos Detailed

Months before the invasion of Iraq, U.S. intelligence agencies predicted that it would be likely to spark violent sectarian divides and provide al-Qaeda with new opportunities in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released yesterday by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Analysts warned that war in Iraq also could provoke Iran to assert its regional influence and "probably would result in a surge of political Islam and increased funding for terrorist groups" in the Muslim world….(Washington Post, 26 May 07)

Corporate espionage and fraud trials grab spotlight

A trial in Belgium that took off on May 21 received huge media attention as it had already been earmarked as the country’s biggest corporate crime trial. Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie, two former champions of Belgian business, went on trial charged with defrauding investors of up to 225 million Euro. The two made their fortune out of their innovative speech-recognition technology company in 1990s. That came even as French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s new legal adviser found himself in the unwanted media spotlight as a business magazine said he could face trial in a long-running corporate espionage case in Belgium….(New Europe, 26 May 07)

Iran says it discovered Western spy networks

…The Intelligence Ministry has “succeeded in identifying and striking blows at several spy networks comprised of infiltrating elements from the Iraqi occupiers in western, southwestern and central Iran,” said the statement, using shorthand for United States and its allies. The broadcast did not elaborate, saying further details would be published within days… Other Iranian-Americans have also been prohibited from leaving Iran in recent months, including Parnaz Azima, a journalist for the U.S.-funded Radio Farda; Ali Shakeri, a founding board member at the University of California, Irvine’s Center for Citizen Peacebuilding; and Kian Tajbakhsh, consultant working for George Soros’ Open Society Institute…..(AP, 26 May 07)

Judge denies bail for terror suspect

…Whatever hope there was dimmed when Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Reynolds produced evidence alleging that Hassan Abujihaad, once known as Paul Hall, allegedly tried to purchase two AK-47s; threatened to kill his ex-wife; has a fiance in Morocco and spoke about acts of martyrdom. It diminished with the claim that one of his associates, arrested Dec. 6, 2006, planned a Christmas season attack using hand grenades and a 9mm handgun on a suburban Chicago mall…Additionally, Reynolds said Abujihaad was sending money to his fiance in Morocco and planned to visit her in March….(Connecticut Post, 26 May 07)

Prosecutors drop secret trial demand in AIPAC case

…Judge T.S. Ellis III, the federal judge trying the case in Alexandria, Va., last month rejected as unconstitutional the prosecution's request for a trial before a jury sworn to secrecy. Instead, he ordered the prosecution to submit a proposal for declassifying evidence in the case against Steve Rosen, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's former foreign policy chief, and Keith Weissman, its former Iran analyst…..(JTA, 26 May 07)

American diplomat leaves India

An American woman diplomat, who was allegedly involved with an espionage network in the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS)…The diplomat Rosanne Minchew, who was allegedly receiving information from arrested NSCS official SS Paul has left India after the Government took up the issue with the US authorities, the sources said.The diplomat was understood to have been associated with Indo-US Cyber Security Forum, a joint initiative of the two countries to fight international terrorism…..(Hindustan Times, 26 May 07)

Pentagon Warns That China Is Adding Missiles and Building Capacity to Fight Abroad

China is modernizing its military in ways that give it options for launching surprise attacks, potentially on targets far from its borders…The Chinese are acquiring better missiles, submarines and aircraft and should more fully explain the purpose of their military buildup, the Defense Department said in an annual report to Congress….(Washington Post, 26 May 07)

Intelligence policies shift

The Pentagon's new intelligence chief is rolling back some of former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's controversial policies, which expanded the Pentagon's spy operations and worked independently of other intelligence agencies…Retired Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr. is aligning the Pentagon's intelligence initiatives with those of the director of national intelligence, John M. McConnell, and will begin to count McConnell as his boss - a significant shift from the autonomy the office enjoyed under Rumsfeld….(Baltimore Sun, 26 May 07)

Sidney Weinstein; Army Intelligence Chief

Sidney "Tom" Weinstein, 72, a retired Army lieutenant general who was deputy chief of staff for intelligence during the 1980s, died May 24… Gen. Weinstein was the principal architect of the modern military intelligence corps, his colleagues said, and was the crucial player in its expansion and professionalization…..(Washington Post, 26 May 07)

