In this unsealed document federal prosecutors said in 2006, Headley traveled to the FATA area with Pasha. “During the trip, Headley and Pasha were stopped and questioned by Pakistani authorities. Headley was questioned by an individual who identified himself as Major Ali. He told Ali about his training with LeT, Ali then asked Headley for his contact information.”
“Several days later, Headley was contacted by an individual who identified himself as Major Iqbal,” said the unsealed document.
“Over the next several years, as described in more detail below, Headley met with Major Iqbal and his associates many times. During these meetings, Headley was trained in various topics, including spotting and assessing people, recognising Indian military insignia and movements, dead drops and pick up points, and clandestine photography,” the unsealed documents said.
Image: NSG commandoes para-dive atop Nariman House in Mumbai during 26/11 terror strikes
May 17, 2011: Russia is holding a treason trial for Alexander Poteyev, one of its espionage officials. Poteyev is believed to be in the United States at the moment, as he disappeared from his SVR (Russian overseas intelligence) job late last year, just before he was found to be the one who told the United States about ten Russian spies operating in America. Poteyev is being tried for betraying the SVR, and is said to have done it for money (as much as $30,000). Actually, the United States will end up spending much more than that on Poteyev, who is apparently in the CIA’s own “witness protection program” for foreign spies who have fled to the United States. These men and women are given new identities, eased into life in some part of the United States, helped to find a job, and provided with any other assistance needed. This can be expensive, but it provides a major incentive for foreigners to spy for the United States. Cases like Poteyev’s demonstrate that the U.S. will get you out, if your espionage work is discovered, and take care of you and your family after that. The Russians believe that Poteyev was recruited by Sergei Tretyakov who also spied for the United States, and left Russia in 2000.
Late last year, Russian officials admitted that the ten Russian spies arrested in the United States last June were betrayed by an unidentified Russian espionage official in the SVR. The U.S. claimed they had been watching the ten sleepers for several years, which may indicate that Poteyev had revealed a lot more if he was on the American payroll all that time. Poteyev was in charge of the SVR sleeper cell operation. The Russians use military ranks in the police and intelligence services, and colonels are middle-management. There was political pressure on the head of SVR to resign, indicating that the damage was greater than anyone wants to admit. But the SVR honcho still has is job, indicating any number of things.
Last July, after Poteyev was safely in the U.S., American and Russian officials conducted a spy swap in Vienna, Austria. This was the largest such swap since the Cold War. Russia pardoned and freed four Russians, including two former intel officers who had revealed the identities of numerous Russian agents in the West. These two are believed to have more information and insights of value. The U.S. released the ten Russians who had, for the last decade, been trying to pass themselves off as Americans, and operate as “illegals” (spies without diplomatic cover and protection). As part of the deal, the ten Russians had to admit their guilt.
The FBI said that they caught on to this bunch early on, and have been watching them for years, trying to obtain more information on how Russian espionage operate in the United States. The FBI finally arrested these ten when it became apparent that the Russians had detected that they were being watched. Or because Poteyev believed his SVR bosses were on to him, or because the colonel believed it was time to retire to that secret condo in the United States. Russian government officials are indicating that SVR assassins have been sent to kill Poteyev. Russian intel officials are also insinuating that they had something to do with Sergei Tretyakov’s death a year ago (he choked on a piece of meat while in Florida).
The FBI said they were puzzled by how little useful information the ten Russians were able to obtain. As far as the FBI could tell, these ten spies never obtained anything important. But the Russians were eager to get them back, and avoid a trial in the United States. Russian state media said very little about the spy swap. The spy exchange was organized in less than a month, with the U.S. eager to get four valuable people back, and Russia equally intent on getting its ten embarrassing spies out of the news.
It’s unclear why Russia undertook such an inept operation, although Poteyev should know. If he did, that information has not gone public. There are indications that many other Russian espionage operations are similarly sloppy (and will be revealed when arrests are made). This is in sharp contrast to the Cold War when, after it was over, it was revealed that the Russians were much better at the spy game than their Western opponents. But those super spies appear to have moved on to more lucrative work in the civilian sector, or the government. In any event, the past masters are no longer running the show. It’s amateur hour now, and the Russians would rather not talk about it.
MINNEAPOLIS – The mother of one of two American hikers held in Iran for nearly two years said Monday she’ll be up before dawn on Wednesday waiting for any news as her son and his friend go on trial on allegations of spying for the U.S.
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal are due to go on trial in Tehran on Wednesday. Their families say the men were hiking in northern Iraq when they were arrested by Iranian soldiers on July 31, 2009. Bauer’s fiancDee, Sarah Shourd, was arrested with them but was released on bail in September and is back in the United States.
Iran has charged them with espionage, but U.S. authorities have repeatedly called for their release and denied that they were involved in spying.
“They’re absolutely not guilty of anything,” said Bauer’s mother, Cindy Hickey.
