China’s cyber army is preparing to march on America, says Pentagon

Chinese military hackers have prepared a detailed plan to disable America’s aircraft battle carrier fleet with a devastating cyber attack, according to a Pentagon report obtained by The Times. The blueprint for such an assault, drawn up by two hackers working for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is part of an aggressive push by Beijing to achieve “electronic dominance” over each of its global rivals by 2050, particularly the US, Britain, Russia and South Korea. China’s ambitions extend to crippling an enemy’s financial, military and communications capabilities early in a conflict, according to military documents and generals’ speeches that are being analyzed by US intelligence officials….(Times Online, 8 Sep 07)

Cheryl A. Spector CIA Employee, Gay Activist

Cheryl Ann Spector, 49, a CIA executive secretary who volunteered extensively in Washington's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community as an archivist and videographer, died Sept. 4…Ms. Spector had worked for the CIA since 2000….(Washington Post, 8 Sep 07)

Germany Makes Official Request to US in 'CIA Rendition' Case

Germany's ministry of justice has made an official request to US authorities for co-operation in arresting 13 people in connection with the alleged CIA-backed kidnapping of a Lebanese-born German citizen. The justice ministry's move comes three months after the city's state prosecutor made a formal approach to the German government for help in the notorious Khaled el-Masri case…..(Deutsche Welle, 7 Sep 07)

The files that came in from the cold

Philippe Mora sifts through once-secret documents looking for any hint of how the CIA regarded Australia. Australia appears in various CIA documents like a flying fish popping up out of the ocean for a split second. Documents chart the underbelly of the Cold War, the drift into Vietnam and finally the terrorism of today…..(Sydney Morning Herald, 7 Sep 07)

Judge rules against FBI data-gathering tool

A federal district judge yesterday struck down a key section of the USA Patriot Act that allows the FBI to secretly seize personal records about customers from Internet service providers, phone companies, banks, libraries, and other businesses without a judge's permission. The Patriot Act provision allowed investigators, at their own discretion, to issue a type of administrative subpoena known as a "National Security Letter" to businesses as part of an inquiry into suspected spies or terrorists. The company would then have to turn over the requested records, and its employees would be banned from telling anyone about the subpoena. Because US District Court Judge Victor Marrero gave the government 90 days to appeal his order, the FBI does not have to stop issuing National Security Letters immediately…In his 103-page ruling, Marrero said the Patriot Act provision on National Security Letters violates both "the First Amendment and the principle of separation of powers" because it gags recipients of the subpoenas and doesn't provide adequate court oversight. "In light of the seriousness of the potential intrusion into the individual's personal affairs and the significant possibility of a chilling effect on speech and association - particularly of expression that is critical of the government or its policies - a compelling need exists to ensure that the use of National Security Letters is subject to the safeguards of public accountability, checks and balances, and separation of powers that our Constitution prescribes," wrote Marrero….(Boston Globe, 7 Sep 07)

TomorrowNow Incident Brings Scrutiny to SAP, Oracle

Oracle's pending lawsuit accusing arch-rival SAP of what amounts to industrial espionage has inadvertently brought both firms' lucrative and controversial service and maintenance fees to the fore… Oracle (Quote) claims SAP (Quote) engaged in "corporate theft on a grand scale" by engaging in "systematic, illegal access to—and taking from—Oracle's computerized customer support systems." Meanwhile, last month, SAP CEO Henning Kagermann admitted that someone working for TomorrowNow engaged in "inappropriate" downloads of Oracle support materials but contends SAP did not access any of Oracle's intellectual property…..(Internet News, 7 Sep 07)

Fresh twist in spying controversy

The FIA is investigating claims that "one or more" of McLaren's drivers may have been in possession of information relevant to the industrial espionage controversy involving the British team and Italian rivals Ferrari… Reports have suggested that the evidence arising from Mosley's investigation relates to an email exchange between world champion Fernando Alonso and his McLaren teammate Pedro de la Rosa. Alonso, however, refused to be drawn on the issue…..(Guardian, 7 Sep 07)

Beware the Trojan panda

The West's military and government computers are attacked every millisecond. America's State Department, for one, says its networks are probed about 2m times a day. The culprits may be computer geeks, vandals or bored teenagers. Of late, though, some of the most bold, even brazen, attacks are being blamed on the Chinese authorities….(Economist, 7 Sep 07)

Judge deals blow to Patriot Act

…U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the section of the Patriot Act that permits the FBI to send Internet service providers secret demands, called national security letters, for customer information violates the First Amendment and unreasonably curbs the authority of the judiciary… A report published in March by the Justice Department's inspector general found "serious misuse" of NSLs on the part of the FBI. But because unlawful use of NSLs is not a crime--unlike conducting an unlawful wiretap, which is a federal felony--no prosecutions were brought. Also in March, The Washington Post published a first-person account by the president of an Internet company who received an NSL. "I resent being conscripted as a secret informer for the government" for the past three years, the writer said….(CNet, 7 Sep 07)

Judge Invalidates Patriot Act Provisions

...Yesterday's ruling marks the second time that Marrero has struck down the Patriot Act's NSL provisions. In 2004, after the ACLU filed suit on behalf of the same plaintiff -- an Internet service provider identified as John Doe -- he ruled similarly that the NSL provisions were unconstitutional because they silenced recipients and gave them no recourse through the courts. While a government appeal was pending, Congress passed legislation in 2005 aimed at solving the problems identified by Marrero. But the judge ruled yesterday that the revisions were not adequate and that under the new law, "several aspects . . . violate the First Amendment and the principle of separation of powers…..(Washington Post, 7 Sep 07)

