sa intelligencer #66
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SA Intelligencer Number 6631 January 2010
Initiator: Johan Mostert Contributions and enquiries [email protected]
MI5: China bugs and burgles Britain A restricted report by the security service MI5 describes how China has attacked UK companies in a concerted hacking campaign David Leppard‐ Sunday Times, 31 January 2010 THE security service MI5 has accused China of bugging and burgling UK business executives and setting up “honeytraps” in a bid to blackmail them into betraying sensitive commercial secrets. A leaked MI5 document says that undercover intelligence officers from the People’s Liberation Army and the Ministry of Public Security have also approached UK businessmen at trade fairs and exhibitions with the offer of “gifts” and “lavish hospitality”. The gifts — cameras and memory sticks — have been found to contain electronic Trojan bugs which provide the Chinese with remote access to users’ computers. MI5 says the Chinese government “represents one of the most significant espionage threats to the UK” because of its use of these methods, as well as widespread electronic hacking. Written by MI5’s Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, the 14‐page “restricted” report describes how China has attacked UK defence, energy, communications and manufacturing companies in a concerted hacking campaign. It claims China has also gone much further, targeting the computer networks and email accounts of public relations companies and international law firms. “Any UK company might be at risk if it holds information which would benefit the Chinese,” the report says. The explicit nature of the MI5 warning is likely to strain diplomatic ties between London and Beijing. Relations between the two countries were damaged last month after China’s decision to execute a mentally ill British man for alleged drug trafficking. The report says the practice has now extended to commercial espionage.
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Inside This Issue
1 MI5: China bugs and burgles Britain
2 CIA Ups Foreign Language Requirements for Top Staff
3 U.S. gives Yemen key intelligence to strike al Qaeda
4 Spain tries secret agent suspected of selling data to Russia
5 Belarusian President reshuffles security agency
5 Former Georgian President's Son Charged With Spying For Russia
6 Commentary: Intelligence in Canada: Adapt or Overhaul? – Thomas Quiggin
7 Intel literature: Defend The Realm: The Authorized History of MI5
8 Upcoming events & conferences
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31 January 2010 SA Intelligencer Number 66 2
It says Chinese agents are trying to cultivate “long‐term relationships” with the employees of key British companies: “An undercover intelligence officer may try to develop a friendship or business relationship, often using lavish hospitality and flattery. “Chinese intelligence services have also been known to exploit vulnerabilities such as sexual relationships and illegal activities to pressurise individuals to co‐operate with them.” The warning to British businessmen adds: “Hotel rooms in major Chinese cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, which are frequented by foreigners, are likely to be bugged ... hotel rooms have been searched while the occupants are out of the room.” It warns that British executives are being targeted in China and in other countries. “During conferences or visits to Chinese companies you may be given gifts such as USB devices or cameras. There have been cases where these ‘gifts’ have contained Trojan devices and other types of malware.” China has repeatedly denied spying on Britain and the West. Its London embassy did not comment. In 2007 Jonathan Evans, the director‐general of MI5, had written privately to 300 chief executives of banks and other businesses warning them that their IT systems were under attack from “Chinese state organisations”.
MI5 Logo
There have been unconfirmed reports that China has tried to hack into computers belonging to the Foreign Office, nine other Whitehall departments and parliament. Last year a report by Whitehall’s joint intelligence committee said China may be capable of shutting down critical services such as power, food and water supplies. But the latest document is the most comprehensive and explicit warning to be issued by the UK authorities on the new threat. Entitled The Threat from Chinese Espionage, it was circulated to hundreds of City and business leaders last year. The growing threat from China has led Evans to complain that his agency is being forced to divert manpower and resources away from the fight against Al‐Qaeda. His lobbying helped to prompt the Cabinet Office to set up the Office of Cyber Security, which will be launched in March. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7009749.ece
CIA Ups Foreign Language Requirements for Top Staff
(AP ) 29 January 2010 Central Intelligence Agency director Leon Panetta announced on 29 January 2010 that the CIA is raising language requirements for employees looking to be promoted to the top ranks of the agency, the Senior Intelligence Service. Panetta sent a note to CIA staff saying he expects these high‐ranking employees "to lead the way in strengthening this critical expertise." "While many senior Agency officers have tested proficient in a foreign language over the course of their careers, some have not kept their skills current," the CIA said in a release. "Under the new policy, promotions to SIS for most analysts and operations officers will be contingent on
Promotions for most analysts and operations
officers will be contingent on
demonstrating foreign language competency
Editor: Dalene Duvenage Click on hyperlinks to open documents [email protected]
31 January 2010 SA Intelligencer Number 66 3
demonstrating foreign language competency. If an officer is promoted to SIS and does not meet the foreign language requirement within one year, he or she will return to their previous, lower grade. This is a powerful incentive to maintain and improve skills critical to the Agency's global mission." Panetta said the change will allow the CIA to be "better positioned to protect our nation in the years ahead." "Deep expertise in foreign languages is fundamental to CIA's success," he said. "Whether an officer is conducting a meeting in a foreign capital, analyzing plans of a foreign government, or translating a foreign broadcast, language capability is critical to every aspect of our mission."
