April 2008 to May 2008

Pentagon Overseer Calls for Larger Staff

The Defense Department's inspector general says he needs more staff and money to monitor sharply rising spending by the Pentagon on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and the broader fight against terrorism. While that spending increased by more than 50 percent between fiscal 2001 and fiscal 2007, Inspector General Claude M. Kicklighter's staff has remained relatively constant, according to a report his office sent to Congress on March 31 that was made public last week. "The rapid growth of the DoD budget since FY 2000 leaves the Department increasingly more vulnerable to the fraud, waste, and, abuse that undermines the Department's mission,"…..(Washington Post, 31 May 08)

Intelligence agencies resist plan to shift power

A Bush administration plan to issue new orders realigning the chain of command over U.S. spy services has triggered turf-related skirmishes across the intelligence community. The changes could erode the CIA's standing as the nation's lead spy service abroad by requiring agency station chiefs in certain countries to cede authority to officials from other U.S. spy agencies, officials said. The revisions would also give the nation's intelligence chief greater power over individual spy services that traditionally have been dominated by the Department of Defense, including the National Security Agency, officials said. The proposals have met stiff resistance from the CIA and other agencies still settling into roles that were dramatically redefined by legislation four years ago……(LA Times, 31 May 08)

Intelligence Official Sees Little Progress Before Bush Exits

…A regenerated al-Qaeda will remain the leading terrorism threat, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Donald M. Kerr said. Pakistan's "inward" political focus and failure to control the tribal territories where al-Qaeda maintains a haven, he said, is "the number one thing we worry about." Kerr's analysis, in a speech Thursday evening that he posited as a presidential intelligence briefing delivered on Jan. 21, 2009, contrasted with more optimistic administration forecasts of rapprochement among Iraq's political forces and a possible Middle East peace agreement in the next eight months. It also seemed at odds with CIA Director Michael V. Hayden's judgment that al-Qaeda is now on the defensive throughout the world, including along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.…..(Washington Post, 31 May 08)

Official defends US monitoring of Syrian site

A senior intelligence official on Thursday defended U.S. efforts to monitor an alleged Syrian nuclear facility that the U.S. says was built with North Korean help. Joseph DeTrani, the national intelligence director's mission manager for North Korea, said U.S. intelligence had been watching the reactor very closely and for a number of years. "This was not a failure," he told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. "Action was taken when it was going operational, and they are now out of business."….(AP, 29 May 08)

Pentagons new sensors would give laser attack warnings for satellites

In a move which is bound to be interpreted as a further step towards the militarisation of space, the Pentagon is developing sensors to pinpoint a ground-based laser attempting to blind one of its spy satellites. According to a report in New Scientist, last year, the Space Superiority Systems Wing, a department within the US Air Force responsible for developing military space technology, called on contractors to develop technologies to sense and attribute a laser attack, in a program called Self Awareness/Space Situation Awareness (SASSA)…..(Thaindian, 29 May 08)

Italian Investigator Says U.S. Agents Left Obvious Clues in Abduction Case

A top Italian terrorism investigator on Wednesday described the government’s ease in unraveling an alleged C.I.A. operation to kidnap a radical imam: all that was necessary, the investigator said, was to trace the cellphones in use near the spot in Milan where the imam disappeared while going to a mosque in February 2003.

“The evidence led us to believe that the operative group consisted of Americans,” the investigator, Bruno Megale, the head of Milan’s antiterrorism police force, told a packed court. “Some of the phones had called numbers in the United States, some had called the state of Virginia,” where the Central Intelligence Agency has its headquarters……(New York Times, 29 May 08)

Bush's former spooks enjoy the profits of war

…Armitage, currently an adviser to presidential candidate John McCain, had once been Colin Powell's closest ally during the bitter disputes inside the Bush administration over the invasion and occupation of Iraq. According to the Washington Post's Bob Woodward, Armitage advised Powell on more than one occasion to tell the neocons to "go **** themselves," and, at one point, even refused to deliver a speech about Iraq drafted for him by Vice President Dick Cheney's office. Yet, three years after those epic battles, Armitage is enjoying life as a stakeholder in a dozen private companies that are making money directly from the war started by his former nemeses. Over the past decade, contracting for America's spy agencies has grown into a $50 billion industry that eats up seven of every 10 dollars spent by the U.S. government on its intelligence services……(Salon, 29 May 08)

