BREAKING NEWS: FBI AGENT ARRESTED FOR ESPIONAGE
- Robert Hanssen, a 27-year veteran of FBI counterintelligence, was arrested Sunday (after servicing a "dead drop") and will be appear this morning in Federal Court. Details are limited at this time — FBI Director Freeh, Attorney General Ashcroft and DCI Tenet are expected to hold a joint press conference on the subject this afternoon at 12:45pm. Apparently the case involves charges that Hanssen spied for the Russians for more than 10 years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28763-2001Feb20.html
RUSSIAN TACTICAL NUKES DEPLOYED TO KALININGRAD
- On January 3rd, Bill Gertz reported in the Washington Times that Russian tactical nuclear warheads had been deployed to Kaliningrad, in the Baltics. On Feb 15, Gertz had another story on the subject. This time he pinpointed satellite imagery of June 3 and June 6 as the confirmation to US intelligence that nukes were going to Kaliningrad — there is no longer any doubt about it among US officials, he wrote. Furthermore (and most interesting), Gertz wrote on Feb 15 that the information was not sent to policymakers until December — 6 months after the imagery. Intelligence Community officials deny this alleged withholding of intelligence. [More likely, the information was disseminated but closely held — because it's disclosure would tend to exacerbate US-Russian relations.] After the first Gertz press revelation, on January 3, the State Dept felt it had to send a diplomatic note to Moscow — which brought denials. This Feb 15 report will rub more salt into that wound — which was probably the intention of the US official or officials who leaked the info to Gertz. — jdmac]
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-2001215224952.htm
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring-200121621294.htm
REP BARR (R-Ga) WOULD RESTORE US LICENSE TO KILL
- For the 2nd year in row, Rep Bob Barr has introduced legislation, "The Terrorist Elimination Act," that would repeal several executive orders that have, since 1976, prohibited employees of the US Government, including any element of the US Intelligence Community, from taking part in or abetting a political assassination.
[The proposed bill has no cosponsors and will not go anywhere. Except for Barr, almost no one else in Congress, the Executive Branch or the Intelligence Community wants to see the US to get into the assassination business. Intelligence assassins like the fictional James Bond, are mostly creatures of Hollywood, not real life. The KGB and it's predecessor organizations, of course, did carry out some "wet affairs" including the ax murder of Leon Trotsky in Mexico during in 1940, and Israel continues to this day to assassinate it's enemies — especially in the past 3 months — see next story below. But most such political killings remain in spy fiction rather than the real world.
The CIA apparently planned or set in motion plans to assassinate Congolese President Patrice Lumumba and Cuban President Fidel Castro during the late 1950's and early 1960's, but the efforts were unsuccessful. US policy in those days was to maintain "plausible deniability" regarding sensitive intelligence matters. Thus, it is probable but unproveable that Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson themselves ordered the killings. It is known that the CIA drew up plans to assassinate Patrice Lumumba in the Congo — but Lumumba was killed by local political opponents before the CIA could act. During the Kennedy years, the President's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, personally ran "Operation Mongoose," an extensive program of covert action against Cuba (apparently because the Kennedys thought the CIA too "wimpish" in the covert arena). In any event, there is testimony and and some documentation that shows that Robert Kennedy ordered the assassination of Fidel Castro and several unsuccessful plots were hatched. Presumably his brother, President Kennedy, was aware and on board, but, again, there is no paper trail. After all this came out in the Senate Church Committee investigations, President Ford issued a 1976 Executive Order prohibiting assassinations. President Reagan strengthened that order and those prohibitions (which Rep Barr would rescind) remain in force.
PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE ORDERS have the force of law, they are the prerogative of the President alone, and the President could revoke the orders at any time and without any notice.