Russia may put spy's murder suspect on trial

Russia says it will put an ex-KGB agent on trial for the murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko if Britain provides sufficient evidence of his guilt. British authorities are seeking seek to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, whom they have formally charged with the poisoning murder of Mr Litvinenko, though Russia has insisted it will not extradite him. Prosecutor-general Yury Chaika says he spoke to British Attorney-General Lord Peter Goldsmith about the issue. "If the British side presents us with evidence of Lugovoi's guilt and we consider it sufficient, he may be brought to justice [in Russia],"….(Agence France-Presse, 25 May 07)

Lugovoi 'must face UK justice'

The attorney general has told his Russian counterpart that the suspect wanted for the murder of a former KGB agent must be extradited. Lord Goldsmith said Alexander Litvinenko's murder was "grave and reckless" and Andrei Lugovoi "must face justice in a UK court". But the Russian Prosecutor General said that if Mr Lugovoi was implicated in the death he would be tried in Russia. Mr Litvinenko, 43, died in London after being poisoned by polonium-210…..(BBC, 25 May 07)

Russia not given Litvinenko cause of death from UK - prosecutor-1

Russia's top prosecutors have not yet received an official statement from UK authorities on the reasons for ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko's death in November 2006, the prosecutor general said Friday. "To date, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has not received any official documents or materials on the Litvinenko case. Neither have prosecutors seen the report from British medical experts on the official cause of Litvinenko's death," Yury Chaika said….(RIA Novosti, 25 May 07)

Senate Panel Approves Rule to State Cost of Spy Efforts

In a move to reduce secrecy around the nation’s spy agencies, the Senate Intelligence Committee has approved a measure to make public the total amount spent on spying and to direct the Central Intelligence Agency to release an internal report examining its failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The bill would also require President Bush to provide Congress with all daily intelligence briefs concerning Iraq in the six years before the war began in March 2003…..(New York Times, 25 May 07)

CIA Received Recent Detainee From Turkey, Al-Qaeda Says

Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, the most recent al-Qaeda operative to be captured and held in the secret CIA rendition program before being sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in April, was captured in Turkey late last year and turned over to U.S. intelligence by that government, a senior al-Qaeda figure said in an Arabic-language interview broadcast yesterday in the Middle East…..(Washington Post, 25 May 07)

New Effort to Continue Espionage Case

Federal prosecutors have offered to provide more classified information in open court to keep alive their prosecution of two former pro-Israel lobbyists charged with violating the Espionage Act. The lobbyists, who had been with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, are charged with illegally giving national security information to Israeli officials and reporters….(New York Times, 25 May 07)

Get Out Of Our Garrisons

...American diplomats are sent abroad to gather information on politics and cultures so officials in Washington can make decisions based on the best intelligence available. But too many diplomats are forced to live in security bubbles, trapped in gated communities, transported in armored vehicles and prohibited from traveling into districts deemed unsafe by beefy embassy security officers……(Washington Post, 25 May 07)

Openness Sought in British Terror Trials

The head of British counterterrorism at Scotland Yard on Thursday criticized what he called excessive secrecy in Britain’s terrorism trials…“It is no exaggeration to say the lack of public trust in intelligence is in danger of infecting the relationship between the police and the communities we serve,”….(New York Times, 25 May 07)

Prison looms for Coca-Cola recipe thief

…Joya Williams, 42, a previous executive administrator at Coca-Cola, was found guilty earlier this year of stealing documents only available to the group's top five executives and then offering them to Pepsi. Her accomplice, 31-year-old Ibrahim Dimson, got five years for his part. A third man is awaiting sentencing… Williams' eight-year sentence was more than prosecutors had asked for and has been taken as a warning to those who consider industrial espionage…..(Beverage Daily, 24 May 07)

$1 million Cola spy jailed for eight years

A former Coca-Cola employee has been sentenced to eight years in prison for trying to sell secret fizzy drink recipes to rivals Pepsi for $1.5 million. Joya Williams, 42, secretary to Coca-Cola’s global brand director at the company’s headquarters in Atlanta, was sentenced yesterday. She was found guilty of stealing recipes and details of products that Coca-Cola have not yet launched. When she approached Pepsi with her illicit information, they foiled her plot and called in the FBI…..(Times Online, 24 May 07)

India's growing corporate spy threat

Several recent high-profile cases have brought to the surface a disturbing trend in the Indian corporate world: industrial espionage. The targets are mostly multinational companies, but at times even large Indian firms become victims. The culprits are mostly foreign companies and smaller local firms trying to gain an edge on their competitors…..(Asia Times, 24 May 07)

