Western Intelligence Services Focus on Albania’s Islamist Groups ahead of US Presidential Visit

…According to published Albanian media sources and off-the-record testimony from Western intelligence officials, the US security detail, with support from the ever-faithful British MI6, is particularly keen to neutralize small Islamic fundamentalist organizations operating in the country. But a mysterious explosion near the US embassy on May 16 and two munitions seizures on May 30 have still not been attributed to any group…..(Balkan Analysis, 2 Jun 07)

Libby Learns Sentencing Outcome Tuesday

At his sentencing Tuesday, former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will learn whether he will go to prison and, if so, whether it will be right away for his conviction in the CIA leak case. Once Libby's fate is known, then there is this ultimate question: Will President Bush pardon him?....AP, 2 Jun 07)

Bush Calls on Iran to Release Detained U.S. Citizens
…President Bush said the detainees had dedicated their lives to building bridges between Americans and Iranians, a goal that Tehran also claimed to share. "Their presence in Iran -- to visit their parents or to conduct humanitarian work -- poses no threat," he said in a statement. "Indeed, their activities are typical of the abiding ties that Iranian-Americans have with their land of origin."…(Washington Post, 2 Jun 07)

Book Review: Spy Wars

Spy Wars Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games, by Tennent H. Bagley

…In the lore of cold war spying, Bagley has been lumped with the C.I.A.'s mysterious counterintelligence chief, James Angleton, in a cabal of paranoids obsessed with a "monster plot" to infiltrate the C.I.A. No less an authority than the former C.I.A. director William Colby accused Angleton and his cohort of paralyzing useful intelligence gathering with a delusional search for moles….(New York Times, 1 Jun 07)

David Major (ret FBI), Jack Platt (ret CIA) and Oleg Kalugin (ret KGB) Review of "Spy Wars" by Pete Bagley [.mp3]

Russian ex-spy faces health problems in jail

A former Russian security agent who claimed to have warned Litvinenko of death squad could die of asthma in his prison if authorities continue refusing to hospitalize him, human rights activists said Friday. Mikhail Trepashkin, a former colonel in the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main KGB successor agency, is serving a four-year sentence for revealing state secrets in a prison colony in the Ural Mountains…..(Pravda, 1 Jun 07)

Poisoning Suspect Accuses British in Death of Litvinenko
The former KGB agent whom British prosecutors have accused of poisoning another former agent in London said Thursday that the British intelligence service MI6 was a likely suspect in the killing. At an 85-minute news conference in Moscow, Andrei Lugovoy offered no evidence to support his claim…..(Washington Post, 1 Jun 07)

Irvine man held in Iran

Irvine businessman Ali Shakeri is being held at the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, State Department officials said Thursday, and likely will become the fourth Iranian-American charged with espionage. U.S. officials denied that Shakeri is a spy or is employed by the U.S. government….(Orange County Register, 1 Jun 07)

Dell calls on HP to investigate spying charges

…Fortune magazine reported this week that it unearthed information that appears to support claims made by Karl Kamb Jr., a former HP vice president. Kamb said in legal documents filed in January that in 2002 HP paid a former Dell executive to snatch trade secrets about Dell's printer business…..(1 Jun 07)

Chinese Agents Infilitrating US Businesses

The almost legendary MI5 British counterintelligence service is said to be deeply concerned over an increase in spying by Chinese operatives in the United Kingdom…In the United States, the FBI is suspicious of Russia, Iran, and North Korea but have focused mostly on the Chinese. The feds estimate that the are over 2,600 Chinese front companies in the US…(Conservative Voice, 1 Jun 07)

Sledgehammers and hard drives

…despite the crew’s valiant efforts to destroy all the hard drives aboard the EP3 spy plane after an emergency landing on Hainan island in 2001, to this day no one knows whether the Chinese were able to reconstruct the aircraft’s highly sensitive information. You have to assume they did. That said, what allows most cloak-and-dagger folks to sleep easy at night is knowing that, though fragments of confidential data can always be recovered from hard drives, it takes an inordinate amount of time and effort to achieve anything worthwhile. That’s what spooks mean when they talk about “security by exotic time-consuming technology”….(Economist, 1 Jun 07)