CIA works to break info-sharing barriers

The agency ran a test with about 300 employees who used software to track the information in their e-mail messages and helped identify experts in specific areas, said Mike Wertheimer, assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analytic transformation and technology in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “They have to figure out what is intelligence information and what is administrative information still, but the test showed this concept works,” he said at the Analytic Transformation conference, sponsored by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. Additionally, the use of a classified version of Intellipedia, the intelligence community’s version of Wikipedia, is growing rapidly, said Sean Dennehy, the CIA’s chief of Intellipedia development…..(FCW, 7 Sep 07)

CIA chief defends rendition and detention policies

…Speaking in New York four days before the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks, CIA Director Michael Hayden said al Qaeda had regained strength and its leadership continued to plot a "high-impact" attack on the United States. "Al Qaeda is focusing on targets that would produce mass casualties, dramatic destruction and significant economic aftershocks," Hayden said, quoting from an intelligence summary released in July…..(Reuters, 7 Sep 07)

Hayden: CIA Had Fewer Than 100 Prisoners

… In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, Hayden defended the government's policy of extraordinary rendition, criticized the media for publishing stories about the government's intelligence activities, and warned that al-Qaida is trying to plant operatives in the United States. Extraordinary rendition refers to the interrogation policy involving the secret transfer of prisoners from U.S. control into the hands of foreign governments, some of which have a history of torture…..(AP, 7 Sep 07)

Lawmakers Seek Details On Spy-Satellite Plans

…The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.) called department officials to testify on the proposed surveillance program after learning about it in an Aug. 15 article in The Wall Street Journal. In May, Homeland Security received authorization to set up the National Applications Office, a unit that will process requests from civilian agencies to use satellites. Mr. Knocke said both Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and the department's chief of intelligence, Charles Allen, who will oversee the program, apologized to Mr. Thompson for failing to include him in briefings about the program…..(Wall Street Journal, 7 Sep 07)

Lawmakers Challenge Plan to Expand Spying

…Administration officials say the program can help domestic authorities deal with a variety of threats, from illegal immigration and terrorism to hurricanes and forest fires, by providing access to high-resolution, real-time satellite photos. Military sensors can peer through clouds and tree canopies, detect underground bunkers and penetrate buildings. Charles Allen, Homeland Security's chief intelligence officer, told the committee that overhead satellite imagery has been used legally for decades to support domestic, federal, scientific, law enforcement and security uses. It has been used to create maps, monitor volcanoes and scout sports events…..(Washington Post, 7 Sep 07)

Court Outlaws Gag Orders For FBI's Secret Subpoenas

…The FBI has had this subpoena power since 1986, although the USA Patriot Act legislation of 2001 greatly expanded the bureau's authority to send such letters, which, unlike warrants and grand jury subpoenas, are issued without court oversight. The letters, which are used exclusively to assist in terrorism or spy investigations, often seek telephone and Internet records. An internal Justice Department report concluded this year that some letters were being issued without proper authorization by senior FBI officials….(New York Sun, 7 Sep 07)

“Espionage and Treason” compromised from the beginning

...The “Espionage and Treason” case, which prosecutes international consultant Stamen Stanchev and former ministerial officials Mihai Donciu and Dorinel Mucea, has reached a dead end yesterday. Several problems presented by the lawyers against the proofs in the file have been postponed until an unset date....(Jurnalul, 7 Sep 07)

India issues manual to plug security leaks

In response to increasing cases of espionage and infiltration by Western intelligence agencies, the Indian Defense Ministry has circulated a manual designed to counter the armed forces’ vulnerability to security leaks. Defense Minister AK Antony told the Rajya Sabha here on Thursday that Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) scientists had developed a manual titled “Deceit detection and interrogation” to help security forces in identifying spies and insurgents…..(Daily Times, 7 Sep 07)

Chinese hackers 'hit 10 Whitehall departments'

…Whitehall sources confirmed that these latest attacks were a problem, with as many as 10 departments hit by hackers in China and Russia. Targeted departments are thought to include the Foreign Office and Home Office. One source said attempts to infiltrate had continued for several years. The source said: "These attacks are ongoing." One report claimed Chinese hackers had succeeded in shutting down part of the House of Commons' computer system earlier this year…..(Telegraph, 6 Sep 07)

Cyber crime will spread: study

Cyber criminals will try to exploit the Federal Government's proposed health and welfare access card, interfere with e-passports and engage in "industrial espionage", a federal study predicts. The criminals will move away from a scatter-gun approach and start targeting specific companies and people, the Australian Institute of Criminology report on directions in technology crime warns. It says the access card planned by the Federal Government will be a "likely target"……(Age, 6 Sep 07)

New 'spy' evidence a threat to McLaren

In a move that could have serious repercussions for the McLaren Formula One team, the FIA Court of Appeal hearing of the Ferrari espionage case has been cancelled. Instead, following fresh evidence, the World Motor Sport Council will reconvene on 13 September, and McLaren has been "invited" to attend. Sources at the FIA refused to comment on the new evidence or its source. It is possible it will involve allegations that the managing director at McLaren, Jonathan Neale, knew of the company's possession of the Ferrari documentation before team principal Ron Dennis was informed…..(Belfast Telegraph, 6 Sep 07)

Ferrari no comment on spy row development

…The FIA on Wednesday called off an upcoming appeal of its July verdict regarding the case, and instead scheduled another hearing of the World Motor Sport Council, after receiving 'new evidence' concerning the alleged use of secret Ferrari information by the Italian outfit's Woking based competitor……(EuroSport, 6 Sep 07)

'Black Sites' Showcases Espionage World

An exhibit at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco will give you a glimpse into the world of espionage, featuring code words, secret prisons, and the like...As part of an exhibit called "Dark Matters," Paglen has turned his attention and camera lens on some of those black sites. He traveled to Afghanistan to take a photo of what looks to be a deserted factory, but he says it's much more. "The salt pit was the first CIA black site. The first secret prison, as far as we know, was built in late 2001….(ABC7, 6 Sep 07)  Video

China says not been asked to probe alleged cyber attacks on foreign computer networks