The CIA is working to double the number of analysts and collectors who proficient in a foreign language
As part of a five‐year initiative, the CIA is working to double the number of analysts and collectors who proficient in a foreign language, expand the number of officers proficient in "mission‐critical languages," including Arabic, Pushto, and Urdu, and make language skills more central in CIA hiring decisions. http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/29/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6154324.shtml
U.S. gives Yemen key intelligence to strike al Qaeda
Washington, (Reuters) Jan 27,2010 (Ed: Excerpted) U.S. military and intelligence agencies have been sharing satellite and surveillance imagery, intercepted communications and other sensitive information to help Yemen pinpoint strikes against al Qaeda targets, officials said on Wednesday. U.S. Special Forces, the CIA and the National Security Agency have played an important part in the growing covert assistance program aimed at helping Yemeni forces track down and kill the leaders of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The Pentagon and the CIA have sought to keep their roles quiet, in part to avert a public backlash against the Yemeni government, which, besides al Qaeda, is battling Shi'ite rebels in the North and faces separatist sentiment in the South. The covert program was launched before a Nigerian man allegedly trained by AQAP attempted to blow up a U.S. airliner bound or Detroit on Christmas Day, but it has since picked up pace with a series of high‐profile raids by Yemeni war planes and ground forces.
Yemen
U.S. officials say satellite and signal intelligence is a critical component of the campaign against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula because the Yemeni government has few capabilities of its own, and holds little sway outside major population centers, leaving large tracts of territory open to al Qaeda and other groups. Yemen's share of publicly disclosed U.S. counterterrorism funding under the so‐called 1206 program has grown sharply in recent years, from $4.6 million in fiscal 2006 to $67 million in fiscal 2009, and is poised to increase sharply this year. General David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, has proposed more than doubling military assistance for Yemen to about $150
Editor: Dalene Duvenage Click on hyperlinks to open documents [email protected]
31 January 2010 SA Intelligencer Number 66 4
million, but it is unclear how much covert assistance will be provided on top of that. Full article http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60Q5KA20100127
Spain tries secret agent suspected of selling data to Russia Madrid Jan 25, 2010 A suspected Spanish double agent on Monday denied selling confidential information to Russia as a trial of him began in Madrid. Prosecution was seeking a 12‐year sentence on treason charges for Roberto Florez, a former agent of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI). If Florez is only found guilty of revealing secrets, he could be handed a sentence of up to four years. Florez' lawyer Manuel Olle denied the charges against his client, pledging to seek his acquittal on entering the courthouse in Madrid. Florez worked with the CNI from 1991 to 2004. He was detained in 2007 on the Canary Island of Tenerife, where police found evidence suggesting spying in his home. The evidence included CNI documents, DVDs, CDs, cassettes, computer discs, as well as copies of two letters addressed by Florez to the then third‐in‐charge of the Russian embassy in Madrid. In the letters, the Spaniard offered to disclose to Russia information on the identities of Spanish secret agents, on the structure of the CNI and its working methods concerning Russia. Florez offered to sell the information for 200,000 dollars (150,000 euros), according to prosecution. The alleged spying would have occurred at a time when Spain was a staunch ally of the United States in the Iraq conflict and could have been thought to possess information which was of interest for foreign intelligence services.