Bauer and Fattal pleaded not guilty in a first trial session in February, and Shourd pleaded not guilty in absentia. The three have said they did not realize they had crossed into Iran.
Hickey said the families have received no new information on how the 28-year-olds are doing since they received a Christmas card with a one-paragraph message from Bauer in December. Neither their Iranian lawyer nor Swiss diplomats who represent U.S. interests in Iran have been allowed to see them in prison recently, she said.
“It’s time to end the political games they’re playing with Shane and Josh,” Hickey said.
Their last diplomatic visit in prison was last fall not long after Shourd’s release. Hickey said diplomats have made daily requests to see Bauer and Fattal since then to no avail, while their Iranian lawyer, Masoud Shafii, keeps requesting meetings with them, too. She called Shafii “courageous” and expressed confidence he will fight hard for their freedom.
Shourd was freed on $500,000 bail for health reasons but has said she’s suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of her 14 months in solitary confinement and will not return to Iran for trial. The three became friends as students at the University of California at Berkeley and Bauer and Shourd became engaged in prison.
“She’s the one who can see the prison, smell the prison, feel the prison,” Hickey said.
Hickey said Shourd’s trauma makes the families especially worry about the well-being of Bauer, who grew up in Onamia, Minn., and Fattal, who grew up in suburban Philadelphia, because they’ve been held even longer. She said they don’t even know if they’re even being held in the same prison as before.
While the mothers of the three hikers were allowed to visit them last May, Hickey said they decided against going back for the trial.
“We really want them home. We don’t want a visit. We want this to end,” she said.
A newly released State Department cable reveals Chinese intelligence-gathering efforts in Chile and U.S. concerns that Beijing’s growing ties to the Chilean military will compromise U.S. defense secrets shared with the South American nation’s armed forces.
“Sources have told the [U.S.] Embassy [in Santiago] that Chile’s close military ties with the United States are of great interest to the Chinese,” said the Aug. 29, 2005, cable, labeled “secret.”
“There is concern that the Chinese could be using Chilean officers and access to the Army training school to learn more about joint programs, priorities and techniques that the Chileans have developed with their U.S. counterparts.”
The cable said U.S. officials based in Chile worked with their Chilean counterparts to “sensitize them to the security and intelligence threats emanating from China.”
The cable, which was released by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, is a rare disclosure of U.S. government concerns about Chinese intelligence-gathering, a problem highlighted by numerous U.S. espionage-related cases and technology-theft prosecutions over the past five years.
**FILE** President Obama walks with the Chilean Foreign Affairs Minister Alfredo Moreno (center right) and Gen. Marcos Gonzalez (center left) upon his arrival in Santiago, Chile, on March 21. (Associated Press)
The cable said Chinese intelligence and security organizations will step up spying in the key South American state as its business interests grow.
A key worry is that as a result of closer U.S. military cooperation with the Chilean military, “Chinese interest in [U.S. government] activities in the Southern Cone will most assuredly increase,” said the cable.
“The Chinese will likely attempt to learn more about U.S. military strategies and techniques via Chilean participation in bilateral training programs and joint exercises.”
Emilia Edwards, a spokeswoman for the Chilean Embassy in Washington, had no immediate comment.
Jamie Smith, a spokeswoman for Director of National IntelligenceJames R. Clapper, declined to comment. A Pentagon spokesman had no immediate comment.
China has over 400 million internet users, more than any other nation. This exponentially increasing population of Chinese netizens entering the global internet community has not come without serious negative externality. Over the past decade, there has been a marked increase in cyber-espionage and hacking coming from Mainland China. Espionage is not new, even between close allies such as the United States and Israel, but the unusually high frequency and intensity of Chinese cyber-spying from both state and non-state actorsis causing great concern.
Besides the traditional attacks on security institutions, Chinese hackers have placed a new focus on private business. For example, over the last several months network, security experts have noticed that Facebook internet traffic has been purposely routed through China.
“It’s real. It is happening. It can’t be described as an ‘accident’ anymore,” Joffe [Rodney Joffe, senior technologist at DNS (Domain Name System) registry Neustar], who observed similar traffic snafus involving China last year, said in an e-mail to CNET today.
Although Beijing is notorious for draconian internet censorship, having invested inordinate resources in a 30-50,000 man-strong internet shield, known as the Golden Shield (金盾工程: jīndùn gōngchéng), the new focus is on offensive international attacks and data gathering raids. In the case of Facebook, analyst are concerned that China is spying on foreign users in order to lift session ID information, personal information, e-mails, photos, chat conversations, all in order to lift propitiatory information, as well as monitor human rights activism.
The issue of Intellectual Property theft has become a palpable one. Western economies, especially the U.S., have become knowledge based service economies, where first mover advantage and property right protections are essential to long term economic growth. The technological advantages the U.S. has enjoyed since the end of the Second World War has been depreciating much faster over the last 10-15 years, especially in relation to the Pacific Rim. Due to the ease of information transfer, technical capital is being distributed far more quickly than in the past. Any developed nation, including the U.S.,that wants to maintain its economic edge must address these increasing cyber security threats.