China on Thursday denied targeting foreign government and military computer networks and said it has not been asked by any nation to investigate alleged hacking…China has denied the accusations and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the government "has all along been opposed to and forbidden any cyber crimes. To say that the military of China has made cyber attacks against foreign government networks is groundless and irresponsible and born out of ulterior motives," Jiang said at a regularly scheduled news conference….(AP, 6 Sep 07)

UK jets scrambled to intercept Russian aircraft

British fighter jets were today scrambled to intercept eight Russian Bear reconnaissance aircraft in the second such incident in recent weeks… The Associated Press reported that Norwegian F16 fighters were scrambled twice to monitor the same eight Russian bombers that came close to its territory in the latest show of air power by the Kremlin……(Guardian, 6 Sep 07)

South Korea top spy to reveal hostage deal “later”

South Korea's spy chief has refused to deny his government paid a ransom to the Taliban to release 19 hostages last week, a lawmaker said on Thursday. His remarks are certain to fuel speculation that money was part of a deal to free South Korean Christian volunteers almost six weeks after they were seized by Afghan insurgents who had killed two of the captives…..(Reuters, 6 Sep 07)

Country denies fresh hacking allegation

…"China is a responsible country and we never do this kind of despicable things," said Yang Yi, director of the Institute of Strategic Studies under the National Defense University. "As a matter of fact, China has never had so called military hackers," he said, reacting to allegations against the Chinese army…..(China Daily, 6 Sep 07)

Bush knew Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction

On Sept. 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, according to two former senior CIA officers. Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam's inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. Tenet never brought it up again…..(Salon, 6 Sep 07)

Newest Spy Gadget: Social Networking

As spy gear goes, a social-networking Web site doesn't quite have the same cachet as some of James Bond's high-tech gadgets. But the U.S. intelligence community is taking a page from popular online hangouts like Facebook and News Corp.'s MySpace to help encourage operatives to share information. In December, agency leaders are launching a social-networking site just for spooks. The classified "A-Space" ultimately will grow to include blogs, searchable databases, libraries of reports, collaborative word processing and other tools to help analysts quickly trade, update and edit information……(AP, 6 Sep 07)

Invisible arms race: The internet balance of power

Somewhere here in Guangzhou, the balmy capital of the booming southern province of Guangdong, a shadowy group of computer scientists is said to be hard at work under the supervision of the People's Liberation Army, waging cyber warfare on Western military and industrial targets… It's hard to believe in the 30-degree-plus heat of Guangzhou, but this city has been named one of the epicenters of the Cold Cyber War. Instead of missiles pointing at capital cities, and huge standing armies facing each other across ideological divides and barbed-wire fences, the only weapons in this secret war are keyboards, some sharp minds and a lot of caffeine pills. The experts tell of how cyber spies breach supposedly unbreachable firewalls as smoothly as a skilled jewel thief, before swooping on a hard drive, snatching the secret files, and sending them to a third country, usually somewhere in Asia such as South Korea or Hong Kong. Then they make good their escape, often leaving no trace of the raid…And traditional espionage is also on the rise as global competition intensifies for new products. Defectors tell of plans to obtain hush-hush industrial information through operatives working at embassies, and post-graduate students or private individuals employed by companies for years…..(Independent, 6 Sep 07)

CIA to launch integrated intell service

The CIA will launch a new service Sept. 7 on its top-secret network that will integrate all its intelligence information into a single view. This new service, called CIA Wire, will underpin the agency’s contribution to the Library of National Intelligence (LNI), an initiative the intelligence community will launch by Oct. 31, said Gus Hunt, the CIA’s executive agent for LNI…..(FCW, 6 Sep 07)

Responding to the New Espionage Threats

For the last few days the media has been reporting alleged hacking attacks on US, UK and German government targets originating from China. It's to be expected of course as any new channel for covert information gathering will inevitably be exploited by zealous intelligence services. But what's really interesting about such attacks is not that they are happening, but their game-changing nature. In much the same way that communications interception transformed intelligence gathering in the last Century, so hacking and other new forms of electronic information gathering will progressively change the shape of espionage throughout the 21st Century......(Computer Weekly, 6 Sep 07)

Watching Orwell

…Orwell’s file seems to have been rather gently vetted by Britain’s spy agency, MI5, which perhaps understood that a casual dresser is not inevitably an enemy of the state. This is such an old and forbidding dance, the one between the watchers and the watched. The political life of the past century has been punctuated by one revelation after another, as secret files have been made public, either by legislative fiat or by the accidents of history….(New York Times, 6 Sep 07)

Homeland Security Drops Data-Mining Tool

Known as ADVISE and begun in 2003, the Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement program was developed by the department and the Lawrence Livermore and Pacific Northwest national laboratories for use by many DHS components, including immigration, customs, border protection, biological defense and its intelligence office. Testing of the program was suspended in March after questions arose over its compliance with privacy rules. Since then two internal Homeland Security reports found that tests had used live data about people rather than made-up data for one to two years without meeting privacy requirements…..(AP, 6 Sep 07)

North Korea Says It Cracked Spy Ring

…The Ministry of State Security alleged that an unnamed foreign spy agency had hired the North Koreans to carry out espionage on major military facilities and strategic locations within the country, the Korean Central News Agency said. At a news conference announcing the arrests, the ministry played a video showing written pledges it said the North Koreans had made to the foreign intelligence agency…China's official Xinhua news agency, which also reported on Wednesday's news conference, said the video footage appeared to show captured spy equipment, including a fake rock containing a satellite communications gadget, a bugging device in a flowerpot and various cameras…..(AP, 6 Sep 07)

Why Did NSA Announce Arrest of Foreign Spies?

