April 2008

Mexican aide fired after snatching BlackBerrys

Days after hosting an international summit and reopening the first Mexican consulate in the United States, the Crescent City finds itself still in the headlines south of the border, but for all the wrong reasons… Rafael Quintero Curiel, who coordinated logistics for Mexican media traveling with Calderon, said in a letter posted online that he took two BlackBerrys from a table but thought they'd been left by accident and intended to return them to their owners… The communication devices, of the sort that have become a fixture among harried, rarely unplugged government officials, were left on a table in a foyer just outside a Windsor Court Hotel meeting room where the U.S. and Mexican delegations were holding trade and security talks. Officials often must leave electronic devices outside when engaged in sensitive diplomatic discussions. ….(Nola, 26 Apr 08)

Clearance process gets makeover

A governmentwide plan to overhaul the security clearance process and introduce more automation will soon be headed for White House consideration, according to leaders of an interagency team that is crafting the proposal. The team has made Lean Six Sigma, a business improvement methodology, a central element in the plan, said Elizabeth McGrath, the Defense Department’s principal deputy undersecretary of business transformation. McGrath is a co-leader of the interagency Joint Security Clearance Process Reform Team, which is directing the effort…..(FCW, 28 Apr 08)

U.S. hones intelligence skills

…Just 13 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, the heavily guarded Army fort, once the home of the Buffalo Soldiers, is noted today for training some of the U.S. military's most-talented intelligence operatives and interrogation personnel…"The threat changed. We went from communism to terrorism," said Steve Norton, chief of the Defense Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Management Office within the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). "So we're not looking at nation states; we're not looking at armies; we're not looking at equipment — submarines and ships. We're dealing with a very diabolical enemy, but within the human dimension kind of threat." ….(Washington Times, 28 Apr 08)

Fort Belvoir Blasting Begins With A Quiet Bang

...Demolition experts will be working Tuesday and Friday at the Engineer Proving Ground to dislodge large rocks blocking construction of a new headquarters for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA),..The base already is home to more than 100 Defense Department and other federal agencies. The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process closed government facilities in other parts of the country and is bringing many of them to Belvoir, which is expected to reap the biggest gains of any Defense Department installation…….(Washington Post, 28 Apr 08)

Solar-powered spy plane will fly for five years

…Now, the real life Qs of the US intelligence services have plans to build a spy plane that - wait for it - can stay in the sky for five years thanks to solar power. Managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - that’s the US Department of Defense’s R&D boffins to you - Project Vulture, as it’s known, will see the development of a plane that can carry out missions to gather information on the baddies. It’ll work just like a satellite, but will get dressed up as an airplane…..(Greenbang, 28 Apr 08)

Pentagon Suspends Briefings for Analysts

…A spokesman for the Pentagon said the briefings and all other interactions with the military analysts had been suspended indefinitely pending an internal review. On Sunday, The New York Times reported that since 2002 the Pentagon has cultivated several dozen military analysts in a campaign to generate favorable coverage of the administration’s wartime performance. The retired officers have made tens of thousands of appearances for television and radio networks, holding forth on Iraq, Afghanistan, detainee issues and terrorism in general……(New York Times, 26 Apr 08)

Companies Vie to Update FBI Computers

Three companies will compete for tasks to upgrade and modernize computer systems for the Federal Bureau of Investigations under a contract valued at $290 million over five years…The modernization effort is a continuation of an initiative launched in 2000 to update the agency's PCs, laptops, printers, servers and applications. The technology refresh program, as the initiative is called, will set new technology standards for the FBI, including criteria for commercial products…….(Washington Post, 28 Apr 08)

Intelligence on Syria delayed to avoid fight

The U.S. delayed disclosing its intelligence on Syria's nuclear program for months after an Israeli raid in order to give Damascus breathing room and avoid goading it into military retaliation, senior U.S. intelligence officials said yesterday. The secret intelligence had remained under wraps for seven months, a gap that led top congressmen to criticize the Bush administration yesterday for its "veil of secrecy" and lack of trust in Congress regarding North Korea's proliferation activities. …..(Washington Times, 25 Apr 08)

US Sells Secret Anti-IED Tech to Iraq

The U.S. has taken the unprecedented -- and some would say questionable -- step of selling some of its most sophisticated counter-IED technology to the Iraqi government, equipping specialized police, military and interior ministry troops with electronic systems designed to detonate roadside bombs and jam triggering signals. Officials from Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq announced April 20 that its foreign military sales office had sold the Iraqis 411 Lockheed Martin-built "Symphony" counter-IED systems. A few of the Symphony systems are already up and running on Iraqi government vehicles, the command said, with the rest due to be installed by the end of the summer……(Military.com, 24 Apr 08)