Technology theft
Korea has become an industrial powerhouse in shipbuilding, home appliances, information technology, steelmaking, and to a lesser extent, automobiles. In many ways, Korea owes what it is to its costly research and development programs… Korean corporations are increasingly becoming targets of industrial espionage. And almost all the culprits are those who were engaged in developing the technologies….(Korea Herald, 24 May 07)

HP settles SEC claim in spy scandal

Hewlett-Packard Co. has settled federal securities charges alleging the company illegally concealed the reason a director resigned just before its boardroom spying scandal erupted….(AP, 24 May 07)

Security of military information and media responsibility

Some newspaper reports and military analysts have commented and speculated on the possibility of the LTTE having prior information of the plans Muhamalai Operations and of the movements of the large Navy contingent on leave….(Daily News, 24 May 07)

Pak intelligence official held captive by tribals

A Pakistani military intelligence agent has been held captive by suspected tribal militants after they released two other government officials abducted from Bannu in the country's North West Frontier Province…..(Zee News, 24 May 07)

UK Spy Photos of Hitler Published

… Charles Turner, a music composer who was recruited as a spy, took the photos at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany, in 1939, where he joined Hitler's entourage, his son David Turner said. He was one of the last Englishman to speak to the dictator before Nazi forces invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939….(AP, 24 May 07)

Judge denies bail bid by former U.S. Navy sailor accused of supporting terrorism

…Hassan Abujihaad, 31, pleaded not guilty last month to charges he provided material support to terrorists with intent to kill U.S. citizens and disclosed classified information relating to the national defense. He has been held without bail since his arrest in March in Phoenix…..(AP, 24 May 07)

Chinese Spy Convicted of Selling Submarine Secrets

As if economic trade with China isn’t damaging enough, on May 10, a federal court found Chi Mak, a Chinese-born electrical engineer, guilty of conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to his homeland….(Trumpet, 24 May 07)

Evidence Declassified in AIPAC Case

Intelligence agencies have decided to declassify a large volume of classified information in order to move forward with the criminal prosecution of two pro-Israel lobbyists accused of trafficking in America's national secrets. The decision follows a judge's rejection last month of the government's proposal to limit public access to the trial of the two former staffers for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman. Judge Thomas Ellis III concluded that the prosecution's plan, which involved using codes and playing surveillance tapes on headphones for jurors, infringed on the constitutional rights of the defendants. The decision sent prosecutors and the intelligence community scrambling to assess the implications of a trial that laid bare more details about surveillance tactics and about the information allegedly disclosed by Messrs. Rosen and Weissman….(New York Sun, 24 May 07)

More Bad Intelligence on Iran and Iraq

…This week the White House made a big show of declassifying intelligence alleging that in 2005 al-Qaeda considered using Iraq as a base to launch terrorist attacks on the United States. The White House didn't bother to mask the reason for the disclosure….(Times Magazine, 24 May 07)

3rd Iranian-American Detained by Tehran, Which Hints at a Treason Plot

…The consultant, Kian Tajbakhsh, 45, is an urban planning expert who has also worked for the World Bank and is a senior research fellow at the New School in New York. He was detained about May 11, according to a statement from the Open Society Institute, a private foundation financed by George Soros and based in New York that encourages democracy-building around the world…..(AP, 24 May 07)

U.S. Intelligence Community Predicted Trouble in Post-Saddam Iraq

…In January 2003, the CIA's National Intelligence Council delivered to the White House two reports predicting what the United States would face in Iraq. The reports, which until now were classified, are expected to be released by the Senate Intelligence Friday…The first report is titled "Principal Challenges in Post-Saddam Iraq." It paints a picture of an Iraq beset by ethnic violence and unlikely to accept democracy…..(ABC, 24 May 07)

Report: Administration was warned of Iraq war dangers

U.S. intelligence agencies warned the Bush administration in early 2003 that invading Iraq could create internal conflict that would give Iran and al Qaeda new opportunities to expand their influence, according to an upcoming Senate report. Officials familiar with the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation also say analysts warned against U.S. domination in the region, which could increase extremist recruiting…..(AP, 24 May 07)

Shedding light on CIA mystery flights

"This World: Mystery Flights" pieces together the jigsaw of "extraordinary rendition", the alleged illegal CIA transfer of terror suspects to secret prisons in Europe. In far eastern Poland in 2002 and 2003 strange planes landed on an old disused runway in a secluded forest - nine times…..(BBC, 24 May 07)