There has been a hubbub regarding North Korean National Security Agency for their arrest of foreign spies and North Korean citizens accused of contacting foreign spies… There has been a similar case in the past which was known as the espionage issue of “Dakashi Skishima, a reporter of Nihon Geizai Shimbun.” On 1999, December Japan’s Nihon Geizai Shimbun Reporter Dakashi Skishima, who had visited North Korea 5 times after late-1980s, was arrested under the allegation as a spy. But this incident was not publicly announced and there was no spokesperson for National Security Agency involved…..(Daily NK, 6 Sep 07)

N Korea arrests nationals and foreigner for alleged espionage

North Korea's intelligence agency has arrested some of its own citizens and a foreign operative for spying on the country, the official news agency said Wednesday. An unnamed overseas spy agency allegedly hired North Koreans who frequently travel abroad to carry out espionage on major military facilities and strategic locations in the North, the Korean Central News Agency said…The alleged spies were assigned to obtain coordinates on a military installation with a GPS-guided device and obtain state and military secrets while luring senior officials out of their homeland by fomenting "illusion about the 'free world,'" KCNA said. The foreign intelligence agency also sent the unidentified agent — disguised as a trader — to the North to direct the espionage operations of its North Korean spies inside the country….(AP, 5 Sep 07)

Titan Rain - how Chinese hackers targeted Whitehall

…Security and defense officials are coy about what they know of specific attacks. However, they say several Whitehall departments have fallen victim to China's cyberwarriors. One expert described it as a "constant ongoing problem". The disclosures came after reports that the Chinese military had hacked into a Pentagon military computer network in June. The Financial Times said American officials called it the most successful cyber attack on the US defense department. Defense department officials confirmed that there had been a "detected penetration" of elements of the email system used by the network serving the office of Robert Gates, the US defense secretary… Alex Neill, China expert and head of the Asia Security Program at the Royal United Services Institute, Rusi, said cyber attacks by the Chinese had been going on for at least four years. He described the reported attack on the Pentagon as the "most flagrant and brazen to date"…..(Guardian, 5 Sep 07)

FBI: Enterprises need counterintelligence

The Chinese government has denied involvement in a series of hacks carried out against IT systems at the Pentagon in June this week, but the threat of technology-driven espionage has forced the FBI to push businesses and academic institutions to better prepare for such attacks. Little publicly-available evidence exists to prove that foreign governments have backed or planned to launch attempts to steal intellectual property from U.S. corporations and researchers, but officials with the FBI claim that the problem is real and that American organizations must begin policing their operations more aggressively today to prevent valuable data from being stolen tomorrow. In October, the FBI's Counterintelligence Domain Program -- which aims to foster cooperation between the agency and private entities to help organizations identify and protect potential intelligence risks -- will mark its first year in existence…..(InfoWorld, 5 Sep 07)

SAP, Oracle US Court Meeting Preliminary Set For Sep 11

German software company SAP AG (SAP) said Wednesday the first court meeting in San Francisco with competitor Oracle Corp. (ORCL) on the industrial espionage lawsuit against SAP has been postponed to Sep. 11 on a preliminary basis. The initial date was set for last Tuesday, but adjourned due to illness of the judge, a SAP spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires. The new date on Sep. 11 has not yet been officially accepted by the parties and the court…..(Dow Jones, 5 Sep 07)

Iran produces TV series to highlight nuclear achievement

Iran started on Wednesday production of a television series aimed at encouraging Iranians to support the country's struggle to pursue its nuclear program. The 20-part Fataneh series follows similar initiatives such as a computer game, stamp and even a banknote carrying the standard nuclear energy emblem…The story is focused on Iran's nuclear work within the framework of an espionage theme, Fars reported. In July, Iran's Islamic High School Society introduced a computer game called Special Operations 85. The society said the aim of the game is 'transferring ideological values such as sacrifice and martyrdom to the pupils while focusing on the nuclear issue.'….(DPA, 5 Sep 07)

Intelligence chiefs discuss terror, piracy in inaugural meet

Top military intelligence chiefs from 19 nations gathered here Wednesday for the first time to discuss terrorism, maritime security and disaster relief. "This is an opportunity for the intelligence chiefs from all these countries to get together to talk about areas of mutual cooperation and how we can go about sharing information for the benefit of all," said Major General Mohamed Salleh Ismail, Malaysia's Director General of Defense Intelligence. "Having to combat these invisible enemies, it becomes crucial for us to cooperate and share intelligence to counter them……(Agence France-Presse, 5 Sep 07)

U.S. tested anti-terror program using real names: audit

…Concerns about DHS's testing of its ADVISE data analysis system have dogged the agency since March, when the congressional Government Accountability Office first identified possible privacy violations … Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff initially dismissed concerns about the program, insisting that ADVISE was not designed to "suck up" information from the Internet and unfairly brew suspicions about ordinary citizens…"It's an experiment to see how you can better analyze data that you already have, that you've already legally collected, to see if you can understand it, sort it and make use of it more readily than simply doing it manually,"….(CanWest, 5 Sep 07)

Shhh! Spies gather here this week

…About 500 intelligence analysts have huddled here, and while they're not the types typically found lurking in dark corners in Kandahar, they are in the espionage business -- information-crunching division. News media were instructed Wednesday not to photograph any audience members. While analysts may not carry poison pens or wear machine-gun shoes, they are important and becoming more so, said Tim Sample, a former CIA analyst who's president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, a sponsor of the spy-vention…..(Sun-Times, 5 Sep 07)

Some Lawmakers Wary of Surveillance Law

…Suzanne Spaulding, an attorney formerly with the CIA and the House and Senate intelligence committees, told the committee the law's broad terms could even allow the government to open private letters and e-mails exchanged between Americans inside the United States if the government believes they contain information about or "concerning" people located outside the country. The Protect America Act expires in six months. Some members of Congress want to see it rolled back earlier, arguing it goes further than they initially understood in allowing the government to monitor American communications without court supervision…..(AP, 5 Sep 07)

