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SECRET MI5 FILES DISCLOSE HUNT FOR NAZI AGENT WERNE ...
By Daria Carmon
MI5 files declassified by the British spy organization just last month, chronicle the espionage career of German operative Werner Plack and subsequent search for him during the Nazi era, and the account sounds like the plot of a movie, somewhat fitting since he had once been a film extra. Plack, elegant, charming, and with…
Sri Lanka Revamps Intelligence Program
The Sri Lankan government has created, through a new act of parliament, a hopefully improved National Intelligence Service. It is no secret that previous incarnations were widely regarded to be failures. Prior to 1984, intelligence was gathered by the country’s police service. After a perceived failure during riots in 1983, a new organization was formed with…
Iran Blames West for Stuxnet; Arrests Spies
In the aftermath of the discovery of the complicated and effective Stuxnet worm, Iran’s intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi blamed western intelligence agencies for developing and unleashing the virus on thousands of Iranian computers. He has now announced on Iranian TV that his own intelligence team has captured “several spies” implicated in the plot to derail Iran’s…
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…
New AMC Spy Show: Seriously Smart Stuff
If you’re on the prowl for a new action-packed, fast-paced spy series, this is not the one for you. However, if you’re curious about what sort of person, with what sort of past and psychology, goes into the spy line of work anyhow, AMC’s Rubicon might just be up your alley.
A word of caution: The pace is what…
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…
A Russian-U.S. Spy Swap: What’s the Rush?
By Haggai Carmon
At this very moment, there are growing rumors about plans for a prisoner swap that would return ten suspected Russian spies to Russia, in exchange for an imprisoned Russian military researcher Igor Sutyagin, who was convicted of espionage in 2004. The rumors also suggest that the U.S. has compiled a list of 11 Russian…
Tango with Tehran
By Haggai Carmon
Time has come for the world to recognize that a nuclear-armed Iran could bring the economy to their knees by hiking the price of Middle East oil, and that what is needed is more than rhetoric and mild sanctions against Iran.
“Let’s tango with the Americans,” said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to his aides.
“What style?”…
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…
Canadian Spy Agency Says Domestic Terror Cells Pose ...
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…
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…
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…
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…
Pakistan spy agency gunning down its critics?
According to Kamran Shafi — a notably vocal critic of Pakistan’s military and security department — those he criticizes want to silence him. Shafi, who once was an army major, is now a newspaper columnist who does not…
American spies get time for CIA kidnapping in Italy
On Wednesday, 23 Americans and two Italians were convicted of participating in an extraordinary rendition allegedly carried out by the CIA in Milan in 2003. In a nutshell, the CIA wanted to interrogate a Muslim…
FBI exposes U.S. spy for Israel
It seems that the FBI has caught former NASA scientist Stewart Nozette red-handed. As a result of an undercover sting operation, during which Nozette accepted $11,000 in exchange for classified U.S. information, he…
CIA turns to open-source intel
Web 2.0 means that there’s a plethora of user-generated information out there to monitor – blog posts, tweets, commentary on news pieces, videos, reviews of books, etc. But the CIA’s not interested in any of that harmless chatter, right? Wrong. The investment arm of the U.S. intelligence community, In-Q-Tel – which serves…
Dems fight to lessen US gov domestic spying
The Patriot Act, drawn up and passed within weeks of 9/11, is under review. Three major Patriot Act provisions will expire at the end of the year, and it seems…