Report: US, allies selling Iran flawed nuclear components

Intelligence operatives in the US and its allied nations have sold Iran flawed technological components in an attempt to sabotage the country's nuclear enrichment program, CBS News revealed Wednesday evening. ….(Jerusalem Post, 24 May 07)

Plaintiffs Gain in Effort to See Police Spy Reports

Civil liberties lawyers overcame major hurdles yesterday in their efforts to force the city to release raw intelligence reports detailing the Police Department’s surveillance and infiltration of protest groups leading to the 2004 Republican National Convention….(New York Times, 23 May 07)

Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence to be Dual-Hatted as Director of Intelligence

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell signed a memorandum of agreement this week that establishes a role for the under secretary of defense for intelligence as the director of defense intelligence within the Office of the DNI. In his role as Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr. will continue to report to the secretary and deputy secretary of defense. The responsibilities and the authorities assigned to this position by the secretary will not change. ….(Defense Link, 23 May 07)

1998 Tape Shows Russian Ex - Spy Fearful

Late one night in April 1998, three government security agents met at a guest house outside Moscow to make an extraordinary video in which they claimed their bosses had ordered them to kill, kidnap and frame prominent Russians. The tape, the Federal Security Service officers said, was a kind of insurance, to be released only if something happened to one of them. Now one of them, Alexander Litvinenko, is dead, poisoned with a rare radioactive isotope in London last November…..(AP, 23 May 07)

Poisoning accused 'a time bomb'

The man accused of murdering former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has been described as a "walking time bomb" for the Kremlin. Moscow-watchers in London said Andrei Lugovoy's life could be in danger after he was formally named as the prime suspect in the poisoning case by British prosecutors on Tuesday. "Lugovoy will probably show up dead very shortly," said Alexander Goldfarb, a friend of Litvinenko and an outspoken Moscow critic. "If he talks -- and he understands he is a walking time bomb for the Russian Government -- I would be very much surprised if he lives long…..(Herald Sun, 23 May 07)

Britain Seeks Extradition of Ex-KGB Agent

British prosecutors demanded Tuesday that Russia extradite a former KGB agent to stand trial for murder in the sensational radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In Moscow, Russian officials immediately responded that they had no intention of turning over Andrei Lugovoy….(Washington Post, 23 May 07)

Lugovoi row 'will not harm UK-Russia relations'

Sergei Ivanov, the Russian minister tipped as a possible successor to President Vladimir Putin, today sought to defuse the looming diplomatic row over Britain's request to extradite the man suspected of murdering Alexander Litvinenko. Russia's first deputy prime minister told journalists that he did not think the dispute over the fate of Andrei Lugovoi would damage his country's relations with Britain, which have become strained in recent months…..(Telegraph, 23 May 07)

Litvinenko affair set to hurt UK-Russia relations

…The naming of Lugovoy as the murder suspect set Britain and Russia, former Cold War foes, on a diplomatic collision course. Analysts said it could cause a further deterioration in frosty relations and deepen Russia's isolation from the West….(Reuters, 23 May 07)

A New Iranian Hostage Crisis

Fanny Esfandiari, a 93-year-old great-grandmother with heart disease and bad eyesight, made a desperate trip to Iran's notorious Evin Prison earlier this month…Esfandiari asked to see her daughter, Haleh Esfandiari of Potomac, a scholar once described as the "gold standard" of Middle East analysts, who was detained by Iranian intelligence on May 8. The elder Esfandiari was told to try the prison's high-security wing -- the infamous Ward 209…..(Washington Post, 23 May 07)

U.S. Working To Sabotage Iran Nuke Program

CBS News has learned that Iran is continuing to make progress on its expanded efforts to enrich uranium — in spite of covert efforts by U.S. and other allied intelligence agencies to actively sabotage the country's nuclear program.  "Industrial sabotage is a way to stop the program, without military action, without fingerprints on the operation, and really, it is ideal, if it works," says Mark Fitzpatrick, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Non-Proliferation and now Senior Fellow in Non-Proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.….(CBS, 23 May 07)

Ex-Coke Secretary Sentenced to 8 Years

A federal judge ignored a former Coca-Cola secretary's plea for mercy Wednesday and sentenced her to eight years in prison for conspiring to steal trade secrets from the world's largest beverage maker. U.S. District Judge J. Owen Forrester told Joya Williams, 42, that he was giving her a longer sentence than recommended by federal prosecutors and sentencing guidelines because, "This is the kind of offense that cannot be tolerated in our society."….(AP, 23 May 07)