The CIA and the Niger Delta

What convinced the security authorities that the four American documentary makers arrested in the Niger Delta two weeks ago were courteous cinematographers and not sinister spies?... Shooting documentaries provides a good cover for spying. The spy has unrestricted access to many places, at least in the developing world. He is not suspected because the mental picture many people have of a spy is a person in a dark cape skulking in shadows. But a good spy does not stay out in the gloomy cold. He seeks the warmth of friendship, which enables him to worm out secrets. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recruits people like documentary makers to spy for it. It once had more than 400 journalists working for it, according to a book published in the United States in 1977…..(Nigerian Tribune, 25 Apr 08)

C.I.A. Director Announces He’ll Retire From Air Force

Gen. Michael V. Hayden, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, announced Wednesday that he would retire from the Air Force this summer but continue running the agency as a civilian. eneral Hayden’s decision to remain in the military after he took over the C.I.A. in 2006 was criticized by some lawmakers from both parties. Some in Congress feared that he might allow the Pentagon to muscle onto the C.I.A.’s turf, or that a four-star general running the agency might stifle the independent streak fostered within the agency’s ranks. By the time he retires in July, General Hayden will have been a four-star general for more than three years, with almost 39 years of total service…..(New York Times, 24 Apr 08)

Israelis Claim Secret Agreement With U.S.

A letter that President Bush personally delivered to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon four years ago has emerged as a significant obstacle to the president's efforts to forge a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians during his last year in office. Ehud Olmert, the current Israeli prime minister, said this week that Bush's letter gave the Jewish state permission to expand the West Bank settlements that it hopes to retain in a final peace deal, even though Bush's peace plan officially calls for a freeze of Israeli settlements across Palestinian territories on the West Bank……(Washington Post, 24 Apr 08)

Syria's nuke facility was nearly completed when Israel bombed it

…CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and other intelligence officials are expected to brief several congressional committees in closed-door sessions, breaking the administration's silence on the issue. The facility has become a major issue in six-nation negotiations to end the North's nuclear programs. "The belief is that the reactor was nearing completion," said one official familiar with the content of the briefings. "It would have been able to produce plutonium."…..(Washington Times, 24 Apr 08)

CIA director to give up military uniform

CIA Director Michael Hayden announced Wednesday he will retire from the Air Force in July after 39 years in uniform, but he will continue in his intelligence post as a civilian…..(AP, 23 Apr 08)

CIA to describe North Korea-Syria nuclear ties

CIA officials will tell Congress on Thursday that North Korea had been helping Syria build a plutonium-based nuclear reactor, a U.S. official said, a disclosure that could touch off new resistance to the administration's plan to ease sanctions on Pyongyang. The CIA officials will tell lawmakers that they believe the reactor would have been capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons but was destroyed before it could do so, the U.S. official said, apparently referring to a suspicious installation in Syria that was bombed last year by Israeli warplanes. The CIA officials also will say that though U.S. officials have had concerns for years about ties between North Korea and Syria, it was not until last year that new intelligence convinced them that the suspicious facility under construction in a remote area of Syria was a nuclear reactor…..(LA Times, 23 Apr 08)

Intelligent reform

…Since these reforms were signed into law, the DNI has taken important steps to integrate the 16 components that make up the intelligence community. Information sharing has been enhanced significantly, promoting more thoughtful analyses of the threats we face as a nation. Every day, this collaboration provides policymakers, war fighters and intelligence and law enforcement officers the information they need to design and conduct effective operations against our nation's enemies. The threats posed today by terrorist groups, rogue states and transnational criminal networks are severe and daunting, and the increased effectiveness of the intelligence community is helping us combat these threats. The decision to create the DNI was not without controversy. Some argued that the DNI, separated from the CIA, would become a new bureaucratic layer with little ability to improve the effectiveness of the intelligence community…..(Washington Times, 23 Apr 08)

Rules Target Foreign Investment

The Bush administration, pledging a "strong and continued commitment" to safeguarding national security, issued 90 pages of regulations yesterday to implement a new law tightening security reviews of foreign investments. Congress passed the law last year after an uproar in 2006 over a plan by Dubai-owned DP World to manage six of the largest ports in the United States. The deal fell through after lawmakers from both parties contended that the administration and the agency responsible for reviewing security issues had not fully considered all of the security concerns that had been raised…..(AP, 22 Apr 08)

Funding worries fusion center officials

The federal government wants state and local intelligence fusion centers to play an integral role in federal information sharing efforts and terrorism prevention. However, questions remain about funding the centers. The Bush administration has pledged to help the centers achieve and maintain baseline capabilities through the Homeland Security Department’s State Homeland Security Grant Program (SHSGP) and Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grant funding. However, some lawmakers are concerned about restrictions DHS placed on how those grants can be used by state and local authorities. It's also unclear how long that funding will last. The centers are designed to improve the way information is shared between state, local and federal law enforcement agencies……(FCW, 21 Apr 08)

