SUMMARY VERSION FULL VERSION ON REQUEST INTELLIGENCE ISSN 1245-2122 N. 83 New Series, 13 July 1998 Publishing since 1980 Editor Olivier Schmidt (email intelligence-adi@wanadoo.fr; web http://www.blythe.org/Intelligence) TABLE OF CONTENTS, N. 83, 13 July 1998 FRONT PAGE NORTHERN IRELAND - PEACE PROCESS ARMS INVENTORY p.1 TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES NETWORKING THE US INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY p.2 POLICING THE INTERNET p.3 ISRAELI "SPIKE" CRUISE MISSILE p.4 SIMULATION - World's Biggest Virtual Reality Battlefield. p.5 TECHNOLOGY & TECHNIQUES - Briefs, Books & Media Reports. p.6 PEOPLE GREAT BRITAIN - MARK ADDISON p.7 FRANCE - ALAIN MICHEL CHRISTNACHT p.8 ITALY - ROBERTO CALVI p.9 IRAN - AHMAD REZAI p.10 PEOPLE - Briefs and Media Reports. p.11 AGENDA COMING EVENTS THROUGH 21 SEPTEMBER 1998 p.12 INTELLIGENCE AROUND THE WORLD USA - FRIENDLY CUT-THROAT COMPETITION WITH FRANCE p.13 - Briefs, Books, and Media Reports. p.14 GREAT BRITAIN - LAST VICTIM OF SAS PRINCES' GATE OP p.15 - PENFOLD BACK TO AFRICA p.16 - POLICE CORRUPTION WIDESPREAD p.17 - DERA CAUGHT SURFING FOR PORN p.18 IRELAND - US JUDICIAL PROCEDURES UNDER REVIEW p.19 FRANCE - MILITARY-INTELLIGENCE MUSICAL STAIRS p.20 GERMANY - FRANCE'S CODED INTELLIGENCE MESSAGE p.21 WESTERN EUROPE - HORIZON SINKING BEFORE IT FLOATS p.22 - Briefs, Books and Media Reports. p.23 EASTERN EUROPE - Briefs, Books and Media Reports. p.24 LATIN AMERICA - Briefs, Books and Media Reports. p.25 AFRICA - Briefs and Media Reports. p.26 MIDDLE EAST - Briefs, Books and Media Reports. p.27 ASIA - Briefs, Books and Media Reports. p.28 --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 83, 13 July 1998, p. 4 ISRAELI "SPIKE" CRUISE MISSILE Israel has "come on hard times" with some of its latest military technology (see "Israel - Burned Out Military High- Tech", INT, n. 75 24) and, according to Robert Fisk in the "Independent", the same is true of the newly revealed Israeli cruise missile called "Spike". The 130 cm anti-personnel rocket is a new arm in the smoldering guerrilla war in occupied southern Lebanon where it can be guided over mountains, through valleys and around houses in search of its target. "Spike" has reportedly been used recently at least twice in southern Lebanon -- both times at night -- and has been observed by soldiers of the United Nations' Finnish peacekeeping battalion. The missile appears to be guided to its target either by an active sensor onboard the rocket -- such as a remote-controlled television camera or, more likely, a fiber optic-connected lens -- or by a passive sensor which responds to a "forward controller" signal such as a commando unit "painting" the target with infrared light or radar. At Toulin, Lebanon, guerrilla sources suspect Israeli troops may have approached the village and remotely guided the weapon -- fired from a neighboring hilltop bunker -- to "painted" guerrilla positions. "Spike" is believed to be made by the Israeli Raphael missile company, which has close ties with Lockheed in Florida. Spike's weakness, noticed by both Finnish UN personnel and by Amal guerrillas, is that it makes a roaring sound as it approaches its target and emits an easily-spotted meter-long exhaust plume. The noise and flame apparently warned Amal guerrillas during a recent attack, allowing them enough time to "hit the dirt" and avoid serious casualties. There are apparently "other problems" with Spike which are reportedly at the origin of a failed early 1990s military maneuver in the Negev Desert in preparation for an assassination attempt against Iraqi strongman, Saddam Hussein. Control of the missile was lost and it slammed into an elite commando unit leading the action, killing five of its members. This would tend to indicate some sort of "homing device" which the commando unit probably had with it when it was hit. Certain weapons specialists believe Spike was used in an assassination attempt against the Hezbollah guerrilla leader in Lebanon, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, whose predecessor, Sayed Abbas Moussawi, was assassinated in February 1992 by an Israeli missile reportedly guided by a television camera and fired from a helicopter as Moussawi was returning to Beirut from the village of Jibchit. --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 83, 13 July 1998, p. 8 FRANCE - ALAIN MICHEL CHRISTNACHT The name now circulating in press reports as the eventual successor of much-maligned French DGSE foreign intelligence chief, Jacques Dewatre (INT, n. 59 34, n. 60 29, n. 66 12, n. 67 34, n. 74 34 & n. 81 9), is Prefect Alain Michel Christnacht. Born on 30 December 1948, he received a degree in economics before entering the elite "prefects' school", the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), in 1971, and entering government service upon graduation, serving successively under the prefects in the departments of Cotes-du-Nord and Isere, and