Roberto Florez
Olle admitted that the letters written by Florez 'are there,' but promised to explain their existence in court. Florez' defence was expected to argue that there was no evidence of any classified information ever arriving in Russian hands. The trial was taking place behind closed doors for concern that classified information would be revealed in court. Witnesses who appeared before court included a former CNI director, but the Russian whom Florez' letters were addressed to was not summoned as a witness. Press reports said Spain wanted to avoid creating strain in its relations with Moscow. When Florez was arrested in 2007, the Russian embassy denied having had contacts with him. The trial was described as the first one for treason since Spain became a democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. However, Spanish courts have found two people guilty of illegally appropriating secret service documents. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1528227.php/Spain‐tries‐secret‐agent‐suspected‐of‐selling‐data‐to‐Russia‐Roundup#ixzz0e6rUIeC6
Editor: Dalene Duvenage Click on hyperlinks to open documents [email protected]
31 January 2010 SA Intelligencer Number 66 5
Belarusian President reshuffles security agency Minsk, Jan 22 (Interfax) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday carried through a reshuffle at Belarus's State Security Committee (KGB), the presidential press service said. Lukashenko appointed Leonid Dedkov and Igor Bakhmatov as deputy chairmen of the KGB. Bakhmatov will oversee personnel and organizational affairs in his new capacity, the press service told Interfax. The president also replaced heads of regional KGB departments ‐ branches for Brest (naming Igor Busko as branch chief), Gomel (Ivan Leskovsky), Grodno (Ivan Korzh), Mogilev (Ivan Sergeyenko), and the city and region of Minsk (Vladimir Kalach), the press service said.
Pres Lukashenko of Belarus
Sergei Shugayev was appointed chief of counterintelligence and Viktor Yaruta as head of the government communications service. Igor Kuznetsov was put at the head of the Institute of National Security, an educational establishment. http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=142753
Former Georgian President's Son Charged With Spying For Russia
January 28, 2010, Tbilisi The son of former Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia has officially been accused of collaborating with Russian intelligence services, RFE/RL's Georgian Service reports. Tsotne Gamsakhurdia was arrested in October for allegedly shooting and injuring his neighbor, David Bazhelidze. But this week he received documents regarding that case and also was told that he is being charged with cooperating with the Russian secret services. During mass protests in Tbilisi in November 2007, Tsotne Gamsakhurdia was arrested and accused of working with Russian agents. The charges were later dropped and he was released. Supporters of Zviad Gamsakhurdia and his son are holding protests in front of the U.S., Swiss, and Lithuanian embassies in Tbilisi, demanding that the new charges against Gamsakhurdia be dropped. Tsotne Gamsakhurdia's lawyers announced that their client believes the charges against him are politically motivated. Zviad Gamsakhurdia became the first democratically elected president of Georgia in 1991. He died under mysterious circumstances on December 31, 1993, at the age of 54 in the Zugdidi region during an unsuccessful attempt to reestablish control over the country.
Tsotne Gamsakhurdia
http://www.rferl.org/content/Former_Georgian_Presidents_Son_Charged_With_Being_Russian_Spy/1942496.html
Editor: Dalene Duvenage Click on hyperlinks to open documents [email protected]
31 January 2010 SA Intelligencer Number 66 6
Commentary
Intelligence in Canada: Adapt or Overhaul? – Thomas Quiggin
The primacy of position in the intelligence community must go to analysts…
17 January 2010 – (Ed: Exerpted) Rumours are circulating in Ottawa that another Royal Commission of Inquiry may be held into intelligence matters in Canada.Granted, rumours in Ottawa are common and the idea of yet another Royal Commission into intelligence may be seen as unappealing.
Rather than being seen as a form or activity or
organization, intelligence must be seen as a form of
knowledge
Now, however, we are primairly involved in a series of asymmetric struggles against transnational terrorism, transnational organized crime, human smuggling, resource supply threats and other such activities. Many of the threats we face are not just “over there.” They are a direct combination of “over here” and “over there.” Many of the threats are coming from Canadian citizens (born here or naturalized) or from those claiming refugee status. Consequently, they have access to the legal system. The technological resources that served us so well in the Cold War are not usually effective in these cases. The threat is an “unlike” or asymmetrical threat and the response to such as threat must be led by knowledge, not by physical activity or power. This reality has significant implications for intelligence. Rather than being seen as a form or activity or organization, intelligence must be seen as a form of knowledge. Rather than having intellection collection being driven by a technological capability, it must be driven by requirements. And most stunning (to some), the primacy of position in the intelligence community must be given to analysts, not collectors or “agents.”