Bush backs secret Iran operation

U.S. President George Bush has approved a secret CIA non-lethal regime destabilization plan in Iran, ABC News reported Wednesday…Current and former intelligence officials who asked not to be identified said the plan aims to upset Iran's uranium enrichment program as well as alleged assistance to insurgents in Iraq…..(UPI, 23 May 07)

What We Have (Not) Learned from Wen Ho Lee

Seven years after the Wen Ho Lee case, a civil rights organization says that Chinese Americans are still suspected of being spies, according to Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily.....(Sing Tao Daily, 23 May 07)

Raid on spy's home 'reveals details of Chirac's secret £30m bank account'

…Papers seized by two investigating magistrates from General Philippe Rondot, a former head of the DGSE, France's intelligence service, show Mr Chirac opened an account in the mid-1990s at Tokyo Sowa Bank, credited with the equivalent of £30 million. It is not known where the money came from, nor whether it is connected to various kick-back scandals to which Mr Chirac's name has been linked over the past decade…..(Scotsman, 23 May 07)

Spy's son releases Hitler photos

Photographs of Adolf Hitler - taken by a Nottinghamshire spy weeks before the start of World War II - have been made public for the first time. Charles Turner took the images at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany in July 1939. He was given unprecedented access to the Nazi leader, and toured the festival as part of his entourage…..(BBC, 23 May 07)

40 years ago, Israel attacked U.S. ship

…This June 8 will mark the 40th year since Israel attacked the USS Liberty, killing 34 and wounding 75 Americans. On that date in 1967, the undefended communications vessel was in international waters 15 miles north of the Sinai peninsula when Israel launched its deadly air and torpedo boat fusillade. Claiming it to be an accident, Israel was at a loss to explain precisely how its Mossad intelligence network  “generally regarded as the world best espionage organization” couldn’t identify a clearly marked U.S. Navy craft…..(Bismarck Tribune, 22 May 07)

Former spy 'abandoned by Britain'

…Speaking in the Commons, Hexham MP Peter Atkinson said Viktor Makarov, 52, was "in a sorry state". He was caught spying for Britain and sent to a labour camp before being released under an amnesty in 1992 and smuggled into the country by MI6. Mr Makarov said he also feared for his life following the poisoning of former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko…..(BBC, 22 May 07)

UN torture panel presses Poland for details on CIA secret prisons probe
UN Committee Against Torture Monday urged Poland to disclose details a parliamentary investigation into the presence of secret CIA prisons in the country on Monday, expressing concern that Poland participated in running terrorist suspect prisons in the country….(Jurist, 22 May 07)

For Estonia and NATO, A New Kind of War

And now for a quick quiz: A European country -- a member in good standing of NATO and the European Union -- has recently suffered multiple attacks on its institutions. Can you (a) name the country, (b) describe the attacks and (c) explain what NATO is doing in response?....(Washington Post, 22 May 07)

DNI Urges Update of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

…"Technology and threats have changed, but the law remains essentially the same," wrote DNI Mike McConnell in a Washington Post op-ed on May 21. "The failure to update this law comes at an increasingly steep price." But contrary to Director McConnell's surprising claim, FISA has been repeatedly and substantively modified and updated over the years…..(FAS, 22 May 07)

Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran

The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com…..(ABC News Blog, 22 May 07)

House passes more tech-friendly antispyware bill

In their third effort to enact a federal law targeting spyware, members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved criminal penalties aimed at anyone implanting certain types of malicious software on computers…..(CNet, 22 May 07)

Intelligence Ministry elaborates on Esfandiari's arrest
Public Relations of IRI Intelligence Ministry here Monday elaborated on detainment of Haleh Esfandiari. In Intelligence Ministry's communique, a copy of which was delivered to IRNA, we read, "Intelligence surveys on efforts made by certain US institutes, foundations, and organizations aimed at influencing the developments in the Islamic Republic of Iran reveled certain facts for us."….(IRNA, 22 May 07)

Iran Accuses American of Revolution Plot

The Islamic Republic of Iran yesterday accused a prominent American academic it imprisoned two weeks ago of conspiring to foment a velvet revolution there.

