[This is a greatly abridged sample issue of the outstanding newsletter Intelligence.] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field below. You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" command. For information on RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, see http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/rre.html or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with Subject: info rre =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 18:57:49 -0400 (EDT) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [INT_Sub] INT 100 summary Distribute freely. SUMMARY VERSION INTELLIGENCE ISSN 1245-2122 N. 100, New Series, 21 June 1999 Every Two to Three Weeks Next Issue on 12 July 1999 Publishing since 1980 Editor Olivier Schmidt (email [EMAIL PROTECTED]; web http://www.blythe.org/Intelligence) TABLE OF CONTENTS, N. 100, 21 June 1999 FRONT PAGE USA - FBI-HACKER CYBER WAR GETS UNDER WAY p.1 TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES AUTHORITIES LEAD WORLD-WIDE ATTACK ON INTERNET p.2 CELLPHONE "BRAIN-DAMAGE" HEALTH WARNING p.3 TECHNOLOGY & TECHNIQUES - Open Source Intelligence. p.4 CRYPTOGRAPHY, VIRUS, BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM. PEOPLE GREAT BRITAIN - RICHARD TOMLINSON p.5 PALESTINE - MOHAMMED DAOUD ODEH p.6 PEOPLE - Open Source Intelligence. p.7 USA, GREAT BRITAIN, CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA, CROTIA, ISRAEL. AGENDA COMING EVENTS THROUGH 15 AUGUST 1999 p.8 INTELLIGENCE AROUND THE WORLD USA - "CHINAGATE" BURNS OUT WITH NO EASY CULPRIT p.9 USA/CANADA - Open Source Intelligence. p.10 DOE, CIA, FBI, NSA, YBM, DRUGS, IRS, CANADA. GREAT BRITAIN - FREEMASONS "OUTED" BY MPS' REPORT p.11 NORTHERN IRELAND - "THE COMMITTEE" FIGHTS BACK p.12 IRELAND - HIGH-TECH POLICE COMPUTER SYSTEM'S LABOUR TROUBLE p.13 IRELAND - Trans-Atlantic Police Cooperation. p.14 FRANCE - AN INTELLIGENCE PUBLISHING SPREE p.15 GERMANY - KGB TALES FROM THE BRANDT CRYPT p.16 WESTERN EUROPE - Open Source Intelligence. p.17 GREAT BRITAIN, NORTHERN IRELAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY, PORTUGAL, SPAIN. BALKANS - MARKET FORCES MOVE IN WITH NATO FORCES p.18 EASTERN EUROPE - Open Source Intelligence. p.19 HUNGARY, POLAND, SLOVAKIA, ROMANIA, KOSOVO, SERBIA, GEORGIA, KAZAKHSTAN, EASTERN EUROPE. LATIN AMERICA - Open Source Intelligence. p.20 MEXICO, CUBA, HAITI, COSTA RICA, SALVADOR, COLOMBIA, ECUADOR, BRAZIL, CHILE. NIGERIA - MAJOR CHANGES IN INTELLIGENCE & SECURITY p.21 AFRICA - Open Source Intelligence. p.22 SOUTH AFRICA, CENTRAL AFRICA, KENYA, ALGERIA, AFRICA. MIDDLE EAST - Open Source Intelligence. p.23 ISRAEL/PALESTINE, IRAQ. ASIA - Open Source Intelligence. p.24 JAPAN, PHILIPPINES. --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 100, 21 June 1999, p. 1 USA FBI-HACKER CYBER WAR GETS UNDER WAY On 10 May, the US White House Web site was taken off line after hackers broke into the system and left behind cyber graffiti critical of the NATO campaign in Kosovo. White House spokesman, Barry Toiv, stated he had no information on who the hackers were or what their motive might have been and Secret Service public affairs did not return media requests for comment. At the same time, the Web site of the Department of the Interior and that of the Department of Energy were altered to carry pictures of the three Chinese nationals who were killed in the bombing of Belgrade's Chinese Embassy, leading to the hypothesis that Chinese hackers were responsible for the attacks. ...(cut)... --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 100, 21 June 1999, p. 2 AUTHORITIES LEAD WORLD-WIDE ATTACK ON INTERNET Nail Murzakhanov, founder and owner of the Russian Internet Service Provider (ISP), Bayard-Slavia Communications (BSC), based in Volgograd, has refused to allow the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to monitor electronic mail and online activity of BSC clients, without a warrant. Last year, the Russian government's communications committee, Goskomsvyaz, under pressure from right-wing Duma deputies, unreconstructed Communists and the FSB, issued a directive known as SORM-2 (System of Operative Intelligence Actions or System for Ensuring Investigative Activity, depending on translations, see "Russia - Internet & Economic Security Under New FSB Chief", INT, n. 84 29), which not only requires Russian ISPs to provide covert access to online customers, but to train agents to carry out the monitoring and to pay for the software and technology needed. Most ISPs have signed an agreement with the authorities allowing the FSB unlimited access to their customer database, and to provide a monthly update of telephone numbers, passwords and addresses. BSC is one of the few companies to have rejected SORM-2, claiming the draft law is unconstitutional and violates Internet privacy. The government has threatened to revoke the company's license, despite Mr. Murzakhanov's willingness to work with the FSB in fully-warranted counter-espionage and criminal investigations. SORM-2 is classified as a state secret, and other ISPs have signed an agreement, according to the BSC director, committing it to silent cooperation with the FSB. ...