White House Sued Again Over E-Mail

The White House abandoned an automatic archiving system for its e-mail in 2002 and did not replace it, says a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the Executive Office of the President. The suit by the National Security Archive, a private group, is the latest effort to find out whether the Bush administration lost millions of electronic messages… Both the lawsuit by the National Security Archive and the earlier one filed by CREW say there were hundreds of days in which there were missing White House e-mails from March 2003 to October 2005. "The period covers the period beginning with the Iraq war until the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; it doesn't get more historically valuable than that,"….(AP, 5 Sep 07)

Judge Scolds U.S. on Wiretapping Records

A federal judge scolded the Bush administration Wednesday for responding with sometimes blanket secrecy to a request for documents on its warrantless wiretapping program...But U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday that's not good enough. "While the court is certainly sensitive to the government's need to protect classified information and its deliberative processes, essentially declaring 'because we say so' is an inadequate" defense, Kennedy wrote……(AP, 5 Sep 07)

Countries lining up for Pentagon hacking

As China denies hacking into the Pentagon, the defense department has issued a statement clarifying its headline grabbing yarn from yesterday. Now it appears that China is not the only nation which is trying to break into the Pentagon's networks. Patrick Ryder, a US Defense Department spokesman, said that he knew of a number of nations and groups which are actively developing the capability….(Inquirer, 5 Sep 07)

Secret of Success

Since 1974, the Government Accountability Office has published no less than 74 reports on issues plaguing the federal security clearance process -- the most recent was released in September 2006. The messages and recommended solutions have been remarkably consistent. Yet more than three decades after the first report, the clearance process still suffers from many of the same problems, as witnessed by an estimated backlog of roughly 180,000 cases at the Defense Department alone……(Gov Exec, 5 Sep 07)

The mouse that roared

A decade or so ago, thinkers and pundits were fond of discussing the emerging threat of cyber attacks as a matter of international affairs…Now, despite preoccupation with more old-fashioned sorts of terrorism and war, is there, again, reason to fret about the cyber sort? Revelations this year that hackers successfully broke into Pentagon computers, followed by off-the-record confirmation by officials speaking to the Financial Times this week that the assailants were connected to China’s army, have brought the issue back to the fore. Reports suggest that the online intruders were probably engaged in espionage, downloading information. The ability to spy is threatening enough. But hackers may also discern vulnerabilities in computer systems and inflict damage. One fear is that hackers who peeked into the American government’s networks could possibly, one day, work out how to shut them down, at least for a time….(Economist, 5 Sep 07)

US offers Australia access to military technology in security pact

The United States is to give Australia more access to top-secret American military technology under a new defence cooperation treaty signed on Wednesday…Under the treaty, Australia's access to American military technology is to be upgraded to the same level as Britain's. The White House says the treaty will strengthen the two countries' robust alliance, giving their forces the means to counter what it describes as "new threats"……(Radio New Zealand, 5 Sep 07)

Iran Rejects Search for Traces of Ex-FBI Agent, U.S. Says

Iran has blocked a request from the United States to allow Swiss diplomats to go to Kish Island to look for the luggage or other traces of missing former FBI agent Robert A. Levinson, according to U.S. officials and the Levinson family. Levinson flew to Kish Island, an Iranian duty-free zone that does not require visas, on a business trip six months ago and disappeared. Iran's Foreign Ministry told the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which represents U.S. interests there, that it had closed its own investigation into the Levinson case….(Washington Post, 5 Sep 07)

Even 40 Years Later CIA Briefings to Stay Secret

…The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the CIA did not have to give up the documents under the Freedom of Information Act aimed at opening up government activity to the public. Larry Berman, a California political science professor, had sought two documents, one from 1965 and another from 1968, known as the President's Daily Brief (PDB), in which the CIA briefed then President Lyndon Johnson. During those years, the United States was waging war in Vietnam and engaged in a tense stand off with the Soviet Union…..(Reuters, 4 Sep 07)

Presidential Briefings May Be Kept Secret

…The decision from the San Francisco-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a University of California professor, Larry Berman, seeking two editions of the so-called President's Daily Brief from the 1960s… The appeals court accepted the CIA's contention that access to the briefs, even in an edited form, could jeopardize sources abroad by informing foreign intelligence services about when American leaders learned of national security-related developments. However, the judges rejected as "boundless" the CIA's claim that its technique for briefing presidents is itself an intelligence method entitled to confidentiality under the law…..(New York Sun, 5 Sep 07)

DNI Appoints New Vice Chairman and ADDNI for National Intelligence Council

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell appointed Dr. Stephen S. Kaplan as Vice Chairman and Assistant Deputy DNI for the National Intelligence Council,

effective Aug. 20.  For the past two years, Kaplan served in the Office of the Director of

National Intelligence as the ADDNI for the President's Daily Briefing --overseeing strategic plans for its content and production, among other duties……(Press Release, 5 Sep 07)

Forces battles intelligence crisis

The military command in charge of running the Afghanistan mission and all other overseas troop deployments is having difficulty providing the needed intelligence to support such operations, warns a Canadian Forces report obtained by the Citizen. The Canadian Expeditionary Force Command "clearly suffers from a lack of intelligence capability,"….(Ottawa Citizen, 5 Sep 07)

Titan Rain Falls On London

Chinese hackers - possibly from the military - have been targeting British government offices, a newspaper reports. Computer networks in Britain's Foreign Office and House of Commons were among those hit by what officials are describing as a "constant ongoing problem." An attack on the House of Commons last year was previously thought to originate from an individual hacker, the Guardian reports. However, techies now believe that the hack came from an organized team, who may be affiliated to the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The newspaper says that British officials are "coy" about the nature and the success of the targeting - the Ministry of Defense has refused to comment on rumors it was hit by the hackers…..(EURSOC, 5 Sep 07)

Find all missing people by 21st, SC tells govt

The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday set a September 21 deadline for the government to find missing people believed to be detained by the intelligence agencies, and warned that those involved in the illegal detentions would be put on trial if the court’s order was not obeyed…..(Daily Times, 5 Sep 07)