A statement from the Intelligence Ministry that was reported on state television said that Haleh Esfandiari and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., along with similar institutions like the Soros Foundation, had been trying to establish a network that would work “against the sovereignty of the country.” “This is an American-designed model with an attractive appearance that seeks the soft-toppling of the country,”…..(New York Times, 22 May 07)

Report: US Missile Data Leaked in Japan

Classified information about a U.S.-developed missile defense system was leaked from Japan's navy to students at a naval academy, a news report said Tuesday, as officials investigated security gaps in military information shared between the allies. Investigators say the leak involved ship-to-air SM-3 interceptor missiles that are to be deployed on Japanese ships later this year, Kyodo News agency reported, citing unidentified officials. Investigators are already looking into the alleged leak of information about the U.S.-developed high-tech Aegis radar system used in warships. That information was also shared between the United States and Japan……(AP, 22 May 07)

American Scholar Is Charged in Iran
…Esfandiari was charged with setting up a network that was working "against the sovereignty" of Iran, the government outlet said. "This is an American-designed model with an attractive appearance that seeks the soft-toppling of the country," state television reported…..(Washington Post, 22 May 07)

Ex-KGB man faces polonium murder charge

…In a move which will spark a political row between London and Moscow, Sir Ken Macdonald QC said he had asked the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to seek the extradition from Russia of Andrei Lugovoi…“I have today concluded that the evidence sent to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrei Lugovoi with the murder of Mr Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning. I have further concluded that a prosecution would clearly be in the public interest. “In those circumstances, I have instructed CPS lawyers to take immediate steps to seek the early extradition of Andrei Lugovoi from Russia to the United Kingdom, so that he may be charged with murder - and be brought swiftly before a court in London.” In a separate statement, the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith QC, who agreed with the CPS decision, said: “It is alleged that in London on or about 1 November 2006, Mr Lugovoi poisoned Mr Litvinenko by administering a lethal dose of Polonium 210, a radioactive material.…..(Telegraph, 22 May 07)

CPS statement on Litvinenko

The director of public prosecutions has recommended that a former KGB officer should be charged with the murder of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko…Here is Sir Ken's statement in full….(BBC, 22 May 07)

Profile: Andrei Lugovoi

Andrei Lugovoi will be charged with the murder of former spy Alexander Litvinenko, the Crown Prosecution Service said today….(Telegraph, 22 May 07)

Video: Profile of Litvinenko suspect

Timeline: Litvinenko death case

Ex-Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko died in a London hospital on 23 November from what is being investigated as radiation poisoning. Here are some of the key events leading up to and since his death…..(BBC, 22 May 07)

Britain Charges Russian Businessman in Poisoning

The British authorities said today they would seek the extradition of a single Russian businessman, Andrei Lugovoi, to face trial for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former K.G.B. agent who died of radiation poisoning caused by a rare isotope, polonium 210…The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, which has pursued its own investigation, made no immediate comment today on any progress in its case…..(New York Times, 22 May 07)

Competitive Intelligence vs. Espionage

Business intelligence, corporate intelligence, manufacturing intelligence, industrial intelligence -- whatever you call it, we do it openly but prefer the target company be unaware…..(Thomas Net, 22 May 07)

The ex-KGB man accused of murder

Since the investigation began into Alexander Litvinenko's death eight-months ago the finger of suspicion has been repeatedly pointed at Andrei Lugovoi. The former KGB officer, who now heads a private security firm, had tea with Mr Litvinenko at London's Millennium Mayfair Hotel on the day he fell ill. Traces of the radioactive substance polonium-210, which caused Mr Litvinenko's death, have also been found in a string of places Mr Lugovoi visited in London…..(BBC, 22 May 07)

Video: CPS statement on the Litvinenko murder

UK accuses ex-KGB spy of Litvinenko poisoning

An ex-KGB agent was today accused by the UK of murdering former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. Moscow-based Andrei Lugovoy is wanted for the "deliberate poisoning" of Mr Litvinenko, who died from a fatal dose of the radioactive agent Polonium 210……(Edinburgh News, 22 May 07)

Britain, Russia square off in spy case

A period of tense relations between Britain and Russia is expected following the British request for the extradition of a former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko…..(BBC, 22 May 07)

Britain demands handover of Russian polonium suspect

British prosecutors accused a former KGB agent on Tuesday of murdering dissident Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium and sought his extradition, throwing London and Moscow on to a diplomatic collision course…..(Reuters, 22 May 07)

UK Files Charge in Death of Soviet Spy

…The Interfax news agency on Tuesday cited the Russian prosecutor-general's office as saying it will not turn over Lugovoi to British authorities…..(AP, 22 May 07)

Ambassador: Apology for Pollard Remarks

The U.S. ambassador to Israel apologized Tuesday for comments about convicted Pentagon spy Jonathan Pollard, saying they were "misinformed and misleading."….(AP, 22 May 07)

