Australian denies spying for Hamas
Updated
Charged: Eyad Abuarga in court (AFP)
An Australian citizen has faced an Israeli court charged with spying for Hamas, the Islamist group which rules the Gaza Strip.
Eyad Abuarga was arrested along with his wife when he arrived at Tel Aviv airport in March, and has been in custody ever since.
Israeli intelligence officials allege the electronics engineer was recruited by Hamas while living in Saudi Arabia, and received weapons training in Syria before making a trip to Israel.
They accuse him of trying to enter Israel on his Australian passport in order to conduct spy operations.
Hamas is banned in Israel.
In court, the 46-year-old said he was an innocent Australian tourist and denied ever having trained in Syria.
A detailed indictment alleges he had links to the Palestinian struggle since the 1980s, but that from around 2007, he began attending a number of secretive meetings with Hamas members.
The indictment also claims he was asked to help with encoding, that he supplied photographic equipment which could find and guide missiles, and that he trained with Hamas in Syria.
“The accused was taken to a room with prayer rugs where he met four others,” the indictment says.
“After a while they went out and began to train, shooting a pistol and a rifle at different targets. After they finished he was driven back to Damascus. He was blindfolded some of the way.”
The indictment is so detailed as to describe the colours of the car he travelled in and blindfold he was given.
His lawyer, Leah Tzemel, told AM all the evidence comes from interviews with her client which has not been corroborated with outside sources.
Abuarga is a Palestinian refugee who grew up on the Arabian Gulf but later moved to Australia and became an Australian citizen.
As he waited for the hearing to begin, Abuarga told the media at the court near Tel Aviv he had never trained in Syria.
“I’d like to say loud and clear that I’m not a member of Hamas, never was and never will, or any other group,” he said.
Abuarga had been living in Saudi Arabia, until he was arrested on arrival at Ben Gurion Airport earlier this year.
He says he was visiting Israel for a holiday.
“I am an Australian tourist, who came to this country with my wife to celebrate our 25th anniversary of our marriage, and ended up in jail,” he said.
Abuarga’s wife and children have now returned to Australia.
He told the media he had been treated well while in jail.
But his lawyer says if an acceptable plea bargain is not reached, she will release more information about the facts of his interrogation.
The matter has been adjourned for a fortnight.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government says consular officials have been providing extensive help to Abuarga.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs says officials have visited the man in prison seven times and have also provided extensive help to his family.
Article source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/28/3255059.htm
Egyptian court sentences 3 men convicted of spying for Israel
Cairo, Egypt (CNN) — An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced three men — an Egyptian and two Israeli nationals — to 25 years in prison for spying for Israel.
Tarek Abdel-Razek Hussain Hassan, 37, the Egyptian owner of an import-export firm, was arrested in August. The Supreme State Security Court’s criminal department tried the two Israelis in absentia.
Israeli Ambassador Yitzhak Levanon said he had no comment on the case.
Officials charged the three with spying for Israel and harming Egypt’s national interests after Hassan tried to recruit Egyptians working in the telecommunications industry to spy for Israel.
Hassan received $37,000 to recruit Egyptians who could spy in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon for the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.
According to the charges, the spy ring began in May 2008, when Hassan met abroad with the two Israelis.
Hassan is the first person convicted of spying for Israel since Egypt’s January 25 revolution, which resulted in the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
“This case sends two messages, one to Egyptians and another to Israel,” said Abdel Aleem Mohamed, senior researcher of Israel Studies at the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. “To Egyptians, the way they deal with Israel will be different and that national security issues will be dealt with severely. To Israel, they are sending a message that the system has changed from the days of Mubarak.”
The case closes as another begins. Ilan Grapel, a 27-year-old dual U.S.-Israeli citizen was arrested June 12 on suspicion of spying. Israel denies he is a spy.
Mohamed predicted none of the cases would dramatically affect relations between the countries.
“This situation won’t affect Egypt-Israel ties because Egypt is free to punish whoever compromises the country’s security,” Mohamed said. “Israel would do the same to an Egyptian spy. Spying is what countries do.”