Intelligence agencies in turf war

A turf war is being waged in the closed world of U.S. intelligence agencies that could disrupt how spy operations are carried out around the world, according to former and current CIA officials… In 2005, the director designated an intelligence officer to be his personal representative at embassies, military commands and posts. Overseas, that top dog was the station chief. Now, that may be changing. National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell is writing a new directive that leaves open the possibility that the title could be bestowed on someone other than a CIA station chief. In some cases _ particularly in countries where there are large concentrations of U.S. troops _ the director may anoint the defense attache, one former intelligence official suggested. In others, where there are fewer human spies but more intelligence collection by electronic gadgets, it may be the senior National Security Agency officer…..(AP, 28 May 08)

Italian anti-terror official testifies in alleged CIA kidnap trial in Milan

A top anti-terrorism official told an Italian court Wednesday that investigators reconstructed the alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan by tracing cell phones used by Americans. Bruno Megale, the head of Milan's anti-terrorism police, identified 17 cell phone numbers in use by U.S. citizens that he said were active and present in the area where the cleric was kidnapped _ allegedly as part of the CIA's so-called extraordinary rendition program. Megale testified during the trial of 26 Americans and others in the kidnapping of Osama Moutafa Hassan Nasr, the cleric also known as Abu Omar, on Feb. 17, 2003…….(PR-Inside, 28 May 08)

Intermap wins $6.8 mln order from National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Intermap Technologies Corp. said its Intermap Federal Services Inc. unit has won a $6.8 million delivery order from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). The digital mapping company said the order completes the purchase of licensed imagery and elevation data from Intermap's NEXTMap USA geospatial dataset…..(Forbes, 28 May 08)

U.S. Intelligence Group Dismisses Report of Al-Qaeda WMD Tape

A U.S.-based intelligence group dismissed a media report that al-Qaeda may release a video recording calling on militants to attack the West with biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. ABC News cited unidentified intelligence officials as saying the tape may be released on the Internet within 24 hours and that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation sent a bulletin to 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the country. The tape referred to in the report was made by supporters of al-Qaeda and released May 26, titled ``Nuclear Jihad, The Ultimate Terror,''….(Bloomberg, 28 May 08)

FBI's New Division Chief to Target Terrorism, Gangs, Organized Crime

Amy Jo Lyons joined the FBI, after four years as a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, in the hopes that she would be able to investigate other types of crime… Since joining the bureau in 1990, Lyons has investigated organized crime and Latino gangs. She has been a supervisor assigned to counterterrorism and she was one of the first female special agents to join an FBI SWAT team. Lyons, 47, will draw on that experience as the new head of the FBI's Baltimore division, a post she assumed five weeks ago. In an interview, she said her priorities reflect those of the bureau: combating terrorism, rooting out public corruption and cracking down on street gangs……(Washington Post, 27 May 08)

New Rules, New Boss for Defense Personnel System

Senior Defense Department officials describe the roll out of the National Security Personnel System as "event driven," a way of saying that it evolves as lessons are learned and fixes are made. This month, the NSPS, one of the largest pay and personnel projects ever undertaken by the government, recorded two more events in its four-year history…The proposed regulations bring the NSPS back under government-wide rules that permit collective bargaining and ensure that employees can continue to appeal major disciplinary actions to the independent Merit Systems Protection Board. The centerpiece of the NSPS, "pay for performance," remains despite objections from unions and some employees. Congress, as part of a defense bill authorizing weapons and other programs, decided to let the Pentagon continue moving Defense Department civilians from the General Schedule, the government's primary pay system, into the NSPS, which features broader salary ranges than the General Schedule……(Washington Post, 27 May 08)

Wife of ex-FBI agent missing in Iran offers reward

The wife of a former FBI agent believed to be missing in Iran said Friday she is offering a $5,000 reward for information on her husband, who disappeared more than a year ago. Robert Levinson, 60, of Coral Springs, disappeared in March 2007 during a business trip to Kish Island off Iran's southern coast. The U.S. government has asked Iran about Levinson, but the Persian country said it has no information on him…Anyone with information is asked to contact the family through the Web site, or visit the Swiss Embassy in Tehran. Swiss diplomats look after U.S. interests there because the U.S. and Iran do not have formal diplomatic relations……(AP, 23 May 08)