Iran Hostage Crisis, Part 2

Paranoid that a network of U.S. scholars and thinkers is fomenting a velvet revolution, Iran charged three U.S.-Iranian citizens with espionage this week. If convicted, they face execution. The accused are Haleh Esfandiari, the 67-year-old director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Kian Tajbakhsh, 45, a respected social scientist at the New School in New York who has consulted for George Soros's Open Society Institute and the World Bank; and Radio Farda journalist Parnaz Azima, 59….(Washington Post, 1 Jun 07)

U.S. says fourth Iranian American detained in Iran

Iran has detained a fourth Iranian American, California businessman Ali Shakeri, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday, calling his arrest part of a "disturbing pattern" of harassment of dual citizens….(Reuters, 1 Jun 07)

Defense Team Asks Leniency From Judge in Libby Case

The lawyers recommended that Mr. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, be given probation, possibly with community service, when he is sentenced on Tuesday. Mr. Libby was convicted in March of lying to a grand jury and F.B.I. agents investigating the leak of the identity of a Central Intelligence Agency operative, Valerie Wilson…..(New York Times, 1 Jun 07)

Senate Panel Report Puts White House on Notice on Surveillance Request

A Senate panel says it will not consider legislation to expand the executive branch’s surveillance authority until it receives long-withheld presidential orders authorizing the warrantless eavesdropping program…“The administration’s refusal to satisfy these document requests spans over a year and hampers the committee’s ability to move forward on the legislation before it.”…(Congressional Quarterly, 1 Jun 07)

White House Follows New Path to Secrecy

A newly disclosed effort to keep Vice President Dick Cheney's visitor records secret is the latest White House push to make sure the public doesn't learn who has been meeting with top officials in the Bush administration. Over the past year, lawyers for President Bush and Cheney have directed the Secret Service to maintain the confidentiality of visitor entry and exit logs, declaring them to be presidential records, exempt from a law requiring their disclosure to whoever asks to see them…..(AP, 1 Jun 07)

Senators Seek Legal Review of CIA Methods

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has demanded a legal review of the CIA's detention and interrogation program for terrorism suspects as part of its version of the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill...Another Senate provision, which also appears in the House-passed intelligence bill, would modify the practice of telling only the chairmen and ranking members of the intelligence committees about the most sensitive operations, such as the warrentless domestic wiretapping…..(Washington Post, 1 Jun 07)

Libby's Lawyers Argue Against Prison as Fitzgerald Seeks 30 Months

Defense lawyers argued yesterday that Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff should serve no time in prison for lying about the leak of a covert agent's identity, on the grounds that he is a selfless, apolitical public servant with an otherwise "exemplary" record. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's attorneys asserted in a court filing that a federal prosecutor's proposal that their client spend 30 to 37 months in prison is "grossly disproportionate" to the crimes that provoked a jury's guilty verdict….(Washington Post, 1 Jun 07)

Enron emails inspire GCHQ spooks

Geeks at GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), the UK's spook-infested listening station, are using the infamous Enron email trail to develop software that will monitor people's emails and stop them sending incriminating or confidential messages….(Register, 1 Jun 07)

Iran and the US: A new Cold War?

Even as they struggle to find common ground on Iraq, are America and Iran locked in the escalating tensions of a new Cold War? Many analysts saw their meeting in Baghdad on 28 May as a sign of a thaw…But look at the bigger picture and there are serious and growing tensions on several fronts….(BBC, 1 Jun 07)

Senate Panel Questions C.I.A. Detentions

The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday questioned the continuing value of the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret interrogation program for terrorism suspects, suggesting that international condemnation and the obstacles it has created to criminal prosecution may outweigh its worth in gathering information…(New York Times, 1 Jun 07)

Plame sues, accusing CIA of blocking her memoirs

Valerie Plame, the former undercover CIA operative whose 2003 exposure touched off a leak investigation, is accusing the government of delaying publication of her new book…..(AP, 1 Jun 07)

Russia: Britain Politicizing Spy Case

Russia's foreign minister on Friday accused Britain of politicizing the investigation into the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, warning it would strain relations between the two countries…..(AP, 1 Jun 07)

Suspect Accuses British in Spy’s Death

…The suspect, the Russian businessman Andrei K. Lugovoi, also contended that British intelligence officers had tried to recruit him to collect compromising material about President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia…He said he had evidence supporting “this dark political story in which British special services play the main role.” He refused to disclose it, saying he would provide his information only to the Russian government….(New York Times, 1 Jun 07)