U.S., Cuba tangle at U.N. over alleged plane bomber

…Cuban charge d'affaires Ileana Nunez Mordoche accused Washington of a bid to conceal details of Luis Posada Carriles' CIA past by permitting his May 8 release after the judge in El Paso, Texas, dismissed immigration fraud charges against him. Posada Carriles, who was taken into U.S. custody in May 2005 after he entered the country illegally, is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela, where he is accused of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people…..(Reuters, 22 May 07)

Sarkozy adviser may stand trial for corporate espionage in Belgium

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's new legal adviser found himself in the unwanted media spotlight this past weekend as a business magazine said he could face trial in a long-running corporate espionage case in Belgium. Capital weekly said Patrick Ouart, former secretary general of the French energy group Suez, could be tried for suspected involvement in illegally obtaining confidential information about Belgian subsidiary Electrabel. Ouart and other Suez executives are believed to have ordered the hacking of Electrabel's computer system and the tapping of its top management's telephone conversations ahead of the Belgian utility's takeover in 2005….(RIA Novosti, 21 May 07)

We Need a FISA For the 21st Century

…FISA was created to guard against domestic government abuse and to protect privacy while allowing for appropriate foreign intelligence collection. Technology and threats have changed, but the law remains essentially the same. If we are to improve our ability to protect the country by gathering foreign intelligence, this law must be updated to reflect changes in technology and the ways our adversaries communicate with one another……(Washington Post, written by Michael McConnell, DNI, 21 May 07)

Where FISA reform meets '1984'

With the administration telling the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act must be further loosened to give the executive branch more authority to harvest information from our phone calls and e-mails, I envisioned George Orwell, still alive and coming to the United States to lecture -- but being turned back because he had been out on a no-fly list…..(Washington Times, 21 May 07)

Famed Polish writer outed as 'spy' in anti-communist purge

The celebrated Polish writer and reporter, Ryszard Kapuscinski, today became the latest public figure to be "outed" as a "communist spy" in Poland. Newsweek Poland put the late writer, reckoned to be the greatest east European journalist of his generation, on the cover of this week's issue, unveiling details of his communist-era secret police file and claiming that his global travels in the 1960s and 70s were due to a bargain he struck with the communist regime to collaborate with the secret police…..(Guardian, 21 May 07)

Japanese base searched over Aegis leak

…The Japan Times said the search of the Maritime Self-Defense Force's First Service School in Hiroshima Prefecture was conducted Saturday and was the first by authorities of a military installation over possible violation of the 1954 law governing military secrets. Personal computers were seized by authorities as well as administrative registers and other materials….(UPI, 21 May 07)

INTERNET LAW - Should We Go To War Over A Massive Cyber-Attack?

…It all started a few weeks ago. Weary of Russian attempts to reportedly meddle in its internal affairs, the former Soviet satellite state decided to relocate a Soviet war memorial from the center of its capital Tallinn to a cemetery. The action angered Russians living in Estonia and beyond. Among the actions taken against Estonia was a massive cyber-attack, lasting weeks, which Estonian public officials and business executives claim originated at the top levels of the Russian government…..(IBLS, 21 May 07)

Four Indicted Over WiBro Industrial Espionage

The Seoul Central Prosecutor's Office on Sunday arrested three former and one current researcher with POSDATA on charges of attempting to smuggle WiBro technology developed by the company to the United States. Prosecutors plan to summon another three former researchers at POSDATA's lab in the U.S. on suspicion that they tried to set up a company with the same business line there and sell it to a U.S. telecom firm. The group of researchers in Korea is suspected of taking technological data for WiBro handsets and base stations and the outcome of equipment tests since last October and handing them over to a former researcher at the U.S. lab identified as Kim…..(Chosun, 21 May 07)

Engineers Charged with Industrial Espionage

Prosecutors, working with the National Intelligence Service in South Korea have charged four engineers with trying to sell mobile broadband technology to a company in the USA for US$190 million says the Yonhap news agency...The technologies they stole included "technical memos" containing technical analysis of WiBro development, "base station channel cards" which determine the performance of WiBro base stations, and test results of related equipment…..(Cellular, 21 May 07)

Debate Over Prewar Intelligence on Iraq Heats Up Again

As the conflict in Iraq rages on, so, too, does the controversy over the prewar intelligence on which the Bush Administration built its case for war…..(Voice of America, 21 May 07)