Military spies among 25 killed in suicide blasts

Two suicide attacks on the doorstep of Pakistan's army killed 25 people and injured more than 70 yesterday including intelligence agency officials…some reports said the bus they were traveling on belonged to Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the military's spy agency. One witness said one of the injured told him he worked for the ISI, which in the past has collaborated with extremists…..(Guardian, 5 Sep 07)

Government reveals its own abuse of State Secrets Privilege

…During recent depositions conducted by the Justice Department in a lawsuit filed by Edmonds under FTC, Department of Justice and FBI attorneys, Dan Barish and Ernest Batenga, questioned witnesses on and discussed information that was previously declared state secrets. This information was communicated on the record in the presence of parties who did not have security clearance. Information such as the nature of Ms. Edmonds’ work with the FBI, the specific FBI units where she performed translation, FBI target countries, the arrest warrant issued by the Turkish government for Ms. Edmonds’ sister, and congressional letters regarding the consequences of Dickerson’s espionage case in Turkey and here in the U.S., all of which were retroactively classified by the Justice Department, was discussed and put in the court record. ….(Oracle Syndicate, 5 Sep 07)

DIA Fires Back at Critics Over Outsourcing

The Defense Intelligence Agency is firing back at critics after it was accused of "outsourcing" sensitive intelligence functions to the private sector. News reports about the consolidation of 30 contracts into one huge deal worth nearly $1 billion were misinterpreted, says DIA spokesman Sean Kelly. "DIA does not outsource our analysis…..(WTOP Radio, 5 Sep 07)

Longtime NSA Official Arthur J. Levenson

Arthur J. Levenson, 93, a former official with the National Security Agency who assisted in the British-led effort to break German codes during World War II, died Aug. 12… he was working as a mathematician at the old National Bureau of Standards when World War II broke out. As a member of the Army Signal Corps in 1943, he was assigned as a cryptanalyst to the British code-breaking team at Bletchley Park outside London. He worked on efforts that ultimately led to the solving of the mathematical code of Germany's Enigma machine, which created secret messages for Nazi military leaders……(Washington Post, 5 Sep 07)

N. Korea nabs foreign, native spies

The National Security Service of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has arrested spies working for a foreign intelligence service. The spies included both foreigners and native citizens, who used a wide variety of espionage equipment from digital and pinhole cameras to GPS….(Xinhua, 5 Sep 07)

North Korea announces arrest of foreign spies: Xinhua

…Several North Korean nationals were also arrested for helping the alleged spies, Xinhua cited the spokesman, Li Su-Gil, as saying…Li said the spies worked for a foreign intelligence service, but neither their identities nor the country involved were revealed. Li also did not say when the alleged spies were arrested. The spies "collected official documents and information on DPRK's important military facilities, and spread the idea of so-called democracy and freedom to the people," Li said. He said the arrests of the spies showed espionage activities against communist North Korea were on the rise,,,,(Agence France-Presse, 5 Sep 07)

Trial over “spies” to be held sneakily?

Today military collegium of the Supreme Court of Belarus is to start proceedings in the case of the so-called Polish spies. “Four persons are to come to trial. Each of them is charged with collection of information and its reporting to a foreign state under on a task given by foreign intelligence,” the official report of the Supreme Court reads. “In order to ensure protection of state secrets the proceedings in the case is to take place behind the closed doors”. The four Belarusian officers face from 7 to 15 years of imprisonment…..(Charter97, 4 Sep 07)

Pakistan rejects book as lies

Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons, by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark

Pakistan has described claims in a recent book about its nuclear program as a “pack of lies,” a report said Tuesday…The book by the veteran British journalists describes Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program and the role of scientist A.Q. Khan. “Some people cannot digest our nuclear capability and are involved in negative propaganda but Pakistan is an anchor of peace and stability in the region,” Aslam was quoted as saying……(UPI, 4 Sep 07)

Terry Walz: Foreign Agents - Book Review

Foreign Agents, by Grant F. Smith

…Smith traces the development of AIPAC from its early days under founder Si Kenen, who in 1947 registered with the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an employee of the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs. He was representing himself then as an agent working for Israel .  He continued to register as a foreign agent during the late forties and fifties, working for various organizations funded by the Israel government, but in 1959, the name of the American Zionist Committee was changed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to better reflect, as Kenen said, that it "raised its funds from both Zionists and non-Zionists."….(Palestine Chronicle, 4 Sep 07)

Picking favorites for the fall

…two books relate the career of Pakistani nuclear huckster A.Q. Kahn: "Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons" (October), by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark, and "The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World's Most Dangerous Secrets and How We Could Have Stopped Him" (December) by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins……(Boston Globe, 4 Sep 07)

‘Pakistan will not enter arms race’

…“We will take all steps required to keep a strong deterrence but we will not be part of an arms race,” Aslam said, answering a question on India’s bid to buy more than 100 fighter jets. “Our principle is to keep the defense strong and unassailable,” she said, adding Pakistan wanted to make Jammu and Kashmir a nuclear-free and demilitarized zone. She said Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark’s book, ‘Deception: Pakistan, the US and Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons’, was a “pack of lies” aimed at discrediting Pakistan’s nuclear program. “Some people cannot digest our nuclear capability and are involved in negative propaganda but Pakistan is an anchor of peace and stability in the region,” she said, adding Pakistan’s nuclear assets were under a strong institutional framework……(Daily Times, 4 Sep 07)

China Denies Hacking Pentagon Computers

China on Tuesday denied a report that its military had hacked into Pentagon computers, saying the allegations were ''groundless'' and that Beijing was opposed to cybercrime…''Some people make groundless accusations against China'' that its military attacked the Pentagon, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular news  briefing.'' China has all along been opposed to and forbids criminal activities undermining computer networks, including hacking,'' she said. ''China is ready to strengthen cooperation with other countries, including the U.S., in countering Internet crimes.''….(AP, 4 Sep 07)

Chinese military 'hacked into Pentagon'

…Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said: "The Chinese government has consistently opposed and vigorously attacked according to the law all Internet-wrecking crimes, including hacking." Some people are making wild accusations against China ... These are totally groundless and also reflect a Cold War mentality." A few days before the Pentagon breach, Chinese hackers were accused of infiltrating German government computers. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, raised the issue with China's premier, Wen Jiabao, in a visit to Beijing and afterwards the Chinese Foreign ministry pledged to take "firm and effective action" to combat international computer hacking…..(Telegraph, 4 Sep 07)

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell will be the keynote dinner speaker at the Analytic Transformation Symposium: Moving Forward Together."