Behind U.S. Intelligence Failures

…The intelligence community's crucible was largely forged by two very different events: the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the failure to find WMD in Iraq. But the lessons that outsiders have learned from these two watersheds have often been glib, fatuous and contradictory. In 9/11, intelligence was excoriated for "failing to connect the dots" -- a demeaning, inapt concept that, unfortunately, has entered the popular lexicon. But in Iraq, intelligence was blamed for connecting too many dots. In 9/11, intelligence did not warn intensely enough. But in Iraq, intelligence warned too intensely. In 9/11, intelligence was faulted for a "failure of imagination." But in Iraq, intelligence had too vivid an imagination. In 9/11, the failure to share intelligence was seen as a major problem. But in Iraq, too much information -- such the fabricated reports about mobile bioweapons labs from the Iraqi defector infamously code-named "Curveball" -- was shared……(Washington Post, 23 May 08)

Collapse unlikely in Intelligence industry

… journalist and novelist R.J. Hillhouse used conference information to figure that the U.S. intelligence budget is $60 billion - almost a fourth higher than people thought.The question now for Maryland and other regions swimming in the money is: How long can it continue? The apparent answer from the politically connected Carlyle Group: a while. Washington-based Carlyle is buying a majority stake in Booz Allen's government contracting arm, which does secret work for the National Security Agency at Fort Meade and has been called "the shadow intelligence community," for $2.5 billion.  "We like it and think budgets will continue to grow," Peter Clare, head of Carlyle's aerospace and defense business, says of the kind of high-tech intelligence and security work that Booz does. "We'd like to invest further in this area."….(Baltimore Sun, 23 May 08)

Pentagon inserts chips in spy insects

…U.S. Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research projects Agency, (DARPA) which created the Internet, has officially announced progress in its efforts to produce hybrid insects to be used in surveillance operations.

The DARPA has managed to develop several types of cyborgs, half-biological, half-technological organisms, through which they can completely control the movement of insects, having inserted ‘recognition’ chips in their larvae. Once in the adult stage, the insect can be used to spy on conversations, detect explosives or carry out remote controlled surveillance operations….(Granma, 22 May 08)

Ex-CIA Official Indicted Over Agency Job for Mistress

…The new indictment against Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, a former No. 3 official at the spy agency and a onetime senior CIA ethics officer, alleges that he pressured CIA managers into hiring the woman after she was turned down for a position in the CIA's general counsel office. He also allegedly made false statements about her qualifications, the indictment states. Foggo, the CIA's executive director from 2004 to 2006, specifically told agency officials he had a "special interest" in seeing the woman hired, and he later berated them when they initially rejected her application. "When the ExDir has a special interest, you had better take notice," Foggo told the general counsel's staff, according to an indictment filed late Tuesday by the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria……(Washington Post, 22 May 08)

A Much-Needed Push on Intelligence

…Rather than rewarding employees for simply putting in time, the new pay system seeks to reward performance. As McConnell said, you usually get the behavior you reward. It is undoubtedly something of a risk, but there is little doubt that it is vitally necessary as a way to reward innovation and those who take a modicum of risk in their jobs, as well as show superior competence.

This is particularly true given the massive drain of the old guard in the Community following 9/11. One of the complaints and criticisms of the old system, which was clearly broken, was that it could not reward competence. People rose through the ranks and were rewarded largely by how long they could stick around……(Douglas Farah, 22 May 08)

More Spy Drones, Less Information?

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered the military to pour everything it's got into spy drones, to go hunt for foes in Iraq and Afghanistan.  "But more eyes in the sky may not necessarily translate into better information on the ground, military officials and scientists tell National Defense magazine. The problem is that no matter how many more dozens or hundreds of manned and unmanned aircraft hover over war zones, the data that they provide have limited value because they cannot be shared across the force. Another impediment is that the massive amounts of data being collected cannot be analyzed quickly enough to be useful. Incompatibility between Air Force and Army databases often hinders the flow of information in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials said……(Wired, 21 May 08)

