SUMMARY VERSION INTELLIGENCE ISSN 1245-2122 N. 88 New Series, 16 November 1998 Every Two to Three Weeks Next Issue on 30 November1998 Publishing since 1980 Editor Olivier Schmidt (email intelligence-adi@wanadoo.fr; web http://www.blythe.org/Intelligence; tel/fax 33 1 40 51 85 19) TABLE OF CONTENTS, N. 88, 16 November 1998 FRONT PAGE USA/NICARAGUA - CIA'S "DAMAGE LIMITATION" VERSION OF HISTORY p.1 TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES KIDNAPPING AND ANTI-KIDNAPPING p.2 CYBERCRIME WATCH GOES INTERNATIONAL p.3 PEOPLE USA - JAMES CHARLES "ATOMIC DOG" KOPP p.4 GREAT BRITAIN - IVOR ROBERTS p.5 FRANCE - PIERRE-HENRI BUNEL p.6 AGENDA COMING EVENTS THROUGH 1 JANUARY 1999 p.7 INTELLIGENCE AROUND THE WORLD USA - CIA'S MIDDLE EAST ROLE & DST REORGANIZATION p.8 NSA CHANGES BOSSES AS ECHELON GOES TO CONGRESS p.9 FBI Wiretaps, Gun Data Base & Comsec Business. p.10 Open Source Intelligence. p.11 GREAT BRITAIN - CLEAN UP SPIES & THE CYBER ZONE p.12 FRANCE - "BOXING-IN" ISRAEL & "BOXING-OUT" THE US p.13 GERMANY - SPD SPLITS INTELLIGENCE RIGHT & LEFT p.14 WESTERN EUROPE - Open Source Intelligence. p.15 RUSSIA - WORKING WITH THE FBI TO KEEP AFLOAT p.16 EASTERN EUROPE - Open Source Intelligence. p.17 COLOMBIA - TROUBLING BP OPERATIONS IN THE NAME OF OIL p.18 LATIN AMERICA - Open Source Intelligence. p.19 AFRICA - Open Source Intelligence. p.20 ISRAEL/PALESTINE - SPIES IN THE OINTMENT p.21 MIDDLE EAST - Open Source Intelligence. p.22 ASIA - Open Source Intelligence. p.23 --------------------------------------------- FRONT PAGE Intelligence, N. 88, 16 November 1998, p. 1 USA/NICARAGUA CIA'S "DAMAGE LIMITATION" VERSION OF HISTORY In a recently declassified 410-page internal report, former CIA Inspector General, Frederick Hitz, has confirmed that the CIA tolerated drug trafficking among leaders of the Nicaraguan Contra movement during the 1980s, that agency senior executives failed to inform Congressional representatives when questioned about reports that the Contras were trafficking in cocaine to finance their "low intensity" campaign to overthrow the Sandinista government, and that authorization for certain drug smuggling operations came directly from Ronald Reagan's National Security Council, approved by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, whose private liaison to the Contras was State Department official, Robert Owen, in charge of the Nicaraguan Humanitarian Aid Office (NHAO). The report identifies 58 drug- implicated individuals belonging to various Contra groups who worked with CIA operatives. In 11 cases, the report concluded that "no information had been found to indicate that any US law enforcement agency or executive branch agency was informed by the CIA of drug trafficking allegations," while, in six cases, "CIA knowledge of accusations or information indicating that organizations or individuals had been involved in drug trafficking did not deter their use or employment by [the] CIA". The report admits that the CIA had information linking 14 pilots and two other people to cocaine transport and trafficking, including pilot George Morales (end of exrait) --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 88, 16 November 1998, p. 6 FRANCE - PIERRE-HENRI BUNEL The inconsistencies that have characterized the secret interrogation and arrest for treason of French army officer, Major Pierre-Henri Bunel, 46, are a clear warning that more is involved in this NATO spy case than anyone wants to say. A good example is the presentation of the case by "Le Monde" which first described Bunel as a French-English-Arab interpreter during the 1991 Gulf War and Middle East specialist "while not being considered an intelligence professional" (4 November). In fact, Bunel is an intelligence officer who received a medal for an undisclosed successful spy operation. On 5 November, "Le Monde" announced that US intelligence services -- and not French intelligence as Paris would have it -- first warned French officials of Bunel's work for Serbian KOS intelligence officer, Lieut. Col. Jovan Milanovic. The next day, quoting French Defense Minister, Alain Richard, "Le Monde" stated the Mr. Richard's intelligence advisor, Gen. Philippe Rondot -- known to be a pro-NATO and non-Gaullist Middle East specialist -- first warned about Bunel, adding, on 10 November, that it was Gen. Rondot's "personal contacts" outside French services that gave the information to the general, a roundabout way of saying that no one wants to reveal how the affair surfaced. Another inconsistency in the Bunel case is the absolute silence of NATO nations, and particularly the US, concerning possible "lax French security". Usually there is a barrage of such articles when this