Crest of Canadian Security Intelligence
Service (CSIS)
The possible outcomes for such an Inquiry are extraordinary if they were to be explored. First, all national security investigations may become centralized in one agency rather than several. This could mean a new agency, rather than adapting the current Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Alternatively, it may mean putting national security investigations back in the RCMP, but with their own oversight committee as an integral part of the operations. Putting a combination of intelligence and enforcement capabilities in one agency has been done successfully in other countries (Denmark) and it may be a model for Canada.
More changes to an organizational chart are not the answer. Major overhauls to adapt to new realities and requirements are
required. It may also mean the creation of a foreign intelligence collection capability or agency for Canada. All too often, Canadian security affairs are influenced by biased or unbalanced information provided by foreign intelligence services with their own agendas. At the same time, Canada government opinion can be shaped in an unbalanced way by organizations that are operating in Canada, but paid for by foreign money.
Editor: Dalene Duvenage Click on hyperlinks to open documents [email protected]
31 January 2010 SA Intelligencer Number 66 7
The most serious outcome, however, may be an attempt to change the culture of intelligence. The various agencies must adapt to the idea that knowledge, not secrets, are its primary goal. It must also accept the ideas that the strongest link in the intelligence community must be analysis. Merely collecting reams of data is not the answer, as this is intelligence as a form of activity. The future answers lie in intelligence as a form of knowledge with an increased focus on analysis rather than collection. More changes to an organizational chart are not the answer. Major overhauls to adapt to new realities and requirements are required. Editor’s comment: Quiggin, wrote a book on intelligence in the age of uncertainty where he discusses how the world changed, complexity and how intelligence organisations should adapt to the new reality. Full article at http://globalbrief.ca/tomquiggin/2010/01/17/intelligence‐in‐canada‐adapt‐or‐overhaul/
Intelligence Literature
Defend The Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 By Christopher Andrew January 31, 2010 Reviewed by BEN MACINTYRE (Ed: Excerpted) Twenty years ago, the subject of this vast and fascinating book did not, officially speaking, exist at all. The Security Service, better known as MI5, is the domestic arm of British intelligence. While its sister organization, MI6, supplies the British government with foreign intelligence, MI5 is responsible for counterintelligence, countersubversion, counterterrorism and security within the United Kingdom. That an authorized history of this shadowy organization should be published represents a remarkable change of attitude on the part of British officialdom. In order to write this compendious but highly readable book, Christopher Andrew, a professor of modern and contemporary history at Cambridge University, and his team of researchers plowed through some 400,000 MI5 files. Marking the 100th anniversary of the service, “Defend the Realm” shines a penetrating light into some of the darkest corners of a secret world. It is not only a work of meticulous scholarship but also a series of riveting and true spy stories. At 1,032 pages, it is slightly too short. Andrew was given unique access to the material, but not full disclosure, for some aspects of the work of MI5 are still too sensitive to be revealed. Secret services do not work unless they remain, at least in part, secret, and since Andrew cannot identify his official sources, anything from the files is simply noted as “Security Service Archives.” “Striking the balance in the text between openness and the protection of national security has been a complex and demanding exercise,” Jonathan
Editor: Dalene Duvenage Click on hyperlinks to open documents [email protected]
31 January 2010 SA Intelligencer Number 66 8
Evans, the current director general of MI5, writes in a foreword. Inevitably, this leaves gaps. The richest sections of the book cover the early years, when Britain forged a security service out of a strange mixture of amateurism, adventurism and natural guile. The service started in 1909 with two men in a single room in central London; a year later, it split in two, foreign and domestic. Andrew has a keen eye for the absurd. Perhaps inevitably, in an organization relying on imagination and subterfuge, the ranks of MI5 included more than a fair share of eccentrics and fantasists. MI5’s finest hour came during World War II. In large part thanks to the de‐cryption of German wireless codes, the British were able to intercept almost all the German spies sent to Britain: many of these were turned, and then used to feed false and damaging information back to their German handlers. Perhaps the greatest of all was Juan Pujol Garcia, “Agent Garbo,” a Spaniard who had been recruited by the Germans but had always intended to defect to the British. From a safe house in North London, Garbo and his MI5 handler forged a network of bogus spies that eventually extended to 28 subagents, all entirely fictitious. The Garbo network would play a crucial role in the run‐up to D‐Day, helping to convince the Germans that Calais and not Normandy would be the target. Having outwitted the Germans during the war, MI5 was itself comprehensively infiltrated by the Soviets after it. Andrew offers a deep‐mine account of the way the K.G.B. successfully penetrated the British secret services, poisoning relations between Britain and America and provoking a long‐term crisis of confidence in British intelligence.