Hauts-de-Seine. He then served in the Tresor (Treasury), abroad in New Caledonia when Socialist president, Francois Mitterrand was elected. In 1983, he returned to Paris under a Socialist government and served first in the Interior Ministry, and then in the Defense Ministry from 1983 to 1986. Under the conservative government, it looks like he was "exiled" and left Paris to serve as secretary general for regional affairs in the department of Midi-Pyrenees, but returned to Paris in 1988 to serve on the staff of the Socialist minister for foreign territories, Louis Le Pensec and helped edit a book entitled, "Dictionnaire de la Defense et des Forces Armees", revealing a certain knowledge of things military. For the next nine years, he served in a variety of high administrative positions related with French foreign territories. When Socialist Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, formed his government in 1997, Alain Christnacht became Jospin's adviser for "internal affairs", a policy and security position. This biography does indeed give Christnacht the currently- required "profile" of a senior civilian administrator with concrete experience outside France, "knowledge of things military" and "modern" technical competence. He would seem to be a Socialist "faithful" and that may be the only thing that would keep conservative President Jacques Chirac from approving his appointment. --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 83, 13 July 1998, p. 21 GERMANY FRANCE'S CODED INTELLIGENCE MESSAGE In our last issue, we mentioned that intelligence specialists were speculating on the reasons French journalist, Jean Guisnel, and the French weekly, "Le Point", decided, on 6 June, to publish a story on secret French-German space-based intelligence cooperation against the US since the information published was incorrect, outdated and well-known to intelligence specialists (see "Germany - Secret Reasons for French Spy Cooperation", INT n. 82 23). Since France and Germany did not sign a recent eavesdropping agreement to target communications satellites over the US, "Intelligence" speculated in print that the Guisnel article was a "coded message" sent to US or German authorities concerning some other sensitive subject. At the same time, "Intelligence" noticed that we were missing issues of "Defense News". Last year, French authorities caused problems for "Defense News" in France by holding up copies for "individual approval" by Customs which took over a week. This was apparently in retaliation against an article critical of the French military. So when we did not receive copies in May and June, we checked in Paris and discovered there was no postal problem. Then suddenly all four missing copies arrived "normally" at the same time, including one with a very good article on "Franco-German Friction Hinders Joint Projects" in the 11-17 May 1998 issue on German defense. It was also the answer to why the issues were missing and what the "coded message" to Germany was. Essentially."Defense News" was clearly saying the opposite of what Guisnel was saying: in short, French-German military cooperation was "on the rocks" and starting to fall apart. Germany, for example, instead of working with France and other European partners to produce the Future Large Aircraft (LFA), is financing a similar "cheaper" project with Russia and the Ukraine. Moreover, it is not financing its part of French spy satellite projects. So, correctly translated, the "coded message" sent to Germany is "if joint French-German military and intelligence projects start falling apart, then France will cut Germany out of intelligence cooperation, particularly concerning the US" -- in short, the opposite of the highly- publicized message that was widely distributed by Western media. But German military and intelligence official surely understood and "got the message". --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 83, 13 July 1998, p. 24 EASTERN EUROPE - Briefs, Books and Media Reports. - CZECH REPUBLIC In late May, parliament passed a law on the protection of classified information and the National Security Office's role in implementing the law to "bring Prague in line with NATO", but there is no agreement or law defining what is "strategic information" to be protected by the new law; Iraqis got caught earlier this year trying to recruit volunteers in Prague to help defend Iraq against a NATO attack. - POLAND On 18 June, the lower house of the parliament voted by 242 to 148, with 19 abstentions, to empower the Warsaw Appeals Court to investigate whether state officials collaborated with the Communist-era secret police and intelligence services. - HUNGARY Gangland bomb in Budapest worries authorities - Four people were killed and 25 others were wounded when a huge car bomb exploded in downtown Budapest on 2 July - 20 sticks of dynamite were apparently detonated by remote control; Police shake-up expected following deadly bombing - Major media sources reported on 6 July that the country's new right of center government is expected to fire several top police officials in reaction to the 2 July bombing; Cracking down on violence and organized crime is a priority for the government. - ROMANIA Securitate links continue to dominate public debate; Mircea Ghiordunescu, deputy director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), stated recently that most of the files of Securitate informers who were Communist Party (PCR) members were destroyed during the Communist era; On 25 June, the Senate approved, by a vote of 109-7, a law making possible access to the files of the former secret police, providing access "does not affect national security"; More informers come out of closet - On 29 June, the Supreme National Defense Council announced it has asked the SRI, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE), the Interior Ministry, and the Defense Ministry to report, within 10 days, whether any member of the council had links with the Communist era secret police; Prime Minister Radu Vasile, on 6 July, stated that all ministers had submitted written declarations stating that they had no links with the former Securitate. - BALKANS Albanian Interior Minister vows to sack corrupt police chiefs - Perikli Teta declared, on 24 June, in Tirana, that he has prepared a list of more than 20 high-ranking police officers whom he suspects of corruption; Albania still plagued by customs evasion; According to a World Bank report presented to a conference in Tirana, on 30 June, Albania is the most corrupt country in Europe. On 27 June, heavy fighting was reported between ethnic Albanians and Serbian police around the village of Pantina, in central Kosova. On 27 June, amid signs of a Serb buildup, fighting intensified in Kosovo, Serbian army guns bombarded rebel positions and Serb civilians were airlifted from a village under siege in central Kosovo. On 29 June, Serbian security forces mounted a major operation against ethnic Albanian insurgents in the mining town of Belacevac, about six miles west of Kosovo's capital, Pristina; Serbs launched an offensive and retook mine; On 30 June, Amnesty International told of Kosovo atrocities - Fighting between Serb forces and Kosovo Albanians has led to horrific attacks on civilians by armed forces on both sides; The 6 July edition of "US News and World Report" states that the US has sent highly- trained naval commandos to Bosnia in a $50 million covert operation to capture alleged war criminals. The report said the commandos, from the US Navy's elite SEAL counterterrorism units, have been active for at least a year trying to capture the alleged war criminals, with mixed results; Macedonia, Greece against intervention; Russian Foreign Minister, Yevgenii Primakov, stated on 21 June that Belgrade cannot withdraw its forces from Kosova unless there is a decrease in "terrorist activity"; Primakov told Russian television that his country is playing an influential role in ending the crisis in Kosova; Primakov blasted unnamed US officials "whose work directly involves Albania" for spreading "a false report" from Kosovo refugees that Serbian forces recently used a helicopter with Red Cross markings to attack refugees. Two Yugoslav conscripts from Montenegro, Fahrudin Muric and Fahrudin Avdic, told Reuters in the Albanian town of Bajram Curri, on 21 June, that they were ordered to kill civilians. Battered Kosovars sent to Serbia - Three buses containing beaten or otherwise badly injured Kosovars passed through the Sandzak town of Novi Pazar on 21 June en route to Serbia. US envoy says KLA gets funds, recruits from Europe - US special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, was quoted in the German media on 2 July as saying the separatist fighters in the war-torn Kosovo Province receive funds and recruits for their campaign from supporters in Germany, Switzerland and Denmark. Kosovo Politicians fail to agree on UCK role; London Times" stated on 6 July that the Kosovo Liberation Army has appropriated swaths of territory in neighboring northern Albania for support bases and infiltration routes. A smaller force presence in Bosnia after June will not mean a similar cut in the US military intelligence focus on the Balkans, according to US Air Force Colonel, Frances Early, at the Joint Analysis Center at RAF Molesworth, England. Nicolas Miletitch, "Trafics et Crimes dans les Balkans" (1998, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 208 pp., isbn 2 13 049437 4, 118 ff), describes, in French, the regional crime situation. - BULGARIA On 26 June, the tabloid "24 Hours" printed a full page of excerpts from the soon-to-be-published memoirs of former president and Communist strongman, Z. Zhelev, "Inside Big Politics" which includes a chapter called "The Truth About Georgi Markov -- A Test For Bulgarian Democracy"; Gazprom involved in Bulgarian CD-ROM piracy; Bulgaria and Russia to combat