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TWO RUSSIAN PROFESSORS TO BE TRIED AS CHINESE SPIES
A pair of professors on the faculty of the State Military Mechanical University in St. Petersburg will soon stand trial in that city for espionage, in what promises to be one of the most noteworthy spy cases there since Alexander Nikitin was tried in the late 1990s on allegations of supplying top secret information to Norwegian…
Iranian Doctoral Student Being Tried In His Country ...
By Daria Carmon
Omid Kokabee, an Iranian Ph.D. candidate in physics at the University of Texas in Austin, is standing trial on espionage charges in his homeland, after being held in custody since the end of January or February. It is believed he was picked up at the Tehran airport en route to continuing his graduate studies…
Lebanese Spy For Israel Receives Death Penalty
By Daria Carmon
Lebanon’s military court handed down a death sentence on Monday, June 20th on Bassam Abu Jawdeh, a Lebanese merchant found guilty of espionage. The conviction was for working for Israeli intelligence and supplying them with information. Death penalty is imposed in Lebanon when an operative’s actions result in Lebanese life being lost. The death…
Raymond Davis is a Spy? Not So, Says U.S.
Relations between the United States and Pakistan are heating up as the details surrounding an imprisoned American become less clear. Raymond Davis was arrested by Pakistani officials in January on murder charges after shooting and killing two men. He claims that they approached him in his car with guns drawn in an attempt to rob him…
Italian Prosecution Looking for More Spy Conviction ...
An earlier ruling by an Italian court that convicted 23 American and 2 Italian citizens has been appealed. The defendants were accused of kidnapping a terrorism suspect. Now, the Italian prosecution is trying to reverse some of the lower court’s decisions. They have opened an appeal in hopes of incriminating the 5 other Italian agents who had been acquitted…
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…
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..
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…
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…
Former spy arrested in Israel for breaking parole
Mordechai Vanunu, once a low-level technician at an Israeli nuclear plant who served 18 years in prison for espionage against Israel, was arrested on Monday for violating the terms of his parole, which…
Ahmadinejad indignant in Sawyer interview
Diane Sawyer, anchor for ABC’s “World News,” interviewed Iranian President Ahmadinejad in Copenhagen, Denmark, after he attended the UN’s climate change conference. From an espionage perspective, Iran’s been…
Three hikers to face spy trial in Iran
For those of you who’ve been following this now 4.5-month long story, a quick update: the three U.S. hikers who, according to the free world, accidentally crossed the border into Iran on July 31, will in fact be…
Iran to Charge 3 U.S. Hikers with Espionage
It’s official, the three U.S. citizen hikers who were apprehended just inside the Iranian border in July, are being accused of espionage and may face trial in Iran. Does anybody actually think backpackers Shane Bauer, Sarah…
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…
Life sentence reduced for Cuban spy
Today, as per schedule, a U.S. Federal Judge decreased the sentence of a convicted Cuban spy from life to just under 22 years. 50-year-old Antonio Guerrero is one of the Cuban Five, a group of Cuban spies convicted in…
Prison sentences for Americans in Italy CIA renditi ...
In Italy the trial against those Italian and American agents believed to be involved in an alleged CIA rendition operation continues. The Italian prosecutor has…
Trial begins for U.S. informant to China
You’re a former U.S. Air Force officer, and your local New Orleans furniture salesman asks you to share with him some top secret military information. What do you do? Well, we guess it depends on what you’re being offered in…
Son of notorious CIA double agent pleads guilty
Earlier this year, it was discovered that the son of the highest-ranking CIA operative ever to be convicted of spying for the other side, was helping his imprisoned father to continue collaborating with the Russians. The father – Harold Nicholson – was…
Egypt: Trial of Hezbollah spies in motion
This Sunday, Egypt brought 26 alleged Hezbollah agents to the stand, where they were formally accused of passing information to a foreign organization, possession of explosive material and planning terrorist attacks on Egyptian…
Iran insists charges against Reiss legitimate
It comes as no surprise that Iran thinks France’s official perspective regarding Clotilde Reiss is “biased and irrational.” France managed to win her temporary release, at the hefty bail fee of $300,000, but calling for Tehran to drop the charges against Reiss altogether has met with indignation. Iran insists that Ms. Reiss is not a political victim.
Hassan…
Hacker hunter turns bad
Albert Gonzalez once used his wily computer skills to help the U.S. government track down hackers. Now it seems he’s crossed over to the other side, where instead of spying to protect U.S. citizens, he’s been spying to steal millions…
Iran: French ‘spy’ out on bail
Clotilde Reiss, a French teacher accused of spying in the aftermath of the Iranian elections, was released on bail yesterday after spending a month and a half in Tehran’s now infamous Evin prison. Just shy of her 24th birthday…
Spying v. Intelligence
As we’re sure you’ve noticed, lots of the items we post here have to do with pretty serious stuff. Being imprisoned for espionage in North Korea or Iran – whether you are guilty or not – is no joke. Neither are the terrorist plots that…
U.S. getting soft on Cuban spies?
On October 13, 2009, U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard will issue new sentences for Fernando González, Luis Medina and Antonio Guerrero, three members of the Cuban Five spies. The latter two have been serving life sentences and…
China says U.S. lying about economic espionage
Last Thursday, July 16, Chinese-born engineer Dongfan ‘Greg’ Chung was convicted in the first economic espionage trial in the United States. China’s response to the implied accusation of being…