6 February 2010 SA Intelligencer Number 66
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SA Intelligencer Number 68
11 February 2010
Initiator: Johan Mostert Contributions and enquiries dalene@4knowledge.co.za
Reports from 6‐11 February 2010 Inside This Issue 1 Somalia’s Shebab warn Kenya over
planned onslaught plea over Boer War executions 2 Polish cipher officer worked for Russian intelligence? 2 UK: Spies must seek ministerial green light to pay bribes, Lords rules 4 US, UK spy agencies on alert after unprecedented court decisions 4 UK: Binyam Mohamed court ruling shatters spies' culture of secrecy 5 Spanish Ex-Spy Convicted of Stealing Secrets 6 Yemen security agency prone to inside threats, officials say 7 India spy in the sky by 2014 7 India: The National Security Adviser: An analysis of intelligence oversight and management 8 FARC recruits 13-year-old spy Students as Spies: The Deep Politics of U.S.-Colombian Relations 10 Canada: CSIS blocking release of spying file on Tommy Douglas 11 Canada: Providing security at Vancouver Olympics is a daunting task 12 US: Kit Bond says White House adviser John Brennan 'needs to go' 2 Pardons
Africa
Somalia's Shebab warn Kenya over planned onslaught (AFP) – 10 Feb 2010 NAIROBI — Somalia's Al Qaeda‐inspired Shebab warned Kenya on Wednesday against providing military assistance to the Mogadishu government for a planned massive nationwide offensive against the militia. Tension has been building up in Mogadishu and other key cities, including the Shebab‐controlled southern port of Kismayo, as government troops backed by African Union forces and clan militia reportedly prepare for their much‐anticipated offensive to reconquer southern and central Somalia. We are not at war with Kenya at the moment but we are monitoring their acts of aggression in our country which have prompted us to be alert," Sheikh Hassan Yaakub, Shebab spokesman in Kismayo, said on Radio Andalus, a station run by the Islamist organisation. ""The Kenyan government has been recruiting Somali soldiers who have now been armed and are ready to fight us. We will teach them a historic lesson that will not be forgotten," the Islamist official said. Several regional intelligence sources have confirmed that Kenya has helped train and equip Kenyan and Kenya‐based Somalis to take part in the offensive by crossing the border and hitting the Shebab in their southern bastions. The southern port of Kismayo, located some 100 miles (160 kilometres) north of the Kenyan birder, is a key source of revenue for the Shebab as well as a crucial potential entry point for weapons supplies The Kenyan government has flatly denied recruiting, arming and training Somali militia tasked with contributing to the Somali government‐led offensive against the Shebab rebels and their allies from Hezb al‐Islam. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h_59g0MDvhC70PsHYzcJM duEnVHw
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Pardons plea over Boer War executions 10 February 2010: Yorkshire
Australia has asked the British Government to pardon two Boer War soldiers whose courts‐ martial and execution in 1902 have become part of Australian folklore.
Attorney‐General Robert McClelland sent a petition requesting the pardon last week, said military lawyer James Unkles. Lieutenants Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Handcock were found guilty by a British court‐martial of killing prisoners of war in the final days of the
South Africa conflict and executed in Pretoria by firing squad. Mr Unkles, who wrote the petition, said the soldiers' trial was marred by legal mistakes and secrecy. His petition asks for a comprehensive legal review of the case after he found 10 areas of concern – including lack of legal advice, solitary confinement for three months, and no communication with the Australian government. The two men volunteered for the war.