type of case surfaces. For some reason, this time there has almost been "sympathy" -- "it can happen to all of us" -- for the French military and France. According to a rumor in French intelligence circles, this relative condolence is due to the fact that the Bunel affair could be more embarrassing to other allied intelligence services than to French services if it is laid out for public examination. The more "offensive" rumors hint that Brunel fell for a "false flag" recruitment or "sting" operation that may involve the US. If this were true, it would go a long way to explain the US press' "kid gloves" treatment of the affair. The other major inconsistency is the initial and deep involvement in the affair of Direction de la Protection et de la Securite de la Defense (DPSD), formerly Securite Militaire. Bunel was caught "red-handed" with a "smoking gun" with a clear case of treason to which he openly admitted. Such cases are the brief of French civilian DST internal security, which now has the case in hand. But it was the DPSD which first confronted Bunel, shipped him off from his NATO job in Brussels to Mont Valerien in France to secretly interrogate him for several days before turning him over to the DST. This was not necessary since Bunel was cooperating with the investigation ... unless he and the DPSD were on to something even more delicate than "normal" treason. This reinforces the above rumor of an allied "sting" operation "gone wrong" and Bunel supposedly did reply "Yes" when the DPSD asked him if he felt he had been manipulated by another intelligence service other than the Serbian KOS. In such delicate cases, one cannot apply the old adage, "Time will tell". Indeed, in France and abroad many are hoping that time will bury the Bunel affair. --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 88, 16 November 1998, p. 9 USA NSA CHANGES BOSSES AS ECHELON GOES TO CONGRESS According to Bill Gertz in the "Washington Times", NSA Director, Lieut. Gen. Ken Minihan (USAF), will retire in March, and the DIA Director, Lieut. Gen. Patrick Hughes (USA), will probably retire in February. Also, Major Gen. John Casciano, USAF deputy for intelligence, will either retire or move up. The DDCI position is occupied by Lieut. Gen. Gordon (USAF) who has been in place only a year. Leading contender for NSA Director, according to the report, is Lieut. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, Army DCSINT, who is being backed by the White House and Hillary Rodham Clinton. If Kennedy becomes NSA chief, the Director and the Deputy Director -- Barbara McNamara -- will be women. Other NSA contenders are Rear Admiral Tom Lowell Jacoby, DNI, and Rear Admiral Tom Wilson, JCS(DIA)/J2. Gertz says Minihan requested a one-year extension at NSA but was turned down, and that DIA Director Hughes was not informed about planning for recent cruise missile strikes in Sudan and Afghanistan, a claim that has been denied elsewhere in the press. A Washington civil liberties organization, the Free Congress Foundation (FCF), has sent a detailed report on NSA's Echelon global electronic eavesdropping system to Congress in the hope that it will scrutinize Echelon as the European Parliament recently did, although the European venture looked like a flop. (3 reports) The report, "Echelon - America's Spy in the Sky", details the known history and workings of the agency's global electronic surveillance system. Patrick S. Poole, author of the report, is deputy director of the FCF. Echelon is controlled by NSA and is operated in conjunction with the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the Canadian Communications Security Establishment (CSE), the Australian Defense Security Directorate (DSD), and the New Zealand General Communications Security Bureau (GCSB). These organizations are bound together under the secret 1948 UKUSA agreement. The report described eavesdropping systems at Menwith Hill in England, including Steeplebush, Runway, Rutley, Pusher, Moonpenny, Knobsticks, GT-6, Troutman, Ultrapure, Totaliser, Silverweed, and Ruckus. The report also goes over known eavesdropping campaigns in the US in detail, including Shamrock and Chaos. --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 88, 16 November 1998, p. 13 FRANCE "BOXING-IN" ISRAEL & "BOXING-OUT" THE US The confrontation between France and the US concerning Iraq's possible "weaponization" of deadly VX nerve gas (see "France - CIA-New York Times' Iraqi VX Gas 'Blown Away'", INT, n. 87 16) has dropped into the background as all Western allies have come to agree that Iraq has been cheating and lying about its disarmament effort. But a bigger France-US confrontation, in such far off spots as