CIA agent tells the truth about the polygraph

GATEKEEPER: Memoirs of a CIA Polygraph Examiner, by John F. Sullivan

John Sullivan's job was ferreting out liars. During a 31-year career as a ''gatekeeper'' for the Central Intelligence Agency, he hooked up a record 6,000-plus potential liars to polygraph machines in 40 countries. Gatekeeper is his story, and it's fascinating and troubling. Sullivan opens bare the controversy, including within the agency itself, over the validity of the polygraph, which Sullivan staunchly defends, but as ''an art, not a science….(Miami Herald, 31 May 07)

Spy killing suspect: Britain involved in plot

Andrei Lugovoi, who was accused earlier this month of the murder by British prosecutors, made his sensational claim in a televised Moscow news conference that was broadcast live here. "Even if (British special services) hadn't done it itself, it was done under its control or connivance," Lugovoi said….(USA Today, 31 May 07)

Lugovoi: British Involved in Spy's Death

The Russian businessman whom Britain has named as a suspect in the killing of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko claimed Thursday that he has evidence of British special services' involvement in the poisoning death. "Even if (British special services) hadn't done it itself, it was done under its control or connivance," Andrei Lugovoi told a news conference….(AP, 31 May 07)

Wife in spy case to begin sentence

Convicted of a Castro-related crime, Elsa Alvarez said her farewells to family Wednesday before journeying from Miami to Central Florida to begin her three-year prison sentence…She and her husband, former FIU professor Carlos Alvarez, were thrust into the criminal spotlight in January 2006 when they were arrested on charges of being unregistered agents for Cuban leader Fidel Castro's communist government. They later pleaded guilty to lesser charges…..(Miami Herald, 31 May 07)

Iran arrests third US-Iranian

…The Kayhan daily said Ali Shakeri, who works for a US “peacebuilding” non-government organisation, was linked to the same charges that have already resulted in the detention of fellow US Iranians, the scholars Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh. A fourth US-Iranian, journalist Parnaz Azima, has been charged with the same offences but remains at liberty. “Ali Shakeri’s arrest, the third prosecution of ‘Velvet Agents’ in the past month, can reveal the hidden ties between opposition groups seeking to overthrow the regime and so-called reformists inside the country,”….(Daily times, 31 May 07)

Shattered as a lover and a spy

… Kan Zhonggan was a spy. His master was the government of Taiwan, an island that broke with mainland China in 1949 after a protracted civil war. Ever since, mutual espionage has been a way of life… Little was known about the lives of the secret agents who risked everything for the cause until a group of elderly former spies decided to speak out recently in hopes of seeking redress and compensation from Taipei…..(LA Times, 31 May 07)

False passport of Nazi Eichmann found in Buenos Aires court

The false passport used by high-ranking Nazi Adolf Eichmann in 1950 to escape to Argentina was accidentally discovered in an old court record in Buenos Aires. The supervisor of the mass deportation of Jews to extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe during the war, Eichmann fled to Argentina under the alias of Ricardo Klement…..(Merco Press, 31 May 07)

Judge Will Release Letters in Libby Case

A federal judge said Thursday he will release more than 150 letters he received regarding next week's sentencing of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Libby, who was convicted in March of perjury and obstruction in the CIA leak case, had asked that the letters not be released. Attorneys for several news organizations argued that the law required the letters be made public…..(AP, 31 May 07)

US Warns Against Travel to Iran

The United States warned U.S. citizens on Thursday against traveling to Iran, accusing Islamic authorities there of a "disturbing pattern" of harassment after the detention of a fourth Iranian-American for alleged espionage. "American citizens may be subject to harassment or arrest while traveling or residing in Iran,"….(AP, 31 May 07)

New Agency IARPA Develops Spy Tools

…The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity will try to develop groundbreaking technology for the 16 spy agencies. One potential tool sounds like it comes from an episode of Star Trek: "cloaking" technology that can bend radar around an object to make it appear it's not there. Others include power sources shrunk using nanotechnology and quantum computers that can speed code-breaking, says IARPA acting director Steve Nixon…..(AP, 31 May 07)

Hayden: CIA taking more risks

The CIA has gotten younger and is taking "more operational risk" since the September 2001 attacks, agency Director Michael Hayden told USA TODAY…An unprecedented hiring boom, Hayden said, has meant nearly half of the CIA workforce is new since 9/11. That has produced a spy agency with "more language skills and cultural diversity" and a need to "get rolled out quickly."….(USA Today, 31 May 07)