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Pardons‐plea‐over‐Boer‐War.6062105.jp
Europe
Polish cipher officer worked for Russian intelligence? February 10, 2010
thenews.pl, 10 Feb 10: A Russian weekly claims that Stefan Zielonka, a cipher officer who mysteriously disappeared in April 2009, worked for the Russian secret service. Polish military intelligence denies the news. “There is nothing worse for the intelligence to lose its cipher officer. All secret services dream of recruiting one” writes “Argumenti Niedieli” Russian weekly, suggesting that the Polish officer Stefan Zielonka, who mysteriously disappeared last year, might have been recruited by Russian spooks. Polish military intelligence has not confirmed the weekly’s version. It links Zielonka’s disappearance to suicide, accidental death, or
high treason in favour of China. “The news about the alleged cooperation of the Polish cipher officer with Russian intelligence is revenge for exposing a Russian spy in Poland,” says an unnamed Polish intelligence officer. In January, the Internal Security Agency (ABW) detained a member of Russian intelligence but Russia denied that the man was related to the secret service. For many years Stefan Zielonka coded messages for Polish military intelligence. He had a unique knowledge of code names of Polish officers working abroad and access to secret sources of information. Zielonka also knew Nato codes.
http://www.thenews.pl/international/artykul125355_polish‐cipher‐officer‐worked‐for‐russian‐intelligence‐.html
UK: Spies must seek ministerial green light to pay bribes, Lords rules By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor Published: 7:30AM GMT 09 Feb 2010, Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES (ed: excerpted)
The intervention of the peers comes as the Government prepares to introduce a controversial new strategy to pay‐off members of the Taliban. Members of the
security services and armed forces have offered such bribes on “hundreds of thousands” of occasions, peers were told. The House of Lords voted to amend the Bribery Bill currently passing through Parliament – to insist that ministers “pre‐
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authorise” bribery by members of the intelligence and security services. The intervention of the peers comes as the Government prepares to introduce a controversial new strategy to pay‐off members of the Taliban. Ministers are thought to be fearful of pre‐ authorising bribes paid during controversial and secretive intelligence operations – some of which they may subsequently wish to be able to deny knowledge of. In the Lords, ministers warned that introducing the amendment threatened the entire Bribery Bill – which sets out new laws to stop companies bribing officials around the world for contracts. Lord Bach, a junior Justice Minister threatened to withdraw the entire bill if the amendment was passed. The Government instead said it wanted the intelligence service to have effective immunity if they are subsequently prosecuted for paying bribes. Lord Bach told the Lords: “If your Lordships see fit to pass this amendment, the Government would have to think very seriously indeed about whether this Bill should be pursued. A member of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security committee – which has access to secret information in its role overseeing the work of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ – hinted at the regular use of bribes by spies. Lord Foulkes, a former defence minister said: “The volume of authorisations would be enormous.”
He added that former home and foreign secretaries would “well understand the huge volume there would be in respect to authorisation where agents have got, as part of their duty, to make payments to contacts to get information which could be absolutely vital for national security, for the prevention of terrorism, for a whole range of other things that would be in the national interest”. “There would be hundreds of thousands of pre‐ authorisations on a regular basis.” However, the Government was defeated after a co‐ ordinated attack on the plans by senior legal experts including Lord Pannick, a cross‐bench QC, and Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice. Lord Pannick said bribery should be carried out on behalf of the state "only when necessary" and agents should be given "as much assistance as possible in advance in order to know when it is permissible to carry out such an act". "It is important for there to be an authorisation procedure for acts of bribery by the state,” he said. Lord Woolf, Lord Chief Justice from 2000‐05 said: “It is a very significant power to give to give to the security services and the other services." “If it [pre‐authorisation] is practical in terms of telephone tapping or in relation to searching of premises, why can something not be done also in these cases?”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/7190962/Spies‐must‐seek‐ministerial‐green‐light‐to‐pay‐ bribes‐Lords‐rules.html
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US, UK spy agencies on alert after unprecedented court decision February 11, 2010