Article source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/06/23/egypt.israeli.spy.ring/index.html?section=cnn_latest
Scheopner arrested on allegations of eavesdropping
A Garden City businessman and former vice president of the USD 457 Board of Education has been accused of placing and using a concealed camcorder to eavesdrop in the women’s bathroom at his business.
John Scheopner, 56, was arrested at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in Finney County on allegations he used a concealed camcorder to eavesdrop on a 53-year-old Garden City woman, a 28-year-old Lakin woman and a 32-year-old Garden City woman in the women’s bathroom at Scheopner’s Water Conditioning, 2203 East Fulton Plaza, according to Garden City Police Sgt. Michael Reagle. Scheopner allegedly eavesdropped on the 32-year-old woman twice, Reagle said. The incidents allegedly occurred on April 30.
Scheopner, whose resignation from the school board was accepted on May 23 after 14 years on the board, also is accused of two counts of intimidation of a witness or victim for allegedly attempting to deter the 53-year-old woman and 28-year-old woman from testifying, Reagle said.
Scheopner could not be reached for comment.
Scheopner made his first court appearance Wednesday and was released on his own recognizance, according to the Finney County Jail log. He has been charged with four counts of use of a concealed camcorder to eavesdrop and two counts of intimidation of a witness or victim, according to the Finney County Attorney’s Office. All are misdemeanors.
Scheopner is scheduled for a case management hearing at 1:15 p.m. July 28.
Reagle said that while the incident occurred April 30, the investigation continued after that. An arrest affidavit was filed requesting Scheopner be charged. The arrest warrant was issued, and he was arrested when he made his first appearance, Reagle said.
Lawyer Lara Bors was appointed Monday to Scheopner’s seat on the board in a unanimous vote by the board.
The term to which Bors was named expires on June 30, 2013.
Article source: http://www.gctelegram.com/news/scheopner-arrest-6-25-11
Who’s Bugging the Finance Minister?
There rarely is a dull moment in Indian politics. The latest is the hasty attempt to hush up the bugging of the finance ministry offices. Pranab Mukherjee, the finance minister himself has dismissed the episode as “bogus”. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) says no such bugging took place. And Home minister P. Chidambaran, to whom the IB reports, says he didn’t know about the bugging till he saw it in the newspapers last week. But the controversy refuses to die down.
According to The Indian Express which broke the story, on September 4, 2010, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), an agency that reports to the Finance Ministry, brought in a team of private sleuths to conduct a security sweep of the offices to check for eavesdropping devices. They found “plantable adhesive substances” in 16 locations in the office of the Finance Minister, the offices of his long-time aide Omita Paul, and personal secretary Manoj Pant as well as two conference rooms. Groove marks were found on the “adhesive substances”, suggesting that bugging devices were planted and removed later to wipe out surveillance trail.
Three days later, Mukherjee wrote to the Prime Minister asking him to launch a “secret probe” into the “serious breach of security”. He said no “live microphone” or recording devices were found but it could have “wider ramifications”. The Prime Minister then directly tasked the then IB chief, Rajiv Mathur, to probe Mukherjee’s complaint rather than passing it on to Chidambaram. The IB conducted its investigations and reported that there was no breach of security. A Home Ministry official told The Economic Times, “The IB probe concluded that the adhesive may just be chewing gum left behind by careless visitors or maintenance staff. The matter was subsequently treated as closed around six months back.” But why would any visitor or cleaning staff discard chewing gum or adhesives in a minister’s high-security office?
The corridors of power are rife with conspiracy theories. Leading the suspect list is Mukherjee’s political opponents.