(cut)... --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 100, 21 June 1999, p. 9 USA "CHINAGATE" BURNS OUT WITH NO EASY CULPRIT We mentioned in our previous issue that a declassified version of the Cox report was released on 25 May, calling the loss of US nuclear secrets "one of worst failures" in US history, but tempered this clear exaggeration by noting that, more than ten year later, China has not deployed any weaponry incorporating the stolen technology (see "USA - China Spying Case 'Goes Off the Deep End'", INT, n. 99 1). Media analysis seemed to continue with a wave of reactions -- "It is a first-rate spy story. Trouble is, no one is sure what it means." -- and the press stated listening to experts who down-played China's spying and claimed that the loss of US nuclear secrets to China represents, at worst, a marginal threat to national security. The "Washington Post" headlined, "Planted Document Sows Seeds of Doubt - Spy Experts Wonder What China Hoped to Reap" (28 May), and the Associated Press, "Papers Brought to CIA by Chinese Double Agent Tipped Off US to Spying" (29 May), while dissident CIA officer, Ralph McGehee, severely criticized his former employer for "passing off 'walk-in information as if it were real intelligence." ...(cut)... --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 100, 21 June 1999, p. 11 GREAT BRITAIN FREEMASONS "OUTED" BY MPS' REPORT A report by the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, published on 25 May, entitled "Freemasonry in Public Life", has concluded that members of the Freemason Brotherhood within police forces in England and Wales may have played a "significant role" in the Stalker affair in the mid-1980s and a series of miscarriages of justice involving West Midlands Serious Crime Squad (WMSCS), which was disbanded amid allegations of corruption in 1989. The report is the result of a two-year investigation, chaired by Chris Mullin, MP, and recommends that Home Secretary, Jack Straw, establish Masonic membership registers for the police after only 3 of 43 police forces in England and Wales bothered to reassure the public and open registers on a voluntary basis. The MPs on the all-party committee also proposed that the Home Office publish the names of thousands of magistrates, crown prosecutors and judges who have failed to disclose that they are members of the Brotherhood or other secret societies, pointing out that only 7 members of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), out of 2,097 questioned, admitted they were Masons while 48 percent refused to disclose or deny links. ...(cut)... --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 100, 21 June 1999, p. 12 NORTHERN IRELAND "THE COMMITTEE" FIGHTS BACK A former Assistant Chief Constable of the RUC, Trevor Forbes, who retired as head of the RUC Special Branch in December 1989, is to take legal action against the largest bookseller in the US, Barnes and Noble, after the company published a "sample chapter" of the controversial book, "The Committee", by Sean McPhilemy, on its Internet website. The book names 24 members of an organized conspiracy involving prominent politicians, police and military (UDR) personnel, top businessmen, Albert and David Prentice, and Loyalist assassins to murder Nationalists in Northern Ireland. In a statement, Forbes, who served as RUC liaison with MI5 in the mid-1980s, claims the allegations contained in the book could destroy his reputation after serving with the police for 40 years. Northern Ireland's First Minister, David Trimble, the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is also linked to the Loyalist murder campaign. He has decided to sue Amazon, the world's largest Internet book seller, based in Slough, Berkshire, after the company announced plans to distribute a second reprint of the book, which it describes as a "gripping tale of terrorist atrocities and political corruption". The Prentice brothers, car dealers in the Loyalist heartland of Portadown, who are named in "The Committee" as key figures in the murder campaign, are suing US publishers, Roberts Rinehart, in Washington DC, for an estimated $100 million, and have also taken action against the Dublin-based "Sunday Business Post". ...