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Yet not only did the court deny the secrecy British and American intelligence agencies have request, but its three judges, which are among been placed on alert following an the country’s highest court officials, ordered unprecedented ruling by a British court, which that all relevant documents –including CIA forces the British government to disclose CIA records– in MI5 and MI6’s possession be made documents in its possession. The documents public, as they concern issues of “fundamental relate to the case of Binyam Mohamed, an importance”, of “democratic accountability Ethiopian resident of Britain, who says he was and [...] the rule of law itself”. Reports in British severely tortured with the collaboration of the newspapers describe the court’s decision as a CIA and British domestic intelligence agency “humiliating rebuff” for British foreign MI5, after he was renditioned to Morocco. secretary David Miliband, who had argued that the public release of any information relating to Last February, two British judges overseeing Mr. Mohamed’s case would irreparably Mr. Mohamed’s case revealed that the harm UK‐US relations. British government kept “powerful evidence” secret after being threatened Late on Wednesday, the US Office of the by the US that it would “stop sharing Director of National Intelligence, which intelligence about terrorism with the oversees the work of all US intelligence UK”. agencies, issued a statement (.pdf) saying it “deeply regretted” the British court In July, it emerged that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton personally Binyam Mohamed decision, which “creates additional challenges” for US‐UK intelligence threatened the British government cooperation. that Washington would stop collaborating with London on intelligence matters if evidence in The White House said yesterday that the US Mr. Mohamed’s case was publicly released. government was “deeply disappointed with the Last October, MI5 and MI6, the two primary court’s judgment today, because we shared this intelligence agencies in the British Isles, made information in confidence and with certain an unprecedented request in British legal expectations”. The White House statement also history aiming to keep all evidence presented in hinted that the court’s decision “would cloud Mr. Mohamed’s lawsuit, in which he accused future intelligence relations with Britain” them of complicity to torture, secret. .http://intelligencenews.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/02‐269/
UK: Binyam Mohamed court ruling shatters spies' culture of secrecy Three of the country's most senior judges today shattered the age‐old convention that the courts cannot question claims by the government relating to national security, whatever is done in its name, in an unprecedented ruling that is likely to cause deep anxiety among the security and intelligence agencies.
They directly challenged David Miliband's claims that Britain's national security would be harmed and British lives threatened if information emanating from the CIA was disclosed showing that MI5 was complicit "at the very least" in the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of an Ethiopian‐born British resident, Binyam Mohamed.
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For 18 months the foreign secretary and his legal advisers argued in the courts that the US had threatened to stop sharing valuable intelligence with the UK if the information were disclosed. Miliband insisted, as he did again in the Commons today, that the "control principle" was vital – that is to say, only the provider of the intelligence could release the information, not the receiver of it, whatever the circumstances. Despite Miliband's suggestion to the contrary, the judges said the "control principle" was not absolute. It could not be applied, they said, if it concealed "those for whom the executive in
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this country is ultimately responsible were involved in or facilitated wrongdoing in the context of the abhorrent practice of torture". The judges – Sir Igor Judge, the lord chief justice; Lord Neuberger, the master of the rolls; and Sir Anthony May, president of the Queen's Bench – also stressed the importance of the media in supporting the principle of open justice in a case which, they said, raised issues of "fundamental importance", of "democratic accountability and … the rule of law itself". The case for disclosing the material was "compelling", since it concerned the involvement of alleged wrongdoing by agents of the state.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/10/law‐binyam‐mohamed‐case
Spanish Ex-Spy Convicted of Stealing Secrets February 11, 2010, ASSOCIATED PRESS MADRID, Spain (AP) ‐‐ A former Spanish intelligence officer was convicted on Thursday of trying to sell secrets to Russia and imprisoned for 12 years, in Spain's first treason conviction since returning to democracy in 1978 after decades of military dictatorship. The Madrid Provincial Court said Roberto Florez Garcia, 44, took documents relating to spy recruitment and planned to sell their contents to the Russian Embassy in Madrid. Garcia The verdict said Florez Garcia stole documents with identities of other agents and information on Spanish intelligence facilities. The court said it did not have conclusive proof that Florez Garcia had actually succeeded in selling or handing over sensitive information. Florez Garcia worked at Spain's intelligence headquarters from 1991 to 2004, when he quit. He was arrested on the Canary island of Tenerife in 2007 and went on trial in January. He denied any wrongdoing.