Observers point to the simmering mistrust within the higher echelons of government. Given that Mukherjee wields a great degree of influence within the UPA, and is a strong contender for prime ministership after Manmohan Singh, perhaps someone within the Congress party wanted to keep a tab on him or pull him down a notch or two. It’s not the first time that such cloak and dagger activities have come to light. In May 2010, Outlook magazine reported how senior leaders like Sharad Pawar and Digvijay Singh had been illegally tapped. Sources told the Outlook that during the July 2008 no-confidence motion on the Indo-US nuclear deal, bugging devices were used extensively to listen in on the conversations of opposition leaders. Years ago, Zail Singh, former president of India felt that the Rashtrapati Bhawan was tapped. He told Vir Sanghvi, well known columnist and former editor, Hindustan Times, that he made it a point to discuss sensitive matters in the garden. Key officials and journalists are on the government’s watch list and their cell phones are allegedly tapped regularly.
Another theory doing the rounds is that a business house had engineered the bugging. Sources told The Times of India, “There are many private sector players who could be interested. If they were aware of a particular meeting on a subject crucial to their bottom line, then a corporate could take such a risk,” he said. So if a corporate house was to “buy off a lower level staff”, these transmitters could be smuggled in. “And the easiest way to plant them is using adhesives,” he adds. But why would businessmen adopt such risky options when they can easily find out what they want through their informants in the ministry or political cronies?
Yet another theory is the involvement of the foreign hand. Agencies seeking policy-related information critical for their governments to gain advantage from Indian deals or projects could have planted the bugs. For instance, there have been periodic reports of attempts from China to access classified information. Last year, Chinese hackers tried taking over websites and email accounts of government officials. Sounds a bit farfetched though!
But there’s not enough evidence to conclusively prove any of the conspiracy theories.
Asked if Mukherjee’s office bugged, B. Raman, a former senior RAW official, told the Outlook magazine, “Circumstantially yes if one takes into account the important position occupied by him in the Cabinet, his important role involving sensitive discussions in his office on many sensitive issues of a political nature and the suspicion that there are question marks over his head in the Congress leadership. Technically, it would depend on where the adhesive material was found. If it was found at places easily visible to the naked eye, then the allegations may not be correct. If the adhesive was found at places not easily visible to the naked eye, the allegation will acquire some credibility.”
Had the bugging device been found, there would have been valid ground for the charges. With just “adhesives” stuck in 16 locations, there’s no way the bugging can be proved or traced. A retired senior official known for his expertise in technical intelligence told The Times of India that as a snooping operation, it was poorly done. “There are far more sophisticated ways of monitoring,” he said. For instance, the telephone could have been converted into a transmitter, using laser beams. Solar-charged transmitters could have been planted in photo-frames etc. “Adhesives are used to stick transmitters that secretly record voice in a premise. It is then transmitted to a recorder kept at a distance. If this was the case in Mukherjee’s office, he may have been either a victim of a one-off snooping for a few hours, or sustained snooping over a long period of time,” the official added.
The speculation will continue. And we’ll likely never know the truth.
Article source: http://www.newsindia-times.com/NewsIndiaTimes/20110628/4699466193440099151.htm
German firm’s managers keep phones in biscuit tins
BERLIN – A German chemicals company said Monday its managers have started keeping their mobile phones in biscuit tins during meetings in order to guard against industrial espionage.
“Experts have told us that mobile phones are being eavesdropped on more and more, even when they are switched off,” Alexandra Boy, spokeswoman for Essen-based speciality chemicals maker Evonik, told AFP.
“The measure applies mostly when sensitive issues are being discussed, for the most part in research and development,” she said, confirming a report in business weekly Wirtschaftswoche.
Biscuit tins have a so-called Farraday cage effect, she said, blocking out electromagnetic radiation and therefore stopping people hacking into mobile phones, not only for calls but also to get hold of emails.
The firm, with 34,000 employees and sales of 13 billion euros (S$22.8 billion), is not alone in wanting to defend itself against what experts warn are increasingly sophisticated methods of industrial espionage.
This month the German government opened a new national centre in Bonn to coordinate efforts not only to protect firms from espionage but also state infrastructure from cyber attacks.
Article source: http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Science+%2526+Tech/Story/A1Story20110627-286301.html