Cisco grilled for allegedly helping Chinese censor, spy on dissidents

Internet networking giant Cisco Systems took the hot seat at a Senate Judiciary Human Rights Subcommittee hearing Tuesday for reportedly having a role in the Chinese government's construction of a system for monitoring, censoring and prosecuting online dissidents who speak in favor of democratic values. Cisco General Counsel Mark Chandler said an internal 2002 company document provided to the subcommittee, which gave an overview of China's law enforcement objectives like combating the spiritual movement Falun Gong, "were not Cisco's views then and are not Cisco's views now."….(Congress Daily, 20 May 08)

Former CIA official indicted anew in bribery case

A new indictment of a former top CIA official alleges that he received bribes in the form of ''sexual companionship'' in exchange for helping a friend get an edge in landing multimillion-dollar contracts from the agency. Federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday obtained a superseding indictment against Kyle ''Dusty'' Foggo, who as executive director held the CIA's No. 3 rank before leaving in 2006. The indictment accuses Foggo of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in meals, vacations and other perks in exchange for helping friend Brent Wilkes obtain various contracts with the CIA.…..(AP, 20 May 08)

NSA has DNS issues – global intelligence community panics

…Late last week the NSA (National Security Agency) fell offline, and if you believe the hype, the three to four hour down time caused the sky to fall in various parts of the world… The NSA lost internet connectivity at about 7 a.m. PST on Thursday last week. Danny McPherson over on Arbor Networks did some – yep you guessed it – troubleshooting, and discovered a DNS issue along with some interesting facts. The two authoritative DNS servers were in the same /16 prefix…..(Tech Herald, 20 May 08)

Better Secrecy for Open Source Intel Collectors Urged

U.S. intelligence employees who are collecting open source intelligence online should do more to ensure that they are not identified as intelligence personnel, the House Armed Services Committee said in its new report on the 2009 Defense Authorization Act. Failure to conceal the identity of open source intelligence collectors could conceivably lead to spoofing, disinformation or other forms of compromise…..(FAS, 19 May 08)

Intel agencies seek help recruiting new immigrants

FBI fears hardware backdoors in US military kit

Fake Cisco networking equipment could lead to hardware backdoors on military and other systems, as well as increased failure rates, says the FBI. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned of threats to the US military and critical national infrastructure caused by counterfeit Cisco products.  The counterfeit products could open a hardware backdoor into those systems, warned the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), enabling an attacker, potentially undetected by security software, to gain control of the systems. Counterfeit parts also have a much higher failure rate: one is known to have caught fire in a government network, due to a faulty power supply, warned the FBI.  To make matters worse, the FBI has an "intelligence gap": it does not know whether the fake goods are made for private profit or are state-sponsored, nor the scope of counterfeit-equipment use in the US government….(ZDNet, 15 May 08)

Italian Trial of C.I.A. Operatives Begins With Torture Testimony

A long-delayed trial of C.I.A. operatives and former top Italian intelligence officials moved forward here on Wednesday, as a judge ruled that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi could be called to testify about the abduction of a radical Muslim cleric here in 2003. Testimony also began Wednesday. The cleric’s wife, Ghali Nabila, said her husband, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar, was taken from Italy and transferred to a prison in Egypt, where, she said, he was repeatedly tortured….(New York Times, 15 May 08)

CIA Looking for Few Good Men with Bulgarian Language Skills

Factory Visit Tied to Ouster of Attachés From Russia

The two American military attachés who were expelled from Russia early this month, days ahead of the Victory Day martial parade on Red Square, had made an uninvited visit to a military aviation factory in Siberia that Russia regards as strategic, several American officials said this week. The visit occurred in late March at the Novosibirsk Aviation Production Association, a plant that manufactures Sukhoi-34 fighter-bombers. The two officers, an Army lieutenant colonel and a Navy lieutenant commander, appeared at the factory’s gates and were subsequently questioned by the surprised local authorities….(New York Times, 14 May 08)

Sensitive but unclassified category simplified

Domestic spying far outpaces terrorism prosecutions

The number of Americans being secretly wiretapped or having their financial and other records reviewed by the government has continued to increase as officials aggressively use powers approved after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the number of terrorism prosecutions ending up in court -- one measure of the effectiveness of such sleuthing -- has continued to decline, in some cases precipitously…"How does one measure the success? The short answer is we aren't in a great position to know," said Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor. With prosecutions declining, he said, the public is left with imperfect and possibly misleading ways to gauge progress in the Bush administration's war on terrorism -- such as the number of secret warrants the government issues or the number of agents it assigns to terrorism cases……(LA Times, 12 May 08)