Police found the documents, which included two letters Florez Garcia wrote to Petr Yakovlevich Melnikov, who worked at Russia's Embassy between 2000 and 2003. The court said Florez Garcia had deleted one of the letters from his computer but investigators were able to retrieve it using digital technology. The newspaper El Pais said the CIA tipped off Spanish investigators about Florez Garcia's activities. Spain's Defense Ministry, which oversees intelligence operations, told The Associated Press it could not comment on the report. The court said Florez Garcia had acknowledged possessing classified documents. During the trial he testified that he took them as part of an assignment to point out security gaps in Spanish intelligence. The court said no one at the intelligence center had authorized such an exercise and that it would have been contrary to normal practice.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/02/11/world/AP‐EU‐Spain‐Spy‐Convicted.html
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Middle East
Yemen security agency prone to inside threats, officials say Washington Post Foreign Wednesday, February 10, 2010 (ed: excerpted)
Service
SANA'A, YEMEN ‐‐ As deputy director of Yemen's feared internal security agency a few years ago, Mohammed al‐Surmi was in charge of monitoring al‐Qaeda extremists. But he also allegedly lived a double life, feeding the terrorist network information to uncover informants within its ranks. Surmi was removed from his job, but still wields influence: He is now deputy mayor of the capital, Sana'a, where some residents call him "His Excellency." Surmi is a testament to the obstacles the Obama administration faces as it deepens its partnership with Yemen. U.S. and some Yemeni officials remain concerned that radical Islamists and corrupt officials who can be bought off by al‐Qaeda still pervade the Political Security Organization, the country's largest security and intelligence agency, which is vital to America's counterterrorism initiatives here. In 2006, al‐Qaeda militants broke out of a maximum‐security prison in 2006. Today, senior Yemeni officials acknowledge that PSO officials with sympathies to al‐Qaeda facilitated the jail break. "It could not have happened without people deeply inside the PSO," said Abdul Karim al‐ Iriyani, a former prime minister and current political adviser to Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Among those who escaped was Nasir al‐ Wuhaysi and Qassim al‐Raymi. They went to rebuild al‐Qaeda's Yemen branch into al‐Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which hatched the
failed plot to bomb a Detroit‐bound American airliner on Christmas. A 2002 report in the Wall Street Journal linked Surmi, who spent more than a decade at the PSO, to an attempt to betray an Egyptian militant who was willing to help weaken al‐ Qaeda. Surmi's alleged involvement was detailed in a report found inside a computer owned by an al‐Qaeda operative. Senior Yemeni officials said they do not believe that Surmi was an al‐Qaeda infiltrator, but said he sought to abuse his position for financial again. Surmi, said Iriyani, was removed from his position partly because he ran a scheme in which, for $20,000 a person, he provided fake Yemeni passports and "shipped" non‐Yemeni jihadists returning from Afghanistan to Europe or Latin America. "He went to the highest bidder," added Iriyani. "He could easily have been hired by al‐Qaeda." Senior Yemeni officials publicly insist the PSO, which is responsible for day‐to‐day security in Yemen, is not infiltrated by Islamic extremists today. "It's serving the country, and they are doing their job," said Mohammed al‐Anisi, the nation's intelligence chief. "These stories are totally wrong." U.S. officials, though, remain concerned. And Yemeni counterterrorism officials are not taking chances. On Dec. 17, Yemeni forces, backed by the United States, launched an airstrike on suspected al‐Qaeda militants in Abyan province as well as two raids in and around Sana'a. According to two senior Yemeni government officials briefed on the operation, the PSO was not informed of the operation until it was over.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp‐dyn/content/article/2010/02/10/AR2010021004285.html
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Asia India's spy in the sky by 2014 dnaindia.com