The infamous “Google E-mail Hacks” of 2010, are a case and point. Google openly implicated China in an e-mail hacking scandal, but this situation is actually not uncommon, it is just that Google went public and garnered significant media attention due to its status. Over 34 other companies, tech and defense firms, are also thought to have been targets for corporate espionage by government and non-government actors from China. Companies doing direct business with “Chinese partners” usually come under attack immediately. The real numbers are astounding, reported in the press:
A study released by computer-security firm McAfee and government consulting company SAIC on March 28 shows that more than half of some 1,000 companies in the United States, Britain and other countries decided not to investigate a computer-security breach because of the cost. One in 10 companies will only report a security breach when legally obliged to do so, according to the study.
Further Wiki Leaks Revealed,
“Since 2002, (U.S. government) organizations have been targeted with social-engineering online attacks” which succeeded in “gaining access to hundreds of (U.S. government) and cleared defense contractor systems,” the cable said. The emails were aimed at the U.S. Army, the Departments of Defense, State and Energy, other government entities and commercial companies…Between April and October 2008, hackers successfully stole “50 megabytes of email messages and attached documents, as well as a complete list of usernames and passwords from an unspecified (U.S. government) agency,” the cable says.
In a private meeting of U.S., German, French, British and Dutch officials held at Ramstein Air Base in September 2008, German officials said such computer attacks targeted every corner of the German market, including “the military, the economy, science and technology, commercial interests, and research and development,” and increase “before major negotiations involving German and Chinese interests,” according to a cable from that year…French officials said at the meeting that they “believed Chinese actors had gained access to the computers of several high-level French officials, activating microphones and Web cameras for the purpose of eavesdropping,” the cable said.
In mid-2009, representatives of the China Institutes for Contemporary International Relations, a nominally-independent research group affiliated with China’s Ministry of State Security, contacted James A. Lewis, a former U.S. diplomat now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The U.S. government is using Mr. Lewis as a proxy, there have been 3 formal meetings between him and his Chinese counterparts, but no progress has been made.
Various groups in China knows that innovation, like natural resources, is key to keeping the economy growing, which in turn will keep the communist party and it’s hangers-on in the business elite in power. It appears China will innovate “by hook or by crook”. The easiest and most cost effective way to innovate is to steal. Corporate espionage can be quite profitable:
Business Software Alliance, an international software industry group, estimates that 79% of the software sold in China in 2009 was illegally copied, creating a loss to the industry of US$7.6 billion in revenue. Even more important to Beijing, these statistics mean the vast majority of Chinese computer systems – government and private alike – remain vulnerable to malware.
Malware is important to the Chinese government, because China also claims it has also been the victim of numerous cyber attacks, and therein lies “the rub”.
As Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu said in December 2009, “The Internet has become a major vehicle through which anti-Chinese forces are perpetuating their work of infiltration and sabotage and magnifying their ability to disrupt the socialist order”.
Lets get a translation of what Mr. Meng is really saying. Shall we?
China is no doubt facing a paradox as it tries to manipulate and confront the growing capabilities of Internet users. Recent arrests of Chinese hackers and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) pronouncements suggest that China fears that its own computer experts, nationalist hackers and social media could turn against the government.
And it seems as if China has a lot of disgruntled netizens. Are “chicken’s coming home to roost”?
In June 2010, the State Council Information Office published a white paper on the growing threat of cyber-crime and how to combat it. Clearly, these challenges have been addressed this year. The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) announced on November 30 that it had arrested 460 suspected hackers thought to have been involved in 180 cases so far in 2010. This is part of the MPS’ usual end-of-year announcement of statistics to promote its success. But the MPS announcement also said that cyber-crime had increased 80% this year and seemed to blame the attacks only on hackers inside China…
These new efforts all contradict China’s long-standing policy of cultivating a population of nationalistic computer users. This effort has been useful to Beijing when it sees a need to cause disruption, whether by attacking US sites after perceived affronts like the Chinese Embassy bombing in Belgrade or preventing access by powerful foreign entities like Google.
Domestic hackers turning on the CCP, is such a concern that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has two military units dedicated to this issue, the Seventh Bureau of the Military Intelligence Department (MID) and the Third Department of the PLA. The MID is the offensive arm (or terrorist/spy wing, depending on how you wan t to see things). The Third Department is focused on national defense. Still, do not expect China to take serious means to halt cyber attacks imminating from the Mainland, instead, expect China to crackdown on non-government aligned hackers who may pose a threat to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party).
Sino-American mutual suspicions are all the rave these days. Much less discussed in the Western media, but has been on this blog, China’s love/hate relationship with Russia. The next installment of this series will look out how increased trade is not necessarily bringing the two Eurasian giants closer together.