Talk to foreigners and we will view you as a spy, Iran warns academics

Iran's powerful intelligence ministry has stepped up its war of nerves with the west by telling the country's academics they will be suspected of spying if they maintain contact with foreign institutions or travel abroad to international conferences. The blunt warning has been issued by the ministry's counter-espionage director in an atmosphere of rising suspicion and paranoia….(Guardian, 31 May 07)

Schwarz is new head of Czech civilian intelligence

The Czech government today appointed Ivo Schwarz as the new director of the civilian intelligence service (UZSI), Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek (Civic Democrats, ODS) told journalists. Until now, Schwarz worked as UZSI's deputy head…..(Prague Daily Monitor, 30 May 07)

‘Peres incriminated Pollard, unworthy of presidency’

Dossier drafted by Free Pollard Committee says during his tenure as prime minister vice premier transferred to US documents that led to spy’s conviction; in letter to MK’s group members urge legislators to think twice before voting for Peres in presidential race….(YNet, 30 May 07)

Russian chemist cleared of espionage

Russia's Federal Security Service formally dropped all charges against chemist Oleg Korobeinichev, who was suspected of divulging state secrets. The researcher from the Russian city of Novosibirsk was accused by the service of providing the U.S. Department of Defense top secret information regarding advanced types of solid rocket fuel….(UPI, 30 May 07)

Americans in Iran Accused of Spying
Iran yesterday formally charged three Americans with espionage and endangering national security, the government's judicial spokesman said, signaling a widening clampdown against U.S. citizens in Iran. The three individuals charged are prominent Washington scholar Haleh Esfandiari, social scientist Kian Tajbakhsh of the New York-based Open Society Institute, and correspondent Parnaz Azima of U.S.-funded Radio Farda. Iran announced over the weekend that it had uncovered U.S. spy networks and protested to the Swiss ambassador, who represents U.S. interests in Iran…..(Washington Post, 30 May 07)

A Look Inside the CIA

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to work for the nation's Central Intelligence Agency? Have you ever wanted to walk the halls of the CIA?....(News Blaze, 30 May 07)

ACLU: Boeing Offshoot Helped CIA

A Boeing Co. subsidiary accused by the American Civil Liberties Union of facilitating torture by providing services to the CIA for secret overseas flights said it does not, as a rule, inquire about its customers' business…..(AP, 31 May 07)

UK 'behind Litvinenko poisoning'

The man suspected of poisoning ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko has said it could not have happened without the involvement of British secret services. Andrei Lugovoi, who denies killing Mr Litvinenko, told a Moscow news conference that he was a scapegoat…..(BBC, 31 May 07)

The ex-KGB man accused of murder

Andrei Lugovoi, who is accused of killing ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko says Britain wanted to portray him as a "Russian James Bond"..…(BBC, 31 May 07)

Litvinenko suspect says British spies real killers

…In comments likely to deepen a Russian-British feud reminiscent of Cold War spy scandals, Britain's chief suspect Andrei Lugovoy rejected Litvinenko's deathbed charge the Kremlin had ordered his poisoning with highly radioactive Polonium 210…..(Reuters, 31 May 07)

London Refused to Swap Berezovsky for Lugovoy

Britain’s prosecutors have rejected the Soviet-style offer of Vladimir Vasiliev, chairman of State Duma’s Security Committee, to exchange exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky for Andrey Lugovoy. Lugovoy is suspected of killing ex-officer of FSB Alexander Litvinenko by polonium-210. On April 16, 2007, Russia’s prosecutors made an official request to Britain to strip Berezovsky of the asylum status and to extradite him to Russia. In Russia, a criminal case was initiated against Berezovsky following his interview to The Guardian, where he called to topple President Vladimir Putin by force and acknowledged funding a coup in the country……(Kommersant, 30 May 07)

Russia's top prosecutor dismisses suggestion of Lugovoi-Berezovsky swap exchange

Britain has applied for the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi, a Russian businessman and former KGB member, saying it has sufficient evidence to charge him in the fatal radioactive poisoning last year of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian agent turned Kremlin critic who had been granted asylum in Britain. Russia says its constitution prohibits such extraditions, but a Russian lawmaker this week appeared to suggest that Lugovoi could be extradited in exchange for Berezovsky, a onetime Kremlin insider who became a strong critic of President Vladimir Putin and fled to Britain, where he was granted asylum. Russia has long sought his extradition on charges of economic crimes, which Berezovsky says are politically motivated…..(AP, 30 May 07)