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is developing the country’s first full‐fledged ‘declared’ spy satellite, which will be operational by 2014 to keep an eye on neighbouring regions. The satellite is expected to significantly help in maintaining a close watch on terror camps close to Indian borders.The satellite, called Communication‐Centric Intelligence Satellite (CCI‐Sat), will be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) within the next four years. The CCI‐Sat will be capable of picking images and supporting communication (conversation between two satellite phones, for instance), besides surveillance. The project is currently in the initial stages of planning. G Bhoopathy, director, Defence Electronic Research Laboratory, said the satellite would orbit Earth at an altitude of 500km, and would cover hostile regions in India’s neighbourhood by passing on the surveillance data to the intelligence. “The focus is now space; we have to equip ourselves for electronic warfare from space, too,” he said. The satellite will be
equipped with a synthetic aperture radar to take high resolution images of the target regions. Pegged at Rs100 crore, the satellite design and development will be made by Isro while the payload will be built by DLRL. “We are in discussions with Isro at the moment,” Bhoopathy said. Unofficially, India in October 2001 has already entered the league of nations having spy satellites ‐ USA, Russia, Japan and Russia ‐ with the launch of the Technology Experiment Satellite (TES). In fact, TES provided the first one‐metre resolution images of Afghanistan’s interior regions on US’s request as intelligence inputs when US troops entered that country post‐9/11. Besides TES, Isro’s Cartosat series of satellites and the Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT)‐2 can also be used for surveillance and espionage. However, CCI‐Sat will be the first 100% spy satellite of India. “This satellite will be much better than Risat‐2,” Bhoopathy said.
http://www.defence.pk/forums/india‐defence/46780‐indias‐spy‐sky‐2014‐a.html
India: The National Security Adviser: An analysis of intelligence oversight and management 20 January 2010, The Hindu, Siddharth Varadarajan
India is unique in combining a parliamentary system with the institution of a National Security Adviser who has wide‐ranging executive responsibilities in the areas of foreign policy, intelligence, nuclear command and control as well as long‐term strategic planning. Created in 1998 following a series of high‐level committees that studied the management of national security and intelligence, the NSA was
intended to be the prime mover of a multi‐ tiered planning structure with the National Security Council (NSC) headed by the Prime Minister at the apex. An NSC Secretariat (NSCS) was created to service the Council, which subsumed the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) and its staff within it. Finally, a National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) of outside experts was set up to generate independent inputs to the NSC.
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complex foreign policy initiatives and A decade later, it is logical that the functioning interlocutor with the big powers on strategic of these structures be reviewed to see how matters, he is diplomatic adviser to the Prime effective the system has been. Minister. Second, as head of the NSCS, he is a In a series of on‐the‐record and background long‐term planner, anticipating new threats interviews with key participants in the NSC and challenges to national security. Third, as system over the past decade — including chair of the Executive Council of the Nuclear Brajesh Mishra, who was NSA from 1998 to Command Authority, he is the overseer of 2004, and half‐a‐dozen former chiefs of India’s India’s nuclear weapons programme and internal and external intelligence agencies — doctrine. Due to the legacy of weak the picture that emerges is one leadership in the Ministry of Home of a system that has delivered Affairs during Shivraj Patil’s years, the mixed results and is in need of NSA’s job under M.K. Narayanan refinement, enhanced staffing slowly expanded to take on a fourth and a clearer delineation of role — internal security issues like tasks. Kashmir, the North‐East and Naxalism. If the institution of the NSA Intelligence coordination and tasking, proved to be an unqualified particularly in counter‐terrorism, also success in dealing with complex became part of his turf, mainly foreign policy issues with because of his own background…. national security implications such as the Indo‐U.S. nuclear Ensuring the NSCS is restructured to Shivshankar Menon deal, the Mumbai terror attacks serve both as the ‘Office of the NSA’ of 2008 highlighted the absence of focussed and as the catalyst for system‐wide talent intelligence coordination. As for long‐term generation and strategic planning will be the national security assessment and planning — biggest challenge the new NSA will have to deal the original raison d’etre of the NSCS — most of with. the former officials interviewed by The Hindu (ed: Former Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar believe this is the weakest link in the system, a Menon has been appointed as India's next view disputed by those who are currently on National Security Advisor (NSA), on 21 January the inside. 2010 As matters stand, the NSA today formally wears three broad hats. First, as coordinator of Read the full analysis at: http://svaradarajan.blogspot.com/2010/01/nsa‐more‐effective‐externally‐than.html and http://svaradarajan.blogspot.com/2010/01/asessing‐nsa‐ii‐its‐strategic‐culture.html
