Free Republic

A highly classified intelligence report produced for the new director of national intelligence concludes that U.S. spy agencies failed to recognize several key military developments in China in the past decade, The Washington Times has learned. The report was created by several current and former intelligence officials and concludes that U.S. agencies missed more than a dozen Chinese military developments, according to officials familiar with the report. The report blames excessive secrecy on China's part for the failures, but critics say intelligence specialists are to blame for playing down or dismissing evidence of growing Chinese military capabilities. The report comes...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES Foreign spies from nearly 100 nations sought sensitive U.S. technology last year, and technology losses undermined U.S. military advantages, according to an annual U.S. counterintelligence report. "The U.S. counterintelligence community judges that the technology lost as a result of these efforts has imposed a significant, but difficult to quantify, cost on the United States," stated the report on economic spying, the theft of trade secrets. "Foreign access to sensitive dual-use and military technology has eroded the U.S. military advantage, degraded the U.S. intelligence community's ability to provide information to policymakers and undercut U.S. industry." The report, submitted...

While European negotiators focus on Iran's development of enriched plutonium, U.S. intelligence officials say Tehran already has completed all of the elements required for an atomic bomb. The news has stunned President Bush, according to Geostrategy Direct, an intelligence news service led by national security reporter Bill Gertz of the Washington Times. "It's an incredible piece of intelligence that overshadows everything we thought we knew on Iran's nuclear program," one U.S. intelligence source said.

US Intelligence officals are worried by growing ties between the leftist government of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Iran's Islamist regieme.Iran Foreign Minister Kamal Kharzi met recenly with Venezulean Foreign Minister Jesus Arnaldo Perez and 'discussed US threats,' officials said. The two ministers also declared their common interests in the Americans and the Middle East. Perez called Iran 'a strategic ally' and thanked Tehran for supporting the Chavez government.He also said 'Iran's resistance against foreign powers' is an example to Venezuela.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES The career diplomat nominated to the new post of director of national intelligence told the Senate yesterday he would make reforming spy agencies a major priority. John D. Negroponte, an ambassador with more than 40 years of diplomatic experience, was questioned for about three hours by members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on past intelligence failures, including the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and poor estimates of Iraq's programs to develop weapons of mass destruction. "In the past four years, our homeland has been attacked, and we have miscalculated the arsenal, if not the intent,...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES The Pentagon announced yesterday the completion of a new high-powered radar that is a key element of the U.S. ground-based missile defense system. Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said the joining of the 2,000-ton Sea Based X-Band radar and its oceangoing platform -- ultimately destined for the island of Adak off the coast of Alaska -- on Sunday is a "major milestone" in the evolving U.S. missile defense system. "It gives us the capability of dramatically expanding our testing ... and by porting it in Adak it also gives us...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES Nearly 80 Americans have been caught spying since 1985, and the Bush administration has launched a more aggressive anti-spying effort to better combat foreign intelligence activities, according to a new strategy report made public yesterday. The National Counterintelligence Strategy was approved March 1 by President Bush, marking the first time that the U.S. government has sought to formulate a comprehensive counterspy program, said Michelle Van Cleave, head of the office of the national counterintelligence executive, a White House-level intelligence post. The strategy calls for "specific counterintelligence policies for attacking foreign intelligence services systematically via strategic counterintelligence operations,"...

CIA Director Porter J. Goss told Congress yesterday that the governments of Syria and Iran are helping insurgents in Iraq, despite U.S. efforts to end the cooperation. On Iran, Mr. Goss said intelligence analysts understand that Tehran "has been meddling in the affairs of Iraq, in the interests of Iran." "I would also say that how that is going to work out in the future is a matter of some concern," he said. Mr. Goss said Iran remains one of the few "obvious sponsors of state terrorism" and that Tehran is funding the Hezbollah terrorist group. Iran also has...