Libya Seeks Exemption for Its Debt to Victims

One by one, top executives of American oil companies met privately over the last year with Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, often in his signature Bedouin tent, as they lined up contracts allowing them to tap into the country’s oil reserves. But now, the new allies are working Capitol Hill, trying to weaken a law that threatens those deals…the anger of the terrorism victims —whose lawsuits have been pending for years — has posed a serious threat. While Libyan officials said they were committed to resolving the victims’ claims, they dispute some and say others are unreasonable, including a recent $1.7 billion court judgment in the case of a 1989 attack on a French jet over Niger that killed seven Americans…..(New York Times, 22 Apr 08)

Splitting the atomic scientist

A struggle is under way in Pakistan over the fate of AQ Khan, the godfather of the country's atom program, who is under house arrest for selling nuclear secrets and hardware to North Korea, Libya and Iran.

The junior party in the new coalition government, led by the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, is pushing for his release; the senior partner, the Pakistan People's party (PPP), is vacillating, under intense pressure from its rank and file and the general public, which generally views Abdul Qadeer Khan as a national hero rather than a traitor…..(Guardian, 22 Apr 08)

State Secrets

One Friday afternoon in August, 2004, a Washington, D.C., attorney named Lynne Bernabei received a package from the Department of the Treasury. The government was investigating one of her clients, the American branch of a Saudi charity called the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, which had been active in fifty countries. Al Haramain had come under scrutiny, as had many other Islamic charities, after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and Treasury Department investigators believed that Al Haramain’s American branch, which was based in Oregon, had connections to Al Qaeda. In response to a request from Bernabei for evidence against her client, the government had turned over two sets of documents, primarily media reports that referred to other branches of Al Haramain. None of the materials demonstrated a direct connection between the Oregon branch and Al Qaeda.

Bernabei asked for any classified evidence the government might have, arguing that it was impossible to rebut evidence that she couldn’t see. When a third batch of evidence arrived, that August afternoon, the cover letter noted that the enclosed materials were “unclassified,” so Bernabei didn’t give much thought to the last item, a four-page document stamped “Top Secret.” “My impression was that it might have been something that was declassified,” she told me recently. Bernabei photocopied the materials and forwarded them to the half-dozen clients and attorneys associated with the case. Several weeks later, the Treasury Department concluded its investigation, and declared the Oregon branch of Al Haramain a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity, citing “direct links” with Osama bin Laden……(New York, 28 Apr 08 Issue)

National Archives and CIA Sign MOU on Processing Federal Records

The National Archives and Records Administration announced today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding ( MOU ) with the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) describing the procedures and conditions that govern the treatment of CIA records once they are transferred to NARA’s legal custody. This agreement sets the stage for the transfer of the CIA’s permanent Federal records to the National Archives.  This MOU formalizes the procedures, in accordance with Executive Order 12958, as amended, and 44 U.S.C. 2108, that the National Archives and the CIA follow in reviewing for public disclosure Federal records within the National Archives legal custody. It will enable the Archives to process records that were generated by the CIA and other agencies and organizations that contain identifiable and classified CIA information more quickly……(Media-News Wire, 18 Apr 08)

Homeland Security Department plans for White House handoff

… Presidential transition planning has been going on since George Washington was getting ready to hand off to John Adams, and it's now routine for military and intelligence planners. The president's top appointees usually leave with him, and the government runs itself until the new occupant of the White House settles in. There are rare but notable exceptions: Clinton White House anti-terrorism chief Richard A. Clarke and CIA Director George Tenet were kept on board by the Bush White House and helped lead the government's response on Sept. 11, 2001…The Sept. 11 attacks, and subsequent terrorist strikes in Spain, Britain and Pakistan near elections or transitions, indeed led DHS to make special efforts as it looks ahead to the twilight-zone period between the inauguration and the confirmations, Chertoff said. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred the month after President Bill Clinton took office…..(AP, 17 Apr 08)

Pentagon Seeks Authority to Train and Equip Foreign Militaries

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates urged Congress on Tuesday to grant the Pentagon permanent authority to train and equip foreign militaries, a task previously administered by the State Department, and to raise the annual budget for the effort to $750 million, a 250 percent increase. Mr. Gates said that rapidly building up the armed forces of friendly nations to combat terrorism within their borders was “a vital and enduring military requirement” — and one that should be managed by the Defense Department…The State Department also would benefit under a parallel proposal that would double the budget, to $200 million, for a program aimed at assigning civilian experts to work overseas alongside — or instead of — the military. That joint Pentagon-State Department effort would be led by the State Department.……(New York Times, 16 Apr 08)

