INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY VERSION ISSN 1245-2122 N. 80 New Series, 18 May 1998 Every Two to Three Weeks Next Issue on 8 June 1998 Publishing since 1980 Editor Olivier Schmidt (email intelligence-adi@wanadoo.fr; web http://www.blythe.org/Intelligence) TABLE OF CONTENTS, N. 80, 18 May 1998 FRONT PAGE MACAO - CHINA'S MANY USES OF AN "ADULT LEISURE" COLONY p.1 TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES INDIA'S GOOD TECHNIQUE OUTPLAYS USA HIGH-TECH p.2 "DEFLATING" TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED UAVS OR DRONES p.3 US STEALTH MISSILE PROJECT p.4 FRANCE'S AUTONOMOUS DEEP WATER DIVING SUIT p.5 VIRUSES - BrownWright Says Most Scanners Too Weak. p.6 PRECISION BOMBS - South Africa's Raptor Mark 1 & 2. p.7 TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES - Briefs and Media Reports. p.8 PEOPLE USA - OSWALD LE WINTER p.9 GREAT BRITAIN - ADRIAN STREETER p.10 SOUTH AFRICA - SIPHIWE NYANDA p.11 FRANCE/ISRAEL - Henri Curiel. p.12 NIGERIA - Hamza Al-Mustapha. p.13 PEOPLE - Briefs and Media Reports. p.14 AGENDA COMING EVENTS THROUGH 15 JUNE 1998 p.15 INTELLIGENCE AROUND THE WORLD USA - OUT OF THE BUDGET FRYING PAN & INTO THE FIRE p.16 - "DOWNSIZING" AT DSS HITS ROCK BOTTOM p.17 - "Terrorism" by the Book & on Internet. p.18 - Prying Open CIA Archives. p.19 - Sparks Fly with FBI Wiretapping Law. p.20 - Briefs and Media Reports. p.21 GREAT BRITAIN - Blair & Sierra Leone Defend Sandline. p.22 NORTHERN IRELAND - BUGGING THY NEIGHBOR p.23 - IRA DISSIDENTS TO FIGHT ON p.24 FRANCE - NEW USA COMPETITIVE/PRE-COMPETITIVE BOUNDARIES p.25 - PUBLISHING IN SECURITY & INTELLIGENCE p.26 GERMANY - SCIENTOLOGY SECT STRIKES BACK p.27 WESTERN EUROPE - A BAN ON SMALL ARMS COMING UP p.28 - Briefs and Media Reports. p.29 EASTERN EUROPE - Briefs and Media Reports. p.30 LATIN AMERICA - Briefs and Media Reports. p.31 AFRICA - Briefs and Media Reports. p.32 ISRAEL - THE POLLARD AFFAIR COMES BACK p.33 MIDDLE EAST - Briefs and Media Reports. p.34 ASIA - Briefs, Books and Media Reports. p.35 --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 80, 18 May 1998, p. 5 FRANCE'S AUTONOMOUS DEEP WATER DIVING SUIT France and the US have always been rivals, competitors and have secretly cooperated in the development of highly-classified underwater equipment for military divers (see "Diving Deeper and Deeper with Strange Mixtures"; INT, n. 67 4). In deep- water technology, it seems the US is investing more in mini- submarines that are just large enough for one person, while the French have continued trying to develop a diving suit that would permit a person to work at a depth of 300 meters. Strangely enough, it was the sensationalist French weekly, "VSD", that recently "let the cat out of the bag": the Newtsuit. Matter of fact, certain French intelligence officials would have preferred not to have the article published since it discloses that French military divers can now be flown anywhere in the world and go down to work autonomously at 300 meters. The Newtsuit weighs 300 kg on dry land and consists of convex aluminum alloy sections held together by special pressure- resistant, flexible joints, making the suit look like a Michelin "Bibandum" trade symbol balloonman. It costs FF4 million and, after three years of tests, recently became operational. A Newtsuit team includes the diver and four assistants. The suit is opened on a hinge at the waist. The diver gets in and closes the suit with the help of the team and a hydraulic lift. The diver is lowered into the water in an open metal cage, attached to the rest of the team and the surface by a safety line furnishing radio contact and electricity. The Newtsuit has its own breathing and locomotion equipment (four motors attached to the backpack). By pointing the left foot down, the divers descends. By pointing the left foot up, the divers ascends. The right foot commands forward, backward, left and right motion. Within one hour, the diver can reach 300 meters depth. The Top Secret technology consists of the special oil-filled flexible joints which can resist pressure at that depth while remaining moveable and waterproof. They were developed by a Canadian offshore oil exploration firm. In case of a French submarine accident, the Intervention Sous la Mer unit in Toulon receives the alert and either the "Aqueyron" naval vessel or an aircraft brings in the Newtsuit team. Proving again Franco- American cooperation in this domain, the US Navy has ordered six new versions of the Newtsuit which can take a diver down to 600 meters. For such submarine rescue operations, the US could also use its mini-submersible Deep Sea Rescue Vehicles (DSRVs), the "Mystic" and the "Avalon". These DSVRs can go much deeper than the Newtsuit, can be carried "piggy-back" on any US or French (and probably any other) submarine, attach to a damaged sub and evacuate crew members. --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 80, 18 May 1998, p. 17 USA "DOWNSIZING" AT DSS HITS ROCK BOTTOM "Downsizing" has gone so far at the Defense Security Service (DSS) that the US Air Force, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) recently instructed their employees not