INTELLIGENCE ISSN 1245-2122 N. 61 New Series, 2 June 1997 Publishing since 1980 Editor Olivier Schmidt (email intelligence-adi@wanadoo.fr; web http://www.blythe.org/Intelligence) TABLE OF CONTENTS, N. 61, 2 June 1997 FRONTPAGE U.S.A. - A BAD SEASON FOR INTELLIGENCE ARCHIVES p.1 TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES PUBLIC ENCRYPTION TAKES OFF AS U.S. RELINQUISHES p.2 FACE RECOGNITION MEETS BAGGAGE RECONCILIATION p.3 LOW-TECH "SCREENERS" COUPLED WITH HIGH-TECH "SNIFFERS" p.4 UAV - Recent Technological Successes. p.5 HACKERS - Arrest Doesn't Solve Technological Problem. p.6 NIGHT VISION - Cheap Russian Goggles Cause Problems. p.7 E-MONEY - Threats and Counter-Measures. p.8 VIRUSES - Computer Security Testers. p.9 COMPUTERS - England Gets a Non-Military Big Bang. p.10 STEALTH - A Colorful "Private" Show in Paris. p.11 SURVEY METHODS - "Hard" High-Tech Developed by "Soft" Low-Tech. p.12 PEOPLE U.S.A. - ROBERT STEPHAN LIPKA p.13 U.S.A. - L. BRITT SNIDER p.14 GREAT BRITAIN - MARTIN MCGARTLAND/MARTIN ASHE p.15 MEXICO - JAVIER COELLO TREJO p.16 U.S.A. - Robert M. Gates. p.17 ESTONIA - Lennart Meri. p.18 RUMANIA - Costin Georgescu. p.19 SOUTH AFRICA - Meyer Kahn. p.20 ISRAEL - Roman Weisfeld. p.21 PALESTINE - Ismail Halabi. p.22 AGENDA COMING EVENTS THROUGH 31 JULY 1997 p.23 INTELLIGENCE AROUND THE WORLD U.S.A. - FACTS FALL INTO PLACE FOR TWA FLIGHT 800 p.24 FORENSIC "SECOND OPINION" ON OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING p.25 Sanctions for Olympic Park FBI Agents. p.26 Anti-Quadrennial Defense Review. p.27 GREAT BRITAIN - PUBLIC SERVICE POLICE VS. "LOGO COPS" p.28 HAZING FOR MI5 EMPLOYMENT CAMPAIGN p.29 GENERATING A REAL "MISSILE GAP" p.30 NORTHERN IRELAND - VOTE PRODUCES REPUBLICAN TRUMP CARD p.31 "Yanks" Stick Their Noses In. p.32 IRELAND - EXPLOSIVE "SPILL OVER" FROM NORTH FOR ELECTIONS p.33 FRANCE - A MODERN FRENCH INTELLIGENCE MANUAL p.34 NETHERLANDS - KOERTEN REPORT ON ARUBA CAUSES WAVES p.35 GERMANY - AFTERMATH OF THE MYKONOS TRIAL p.36 ITALY - KGB/BULGARIAN/GRAY WOLF ANTI-POPE PLOT p.37 RUSSIA - New National Security Threat. p.38 ISRAEL - BOOK ON THE KIDNAPPING OF EICHMANN p.39 VIETNAM - WESTERN AID FOR INTELLIGENCE STABLE CLEANING p.40 --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 61, 2 June 1997, p. 11 STEALTH - A Colorful "Private" Show in Paris. According to French intelligence rumors, a select group of French military figures were very impressed last week by a "private" demonstration inside a secured hangar at Le Bourget near Paris. In preparation for the coming Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, a U.S. B-2 stealth bomber arrived and was immediately "put under wraps". The select group visited the hangar and watched in amazement as a B-2 crew member in the cockpit changed the color of the aircraft from sky gray to camouflage green and then to jet black. The technology for variable aircraft coloration has been under development for some time and was known now to be available. Apparently, by changing the aircraft's skin temperature with embedded heating elements, the thermally active paint changes color. French authorities were duly impressed. --------------------------------------------- INTELLIGENCE AROUND THE WORLD Intelligence, N. 61, 2 June 1997, p. 24 U.S.A. FACTS FALL INTO PLACE FOR TWA FLIGHT 800 "Intelligence" has been trying to follow the investigation into the 17 July 1996 destruction of TWA Flight 800 shortly after takeoff from New York City (INT, n.42 6, 28, n.44 1, n.45 7, n.46 42, 58, n.47 4, 28, n.48 28, n.49 16). In one of our first articles on the subject, we mentioned that U.S. authorities "continue to downplay suggestions that mechanical failure might have caused the plane to drop rapidly from 4,800 meters to 3,000 meters before exploding and falling into the sea off Long Island, despite the fact that a similar incident occurred in May 1976 when an Iranian Air Force 747 -- the same model as TWA Flight 800 -- exploded in mid-air near Madrid airport, killing 17 crew members." After widespread speculation that a bomb on board had caused the crash, an inquiry later concluded that a fuel leak in one of the wings was responsible (INT, n. 43 33). In September 1996, we stressed that "a heat-seeking missile did not hit Flight 800. A 747's four, large engines -- the infrared "hot spots" that such missiles "chase", often going right up the exhaust nozzle -- showed no damage from a nearby explosion" (INT, n. 44 1). This would tend to exclude theories based on the firing of a shoulder-launched, head-seeking Stinger missile by terrorists in a boat off Long Island. However, in the same article ("U.S.A. - French Intelligence Explanation for TWA 800"), we presented a French intelligence rumor that a U.S. military missile was fired at an unidentified aircraft, supposedly transporting drugs, which "ducked behind" the 747 that inadvertently "caught" the missile. Successive declarations by the FBI and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have not been very convincing and even the most recent 4 May statement by FBI director Louis Freeh that "the evidence as we developed it to date ... would lead the inquiry toward the conclusion that this was a catastrophic mechanical failure" was not convincing enough for "Intelligence" to withdraw other explanations. Now, however, technical NTSB information has been made available which does furnish a complete and coherent explanation of the destruction of TWA 800. Witnesses consistently mentioned a double or even triple explosion, and debris was indeed scattered over three main sites. The different degrees of sooting due to fire and the types and direction of fracturing of various wing parts indicate a precise chronology of events and distribution of debris in the three main sites. The first pieces of debris were unsooted and came from the mid-spar-wise beam of three such beams that cross the center fuel tank. An unexplained but relatively small blast between the first and second spar-wise beams tore off a manufacturing access door in the second spar-wise beam. The blast also broke the front or third spar-wise beam and the wing's front spar but the wing's upper skin panels held the wings in place while being bent up around the fuselage. Fires broke out that heavily sooted remaining central wing parts as the third spar-wise beam bent forward, down and hit the wing's front spar which began to move forward too. Bolts holding the front spar to the fuselage's keel beam were sheared off and the downward force on the keel beam caused it to peel away from the lower skin and shear the bolts holding it together with the wings' other beams and spars. When the keel beam broke free, there was little left connecting the wings to the fuselage and "major airplane breakup" ensued with one or two major explosions. This precise description of the destruction of TWA 800 coherently unites all available information on the crash and indeed resembles the Iranian Air Force 747 accident. There remains the problem of the origin of the original blast in the nearly empty central fuel tank and supposed "streaks of light" or "missile trails" seen by some witnesses. These could easily be flashes of light from the setting sun reflected off the wings of the 747 or even traces of the initial blast before the total breakup of the aircraft and ensuing major explosion. --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 61, 2 June 1997, p. 35 NETHERLANDS KOERTEN REPORT ON ARUBA CAUSES WAVES In early May, the VVD, D66 and CDA political parties in parliament demanded that Joris Voorhoeve, responsible for Netherlands Antilles and Aruban Affairs, give a detailed presentation of the 1995 report by senior Dutch BVD security service official, Onno Koerten, concerning "close liaisons and friendships" between Aruba politicians and Columbian drug cartels. In September 1995, we mentioned that the governments of Holland and Aruba (which has a sort of commonwealth status) had agreed to reinforce the Aruban police, the security service and the coast guard of the Caribbean island (INT, n. 22 53). The situation in the free-trade zone in the harbor of Orangetown was studied by a security commission with the intention of establishing a new security regime to combat crime. Another commission proposed measures to counter organized crime infiltration of Aruban casinos. Reports from both commissions were due in March 1996 and probably formed the basis for the secret Koerten report. While these commissions were carrying out their work, the new head of the Veiligheidsdienst van Aruba (VDA; Aruban security service) and his assistant were being trained by the Dutch BVD security service to prepare for installation next month in July 1997. Mr. Koerten, the author of the report, once served as temporary head of the VDA security service, the BVD's "local partner". According to Dutch media reports, the U.S. CIA and FBI (and very likely the DEA), as well as the British MI6, contributed heavily to this classified report which is apparently now circulating among certain Dutch journalists. According to the report, at least $1,5 billion in drug money has been laundered through Aruba, and, according to the recent International Narcotics Strategic Report, Aruba injects every year $300 million