Latin America
FARC recruits 13-year-old spy Wednesday, 10 February 2010 (Ed: Excerpted)
FARC is recruiting indigenous children as spies in Colombia's southern jungles, the military said Wednesday. Children as young as 13 have been found gathering intelligence for the FARC´s 44th Front in the Guaviare department, said General Jorge Suarez, commander of the army's
22nd Brigade. The army recently found one 13‐ year‐old girl from the Nukak indigenous group forced to provide local intelligence to FARC troops. According to army commander General Freddy Padilla, of the approximately 4,339 .ARC soldiers who have demobilized since 2002, 656 were minors. http://colombiareports.com/colombia‐news/news/8152‐ farc‐recruits‐a‐13‐year‐old‐spy.html
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Students as Spies: The Deep Politics of U.S.-Colombian Relations Feb 8 2010: Forrest Hylton (Ed: excerpted ‐ 1,700 unemployed young men across the excellent comparative analysis of US/Colombia country and dress them up to look like intel operations) guerrillas. In January, 46 officers and soldiers Synchronicity between U.S. and Colombian charged with these crimes were freed on a government programs is often striking, technicality and confined to a base just south of especially when it comes to Bogotá, where they will remain awaiting trial. counterintelligence. The day after Colombian The army gave them a welcome‐home party president Álvaro Uribe took office August 7, featuring therapeutic workshops and 2002, for example, along with a Congress in aromatherapy, massages and makeovers for which the right‐wing narco‐paramilitary bloc their wives, and clowns for the kids. This is the controlled about one third of the seats, he set army that has received the bulk of the $7 billion up vast networks of paid government that the U.S. government has dispensed informants in cities and the countryside— through Plan Colombia and its successors under networks that led to record levels of forced Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama. displacement among alleged guerrilla As anthropologist‐historian David Price reports sympathizers. Over that same summer, for CounterPunch, Uribe’s drive to recruit in spite of Joe Lieberman’s best efforts, informants among university students is Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information similar to what is taking place in the and Prevention Systems)—designed to United States, where Washington has get U.S. citizens to inform on one served as a pilot project. With operations another—died in the U.S. Senate after on 22 campuses set up since 2006, the it emerged that the program would so‐called Intelligence Community Centers give the FBI more informants per of Academic Excellence represent the capita than the East German Stasi ever largest recruitment drive on U.S. had. campuses since the early Cold War. Pres Uribe Now, almost eight years later, the Recruiting today, however, is open and governments of both countries are upping the a matter of public record, though not a matter ante. On January 27, bucking for a third term in of public protest, since the professoriate has spite of Washington’s objections, Uribe thus far remained silent on the issue. announced his goal of putting a thousand spies In Medellín, the public response from in college classrooms: “We need citizens to be professors, the teachers’ union, students, and the ones who commit to informing the police youth groups was immediate, and sufficiently and armed forces, and if young people over 18 concerted to make Uribe backtrack in 24 hours. can help us in this by participating in networks The fate of informants in Colombia is frequently of informants, it would help us a lot.” Uribe a gruesome one, and by involving university offered to pay students $50 per month to students in intelligence gathering, Uribe’s report any suspicious ideas or behavior to the proposed policy could help bring the war, now Colombian police and armed forces. high up in the hillside neighborhoods of The police and armed forces, of course, are Medellín, down into its city center where institutions whose crimes have been many and universities are located. varied on Uribe’s watch, as evidenced by the Columnist Alfredo Molano thinks Uribe will try “false positives” scandal in 2008, in which it to extend the pilot program nationwide, came to light that since 2002, the Colombian especially if he “wins” a third term in May army has given officers and soldiers incentives (scare quotes apply to the winners of games and rewards to disappear and murder perhaps Editor: Dalene Duvenage Click on hyperlinks to open documents
