Category: Spy News
It’s not paranoia – spies and secret agents are among us. Intelligence agencies and rogue operatives around the world are involved in covert operations as we speak. Terrorism and computer crime, as well as economic and corporate espionage, define the modern intelligence landscape. Keep yourself in the loop and read about all the latest spy news here.
Are spies on the heels of WikiLeaks?
It appears likely that Australian spy agencies tailed WikiLeaks founder and spokesman Julian Assange, but as he travels around the world, hiding out and leaking classified, sensitive information about various governments’ activities, are other intelligence agencies tapping into…
Was Stuxnet an Israeli Attack on Iran?
Referred to as a ‘worm,’ Stuxnet is malware, or a computer virus, that was discovered in June 2010 by a Belarus security firm, though it was likely unleashed the previous June. Its purpose is to disrupt industrial processes and infrastructure, and the worm’s…
UK Foreign Secretary Too Open About British Spies?
Not too long ago, the official word was that MI5 and MI6, the UK’s top secret intelligence agencies, didn’t exist. Spies were certainly never admitted to in arenas accessible to the public, and spy agencies were only ‘rumors.’ But UK Foreign Secretary William Hague…
Israel’s Intel-Gathering Base Revealed
CIA, MI6, Mossad – organizations with name recognition, with clout. But what about Unit 8200, the British Government Communications Headquarters and the American National Security Agency? A little less familiar perhaps, a lot less glamorous certainly, but these signal deciphering bodies are no less important. Even more interesting is…
Dead Russian Spy: Accidental Drowning or Murder?
52-year-old General Yuri Ivanov’s decomposing body washed up on the shores of southern Turkey on August 12. On August 30, an official Russian eulogy reported that he had drowned while swimming “several days ago.” Various sources indicate he had been missing for ten days when his body was turned into the authorities by Turkish fisherman from…
Spy v. Spy in Iran
While Ahmadinejad would have you believe that internally everything is hunky dory, and the only problems Iran has are with the meddling West, an August 23 shoot-out between two different intelligence units whose interests are at odds, indicates otherwise.
As per a DEBKAfile exclusive, members of the Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) clashed with plain clothes members of…
Israeli Operative Released on Bail; Dubai Protests
Even though a Polish court upheld the decision to extradite to Germany an Israeli operative going by the name of Uri Brodsky, Mr. Brodsky avoided espionage charges, thanks to a deal seemingly brokered by Israel with Poland and Germany. Although forgery charges are still pending against him in Germany, Mr. Brodsky was released on bail and…
Texas Girl Arrested for Attempted Smuggling to Russ ...
A 24-year-old Texas beautician was arrested on July 15 after trying to smuggle three night-vision rifle scopes into Russia aboard a JFK-Moscow flight in March. Although rifle scopes, which allow riflemen to see more precisely at further distances, are widely available in the U.S., exporting them without a license is illegal.
Anna Fermanova, born in Latvia but…
Russian Spy Infiltrates Czech Military
Turns out the U.S. is not the only country targeted by post-Cold War Russian spies. A Czech newspaper just reported that in 2009, three Czech generals were forced to leave the army as a result of the activities of a Russian spy who infiltrated their respective offices.
The Czech Republic, once a Soviet satellite state and now…
Israeli spies arrested in Lebanese telecoms industr ...
Lebanon has arrested a telecoms company transmissions engineer, Tareq Raba, on suspicion of spying for Israel. His arrest follows on the heels of last month’s arrest of Charbel Qazzi, a telecoms technician at the same state-owned cellphone company, Alfa.
It seems very likely that Qazzi gave up Raba’s name during interrogation by Lebanese security and intelligence agents,…
Will Poland extradite alleged Mossad agent to Germa ...
A Polish court charged with ruling on the extradition will make its decision within a month, a court spokesperson reported today. The suspected spy is wanted in connection with the January 2010 assassination of…
Obama Forces U.S. Spy Chief to Retire?
On Thursday May 20, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair resigned from his post as head of the sixteen agencies that together create the U.S. intelligence community. Although his resignation was originally attributed to his security…
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) says that the biggest security risk facing Canadians today is homegrown terrorism, like that masterminded by Toronto 18, a group charged in 2006 for planning a terrorist attack against Canada as a payback for the country’s military involvement in Afghanistan.
Canada, like the U.S., has opened its doors to many immigrants…
Mossad agent denied official entry into London
The UK’s upset about the Mossad allegedly using British passports in an assassination operation earlier this year; in retaliation, the Mossad has been banned from placing an agent in Israel’s embassy in London. Although Israel has not…
CIA to Improve Intelligence Gathering Techniques
Just about everything about the CIA is classified – including its budget – but occasionally we get a little insight into how it’s spending its money: This week, the agency announced plans to pour millions of dollars over the next five years into improving intelligence gathering techniques, technologies and communications.
Number 1 on the agenda is upping…
In China, Telco/Internet Companies Forced to Spy
While in other countries, government places limitations on businesses to help protect citizens’ privacy, China seems hell-bent on doing exactly the opposite…that is legally enforcing telco and internet companies to spy on users and disclose private information to the government.
Indeed, China is on the verge of passing a law that would require telecommunications and internet companies…
N Korea’s assassination plans stalled
It’s no secret that refugees from North Korea’s oppressive government are streaming in droves to South Korea, looking for a place where they can speak freely and find enough food to subsist on. But we bet you didn’t know that every refugee seeking a safe haven in South Korea gets screened and interviewed by intelligence services…
Two suspected spies executed in Gaza
On Thursday April 15, two Gazans convicted by Hamas’s military courts in 2008 and 2009 of collaborating with Israel, were executed by firing squad and dropped off at the main hospital in Gaza City, their bodies riddled with bullets. According to Palestinian law, spying…
S. Korean drug trafficker spies for enemy
Accused of spying for North Korea in China, a 55-year-old South Korean man was arrested last Thursday while on a brief trip to South Korea. The China-North Korea border is a hotbed of activity for North Koreans looking to escape the clutches of an authoritarian government..
Italy arrests Iranian spies smuggling weapons
Iran’s steadily progressing nuclear program is top of the terrorist/espionage pops and it comes as no surprise that the country’s got its spies on the hunt for weapons and nuclear materials to import into Iran illegally.
In a nutshell, Iran is under an international UN arms embargo, so they’re having a tough time getting their hands on…
15 yrs in slammer for China-born engineer
Seven months after Dongfan ‘Greg’ Chung, a Chinese-born naturalized U.S. citizen in his seventies, was put on trial for economic espionage, he has been issued a sentence of 15 years. His trial was a quick affair – 10 days in Santa Ana, California – and he was declared guilty of…
U.S. official gets 3 years for helping Chinese spy
In September of 2009, an ex-Pentagon official with top security clearance was put on trial for knowingly sharing military secrets with an agent of a foreign government – the Chinese government to be specific. James Fondren, 62…
China poised to win cyber war?
Google shocked the Chinese government – not to mention all us gmail users – by announcing on January 12 that the company had suffered a serious cyber security breach, likely perpetrated by China. Encouraged by Google’s bold step, other companies are now coming forward, and so we see…
White House issues report on Xmas screw-up
President Obama is proactively addressing the intelligence snafu that gave Nigerian Abdulmutallab the opportunity to blow up a plane heading to Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas day, 2009. Luck stepped in, and the bomb…
Obama open about U.S. Intelligence ‘screw-up’
On December 25, 2009, a 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was allowed to board Delta flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, even though he had explosives, which he planned to detonate en route to Detroit, sewn into…