Vernon Kell, the first head of MI5, circa 1920
Many long‐running myths can now be consigned to the dustbin of history: Prime Minister Harold Wilson was not the target of an MI5 plot, despite his paranoid convictions; Roger Hollis, MI5’s chief from 1956 to 1965, was not a Soviet spy. Equally, Andrew is prepared to give discredit where it is due: he damns as “inexcusable” MI5’s postwar policy preventing the recruitment of Jews on the grounds that they might feel dual loyalty to Britain and Israel. The service was slow to appreciate the threat of Islamist terrorism, and it was confused in its initial response to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. For all the narrative excitement in parts of its story, MI5’s role over the course of a century has been principally preventative, and thus doubly invisible. “The success of a security service is better judged by things that do not happen,” Andrew writes, “than by things that do.” The heroes of this book are the decent, dedicated and often odd people who ensured that what might have gone wrong did not. “Defend the Realm” fills in a chapter of history that has been unjustly neglected, in part because that history has been unjustifiably secretive. Andrew may not silence the conspiracy theorists, but he performs the inestimably valuable job of making their theories a great deal harder to
Editor: Dalene Duvenage Click on hyperlinks to open documents [email protected]
31 January 2010 SA Intelligencer Number 66 9
sustain. If this important book required a degree of compromise in order to be published, that is hardly surprising. For the work of a security service in every democracy involves a delicate balance between openness and secrecy, a bargain between the public’s right to know and its need for protection. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/books/review/MacIntyre‐t.html
Upcoming events
Only new announcements on upcoming intelligence related events will be carried here. The complete list can be accessed at http://4knowledge-za.blogspot.com/ February 2426, 2010: WIRe 2010 Conference: Beyond Tools: Transforming Online Intelligence The World Intelligence Review (WIRe) will host its annual conference entitled, “Beyond Tools: Transforming Online Intelligence,” on at the Gaylord National Hotel at the National Harbor, MD, USA. The goal of the 2010 WIRe conference is to propel the Intelligence Community (IC) beyond the static use of tools toward a more dynamic point of cultural transformation and repurposing of the ways that we utilize online intelligence. As we investigate the differences between how the IC and the rest of the world use social media, we will pinpoint best practices across the social networking spectrum and examine how constantly evolving Web and social media tools impact the intelligence mission. The conference will feature three tracks devoted to specific areas of interest: • The management track will help managers explore tools and techniques to empower their workforce and lead this cultural transformation in online intelligence.
• The innovator track will enable Enterprise 2.0 advocates and technologists to share their knowledge on implementing innovative tools and ideas.
• The practitioner track will examine pioneering ways to identify, capture, and transfer knowledge. More information at https://thewireconference.com/
24 & 25 March 2010: Intelligence Strategies for Law Enforcers Venue: CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria. Speakers include: • Assistant Commissioner Godfery Lebeya (Directorate For Priority Crime Investigations, The Hawks) • Lieutenant General Solly Shoke, Chief South African Army • Paul Louw, Deputy Director: Public Prosecutions , National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) • Piet Byleveld, Director: Crime Investigations, South African Police Service (Saps) • Director Gerrie Gerneke, Licensing, Prosecutions and Courts, Johannesburg Metro Police Department
• Colonel Sibusiso Mbuyasi, Head of Policing, Military Police • Solomzi Mveke, Chief Prosecution Officer Pretoria, Department Of Justice • Inspector Piet Stander, Collector And Intelligence Gatherer: Criminal Investigation Unit, Komatport, South African Police Service (Saps)
• Professor Rudolph Zinn, University Of South Africa (Unisa) • Dalene Duvenage, International Committee Member, International Association Of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts
• Isaac Magagula, Commissioner Swaziland Police More information at http://www.intelligencetransferc.co.za/intelligencestrategieslawenforcers.html
Editor: Dalene Duvenage Click on hyperlinks to open documents [email protected]
31 January 2010 SA Intelligencer Number 66 10
Editor: Dalene Duvenage Click on hyperlinks to open documents [email protected]
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