The secret's out! Spy recruitment disguised as child's play

Leaked Presentation: FBI Investigation – Cisco Routers

State Dept. loses, then recovers, anti-terrorism computers worth $30 M

A blog maintained by some former US Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) who found their security credentials inexplicably suspended in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy, is being credited for having shed light on a serious State Dept. problem: A February audit by the Inspector General's office determined that as many as 400 laptop computers belonging to a key anti-terrorism training task force were unaccounted for, among other possibly lost State Dept. assets… Even though the laptops have since been found, at least one person close to the situation found it quite troubling. "I would expect many of the laptops to be 'found' in the sense that they may not have actually left a State Department facility," an anonymous source told CQ. "But if they don't know where they are, that is bad management, and they may as well have disappeared."…..(Beta News, 9 May 08)

The National Security Archive, Spilling Government Secrets

… The National Security Archive is the house that FOIA built and a mecca for document buffs.

Despite its official-sounding name, the archive is not a government agency. It's an independent, nonprofit institute created in 1985 by a handful of reporters, historians and activists who'd been filing FOIA requests for documents related to American activities in the guerrilla wars then raging in Central America. Its first director was Scott Armstrong, a former Senate Watergate Committee staffer and Washington Post reporter…….(Washington Post, 8 May 08)

US, Russia trade diplomatic expulsions

U.S. officials say Russia has ordered two American military attaches at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to leave the country following the expulsion of a pair of Russian diplomats from Washington. The State Department says it disagrees with the move but will comply. Officials are playing down any linkage between the expulsions of the Americans that were ordered on April 28 and the expulsions of the Russians. One Russian military officer was ordered to leave Washington in November last year. The second was ordered to leave on April 22……(AP, 8 May 08)

National Intelligence Agency Breaks Out RSS Feed

The value of space-based intelligence

The commander of US Strategic Command, Gen Kevin Chilton, has said that US space-based intelligence is playing an "invaluable" role in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The four-star general said satellite data was allowing coalition commanders on the ground to counter Taleban infiltration with the help of unmanned aerial drones.  But in a rare interview, he told the BBC his staff was having to cope with foreign "intrusions" into sensitive computer data - in other words, cyber warfare…..(BBC, 7 May 08)

Audit: DEA intelligence analysts lacking security clearances

Twelve percent of the DEA's intelligence analysts last year did not have the security clearances necessary or were otherwise unauthorized to do their jobs, a new Justice Department audit concludes… It found that 19 of 699 DEA intelligence analysts surveyed had only low-level security clearances needed to review intelligence, while another 62 had not been reauthorized to keep their top secret clearances, as required every five years. One additional analyst had no security clearance at all as of last September, the audit found.  All DEA analysts are required to have top secret clearance in order to fully do their jobs…..(AP, 5 May 08)

U.S. base is no longer welcome in Ecuador

…With 18 months left on its decade-long contract, the U.S. Forward Operating Location in Manta has few friends in this South American nation -- and fewer still who believe that the agreement has any hope of being extended. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has vowed not to renew the base's contract beyond its November 2009 expiration. And politicians drafting a new constitution have proposed banning the base or any other foreign military presence in the country. If the Manta base closes, it would leave the United States shopping for a new airstrip for the radar-mounted AWAC E3s, and P-3 spy planes that ply the Eastern Pacific, looking for drug runners…..(Miami Herald, 5 May 08)

It's Not as Big a Leap as You Think

…The federal government offers lots of possibilities far, far beyond the Beltway, so don't let myths about government work overseas dash your aspirations… Myth: All employees of intelligence agencies are spies; they are either spying on their families or have abandoned them. Fact: The Central Intelligence Agency recruits about 100 types of non-spy professionals, ranging from Hollywood makeup artists who design disguises to Wall Street wizards who analyze financial information, said Betsy Davis, chief of the agency's Recruitment and Retention Center. Some work in the United States; some work overseas……(Washington Post, 4 May 08)