Japan, South Africa and Israel, is now "front and center". In our last issue's Front Page article, "USA/Israel - Mossad & Shin Bet 'Boxed-In' by 'Allies'" (INT, n. 87 1), we underscored the secret CIA-Palestinian security agreement that almost ruined the Wye Plantation negotiations and only briefly mentioned the secret security agreement between France and Egypt, Israel's only possible serious military adversary. That France and the US do not "see eye to eye" on Israel is a foregone conclusion following French President Jacques Chirac's courageous public outburst in Jerusalem that Israeli Shin Bet internal security was hindering his movements and contact with Palestinians during his last official visit. Now, the France-US confrontation and the "boxing-in" of Israel has new meaning following the publication of information concerning recent French military sales in the region. Indeed, France's leading military electronics firm, Thomson- CSF, has won a "pair of radio contracts", boxing-in US allies Israel and Turkey to the north and south. For several hundred million francs, Thomson will supply 3,000 encrypted radio sets to the Egyptian army to replace its current tactical communications systems. This is the initial step in replacing 15,000 Egyptian army radio sets and would draw the Egyptian armed forces away from reliance on old Russian (Soviet) material and more recent US material, both of which Israel intelligence has likely managed to penetrate. To the north, and facing US-Israeli ally, Turkey, Thomson has been chosen by the Greek Defense Ministry to help coproduce an encrypted tactical radio communications system based on the same PR4G Thomson system as in Egypt. The Greek army will purchase more than 4,000 units. With or without French counseling, Greece and Egypt are "playing it smart" by proposing to buy expensive, new US military equipment, but precisely those systems which "bother" Turkey and Israel the most. Greece wants to buy four Kitt- class US destroyers, but equipped with the new SM-2 Standard anti-air missile and not the older SM-1 which might have some difficulty against Turkish counter-measures. SM-2s on a Greek ship off Cyprus (or off the coast of Lebanon, for that matter) would be just as effective as Russian anti-air missiles on Cyprus and would cause much less diplomatic hassle. As for Egypt, it wants nothing less than 400 US Patriot anti-missile missiles in a region where the only real "threat" is ... Israeli missiles. The France-US confrontation in the Middle East could be considered almost "normal", but in South Africa and Japan things get more complicated. An apartheid-era US arms boycott against South Africa was extended several years against democratic South Africa, impeding the final assembly and sale of competitive Rooivalk attack helicopters in Western Europe (and elsewhere). The Western Europe contracts went ... to the US. Little wonder than that the Rooivalk will now come out with a version equipped with French Mistral air-to-air missiles produced by Matra. Earlier this month, in Japan, the government approved plans to build and launch four intelligence satellites. The government plan reportedly follows that drawn up by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), except that it would rely entirely on Japanese firms rather than importing US technology, according to the media. The first two satellites would be optical with one meter resolution and the other two would provide synthetic aperture radar all-weather imagery. Since US intelligence knew beforehand about the recent North Korean missile test -- which crossed Japanese airspace -- and did not warn Japan, and since the US has forbidden two-meter or better resolution imagery of Israel, Japan apparently will not be relying on the US for its spy satellites. France is the only other viable choice around. Moreover, France and Japan have already developed security and intelligence cooperation with Paris "coaching" Tokyo in setting up its new special antiterrorist unit, the Special Assault Team (SAT; see "France - Japan Moving Out of U.S. 'Backyard'", INT, n.65 34). The Japanese satellite competition is reportedly between Aerospatiale and Lockheed Martin, "with a wild card in the deck". If either Aerospatiale or Lockheed Martin build a spy satellite for China, Japan will not hire them for the same job. This means the Japanese spy sats are not squarely in the lap of either France or the US, which makes for a more "interesting" France-US confrontation in that corner of the world. --------------------------------------------- INTELLIGENCE SUBSCRIPTION FORM Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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