Boeing unit sued over CIA transfers

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing a unit of Boeing Co., charging that it assisted the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in secretly abducting suspect foreigners to overseas prisons where they were held and interrogated. The ACLU said it would file a lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., a Boeing unit that provides flight and logistics support to plane operators, later on Wednesday….(Reuters, 30 May 07)

Iran's Crackdown on Visiting Iranian-Americans Raises More Questions About Tehran's Agenda

The news that a fourth Iranian-American may have been arrested in Iran for alleged espionage has heightened questions about the Tehran government's seemingly contradictory behavior.  Iranian and U.S. officials have just completed their first publicly acknowledged high-level meeting to discuss stabilizing Iraq….(VOA, 30 May 07)

Mum's the word

…Army's new operational security guidelines, or OPSEC for short. In them, the Army has categorized the press as a "nontraditional" threat, lumping reporters, drug cartels, warlords and al-Qaida together in the same sentence. Under the new rules, all Army personnel and Department of Defense contractors are told to keep an eye on reporters and anyone seen speaking to them. The rule states all personnel should "consider handling attempts by unauthorized personnel to solicit critical information or sensitive information as a Subversion and Espionage Directed Against the U.S. Army (SAEDA) incident."….(Reformer, 30 May 07)

Advisers Fault Harsh Methods in Interrogation

As the Bush administration completes secret new rules governing interrogations, a group of experts advising the intelligence agencies are arguing that the harsh techniques used since the 2001 terrorist attacks are outmoded, amateurish and unreliable….(New York Times, 30 May 07)

Reality, Not Rhetoric, On FISA

FISA has been on the books since 1978 but has been updated and modernized numerous times. The law's purpose is to facilitate secret surveillance and searches on U.S. soil against spies, terrorists and other foreign powers. A Congressional Research Service report last July found that Congress had made approximately 50 changes to FISA since its inception -- and nearly a dozen updates since Sept. 11, 2001. Whenever FISA has been shown to be inadequate to track the communications of terrorists, Congress has been ready to update the law…..(Washington Post, 30 May 07)

US Dismisses Iranian Spy Charges as Absurd

The United States Tuesday dismissed as absurd charges by Iran that three Iranian-Americans visiting that country were involved in spying. The charges were announced only a day after U.S. and Iranian diplomats held a rare face-to-face meeting in Baghdad….(VOA, 29 May 07)

Inconstant Moon: CIA monitoring of the Soviet manned lunar program

…to what extent did CIA monitoring of the Soviet manned lunar program during the 1960s play a role in the Apollo program, particularly its schedule? Several dozen newly released documents, including the “manned lunar file” from the CIA’s reading room, shed some new light on this subject……(Space Review, 29 May 07)

Man accused of helping Iran to spy is freed

A businessman has cleared his name after being wrongfully accused of illegally exporting a so-called "spy plane" to Iran. Ali Manzarpour spent nearly two years languishing in a tough Polish jail because the FBI said he had broken American trade laws…..(Argus, 29 May 07)

DFAT may probe spy's suicide

The foreign affairs department may consider a further investigation into the suicide of an Australian intelligence officer accused of passing secrets to the United States. Merv Jenkins, a senior Defence Intelligence Organisation official attached to the Australian Embassy in Washington, was found hanging in the garage at his home in June 1999…..(AAP, 29 May 07)

Russia-U.K. intelligence ties to continue despite Litvinenko -source

A source in the Russian intelligence community said Tuesday the Litvinenko case is not likely to affect cooperation between Russian and British intelligence services. The British Sunday Telegraph newspaper recently published an article citing high-ranking British intelligence officers who expressed concerns that the U.K. could lose access to important intelligence data on terrorist groups….(RIA Novosti, 29 May 07)

Rights lawyer acquitted after seven months in jail

…Abdolfattah Soltani was given a five year sentence in March last year for leaking documents in a case related to Iran's controversial nuclear program and for spreading propaganda against the regime.  "The court of appeal of Tehran has rejected all the accusations, saying that there was no proof against me," Soltani said, according to the semi-official Ilna labor news agency…..(Agence France-Presse, 29 May 07)