Hundreds of Laptops Missing at State Department, Audit Finds

Hundreds of employee laptops are unaccounted for at the U.S. Department of State, which conducts delicate, often secret, diplomatic relations with foreign countries, an internal audit has found. As many as 400 of the unaccounted for laptops belong to the department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program… The program provides counterterrorism training and equipment, including laptops, to foreign police, intelligence and security forces. Ironically, the Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program is administered by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS), which is responsible for the security of the department’s computer networks and sensitive equipment, including laptops, among other duties. It also protects foreign diplomats during visits here…..(CQ, 2 May 08)

OMB aims to further streamline security clearance process

The Office of Management and Budget announced this week the details of its plan to streamline the security clearance process for employees and contractors working for intelligence agencies. OMB aims ultimately to reduce the time it takes to investigate and process such clearances from the current 112 days to 60 days… the time frame for the plan's implementation would not be outlined until a June 30 executive order is issued, but the structure will be in place by the end of 2008 so security clearance reform can continue into the next administration. "We have been making security clearance determinations the same way for 50 years, and it's time to change the way we do that,"…..(Gov Exec, 2 May 08)

Cuts at U.S. Embassy cause 'serious concerns'

U.S. relations with the former Soviet republic Belarus continued to deteriorate yesterday, one day after Belarus expelled 10 American diplomats and just days after a cyber-attack on the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The expulsions reflected an escalating confrontation between Washington and the Belarus capital, Minsk, after the imposition in December of U.S. sanctions against a state-owned energy conglomerate. Wednesday's expulsions reduced the size of the U.S. diplomatic staff in Minsk to four…..(Washington Times, 2 May 08)

US spy plane crashes in Iraq

An American spy plane crashed in southern Iraq on Friday during a pre-dawn mission, the US military said. The remotely piloted long-endurance MQ-1 Predator crashed after it was launched from what was described as "Ali Base," the US airforce authorities in Iraq said in a statement. It gave no additional details about the incident or where the aircraft went down, but added that an investigation would be launched. "Mechanical failure is suspected,"….(AFP, 2 May 08)

Jakarta, US at odds over 'spy' lab

Negotiations over whether a controversial US military laboratory should remain in Indonesia have reached a knife-edge, as officials argue about biological sample-sharing and the diplomatic status of staff in the facility. Politicians and sections of the media have joined the fray over the work of US Naval Medical Research Unit No2, known as NAMRU, which was established in Jakarta in 1970 and is one of five such facilities worldwide… The heated debate over NAMRU boils down to the facility's work on tropical diseases including malaria, dengue fever and infant diarrhoea as well as bird flu - work that Dr Supari said had been of "minimal use" because the complaints had still not been eradicated. The Americans argue that NAMRU's value is significant, including in training and research…….(Australian, 2 May 08)

Senate panel bans private contractors in CIA interrogations

The Senate Intelligence Committee moved on Thursday to ban the CIA from using private contractors to interrogate detainees.

The restriction is part of a bill that authorizes intelligence spending for 2009, which the panel approved on a 10-5 vote, sending it to the full Senate for further action. The bill would also require the intelligence agencies to give the International Committee of the Red Cross access to all their prisoners. That would prevent the United States from holding "ghost detainees" _ anonymous prisoners detained incommunicado and without records.….(AP, 1 May 08)

Reacting to Sanctions, Belarus Expels 10 More U.S. Diplomats

Belarus expelled 10 U.S. diplomats Wednesday, deepening a dispute over sanctions imposed on the former Soviet republic by Washington because of the authoritarian rule of President Alexander Lukashenko.  Jonathan Moore, the head of the U.S. mission, told reporters in the Belarusan capital, Minsk, that he had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry and informed that the American diplomats had 72 hours to leave the country……(Washington Post, 1 May 08)

CIA Chief Sees Unrest Rising With Population

Swelling populations and a global tide of immigration will present new security challenges for the United States by straining resources and stoking extremism and civil unrest in distant corners of the globe, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said in a speech yesterday. The population surge could undermine the stability of some of the world's most fragile states, especially in Africa, while in the West, governments will be forced to grapple with ever larger immigrant communities and deepening divisions over ethnicity and race, Hayden said……(Washington Post, 1 May 08)

Was it a spy, or would-be spy, in that SUV?