*SNIP* ......Raid on a vehicle traveling in western Baghdad .....After the raid, officials reviewed the overhead video provided by a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle used in the operation. After closely studying the video, a man was seen leaping out of the back of a van and rolling to the side of the road shortly before the vehicle was stopped. Officials think the man was Zarqawi..... *SNIP*

InfiltratedWe asked a Marine officer recently back from the Triangle of Death in Iraq to describe the abilities of Iraqi forces and whether Sunnis are joining in any significant numbers. The officer answered, "I honestly don't know, but I do know that all of the units in my area of the Triangle of Death are infiltrated and are constantly being purged only to be reinfiltrated." continued

US military commanders are warning Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that tensions between Iran and the United Nations are headed towards the breaking point and the could be a clash between the two militaries. The commanders said US and Iranian troops are moving closer to each other on the Iran-Iraq border and that US aircraft have been moving in and out of Iran while Tehran seeks to bolster its air defense forces.Some commanders are urging the Pentagon to prepare for the prospect of a brief but intense war with Iran. _Full Text, subscribers

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is fond of telling reporters that "weakness is provocative" in explaining the administration's Ronald Reagan-esque policy of peace through strength. A new book shows where the defense secretary may have borrowed the phrase. "Fritz Kraemer on Excellence," by Hubertus Hoffmann, is a celebration of work of the World War II combat veteran and noted defense strategist who died in 2003 at age 95. The book ...quotes Mr. Kraemer as warning American leaders against the "provocative weakness" embodied in the Munich deal between British leader Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler that "was the first step on...

The new mission for counterintelligence is to identify foreign spies and terrorist threats, and then develop "a counterintelligence doctrine of attacking foreign intelligence services systematically via strategic counterintelligence operations," Miss Van Cleave said. The offensive counterintelligence strategy is part of the Bush administration's policy of pre-empting strategic threats. It is also part of President Bush's announced plan to promote democracy and freedom and undermine global tyranny, she said.

The United States wants to develop the capability to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities with air strikes.Officials said that the need for US capabilty to destroy underground nuclear facilites has spurred the renewal of the effort to create the so-called 'super bunker busters.'Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, issued the request for the weapon, termed the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, in a letter sent to then Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in January._Full Text, subscribers

The Iraqi government has compiled a detailed list of the 29 most-wanted insurgents and terrorists, offering rewards of $50,000 to $25 million for their capture. The wanted men are in Iraq and neighboring states and are being sought for "funding and coordinating terrorist operations inside Iraq in an attempt to disrupt the country's march toward democracy and autonomous government," according to a U.S. Central Command statement accompanying the list. We obtained a copy of the list that is the first public disclosure by the Iraqi or U.S. governments identifying the terrorists and former regime officials behind the insurgency. Topping the...

Some in the Bush administration were aghast this week to see hard-nosed Colombian President Alvaro Uribe travel to Caracas and be photographed shaking hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In fact, one senior official called it "Uribe's surrender." The two publicly settled a dispute over Colombia's snatching of a communist rebel, Rodrigo Granda, in December in Caracas. Mr. Chavez accused Colombia of violating Venezuelan sovereignty. Colombia wondered why Granda was free in Caracas and carrying a Venezuelan passport. Mr. Chavez, a left-wing ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro who talks of bringing a socialist revolution to Latin America, is viewed by...

Goss fears WMD attack in U.S. 'a matter of time' By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES Senior U.S. intelligence leaders told Congress yesterday that "it may only be a matter of time" before terrorists try to use weapons of mass destruction against the United States. In his first public appearance since becoming CIA director in September, Porter J. Goss used the annual worldwide threat hearing to issue the prediction, while another federal official said the FBI knows little about al Qaeda sleeper cells such as the September 11 terrorists. "It may be only a matter of time before al Qaeda...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has agreed to visit China this year and the Pentagon is discussing the creation of a telephone hot line to the Chinese military, Pentagon officials said yesterday. "We've agreed in principle and [Mr. Rumsfeld is] interested in going," a senior defense official said, noting that no date has been set. Mr. Rumsfeld has not visited the communist state since becoming defense secretary in 2001, despite repeated invitations from Chinese officials.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES The Pentagon is seeking $419.3 billion for fiscal 2006, a 4.8 percent increase, and wants to renew work on a rock-penetrating nuclear bomb that could be used against underground bunkers in places such as Iran and North Korea. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld recently asked the Energy Department to spend $18 million over the next two years to finish a study on the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, or RNEP, which congressional opponents of nuclear weapons sought to kill this year by cutting all funding. Click to learn more... "The reason the money was put in the budget...