(cut)... --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 100, 21 June 1999, p. 15 FRANCE AN INTELLIGENCE PUBLISHING SPREE Specialists are wondering why there's been a spree of "approved" publications concerning French intelligence over the last few months. Certain believe there's a coordinated media campaign of "image improvement" so that highly-trained soldiers specialized in the efficient elimination of human beings are seen as armed but humane peacekeepers. The exploits of the Top- Secret Commando Hubert combat frogmen are reportedly available in book form and publicity for waterproof watches now includes a photo of a Commando Hubert member. There's Eric Denece, formerly a special forces member, head of security at the French military electronics specialist, Thomson, and editor of the pro-NATO glossy journal, "Enjeux Atlantiques", all aspects of his biography which don't figure in the recent first volume of a book-form review, "Renseignement & Operations Speciales", of which he is also editor. The journal's contents stops unexplainably with the end of World War II, except, of course, for Soviet special forces (1917-1991) and a strange interview on strategy with Gen. Alain Gaigneron de Marolles who's known among specialists not for his geo-political brain-power but for the efficient elimination of Third World guerrilla movements and their leaders. According to one specialists, "paratroopers 'get the big picture' when they jump out of a plane, but they're best with their eyes about one meter from the ground." ...(cut)... --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 100, 21 June 1999, p. 19 EASTERN EUROPE - Open Source Intelligence. HUNGARY. Intelligence officials, investigating a 12 June house bombing and a 14 June car bombing in Budapest, stated they hope the incidents do not herald a new crime wave, although it was too soon to tell if there was any link between the two attacks. Last year, Hungary was rocked by a wave of bombings and headlined execution-style murders, including one of a police informer who was blown up by a car bomb in the tourist district at mid-day, killing three bystanders. The bombings tapered off last year after police said they had discovered links between a Slovak organized crime group and the Budapest bombings. The latest attacks come a little more than a month after Zoltan Seres, a Hungarian businessman with suspected organized crime ties, and an Italian associate were gunned down in their car in the town of Szentendre, near Budapest. POLAND. On 7 June, Andrzej Koweszko, the head of the Polish office of Interpol, submitted his resignation immediately after returning from Oslo where he had attended an annual Interpol regional conference. He refused to explain the abrupt resignation, stating only that he wished to remain loyal to his superiors. Some specialists say the long-standing dispute over who should represent the Polish police abroad and be responsible for relations with Interpol came to a boil at the Oslo conference where Polish delegates presented contradictory positions. Krzysztof Bondaryk, a deputy minister of internal affairs and administration, who also attended the Interpol conference, stated that international contacts between police and other crime-fighting special services should be the responsibility of a new unit he is organizing within the ministry. ...(cut)... --------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 100, 21 June 1999, p. 21 NIGERIA MAJOR CHANGES IN INTELLIGENCE & SECURITY In our previous issue, we noted that with the advent of democracy, and a 1997 police nationwide crackdown detaining 143 Nigerians, there had been a 16-month break in the infamous Nigerian money laundering scams that prey off unaware and naive businessmen abroad (INT, n. 96 23). We mentioned that the scams are back and are believed to be operating out of one of the continent's other lawless places, Johannesburg, South Africa, and, this time around, the scams are reportedly using a bank account in Malaysia to facilitate the transfer of funds (INT, n. 99 22). The clean-up seems to be continuing under newly- elected president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who, on 1 June, ordered the immediate suspension of all recent commercial contracts agreed under his army predecessor and threatened corrupt civil servants with dismissal. The moves, on Obasanjo's first working day in office, were the clearest possible sign that he intends to live up to pledges to dismantle the legacy of 15 years of military misrule which have crippled Africa's most populous nation. Eleven potentially lucrative deep offshore oil concessions, awarded to firms linked to powerful military interests under General Abdulsalami Abubakar -- who stepped down on 29 May -- are affected by the suspension order. ...(cut)... --------------------------------------------- <END OF FILE>