BOMBING TARGETS. It should also be noted that on several occasions in the 1980's and 1990's, the US Air Force targeted precision guided munitions on specific command and control bunkers and other locations where Libyan President Muamar Ghaddafi and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were expected to be found. Certainly this was done in hopes of killing Ghaddafi and Saddam, and certainly it was done on the orders of President's Reagan and Bush. When queried about that, Pentagon spokesman denied these were assassination attempts. Rather, they said, Ghaddafi and Saddam were both legitimate military targets as heads of their respective armed forces during hostilities and, furthermore, US weapons were aimed at enemy military installations rather than individual persons. — jdmac]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15175-2001Feb16.html
DCI GEORGE TENET GETS BETTER RECEPTION ON THE HILL
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According to the Post's Vernon Loeb, Tenet has an easier time now with Congress because of his perceived bipartisanship — he was appointed by Clinton and retained by Bush. This "Back Channels" column goes on to compare the threat statements of the 3 all-source intel chiefs — DCI Tenet, DIA Director RADM Tom Wilson, and Acting Director of State/INR, Thomas Fingar. Although all three enumerated roughly the same threats, according to Loeb, Fingar, a career diplomat, seemed to see a less dangerous world than his CIA and DIA counterparts. Another item of note at this threat hearing was ADM Wilson's repeated use of a new (for most of us) acronym, C3D2, which stands for "cover, concealment, camouflage, denial & deception."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23654-2001Feb18.html
DCI TENET BLOCKS DECLASSIFICATION OF OLD PDB FOR HISTORICAL PURPOSES
- The President's Daily Brief (PDB) is the highly classified and very special intelligence briefing hand delivered each morning to the President (and a handful of other senior officials he designates). Recently, the commission at the State Dept that compiles the unclassified official historical series, "Foreign Relations of the United States," usually 25-30 years in the past, wanted to cite a 30-year old PDB in a footnote. Tenet refused, ruling that not part of a PDB should be declassified, ever. [In my view, there's a problem with that stance, and I suspect it will not stand forever. If intelligence matters, that is, if it has value and makes a difference, it must have an effect on the history of America's foreign relations. So, in my view, intelligence should be part of the official history. Sources and methods must be protected, to be sure. But arguing that the official history of US foreign relations can be told without reference to intelligence is also to argue that intelligence is irrelevant, it doesn't matter. It should be noted in this regard, that since the end of the Cold War an increasing amount of intelligence material, including sensitive documents about 1950's era covert actions, have been released (redacted if necessary) to the State Dept historians. Still, writing history without reference to old PDB's, it seems to me, leaves a big hole in the official historical record. — jdmac ]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23161-2001Feb18.html
http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/frus.html
POLICE FOIL NERVE GAS PLOT AGAINST LONDON UNDERGROUND
PROPSED CYBER-TERRORISM LEGISLATION WOULD STRENGTHEN US LEGAL FRAMEWORK
CLINTON PARDONS OF INTELLIGENCE PERSONAGES
- Along with Marc Rich and 170+ others who received pardons in the last hours of the Clinton Administration were John DUETCH and Samuel Loring MORRRISON. Former DCI Deutch had just reached a plea agreement with the Justice Dept regarding his mishandling of classified documents on his home computer. Morrison, a Navy analyst who leaked a spy satellite image of a Soviet aircraft carrier under construction to Jane's, was convicted in 1985 and served his time. The White House had asked the CIA about pardoning Morrison (the CIA recommended against), but White House did not ask about Deutch. His pardon came as a surprise. The Senate intelligence committee is holding hearings. [Perhaps the main point about last minute intelligence pardons is that Israeli spy Jonathan POLLARD did NOT get one. — jdmac]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17274-2001Feb16.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10762-2001Feb15.html
MARC RICH PARDON
SECURITY UPGRADES AT DOE LABS SUSPENDED
- In one of his last acts as Clinton's Secretary of Energy, Bill Richardson suspended polygraph testing along with the series of security measures undertaken in the wake of the 1999 Congressional and media brouhaha over the Wen Ho Lee case. The security measures were reportedly undermining morale, getting in the way of hiring, and undermining national security by blocking scientific progress at the labs where they were meeting with almost mutinous resistance. The suspension is to allow a review that would consider whether the security measures were "doing more harm than good." [Richardson may well have done the Bush Administration a favor — they can reinstitute the security crack down if they choose, but if they decide its a good idea to ease up, Richardson rather Bush and his new Energy Secretary, Abraham Spencer, takes the heat for being "soft" on security. — jdmac]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10719-2001Feb15.html
BOOKS & OTHER SOURCES
NSA VISITED BY 60 MINUTES ON FEB 13
"SPIES CAFE" AND "SPY SCHOOL"
- According to its creator, Alan Simpson, his "Spies" project is the largest media venture in the world of espionage, adventure, and intrigue, creating over 20 websites, TV and Radio, as well as adventure weekends, theme cruises, theme trains, clubs, and merchandizing such as Spies Zone, the mall store, and Spies Books, the online book store.
"Spy School" is the online learning resource. As it develops you
will be able to explore the craft, and learn the basics, enabling
participation in the games. (It is also the name of the TV series from LTN, currently in pre-production.)
http://www.spiescafe.com
http://www.spyschool.com