This event is sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis and the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA).

When: Thursday, September 6, 2007....(Press Release, 4 Sep 07)

Persistence of Myths Could Alter Public Policy Approach

…The conventional response to myths and urban legends is to counter bad information with accurate information. But the new psychological studies show that denials and clarifications, for all their intuitive appeal, can paradoxically contribute to the resiliency of popular myths. This phenomenon may help explain why large numbers of Americans incorrectly think that Saddam Hussein was directly involved in planning the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and that most of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Iraqi. While these beliefs likely arose because Bush administration officials have repeatedly tried to connect Iraq with Sept. 11, the experiments suggest that intelligence reports and other efforts to debunk this account may in fact help keep it alive…..(Washington Post, 4 Sep 07)

Freed Scholar Recounts Time In Iranian Prison

Esfandiari, 67, said that she survived solitary confinement by sticking to a strict 10-hour exercise regimen to keep from thinking about the implications of the charges against her. Iranian officials said that she was engaged in "crimes against national security" and plotting a "velvet revolution" -- a reference to the nonviolent upheavals that ousted communism in Eastern Europe -- against the world's only modern theocracy. The legal status of Esfandiari, a dual citizen of the United States and Iran, remains unclear. The longtime U.S. resident went to Iran last December to visit her ailing 93-year-old mother…..(Washington Post, 4 Sep 07)

Russia reshuffles Politkovskaya investigators

Russia said on Tuesday it had put a new prosecutor in charge of investigating the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya in what her colleagues said showed political interference in the case…said the changes were in response to the "large volume of work" needed to secure convictions. But the editor of Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper where Politkovskaya worked, said he believed the changes were designed to sideline the chief investigator hitherto, Pyotr Gabriyan, who will now report to Ivanov…..(Reuters, 4 Sep 07)

Romanian Court Rules Against Bulgarian Businessman Appeal

The Bucharest Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday against a procedural appeal lodged by the lawyers of Bulgarian businessman Stamen Stanchev, charged with industrial espionage. The defense lawyers argued the case should be transferred to Romania's High Cassation Court, but the appeals court rejected the plea, as well as the appeal to allow Stanchev to leave the country……(Novinite, 4 Sep 07)

Belarus puts 'spy ring' on trial

Four former Belarussian army officers have gone on trial in Minsk accused of military espionage for Poland. Security officials in Belarus say the accused gathered information about a joint Belarussian-Russian air defense system, called the S-300. The trial is being held behind closed doors as it involves state secrets…..(BBC, 4 Sep 07)

Belarus Tries Four Accused of Spying for Poland

…"Four people are to appear before the court and each is charged with gathering and transferring to a foreign state data sought by foreign intelligence," a court representative said before the hearing opened. "One of the accused is also accused of organizing spying activity by a foreign national."…Within days of the disclosure of the arrests, (President Alexander) Lukashenko dismissed KGB head Stepan Sukhorenko and accused the intelligence services of unprofessional activity…..(Javno, 4 Sep 07)

141 Bulgarian MPs named as secret service collaborators

A Bulgarian committee probing collaboration with the country's notorious communist secret services named Tuesday over 140 former and current lawmakers, including President Georgy Parvanov. The committee charged with opening the Darzhavna Sigurnost's archives listed on its website the names of 141 MPs from all parliaments since the fall of the communist regime in 1989, including 19 deputies from the current parliament…..(Turkish Press, 4 Sep 07)

Scholar Accused of Spying Leaves Iran; Another Stays in Jail

The scholar, Haleh Esfandiari, 67, director of the Middle East Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, left Iran late on Sunday after authorities returned her passport. It was taken away in January, when she came to Iran to visit her ailing mother. She was jailed in May on security-related charges and was released last month. The other scholar who was arrested with Ms. Esfandiari in May, Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planner with ties to the Open Society Institute of the Soros Foundation, was still being held despite promises of his release to his family……(New York Times, 4 Sep 07)

WWII British Spies Frustrated by FBI

British spies during World War II were frustrated by the lack of information-sharing with the FBI and feared Nazi agents could infiltrate Britain through the United States, newly declassified documents reveal. Files released Tuesday by the National Archives chart the rocky early years of the relationship between the U.S. and British domestic intelligence agencies and show how cooperation improved over the course of the war. The files on trans-Atlantic relations are part of a package of documents from the domestic spy agency MI5 -- also known as the Security Service -- released by the National Archives…..(New York Times, 3 Sep 07)

Røkke fends off espionage charges from prison

Norwegian industrialist Kjell Inge Røkke, currently serving a prison term that stems from bribery charges, is now defending himself against new charges that he and the firm he controls, Aker, spied on rivals six years ago. The industrial espionage allegations against Røkke and Aker are contained in a police report obtained and broadcast by national television channel TV2…..(Aftenposten, 3 Sep 07)