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that have been rigged), but if he does, he is likely to meet with more resistance from students and professors, especially from public universities. Though similarities between Colombia and the United States are alarming, there may be connections as well as parallels. According to the annual report that then minister of defense Santos presented to the Colombian Congress in 2008, Washington and Bogotá have coordinated intelligence efforts closely. Santos stated, “Between April 16 and April 27, advisers from the U.S. Embassy ran a seminar about running informants in which two officials, six sub‐officials, and two civilians from U.S. Naval intelligence participated. This allowed us to re‐ train intelligence personnel, and update, strengthen, and complement the tactics used against the internal threat.” Indeed, Colombia
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is held up as a model of what successful counterinsurgency would look like in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in March 2009, Admiral Jim Stavridis from the U.S. Southern Command attended a two‐day conference in Bogotá to study lessons from Colombia that could be applied elsewhere. One can only hope that in the future, university student spies do not become part of the recipe for success in global counterinsurgency. Forrest Hylton teaches history and politics at the Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá) and is the author of Evil Hour in Colombia (Verso, 2006). https://nacla.org/node/6398
North America
Canada: CSIS blocking release of spying file on Tommy Douglas Joan Bryden, Ottawa — The Canadian Press Published on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010 (ed: excerpted)
Canada's spy agency is pulling out all the stops to block the release of decades‐old intelligence on socialist icon Tommy Douglas. In an affidavit filed in Federal Court, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service argues that full disclosure of the file on Douglas could endanger the lives of confidential informants and jeopardize the agency's ability to conduct secret surveillance. Indeed, CSIS suggests its very raison d'etre would be imperilled by releasing the information compiled on the one‐time Saskatchewan premier and federal NDP leader, widely revered as the father of medicare. “Secrecy is intrinsic to security intelligence matters,” Nicole Jalbert, the agency's access to information and privacy co‐ordinator, says in the affidavit filed late last month. “The requirement for secrecy with respect to past and current activities of a security intelligence agency is essential; the origin of
information, its extent and the methods by which it was obtained must remain a secret.” In an apparent reference to the precedent CSIS fears might be set if the Douglas files were released, Ms. Jalbert adds: “The routine, full disclosure of security intelligence information would, in certain circumstances, prevent or severely hamper the service's ability to discharge its statutory mandate.” The lawyer for The Canadian Press reporter who initiated the battle over disclosure of the Douglas dossier said CSIS's argument would essentially mean all intelligence files must remain secret in perpetuity. “The suggestion that anything that intelligence agencies do must be secret for all time I think is contrary to basic democratic principles,” Paul Champ said in an interview. Ms. Jalbert argues that release of the information could identify CSIS's employees, procedures and administrative methodologies, including how the agency manages investigations.
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In his earlier affidavit, Mr. Wark said the fact that the original RCMP file on Douglas was transferred uncensored to the national archives suggests the government recognized the information had “historical value” but “no ongoing operational utility.” “The notion that once sensitive security and intelligence records remain sensitive for eternity is a patent absurdity,” Mr. Wark said.