Much about Roland Carnaby's life speaks to a long career as a devoted intelligence officer — from his effort to build a local chapter of the professional association to his personal friendships with current and former members of the intelligence community to his respect and affection for law enforcement and its dignitaries.

His home in Pearland is filled with pieces of his patriotic past. Plaques honor his years of service to the Central Intelligence Agency. A book written by former CIA Director George Tenet is inscribed with a warm and playful message. Photos of him at CIA headquarters, in front of military aircraft and with various dignitaries are prominently displayed….(Houston Chronicle, 1 May 08)

Lawmakers to See Secret Documents

…Bowing to intense pressure from congressional Democrats, senior Justice officials said they soon will release unredacted versions of memos drafted by staff members in the department's Office of Legal Counsel. Several of the controversial memos have been repudiated while others remain under fire from critics who say they encourage torture and civil liberties abuses. Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse called the move an "extraordinary accommodation" to help members of the intelligence committees understand the Bush administration's legal reasoning on "vital" national security policies……(Washington Post, 1 May 08)

Another record number of warrants for secret spy court

…The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved 2,370 warrants last year targeting people in the United States believed to be linked to international terror organizations. That figure represents a 9 percent increase over 2006. The number of warrants has more than doubled since the terrorist attacks of 2001…..(AP, 30 Apr 08)

Foreign Law and the First Amendment

Late in 1941, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion which, for the first time in our history, starkly distinguished American protection of speech from that of England…there are sharp distinctions between U.S. and English law. One difference is that under the First Amendment we provide far more protection for speech that is claimed to be libelous…England has become a choice venue for libel plaintiffs from around the world, including those who seek to intimidate critics whose works would be protected in the U.S. but might not in that country. That English libel law has increasingly been used to stifle speech about the subject of international terrorism raises the stakes still more. The case against Rachel Ehrenfeld in England by Saudi banker Khalid Bin Mahfouz is illustrative. Her 2003 book "Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Funded and How to Stop It" dealt at length with one of the most significant (and difficult and dangerous to research) topics – the funding of terrorism. The conduct of Mr. Bin Mahfouz as a possible funder of terrorism was one of the subjects discussed in the book, which was published in New York….(Wall Street Journal, 30 Apr 08)

Mukasey targets global crime kingpins using counter-terror measures

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey's new strategy for combating international organized crime will see prosecutors working more closely with U.S. intelligence agencies to identify, track and disrupt the operations of major global crime figures… U.S. intelligence agencies provided "vital input" into the threat analysis that underpinned the strategy, said a U.S. intelligence official authorized to speak to the media. "Intelligence reporting and analysis, for example, highlighted the importance to organized crime of flexible support networks -- moving the discussion beyond the more static 'syndicate' model," which officials had traditionally used to understand the workings of organized crime. Intelligence about a possible "confluence between organized crime and threats such as terrorism," said the official in an e-mailed statement, "shaped the view, reflected in the strategy, that the fight against organized crime should be viewed not only as an international law enforcement issue, but as an international security issue."….(UPI, 29 Apr 08)

Declassified NSA Document Reveals the Secret History of TEMPEST

It was 1943, and an engineer with Bell Telephone was working on one of the U.S. government's most sensitive and important pieces of wartime machinery, a Bell Telephone model 131-B2. It was a top secret encrypted teletype terminal used by the Army and Navy to transmit wartime communications that could defy German and Japanese cryptanalysis. Then he noticed something odd. Far across the lab, a freestanding oscilloscope had developed a habit of spiking every time the teletype encrypted a letter. Upon closer inspection, the spikes could actually be translated into the plain message the machine was processing. Though he likely didn't know it at the time, the engineer had just discovered that all information processing machines send their secrets into the electromagnetic ether. Call it a TEMPEST in a teletype…Building on the breakthrough, the U.S. developed and refined the science in an attempt to spy on the Soviets during the Cold War. And it issued strict standards for shielding sensitive buildings and equipment. Those rules are now known to government agencies and defense contractors as TEMPEST, and they apply to everything from computer monitors to encrypted cell phones that handle classified information…..(Wired, 29 Apr 08) Document: TEMPEST - A Signal Problem  (NSA)

Cryptologic Spectrum Articles  (NSA)