CIA Honors Four Fallen Officers

The CIA recently added four stars to the Memorial Wall at its headquarters and honored the fallen officers those stars represent during a ceremony Monday. The wall pays tribute to the agency personnel and contractors _ now totaling 87 _ who died while performing national security missions….(AP, 21 May 07)

Anthony M. Brooks, Undercover Foe of Nazis, Dies at 85

Anthony M. Brooks, who led a network of saboteurs who delayed German reinforcements for weeks after the Normandy invasion, died on April 19…Mr. Brooks was 20 when he parachuted into France in July 1942 as a British undercover agent dispatched to France to aid the anti-Nazi resistance — part of a special force that Churchill assigned to “set Europe ablaze….(New York times, 21 May 07)

US Ambassador says Jonathan Pollard's lucky not to have been executed

The US ambassador to Israel on Monday said it is unlikely that convicted Pentagon spy Jonathan Pollard will ever be freed, adding that the fact that he has not been executed should be seen as an act of "mercy" by Washington…"It came out in the trial very clearly," he claimed. "Jonathan Pollard took money for what he did, he sold out his country," Jones at Bar Ilan University, near Tel Aviv. "The fact that he wasn't executed is the mercy that Jonathan Pollard will receive."  Pollard, a civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy, sold military secrets to Israel while working at the Pentagon. He was arrested in 1985 and pleaded guilty at his trial, as part of a bargain that was never honored. He is serving a life sentence in a US federal prison and is reportedly in ill health…..(Israel Insider, 21 May 07)

Joseph Wells Clifford International Specialist

Joseph Wells Clifford, 85, an international organization and arms control specialist, died of a heart attack May 14… Mr. Clifford served for 30 years at the State Department and the Atomic Energy Commission, including 19 years with the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations…..(Washington Post, 20 May 07)

CIA briefing SEC monthly on terrorists: Barron's

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is being briefed monthly by the Central Intelligence Agency about terrorists and other criminals active in global stock markets, Barron's said in its latest edition. Barron's said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox told the publication he and four other commissioners are briefed each month and that the CIA reports offer the SEC a "somewhat sharper focus" to an "underworld of murky, illegal dealings that threaten the world capital markets."….(Reuters, 20 May 07)

Assessments Made in 2003 Foretold Situation in Iraq

Two intelligence assessments from January 2003 predicted that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and subsequent U.S. occupation of Iraq could lead to internal violence and provide a boost to Islamic extremists and terrorists in the region, according to congressional sources and former intelligence officials familiar with the prewar studies….(Washington Post, 20 May 07)

War Resources Will Not Be Diverted for Intelligence Estimate on Warming's Effects on National Security

A proposed intelligence assessment on climate change and its impact on national security will not divert analysts or collectors from working on issues related to Iraq, Afghanistan or terrorism, according to a senior intelligence official….(Washington Post, 20 May 07)

Academics May Boycott Iran Over Scholar's Detainment

Momentum is building behind an academic boycott of Iran to pressure the government to free imprisoned American scholar Haleh Esfandiari, who was jailed in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison on May 8 after more than four months under house arrest….(Washington Post, 20 May 07)

Employees of CIA's old airline want U.S. pensions

Few Americans know it, but Air America is embedded in some of the most iconic images of the Vietnam War. In the famous photo of the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, the helicopters lifting stranded diplomats off the rooftop belonged not to the military but to Air America. The company was shut down after the fall of Saigon in 1975, and the U.S. government subsequently acknowledged that Air America was a wholly owned subsidiary of the CIA….(LA Times, 20 May 07)

Accused nuke engineer: I was showing off

…Mohammad Alavi, 49, also told FBI agents that he left his job at the nation's largest nuclear power plant and moved to Iran to be closer to relatives, according to records obtained by The Arizona Republic. Alavi, who lived in the U.S. as a naturalized citizen for 30 years, is charged with violating a trade embargo with Iran, which carries a maximum penalty of 21 months in prison. Trial is set for July 3. Alavi worked at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix for 16 years, until he resigned in August and moved to Tehran. The software he downloaded onto his personal laptop was part of an emergency-training package containing details of the plant's control rooms, reactors and designs. It is not classified, has no links to actual plant workings and can't be used to affect operations…Alavi acknowledged downloading the software in Iran but said he did it to show relatives and a business associate, according to court records. The laptop was still in a closet at his mother's house in Tehran…..(AP, 20 May 07)