Chinese military hacked into Pentagon

The Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network in June in the most successful cyber attack on the US defense department, say American ­officials. The Pentagon acknowledged shutting down part of a computer system serving the office of Robert Gates, defense secretary, but declined to say who it believed was behind the attack. Current and former officials have told the Financial Times an internal investigation has revealed that the incursion came from the People’s Liberation Army. One senior US official said the Pentagon had pinpointed the exact origins of the attack. Another person familiar with the event said there was a “very high level of confidence...trending towards total certainty” that the PLA was responsible. The defense ministry in Beijing declined to comment on Monday…“The PLA has demonstrated the ability to conduct attacks that disable our system...and the ability in a conflict situation to re-enter and disrupt on a very large scale,” said a former official, who said the PLA had penetrated the networks of US defense companies and think-tanks……(Financial Times, 3 Sep 07)

Britain's Own “Big Brother” Eyed Orwell

George Orwell's left-wing views and bohemian clothes led British police to label him a communist -- but the MI5 spy agency stepped in to correct that view, the writer's newly released security file reveals. The secret file that MI5 kept on the author from 1929 until his death in 1950 is being declassified Tuesday by the National Archives….(AP, 3 Sep 07)

Russia and the Usual Suspects

It certainly would be welcome news if, in fact, Russian investigators have arrested 10 people involved in the murder of the crusading journalist Anna Politkovskaya, and perhaps also the killing of an American journalist, Paul Klebnikov, and the deputy head of the Russian Central Bank, Andrei Kozlov. That is what Russia’s prosecutor general, Yuri Chaika, announced the other day…..(New York Times, 3 Sep 07)

Germany to join US in using "policeware" for espionage, investigations

A scandal is brewing in Germany and elsewhere as revelations spread that the German government plans to use trojans and other forms of malware (so-called "policeware") to spy on and track persons of interest. The plan would entail using official, legitimate e-mail channels (messages from legitimate business or government entities) in order to install specialized malware on the computers of suspected terrorists……(Arstechnica, 3 Sep 07)

S Korean Spy Chief Steps Into Limelight

The official code of conduct for South Korea's main spy agency was once ''work in the shadows, aim for the light'' -- meaning that missions should be carried out in secret in pursuit of the national interest. So South Koreans were surprised when Kim Man-bok, the National Intelligence Service chief, turned up in Afghanistan late last month, saying he directed negotiations with Taliban militants to gain the release of 19 captive South Koreans…..(AP, 3 Sep 07)

China Developing Scramjet Propulsion

…The Chinese allowed a peek into multiple aspects of their scramjet efforts at the recent American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Joint Propulsion Conference in Cincinnati. Chinese engineers from several research facilities presented about a dozen papers on their scramjet developments, as well as details on the new wind tunnel…The Cincinnati meeting differed from a traditional U.S. industry gathering, because nearly a dozen engineers from Iran also submitted papers on Iranian solid and liquid rocket technologies. The Iranian engineers are based at the Sharif University of Technology and the KNT Technical University, both in Tehran. They apparently did not deliver the papers in person. However, as participants, the Iranians have access to all of the highly detailed U.S. aircraft and rocket propulsion presentations made at the conference…Ironically, one the more interesting historical papers presented at the forum was a detailed description of how the U.S. Air Force and Lockheed combined top-secret ramjet propulsion technologies with segmented solid rocket boosters for the Mach 3 D-21B reconnaissance drones that were launched by modified SR-71s and B-52Hs in the late 1960s (see center photo). The D-21B was specifically developed to gather intelligence over China….(Aviation Week, 3 Sep 07)

Scramjet Conference Conundrum

An alert reader pointed out this interesting article in Aviation Week which raises the issue, which we last talked about in relation to the Chi Mak prosecution, of deemed exports at scientific conferences. The conference in question was an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference in July on propulsion technologies, including scramjet and related technologies….(Export Law Blog, 6 Sep 07)

Chi Mak Export Trial Begins

The trial of Chi Mak and other members of his family for export of ITAR-controlled technical data begins this week. An article on the upcoming trial by New York Sun reporter Josh Gerstein, who has been following this case with some care, has this interesting tidbit….(Export Law Blog, 26 Mar 07)

Prosecution Run A-Mak

Yesterday we commented on the argument by the prosecutors in the Mak trial that export of public domain technical data to an embargoed country, such as China, violates the Arms Export Control Act. Josh Gerstein, the intrepid New York Sun reporter covering the case, read our post and sent a copy of the government’s brief in which it makes that claim. The prosecution’s argument couldn’t be simpler and couldn’t be more wrong….(Export Law Blog, 27 Mar 07)

South Korea's top spy under fire for Taliban mission

…National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Kim Man-bok brought home 19 hostages on Sunday after their six weeks in captivity and said on arrival he had spent 11 days in Kabul orchestrating South Korea's negotiations with the Taliban. South Korean media said Kim's conduct in Kabul and Seoul made no secret of the agency's role in the talks and went beyond what was necessary, particularly in the face of international criticism for striking a deal with the Taliban…..(Reuters, 2 Sep 07)

Logged In and Sharing Gossip, er, Intelligence

…It’s hard to imagine spies logging on and exchanging “whuddups” with strangers, though. They’re just not wired that way. If networking is lifeblood to the teenager, it’s viewed with deep suspicion by the spy. The intelligence agencies have something like networking in mind, though, as they scramble to adopt Web technologies that young people have already mastered in the millions. The idea is to try to solve the information-sharing problems inherent in the spy world — and blamed, most spectacularly, for the failure to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks…..(New York Times, 2 Sep 07)

Crofton man writes of busting Cuban spy

True Believer: Inside the Investigation and Capture of Ana Montes, Cuba's Master Spy, by Scott W. Carmichael

The arrest on Sept. 21, 2001, of a spy working for Cuba in the Defense Intelligence Agency went largely unnoticed, as the country was reeling from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Ana Belen Montes was a "true believer" who never accepted a cent for betraying the United States, according to a Crofton man who was instrumental in the arrest of the double agent……(Hometown Annapolis, 2 Sep 07)