Lawyer: Defense in Italy CIA case requests Berlusconi, Prodi as witnesses

A former Italian secret services chief's defense lawyers requested Wednesday that Premier-elect Silvio Berlusconi testify in the trial of 26 Americans and others charged with kidnapping a terror suspect during a CIA operation. Nicolo Pollari's defense also requested outgoing Premier Romano Prodi as a witness, said lawyer Alessia Sorgato, who represents some of the American defendants…..(AP, 16 Apr 08)

FBI says problems with letters fixed

The FBI is resisting legislation that would put more restrictions on domestic surveillance of Americans' private records, saying the agency already has tightened its rules to crack down on wrongful use of national security letters. FBI general counsel Valerie E. Caproni told a House panel Tuesday that the agency has responded to abuses outlined in internal reports by tightening the requirements for issuing national security letters…..(AP, 15 Apr 08)

Lawmakers Want FBI Access to Data Curbed

Bipartisan groups in Congress are pressing to place new controls on the FBI's ability to demand troves of sensitive personal information from telephone providers and credit card companies, over the opposition of agency officials who say they deserve more time to clean up past abuses. Proposals to rein in the use of secret "national security letters" will be discussed over the next week at hearings in both chambers. The hearings stem from disclosures that the FBI had clandestinely gathered telephone, e-mail and financial records "sought for" or "relevant to" terrorism or intelligence activities without following appropriate procedures…..(Washington Post, 15 Apr 08)

Selya is named top judge on U.S. wiretap court

A federal judge from Rhode Island, Bruce M. Selya, will soon be the top judge of a secretive federal court that hears appeals involving wiretaps of suspected spies and terrorists. Selya, a senior judge on the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has been a member of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review since 2005. Now, Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts Jr. is making Selya the court’s presiding judge. The designation, which Roberts signed March 27, takes effect May 19…..(Providence Journal, 14 Apr 08)

US, Iran in secret discussions on nuclear program: report

The United States and Iran have been conducting secret back-channel discussions on Tehran's nuclear program and frozen relations between the two countries, The Independent reported Monday. The British newspaper quotes former US under secretary of state Thomas Pickering as saying that a group of former US diplomats and foreign policy experts had been meeting with Iranian academics and policy advisers "in a lot of different places, although not in the US or Iran" for the past five years……(AFP, 14 Apr 08)

Administration Set to Use New Spy Program in U.S.

The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department will activate his department's new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional scientific and homeland security activities -- such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain maps. Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement once privacy and civil rights concerns are resolved, he said. The department has previously said the program will not intercept communications.

"There is no basis to suggest that this process is in any way insufficient to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans," Chertoff wrote…..(Washington Post, 14 Apr 08)

Agencies Use Contradictory Rules for Classifying Information

U.S. intelligence agencies have contradictory rules that govern classification of information, including inconsistencies over what would constitute harm if the information were disclosed, according to a report by the director of national intelligence that was made public yesterday. "Many interpretations exist concerning what constitutes harm or the degree of harm that might result from improper disclosure of the information, often leading to inconsistent or contradictory guidelines from different agencies," said the January report disclosed by Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy……(Washington Post, 11 Apr 08)

State Department Reveals 2009 Intelligence Budget Request

The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) is among the most highly regarded members of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Not coincidentally, it is also among the most open and accessible. In particular, it is one of the only Intelligence Community organizations that regularly publishes its budget (pdf). (The FBI also discloses much of its intelligence spending.) Thus, the recent 2009 State Department budget justification book projects a 2009 INR budget of $59.8 million for a staff of 313 persons……(FAS, 10 Apr 08)

What Limits For Warrantless Wiretapping?

Telephone companies are sitting on a potential diamond mine of information. The Bush administration is locked in a struggle with Congress about the rules for mining the data. Once again, technology has leapfrogged regulation. And once again, the battle lines are drawn around ideological positions.

A panel discussion at the RSA security conference, held in San Francisco this week, illuminated the divide between those who want to take full advantage of data mining technology and those who think the courts should help safeguard the privacy of U.S. citizens. In August 2006, a federal judge ordered the Bush administration to cease all warrantless wiretapping of calls between Americans and suspected foreign terrorists, after the program of eavesdropping on calls between the United States and foreign countries was revealed….(Internet News, 10 Apr 08)

USAF, spy agency to protect space assets

U.S. Air Force Space Command and the National Reconnaissance Office have joined together to create a new program to advise the military and intelligence community on how to protect space assets. Gen. Robert Kehler, commander of Air Force Space Command, said in a Tuesday interview at Peterson Air Force Base that the Space Protection Program will report to him and Scott Large, NRO director, and will help identify a wide range of possible options to safeguard space capabilities…..(MSNBC, 9 Apr 08)