CD piracy. - RUSSIA An unnamed member of Russia's permanent representation for international organizations and the UN was recently ordered to leave Switzerland for alleged espionage; Russia cannot fulfill treaty on destroying chemical weapons - Russia will be unable to destroy its chemical weapons by 2008, according to Stanislav Petrov, the head of chemical and biological defense forces; Criminals controlling Russian banks - Half of Russia's banks are controlled by the country's mafia, according to a new study by the Russian Academy of Sciences which shows 3,000 active criminal gangs with tentacles reaching deep into the powerful new banking sector - Sociologist author, Yakov Gilinsky, told a conference in Budapest that the mafia also controls 20% of deputies in the Russian parliament and that corruption permeates all levels of Russian society. FSB officers win libel suit against Primore governor, Yevgenii Nazdratenko, and a public apology for blaming local FSB officers for rising crime and charging that they try to "provoke the public". Relatives of leading opposition figure and former State Duma Defense Committee Chairman, Lev Rokhlin, say Rokhlin's wife, Tamara, was pressured into confessing to murdering her husband. Cracks in the case - In addition to the bullet that killed Rokhlin, another bullet was found embedded in a wall of another room at Rokhlin's dacha - Bodyguard, who was at the dacha that night, did not hear any shots fired, but no silencer was found at the dacha. Military coroners performed autopsy on Rokhlin - Public "bewildered" that civil coroners did not perform the autopsy. Rokhlin's allies regroup - Movement to Support the Army convened an extraordinary congress in Moscow on 8 July to elect a successor to leader Lev Rokhlin, who was shot dead at his dacha on 3 July; Confusion over S-300's delivery to Cyprus which might adversely affect the tourist industry if delivered too soon. Earlier this year, FBI director, Louis J. Freeh stated that, despite the black market in Russian military hardware, Russian organized crime does not pose a threat to US national security, a statement which conflicts with his October 1997 statement that the "possibility and the threat" of nuclear weaponry from the former Soviet Union falling into the hands of criminals or terrorists was "extremely high". The wind has changed directions and Freeh also. Moscow asserts that US submarine intruded on missile destruction in the Barents Sea last December; Intelligence specialist, David Kahn, recently published a detailed review of Victor Sheymov's, "Tower of Secrets - A Real Life Spy Thriller" (1993, US Naval Institute, Annapolis, 422 pp., $25) which describes communications security specialist Sheymov's defection to the US several years ago; Noel E. Firth and James H. Noren, "Soviet Defense Spending - A History of CIA Estimates, 1950-1990" (1998, Texas A & M University, College Station, bibliography, index, 288 pp.); Vladimir Melvedev, "Dans l'Ombre de Brejnev et Gorbatchev" (1999, Plon, Paris), the story, in French, of the personal bodyguard of the last Soviet leaders. - GEORGIA The men who perpetrated the failed 9 February assassination attempt against President Eduard Shevardnadze were reportedly trained in Lebanon and Libya by representatives of certain Middle Eastern intelligence services. - CHECHNYA On 23 June, President Aslan Maskhadov declared a three-week state of emergency and a night curfew. - AZERBAIJAN On 9 June, the Azerbaijani parliament passed, in the third and final reading, a law on the presidential elections that Socialist Democratic Party leader, Zardusht Ali- zade, has described as "tailor-made for one individual". In other words, it is formulated in such a way as to virtually guarantee the reelection for a second term of the authoritarian incumbent, former KGB boss and Azerbaijan Communist Party first secretary, Heidar Aliev. - UZBEKISTAN The West's secret weapon to win the opium war - Britain and America are funding a former Soviet germ warfare center to decimate opium poppy crops. Uzbekistan Institute of Genetics is three large blocks containing 19 laboratories built in the 1950s, a row of greenhouses and an experimental farm. - EASTERN EUROPE "Philadelphia Inquirer" stated on 7 July that the Pentagon and the FBI have been quietly training officials from four former Soviet republics to stem smuggling of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. The US$2 million program is conducted at the International Law Enforcement Academy in Budapest. With NATO expansion to the East and involvement in Kosovo, specialists were expecting something like the Russian missile crisis in Cyprus and increasing tension between NATO "allies", Greece and Turkey, to "even things up" a little. Nonetheless, the recent "Zenith '98" Partnership for Peace (PfP) exercise in Arizona included representatives from 13 former Eastern European Communist countries. ---------------------------------------------