No new agency for foreign intelligence, top spy says

The head of Canada's spy service says it would take time to teach his agents the art of gathering human intelligence overseas but the process would be faster and cheaper than creating an entirely new agency to do the work…..(Globe & Mail, 29 May 07)

U.S. Congress likely to require quarterly intelligence report on N.K. nuclear program

The U.S. Congress is expected to pass a bill requiring detailed quarterly intelligence reports keeping close tabs on the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs. The House of Representatives passed Resolution 2082, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, on May 11 with an amendment asking the director of national intelligence to submit the reports…..(Yonhap, 29 May 07)

Iran Charges 3 Iranian-Americans With Spying

… A judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi said the Intelligence Ministry filed the charges against Haleh Esfandiari, Kian Tajbakhsh and journalist Parnaz Azima. He did not announce any trial date for any of the three…All three have dual U.S.- Iranian citizenship….(VOA, 29 May 07)

US-Iranians charged with spying

…Although the jailed academics are well-known figures in Iran, nobody has dared defend them here for fear of being accused of spying, our correspondent says. The arrests have also prompted some Iranians abroad to cancel trips back home - worried they are no longer safe…..(BBC, 29 May 07)

Second Russian May Be Spy Case Suspect

A Russian who met in London with Alexander Litvinenko and with the man whom British authorities accuse of murdering him said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that he expects he may also be accused in the former KGB agent's poisoning death. Dmitry Kovtun expressed solidarity with Andrei Lugovoi, the Russian businessman British authorities want to prosecute in Litvinenko's poisoning, saying the accusations against him were groundless and suggesting they were politically motivated….(AP, 29 May 07)

3 Iranian-Americans Charged With Spying

U.S. academic Haleh Esfandiari and two other Iranian-Americans have been "formally charged" with endangering national security and espionage, Iran's judiciary spokesman said Tuesday…the same charges also had been lodged against Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant who also has worked for the World Bank, and journalist Parnaz Azima. No trial date has been announced and Jamshidi said the investigation against all three is continuing….(AP, 29 May 07)

Iran accuses US of running 'spy sabotage networks'

Iran has accused the United States of running spy networks aimed at carrying out "sabotage" operations in its sensitive border provinces, ahead of key talks on Iraq between the two foes. Iranian agencies say the ambassador to Switzerland, which looks after US interests in Tehran, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to receive a "strong protest over the hostile intervention of the US Government". .. Iran's Intelligence Ministry announced it had broken up spy networks led by coalition forces in Iraq, but the comments were the first time the United States has been directly accused.  "The espionage activities of the United States Government on the soil of the Islamic Republic of Iran are in contradiction to international treaties," Mr Sobhani said…..(Agence France-Presse, 28 May 07)

Iran Protests US Spying

Iran protested US intelligence activities, saying it discovered spy networks in the country, as the US and Iranian ambassadors meet today in Baghdad for the highest-level formal talks between the countries since 1979….(Fars News, 28 May 07)

Tehran's Secret 'Department 9000'

…a supersecret group called Department 9000, which is part of the elite Quds Force of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to three U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reporting and analysis on the Iraqi insurgency who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive material. Department 9000 acts as a liaison between the insurgents and the IRGC, the Iranian regime's principal internal-security mechanism, providing guidance and support…..(Newsweek, 28 May 07)

CIA recruited wireless cat to spy on Russians
At the height of the cold war, the CIA wired up cats so that they could listen in to the Kremlin's secrets… Victor Marchetti, a former CIA officer said that in Project "Acoustic Kitty" slit the cat open, put batteries in him, wired him up. The tail was used as an antenna…..(Inquirer, 28 May 07)

NZ history awash with spy stories

Tales of spies and infiltrators are not unusual in New Zealand history. The most famous have targeted protest groups including Springbok demonstrators and Greenpeace campaigners. While some argue undermining protest threatens democracy, others say a corporation has the right to protect its business…..(One News, 28 May 07)

Litvinenko Film Director's Home Ransacked

A house in Sweden belonging to Andrei Nekrasov, the director of a film about Russian spy Aleksandr Litvinenko, was ransacked recently. The Helsingin Sanomat reported Monday that while Nekrasov's documentary about the assassinated secret agent has been surrounded with controversy…(Post, Chronicle, 28 May 07)