dollars in laundered funds into the U.S. banking system. Aruba's most powerful family, the Mansur family, is considered by U.S. drug investigators to be the largest money launderer on earth and closely tied with the Cali cocaine syndicate. So far, the Dutch financial establishment has been reluctant to tackle seriously the delicate situation in the islands, because the Antilles are used as a convenient tax haven by nearly all Dutch banks, major corporations and wealthy individuals, including those at the highest levels of government. COMMENT -- Mr. Koerten was appointed acting director of the Veileigheidsdienst van Aruba when the service was withdrawn from the authority of Aruban Secretary of Justice Watty Vos in 1994. Then head of the VDA, Martin Ras, had issued alarming reports to Governor Olindo Koolman and the Dutch BVD. This led to the transfer of many sensitive files to the Dutch naval base at Parera on the neighboring island of Curacao. A few weeks after Vos had been appointed Secretary, Vos demanded that Ras forward the complete files to his office. Instead, the files went to Parera for "safe keeping". --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 61, 2 June 1997, p. 40 VIETNAM WESTERN AID FOR INTELLIGENCE STABLE CLEANING "Intelligence" readers were probably not surprised by the recent showcase drug trial last month in Vietnam which resulted on 14 May in eight death sentences including that of Interior Ministry Criminal Division Captain Vu Xuan Truong and of a Border Guard officer, plus eight sentences to life in prison. In late 1995, we mentioned that the head of Vietnam's foreign intelligence service, Mr. Huyn, was poisoned and died during that summer (see "Vietnam - 'Bitter Tea' for the CIA's Mr. Huyn"; INT, n. 26 77). Following his death, his service was dissolved and in its place only a simple liaison unit with foreign intelligence services was set up. According to French intelligence sources, Mr. Huyn and other members of his service were apparently implicated in a CIA-controlled $500 million investment scheme for an ephemeral international airport near Hanoi. Mr. Huyn was in all likelihood eliminated by his own colleagues, perhaps acting with CIA approval. Once he was dead, authorities performed no autopsy and quickly disposed of his body. Mr. Huyn's service was not only responsible for foreign intelligence. Its brief included investigative powers, refugee repatriation, control and manipulation of refugee communities abroad and trafficking in Golden Triangle drugs. Supposedly a major center of its network was situated in Germany. The Huyn affair was apparently a triangular France-U.S.-Vietnam affair, just like the Indochina-Vietnam war, and did not involve Vietnam's "Big Brother" northern neighbor, China, even though Mr. Huyn's service probably worked extensively on China. In May 1996, we added that, according to French intelligence contacts, after the death of Mr. Huyn, a new foreign intelligence service had been created under the orders of Huynh Hoang-Ho who works at the Center of Defence Industry Material, part of an Economy - Defence Industry Bureau (INT, n. 38 29). Mr. Huyn and a member of his family living in France seem to have been playing a central role in major weapons deals on the international scene. COMMENT -- That foreign intelligence service, and the Vietnamese intelligence community in general, now have a major role to play in the strategic joust between the four countries mentioned above: the U.S., Germany, France and China. On 7 May, the U.S. reopened its embassy and intelligence exchange is on the agenda. The U.S. is Vietnam's leading economic partner, followed by Germany, and then France. All three Western countries count on using Vietnam as a strategic intelligence platform to monitor China following the forthcoming "handover" of Hong Kong to Beijing. But to run an efficient intelligence operation in Vietnam, the Western allies need "shipshape" Vietnamese police and intelligence services. According to specialists, last month's drug trial is the first big sweep of the broom and will soon be followed by "law enforcement training programs" and "exchanges". For example, the FBI could just move its threatened Hong Kong office to Hanoi and "get on with the job". Normal commercial contracts with Germany will probably generate German "technical" assistance to the Vietnamese government. Strangely enough, it seems the French are the poor partners in this affair. The Vietnamese seem to have more rancor against French "colonialism" than against American "imperialism" or German "capitalism". ---------------------------------------------