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“The threat environment changes, institutions change, policies change, security and intelligence methods change, legal standards change and so on.” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/csis‐ blocking‐release‐of‐spying‐file‐on‐tommy‐ douglas/article1463099/
Canada: Providing security at Vancouver Olympics is a daunting task The area's water-riddled geography presents a policing nightmare, and the 'rings of steel' strategy used at past Games isn't possible this time. By Kim Murphy, February 11, 2010 (ed: excerpted)
With Friday's opening of the Winter Olympics, Canada is preparing for the biggest domestic security operation in its history ‐‐ a $900‐million policing nightmare that takes in 3,860 square miles of downtown stadiums, remote woodland valleys and miles of urban waterways. The military contingent alone will require nearly twice the 2,500 soldiers Canada has in Afghanistan. Police and contract security agents must screen up to 1.6 million ticket holders and protect 5,500 athletes and officials ‐‐ while preparing for domestic protesters, who a year ago announced preparations for "Riot 2010." Vancouver's location just 30 miles from the U.S. border could elevate the threat of a terrorist attack, analysts said. U.S. authorities this week began fully staffing a $4.5‐million, multi‐agency Olympics Coordination Center in nearby Bellingham, Wash. The North American Aerospace Defense Command is providing air and marine surveillance on both sides of the border, while Canadian CF‐18 Hornets are prepared to intercept any unauthorized aircraft that might penetrate the tightly restricted airspace around the main Olympic sites in Vancouver and
Whistler, located 62 miles away along a twisting mountain highway. Military divers have strung floating security booms around the waterside athletes' village and the cruise ships housing some of the 15,500 security personnel assigned to the Games. A naval destroyer and frigate will conduct surveillance patrols. "Of the six Western countries threatened by Al Qaeda, Canada is the only one so far not to be hit. And in view of our role in Afghanistan, that can't last forever," said Peter St. John, a professor at the University of Manitoba who specializes in terrorism and the Middle East. St. John said the main security challenge is protecting the 15 far‐ flung athletic venues in a region ribboned with water, a geography not seen in other recent Winter Olympics. The geography makes it impossible to adopt the "rings of steel" strategy that in recent Games has focused on integrating venues and providing a secure perimeter around them, the report said. Authorities are relying on about 900 surveillance cameras, but those will be less useful for preventing attacks than for investigating them afterward, Zekulin said. Bud Mercer, who is heading the security operation, said in an interview that Olympic organizers had received no specific threats, and the danger level was considered low. Still, he said, they have prepared based on a medium‐
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level security risk and will be able to ramp up or down depending on what unfolds after Friday.The military has deployed a high‐tech surveillance system in the Whistler mountains that allows them to loft surveillance cameras
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and night‐vision equipment 500 feet above the terrain, a system used by Canadian armed forces to detect bombs in Afghanistan.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation‐and‐world/la‐na‐olympic‐security11‐2010feb11,0,6684827.story
US: Kit Bond says White House adviser John Brennan 'needs to go' Washington Post, Scott Wilson The debate over the White House's handling of the Christmas Day bomber is growing increasingly nasty and personal. In an interview with National Review Online, Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R‐Mo.) says that Obama's top counter‐ terrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, "needs to go." Bond said the former CIA veteran is no longer "credible" on national security matters. The comments followed by several hours the publication of an op‐ed Brennan wrote for USA Today in which he stated that "politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear‐ mongering only serve the goals of al‐Qaeda." Brennan did not mention the Republican Party or the GOP senators who have been the sharpest critics of Obama's decisions surrounding Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who allegedly tried to bomb a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit on Christmas Day. But he did not mince words in defending the White House decision to charge Abdulmutallab as a civilian rather than as an "enemy combatant," saying for interrogation purposes there was little distinction between the two. The White House has been aggressively seeking to counter GOP assertions that it missed an opportunity to gain valuable intelligence against al‐Qaeda in Yemen, where Abdulmutallab trained and received a
sophisticated explosives device that he hid beneath his clothes, by reading the suspect his Miranda rights. Bond, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has made that claim several times ‐‐ even after, the White House says, it informed him that Abdulmutallab was divulging important information to interrogators after his family was brought in from Nigeria to encourage him to do so. Brennan, who served in the top ranks of the CIA during the Bush administration, began his op‐ ed by stating that "too many in Washington are now misrepresenting the facts to score political points." In his comments to National Review Online, Bond says he found Brennan's op‐ed "baffling" and that it is evidence of the "political mess at the White House" that he said is putting the country in jeopardy. Brennan's firing, Bond says, would be part of the solution. The issue has emerged as an important one at the start of this midterm election year. In a Washington Post‐ABC News poll published Wednesday, a majority of respondents said they support Obama's handling of terrorism. At the same time, though, a majority opposes the administration's plan to try terrorism suspects such as Abdulmutallab in federal civilian courts rather than in military tribunals.
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