Britain asks Russia to extradite Litvinenko suspect

… British prosecutors said last week they wanted to bring Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoy before a British court to try him for the murder of Litvinenko, who died on November 23 after being poisoned with the rare radioactive isotope. "I this morning delivered the extradition papers to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the extradition of Mr. Lugovoy," British Ambassador Anthony Brenton told reporters…..(Reuters, 28 May 07)

Russia's Idled Spies

On November 11, 2002, Sweden expelled two Russian diplomats for spying on radar and missile guidance technologies for the JAS 39 British-Swedish Gripen fighter jet developed by Telefon AB LM Ericsson, the telecommunications multinational. The Russians threatened to reciprocate. Five current and former employees of the corporate giant are being investigated…..(American Chronicle, 28 May 07)

Robert Leigh CIA Employee

Robert Leigh, 83, a longtime staff member of the CIA, died May 23… He joined the CIA in the late 1940s and held various classified positions until his retirement in 1979…..(Washington Post, 28 May 07)

Memorial Service Honors Four Who Fell in Service to CIA

 …A week ago in a little-noticed ceremony, CIA employees gathered in the agency's headquarters lobby before the Memorial Wall, where 87 stars are carved in marble. Four of the stars were added this spring. The 87th star was engraved in memory of Rachel A. Dean of Stanardsville, Va. She joined the CIA in 2005 as a support officer, and died last September….(Washington Post, 28 May 07)

Czech civilian intelligence services not to merge

The civilian counter-intelligence BIS and the civilian intelligence UZSI will not merge in the new structure of Czech intelligence...The UZSI gathers intelligence information from abroad for the government and other senior officials. The BIS operates in the Czech Republic and gathers information about terrorism, extremism, illegal arms trading and about the activities of foreign intelligence services in the country…(Prague Daily Monitor, 28 May 07)

Iran summons Swiss ambassador to protest U.S. espionage networks

…The broadcast said Ahmad Sobhani, head of American affairs for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, met with Swiss Ambassador Philippe Welti and demanded "necessary explanation" of U.S. espionage networks Iran announced it had uncovered Saturday. "Recently, several espionage networks were identified that were active, under guidance of the U.S. intelligence apparatus, to commit infiltration and sabotage in western, central and southwestern areas of the country," the television quoted Sobhani as saying during the meeting…..(AP, 27 May 07)

John Clayton: Recalling exploits of WWII spy from Laconia

...Tom Stefan was paid to avoid the spotlight. He was a spy. He worked deep in the hills and mountains of Albania as World War II raged throughout Europe, and he did so as an Army officer assigned to the Office of Strategic Services. That agency -- forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency -- dispatched Tom Stefan to Albania, the homeland of his parents, in 1943. His mission was to provide advice and counsel to underground resistance fighters in Albania, as they battled with Nazi and Italian fascist occupiers…..(NH Union Leader, 27 May 07)

Iran: We Have No Information On Missing Irvine Man

Some believe Kian Tajbakhsh, an employee of George Soros' Open Society Institute, was detained earlier this month. The private foundation encourages democracy-building in countries around the world. A spokesman of Iran's Foreign Ministry says he also had no information about another Iranian-American, Ali Shakeri, who was supposed to leave Iran and fly to Europe earlier this month but never arrived at his destination…..(AP, 27 May 07)

William John McCoy Jr. CIA Officer, Professor

William John McCoy Jr., 82, a former officer with the CIA who later became a professor of Chinese and an international businessman, died May 22… Dr. McCoy served in the Army during World War II and was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA. He was awarded the Bronze Star and later served in the Marine reserves…..Washington Post, 27 May 07)

Countering Iran's Distrust

As U.S. and Iranian diplomats prepare for a crucial meeting in Baghdad tomorrow, what's on Tehran's mind? The normal reportorial techniques aren't much help, since the Iranians aren't talking publicly. But we can get a sense of what they're thinking by using the columnist's ancient art of mind reading…..(Washington Post, 27 May 07)

How the Pentagon Got Its Shape

Excerpted from The Pentagon: A History, by Stephen F. Vogel

…The easiest solution, constructing a tall building, was out. They would have to spread out horizontally. But how? A square building that size -- with the enormous interior distances to be covered -- was too unwieldy, as was a rectangle. The Arlington Farm tract had a peculiar asymmetrical pentagon shape bound on five sides by roads or other divisions. Finally, guided by the odd shape of the plot, they designed an irregular pentagon…..Washington Post, 27 May 07)