to cooperate with the DSS simplified security checks. The federally-mandated DSS "downsizing" cut more than 600 jobs, leaving the DSS with 1,300 investigators and a huge backlog of personnel background security checks. DSS therefore had little choice than to make drastic cuts in resources allocated to background security checks and headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, came up with "Operation Get Well, Stay Well", intended to clean up the backlog. But the operation's derogatory nickname in the US intelligence community has become "Operation Phone to the Bone" because of its heavy reliance on telephone interviews. Indeed, DSS management found that the best way to reduce costs and time involved in background checks and routine periodic reinvestigations of persons with security clearance is to do most of the work over the telephone instead of "going into the field" for face-to-face interviews. The "cost-cutters" maintain that little essential information is missed on the large majority of routine security clearance work by doing it over the telephone. Moreover, "doubtful" cases can always be pursued further by face-to-face interviews or more covert methods. This "cost-efficiency" method is criticized by old "Cold Warriors" and other security-conscious intelligence professionals because "body language", physical presence and confrontational tactics are established tools for classic "pre- downsizing" investigators. These agents have complained to Scripps Howard News Service that their work has been "dumbed down" and simplified to speed up case turnover and absorb the backlog. These protests reached an official level on 27 February when DIA chief of staff, Barbara Duckworth, stated DIA personnel "may decline any request for a (DSS) telephone interview". In March, the US Air Force issued an order stating that "the DSS has started using telephone interviews in their personnel security investigations as a routine practice ... The Air Force believes this practice is inappropriate for legal and privacy reasons. We are working to get it reversed. We further believe that the use of routine telephone interviews reduces the value of the investigation. Any requests by DSS investigators to conduct an interview over the phone should be denied." The NSA reportedly issued a similar directive at the same time. COMMENT -- The hard-nose, security-conscious defense types will probably lose this one and come out looking like dinosaurs for a very simple reason: money! The DSS backlog understandably keeps the Pentagon and the intelligence community from working efficiently since people with lapsed security clearances supposedly cannot work at their declared tasks. But, above all, defense contractors working on classified programs must obtain their security clearances in a timely manner. If not, they will not be able to complete their work in a specified time. This would put the federal government in default on these contracts and the Pentagon could be taken to court for not furnishing security clearances in a timely manner. In the Post-Cold War, it looks like senior Pentagon officials, who imposed "downsizing" on the DSS, have decided money is more important than "air-tight" security and now cannot back away from cost-efficient telephone interview background checks. --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 80, 18 May 1998, p. 25 FRANCE NEW USA COMPETITIVE/PRE-COMPETITIVE BOUNDARIES By their refusal to debate publicly with "Intelligence" on such issues as secret Franco-American cooperation in development of the Mach 3 variable-thrust rocket ram jet or in developing computer simulation of nuclear explosions at the US National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the French Megajoule center (INT, n. 56 1), senior French intelligence and defense officials have confirmed that there is a clear division between the "pre- competitive domain" of very highly-classified US-French military projects (including the above), and the "competitive domain" including economic competition, industrial espionage and the current running battle between the French DGSE and the US CIA in Africa (see "France - Clinton in Paris' African 'Back Yard'", INT, n. 77 33; and "France - More US Trouble in African 'Back Yard'", INT, n. 79 29). But the boundary, even though clear to both parties, is "dynamic" and seems to be shifting. Elsewhere in this issue of "Intelligence", we mention two new developments, one on each side of the pre-competitive -- competitive divide. In this issue's "Technology and Techniques" section, we described the development by France of the new, autonomous Newtsuit diving suit which permits a diver to easily descend to 300 meters, work at that depth, and ascend to the surface. Although the Newtsuit involves classified military technology, France reportedly sold the US Navy six copies of an advanced Newtsuit model which can take a diver to 600 meters. This seems clearly to be pre-competitive cooperation since no one else has similar technology. On the other hand, in the competitive domain, in this section under "USA", we mention that CIA director, George J. Tenet, and CIA deputy director for operations, Jack