2017-07-17, 01:34 | Link #1 |
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Spy Games.
Russia suspected of using Bermuda shell company
to exploit American anti-fracking activists: "Russia’s propaganda schemes and shell companies are so complex that investigators call them “matryoshkas” for the Russian nesting dolls that hide one inside the other. Capitol Hill lawmakers say they are now wrestling with one that appears to have twisted American oil and gas policy in Moscow’s favor. Adding fresh intrigue to the multiple Russia probes underway across Washington, top Republican lawmakers are demanding that the Trump administration immediately investigate a Bermuda-based shell company with suspected Kremlin ties that is accused of working in the shadows to move millions of dollars to anti-fracking activists across the U.S. Capitol Hill investigators say the Bermuda fracking case underscores the complexity of recent Russian influence operations that attempt to use Americans as pawns in money laundering or propaganda schemes." See: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...-company-to-f/ |
2017-08-09, 21:35 | Link #2 |
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Hearing loss of US diplomats in Cuba blamed on covert device:
"The two-year-old U.S. diplomatic relationship with Cuba was roiled Wednesday by what U.S. officials say was a string of bizarre incidents that left a group of American diplomats in Havana with severe hearing loss attributed to a covert sonic device. In the fall of 2016, a series of U.S. diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation into the case. Several of the diplomats were recent arrivals at the embassy, which reopened in 2015 as part of former President Barack Obama's reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba. Some of the diplomats' symptoms were so severe that they were forced to cancel their tours early and return to the United States, officials said. After months of investigation, U.S. officials concluded that the diplomats had been exposed to an advanced device that operated outside the range of audible sound and had been deployed either inside or outside their residences. It was not immediately clear if the device was a weapon used in a deliberate attack, or had some other purpose." See: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT |
2017-12-28, 20:48 | Link #3 |
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The KGB Playbook for Infiltrating the Middle East:
"THE PLAN WAS SIMPLE but audacious: On October 3, 1969, the Lebanese Air Force pilot would turn up for his scheduled training flight in a French-made Mirage III-E interceptor jet. “Upon attaining an altitude of 3,000 feet,” he was instructed, “radio the Beirut tower that you are experiencing generator trouble and your controls are malfunctioning. Then declare an emergency. Thereafter, acknowledge no radio transmissions… Four minutes after you cross the Soviet frontier, three interceptors will meet you and guide you to Baku in Azerbaijan… Should rendezvous fail, contact the base there on a frequency of 322 kilocycles…”" "Badawi was a less-than-inconspicuous asset of Soviet intelligence, the GRU or military branch of it to be exact, and, perhaps hoping to entice his former pupil into betraying their country, he took it upon himself sweeten the pot for heisting one of the most sophisticated warplanes then in use by NATO countries. Mattar would receive $3 million for the Mirage, Badawi had said. But when Badawi finally introduced Mattar to his new GRU handler, Vladimir Vasileyv, the Russian expressed shock at the asked- for amount. The true price was $1 million. A negotiation ensued before prospective agent and officer compromised on $2 million." See: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kg...=home?ref=home |
2018-03-16, 09:53 | Link #4 |
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Location: A city with a small mountain in the middle
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I'm surprised no one talked about the recent nerve agent incident in England since this is probably the first time that a country sought revenge against a spy who was already arrested, condemned, but then released on a spy swap.
For those who may not be aware of the full story, Sergei Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer who acted as a double agent for the UK's intelligence services during the 1990s and early 2000s. In December 2004, he was arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB) and later tried, convicted of high treason, and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He was then a part of the Illegals Program spy swap in 2010 when the US released Russian spy Anna Chapman in exchange of Kripal. Since then, Skripal settled in the UK. Just 12 days ago, he and his daughter were poisoned by a nerve agent. Three police officers have also been poisoned by that nerve agent. Since this kind of incident is arguably a first in the history of modern espionnage and a violation of unspoken rules in spycraft, I now wonder: what do you think might happen next? Do you think Western intelligence agencies might start retaliating? IMHO, Western agencies should be going with all of their resources to catch and compromise Anna Chapman to a permanent end. If that happens, then it's too bad. Putin drew first blood by ordering something that not even the former Soviet Union ever dared to do. Last edited by Toukairin; 2018-03-16 at 22:19. |
2018-03-18, 03:18 | Link #5 |
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U.K. Cops Will Be at Risk From the Kremlin if Inquiry Takes Them
to Russia, Says the Detective Who Hunted Litvinenko’s Killers: "As one of Britain’s most senior counterterror investigators, former Detective Inspector Brian Tarpey conducted operations at the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland; followed the trail of jihadis to North Africa; entered the notorious Black Beach prison in Equatorial Guinea; and tracked the 2005 London terrorists all the way back to their lawless training camps in Pakistan. In all of his investigations, he says he was harmed only once: in Moscow, during the hunt for the killers of Alexander Litvinenko. The Russian dissident had died in London after being poisoned with a dose of the radioactive isotope polonium-210 that was slipped into a pot of tea. The Russian authorities said they would help the team from Scotland Yard to run down their leads and interview the prime suspects. Instead the detectives encountered obstruction, ultimatums, subterfuge, intimidation, a possible body double, and even a case of suspected poisoning. It was the most difficult foreign assignment of Tarpey’s career. When he sat opposite a delegation from the Russian prosecutor general’s office at the beginning of the trip in December 2006, he had no idea that the rogues’ gallery on the other side of the long table featured some of Vladimir Putin’s top enforcers including a future member of the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions list and the suspected mastermind of Russia’s alleged pro-Trump influence campaign. After just a few days of investigation in Moscow, it was obvious to Tarpey that this supposedly independent branch of the justice system was being run as a de facto intelligence operation with immense power and resources. They weren’t tested at the time, but he’s convinced that he and a colleague were given tainted cups of tea inside the prosecutor general’s office, which left them both suffering from gastroenteritis-like symptoms. Tarpey began to feel unwell as soon as he left the building." See: https://www.thedailybeast.com/uk-cop...llers?ref=home |
2018-03-18, 03:20 | Link #6 | |
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Quote:
The North Koreans got away with a nerve agent assassination, so I guess Putin decided to give it a try too: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...her/402478002/ This is why it's bad to let this sort of thing slide. |
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2018-06-09, 02:11 | Link #7 |
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What Secretive Anti-Ship Missile Did China Hack From The U.S. Navy?:
"China's relentless cyber espionage campaign against the Pentagon has been one of the central reasons why that country's technological warfighting capabilities have aggressively matured over a relatively short period of time. In fact, we now see the fruits of their hacking operations on a daily basis via advanced 'indigenous' weapon systems, some which are now entering into operational service. But a previously unreported intrusion into a Navy contractor's computer network has provided the Chinese military with information on the service's electronic warfare and threat library, cryptographic radio systems used on submarines, specific sensor data, and detailed information on a previously undisclosed and fast-paced initiative to field a supersonic anti-ship missile onto American nuclear submarines dubbed Sea Dragon." See: http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone...m-the-u-s-navy |
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