Downing, have been lobbying Congress for more funds to rebuild the CIA Directorate of Operations and reestablish agency posts in places such as Africa, where almost all the CIA stations were closed down over the past six years, supposedly for budgetary reasons. Tenet and Downing have reportedly argued that more human intelligence (HUMINT) is need on African countries such as Sudan, which support terrorism, a rather out-of-date argument since the Sudanese regime turned the terrorist "Carlos" over to France and is now fighting to keep the country in one piece. Apparently the two CIA officials also told Congress a "Cold War Story" about having case officers in African countries to watch Chinese and Russian activities. But French intelligence, and anyone who knows contemporary Africa, would not believe that. China is short of cash and qualified personnel, and Russia is short of everything, except organized crime. The only "foreigners" worth spying on in Africa are the French and the British. The French DGSE and British MI6 know how to "read between the lines" and probably don't appreciate what the CIA is saying. COMMENT -- The two major examples above of the shifting pre- competitive -- competitive boundary can be supplemented by other lesser examples which largely escaped media attention. In the last week of April, French Defense Minister, Alain Richard, and US Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, agreed on more cooperation in space, and the possibility of cooperation in sharing military space intelligence and communications was evoked. It should be remembered that the Pentagon is the sole purchaser of a French mobile, militarized Spot reconnaissance satellite ground station called Eagle Vision (INT, n. 17 4 & n. 23 35). At the same time Mssr. Richard and Cohen were reaching an agreement, the FBI reportedly opened an investigation for industrial espionage against GIAT Industries, the French army's armament agency. Zan Trading, a Saudi translation firm, supposedly secretly provided GIAT with information concerning the US M1A2 Abrams tank's armor. According to French intelligence's version of the affair, the information was not classified and came from the CEDOCAR, the French armed forces' documentation center. The CEDOCAR gave the information to Zan Trading for translation into Arab. The same was done with documentation concerning armor on the new French Leclerc tank. More recently, a French military officer, Herve Gourmelon, was accused by US intelligence of helping Bosnian Serb war criminal, Radovan Karadzic, avoided arrest by leaking allied intelligence to him. Commandant Gourmelon was reportedly working directly with General Jean Heinrich, founder and former director of the Direction du Renseignement Militaire (DRM), on a classified French covert operation intended to obtain Karadzic's surrender. Apparently the operation didn't please US intelligence which "blew it" by leaking it to the US press which dutifully published the American version of the story. So it's not all black and white between France and the US in intelligence and security, but there does seem to be a clear division and solid agreement on what is "competitive" and what is "pre-competitive". --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 80, 18 May 1998, p. 30 EASTERN EUROPE - Briefs and Media Reports. - Slovakia Freedom House defends low "partially free" rating of Slovakia's press; Black economy money dwarfs annual defense funding. - Balkans Yugoslav army and Serb police battle Kosovo Albanians in Ponosevac; Albania calls for army volunteers; As Kosovo fighting continues in Ponosevac, Albania warns of war; Heavy fighting near Kosovo-Albanian border; Stronger "fire wall" in Macedonia called for by British military; Albania says Serbia conducting "ethnic cleansing"; Hague war crimes tribunal monitoring Kosovo; Montenegro slams military action in Kosovo; Primakov sticks to tough line on autonomy of Kosovo; Clinton will not rule out ground troops for Kosovo; Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) told the BBC it could take war to Belgrade; Kosovo separatists gaining numbers, Robert Gelbard, President Bill Clinton's special envoy to the Balkans, told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Europe; Montenegrin President, Milo Djukanovic, stated that blanket sanctions against Yugoslavia hurt the reformers and innocent people as well as the regime; NATO says no troops to Albania; Paris, Bonn weigh military options in Kosovo; Robert Gelbard, US special envoy, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Belgrade has totally mishandled the Kosovo question; Greece says Kosovo could spark war worse than Bosnian conflict. - Bulgaria Open war between Interior Minister, Bogomil Bonev, and Prosecutor General, Ivan Tatarchev, in crime-fighting. - Moldova Moldovan intelligence services prevented MiG deal leak. - Russia Yeltsin's envoy, Valentin Vlasov, to Chechnya kidnapped; "Un Pays Malade de ses Mafias". - Georgia Third attack on Georgian President, Eduard Shevardnadze, anticipated. - Tajikistan Islamic opposition forces driven from Tajikistan capital. ---------------------------------------------