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that Sunday's historic elections in Iraq have ignited a "tipping of support for the government" by Iraqis now more willing to help security forces defeat insurgents. [**snip, snip**] Mr. Rumsfeld and his top aide, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, also rebutted charges from two prominent Iraq policy critics -- Democratic Sens. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware. [**skipping Rumsfeld on "tipping," Wolfowitz on insurgency**] [...] Mr. Biden also said several times [at Condi's hearings] that there are only 4,000 trained Iraqi security forces. But Mr. Rumsfeld yesterday...

China builds up strategic sea lanes By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES China is building up military forces and setting up bases along sea lanes from the Middle East to project its power overseas and protect its oil shipments, according to a previously undisclosed internal report prepared for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "China is building strategic relationships along the sea lanes from the Middle East to the South China Sea in ways that suggest defensive and offensive positioning to protect China's energy interests, but also to serve broad security objectives," said the report sponsored by the director, Net Assessment,...

U.S. security officials are investigating a recent intelligence report that a group of 25 Chechen terrorists illegally entered the United States from Mexico in July. The Chechen group is suspected of having links to Islamist terrorists seeking to separate the southern enclave of Chechnya from Russia, according to officials familiar with intelligence reports. Members of the group, said to be wearing backpacks, secretly traveled to northern Mexico and crossed into a mountainous part of Arizona that is difficult for U.S. border security agents to monitor, said officials speaking on the condition of anonymity.

A presidential commission examining U.S. intelligence failures related to weapons of mass destruction has fired an FBI agent for improperly supplying a classified CIA report to FBI headquarters, The Washington Times has learned.     The incident was viewed by officials close to the commission as an attempt by the FBI to influence the work of the panel, formed in the aftermath of the Iraq war to look at intelligence related to Iraq and other states involved in illicit weapons acquisition. [snip]     The female FBI agent, who was assigned to work for the commission, improperly removed a highly classified CIA report...

January 7, 2005Notes from the PentagonCIA in IraqThe CIA has been given a leading role in developing the Iraqi intelligence service in Baghdad. U.S. officials say the new spy agency reflects the same institutional weaknesses as the CIA, including poor operational security, bad counterintelligence and an emphasis on process over results. U.S. officials say the biggest problem is that at least 5 percent of the new intelligence agency members were recruited from the former Mukhabarat, Saddam Hussein's repressive security and intelligence service that had about 15,000 members. The service began last summer and has about 1,000 members. The director is...

A Pentagon official who publicly disclosed information showing Russian involvement in moving Iraqi weapons out of that country has been dismissed. John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security and formerly an aide to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, was forced to leave his position Dec. 10 as the result of a "reorganization" that eliminated his job, defense officials said. Mr. Shaw said he had been asked to resign for "exceeding his authority" in disclosing the information, a charge he called "specious." In October, Mr. Shaw told The Washington Times that he had received foreign intelligence...

A Pentagon official who publicly disclosed information showing Russian involvement in moving Iraqi weapons out of that country has been dismissed. John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security and formerly an aide to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, was forced to leave his position Dec. 10 as the result of a "reorganization" that eliminated his job, defense officials said. In October, Mr. Shaw told The Washington Times that he had received foreign intelligence data showing that Russian special forces units were involved in an effort to remove Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in the...

China's military has launched the first of a new class of ballistic missile submarines in what defense officials view as a major step forward in Beijing's strategic weapons program.     The new 094-class submarine was launched in late July and when fully operational in the next year or two will be the first submarine to carry the underwater-launched version of China's new DF-31 missile, according to defense officials.     "When fully operational, it will represent a more modern, more capable missile platform," said one official familiar with reports of the new submarine. A second intelligence official said building submarines is a...

Recent intelligence shows Iran has been working to produce a missile re-entry vehicle containing a small nuclear warhead for its Shahab missiles and has encountered problems developing a reliable centrifuge system for uranium enrichment, U.S. officials said. The officials, who discussed the intelligence on the condition of anonymity, said Iran's new nuclear warhead program includes what specialists call the basic "physics package" for fitting a nuclear bomb inside the nose cone of a missile.

CIA Director Porter J. Goss is moving ahead with a shake-up at the agency, aimed at changing an outdated and risk-averse spying bureaucracy, according to U.S. intelligence officials. "In the days and weeks ahead of us," Mr. Goss said in an internal message to CIA employees, "I will announce a series of changes — some involving procedures, organization, senior personnel, and areas of focus for our action." The memo on Monday stated that Mr. Goss was asked by President Bush to address the problems with U.S. intelligence that were revealed by the September 11 attacks and the failures related to...

The Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein skimmed $21.3 billion from the United Nations oil-for-food program, nearly twice the amount of previous U.S. estimates, according to a Senate investigation. "The magnitude of fraud perpetrated by Saddam Hussein in contravention of U.N. sanctions and the oil-for-food program is staggering," said Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota Republican and chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs permanent subcommittee on investigations. Mr. Coleman disclosed the new figure of $21.3 billion over 11 years obtained from the U.N. humanitarian program at a subcommittee hearing yesterday. He said the conclusion was based on documents and on interviews conducted by...

Two Russian generals were photographed receiving awards from Saddam Hussein's government for helping Iraqi military forces less than 10 days before the U.S.-led invasion. The two retired officers were identified by the newspaper Gazeta.ru as Col. Gen. Vladimir Achalov and Col. Gen. Igor Maltsev, both former high-ranking officers involved in Soviet rapid-reaction and air defense forces. Both generals were photographed receiving awards from Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed in early March 2003, only days before the war began on March 20, 2003. The photographs were taken in a building that was bombed by U.S. cruise missiles during the first...

U.S. intelligence agencies have obtained satellite photographs of truck convoys that were at several weapons sites in Iraq in the weeks before U.S. military operations were launched, defense officials said yesterday. The photographs indicate that Iraq was moving arms and equipment from its known weapons sites, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. According to one official, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, known as NGA, "documented the movement of long convoys of trucks from various areas around Baghdad to the Syrian border."

A second defense official said documents on the Russian support to Iraq reveal that Saddam's government paid the Kremlin for the special forces to provide security for Iraq's Russian arms and to conduct counterintelligence activities designed to prevent U.S. and Western intelligence services from learning about the arms pipeline through Syria. The Russian arms-removal program was initiated after Yevgeny Primakov, the former Russian intelligence chief, could not persuade Saddam to give in to U.S. and Western demands, this official said. . . . . the most important and useful arms and explosives appear to have been separated and moved out...

On Great (Fox News), Bill Gertz said he is coming out with an article that U.S. intelligence stands behind assessment that the Russian GRU moved weapons out of Iraq in the time leading up to the war. He also said it would take weeks for the story to develop.

Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned. John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, "almost certainly" removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad. "The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units," Mr. Shaw said. "Their main job was to...

China illegally supplied Saddam Hussein's regime with missile technology and other weaponry and was a major beneficiary of the U.N. oil-for-food program, according to a CIA report. The report by the Iraq Survey Group also stated that China, along with France and Russia, was bribed by Saddam with oil sales and weapons deals into working to end U.N. sanctions. One sale took place in 2001 and involved an intelligence officer in Beijing, Abd al-Wahab, who bought 10 to 20 gyroscopes and 20 accelerometers from a Chinese firm that was not identified by name. The equipment was to be used in...

Al Qaida-linked terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi is preparing to carry out a major terrorist attack in Europe or the United States, according to Iraqi intelligence sources. A report prepared by Iraqi intelligence agencies has uncovered new information about Zarqawi's Tawhid wa Jihad terrorist group, including the composition of his movement and his strategy and objectives. Abu Musab al Zarqawi -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Iraqi report reveals that Zarqawi and his group continue to have close ties to Al Qaida, contrary to some European intelligence reports indicating Zarqawi is a competitor of Osama Bin Laden. The report stated that Zarqawi is working...

Iran Adopts New 'Asymmetric Warfare' Doctrine to Deter United States, IsraelIran has introduced what officials have termed a new combat doctrine meant to repel any attack by Israel and the United States.Officials have termed the doctrine 'asymmetric warfare' and said it was aimed at countering a threat from a much larger and powerful adversary.They said that the combat doctrine seeks to identify and exploit Iranian military advantages in any way with a foriegn power. _Full Text, subscribers

The governments of France, Russia, China and Syria blocked U.S. efforts within the United Nations to stop Saddam Hussein from misusing the oil-for-food program, a State Department official told Congress yesterday.     Patrick F. Kennedy, a State official who is a representative to the United Nations for management and reform, told a House hearing that other U.N. member states "resisted" U.S. efforts to end bribery and contracting corruption under the program aimed at providing humanitarian relief from anti-Saddam sanctions.

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Saddam misused oil-food programBy Bill GertzTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished October 5, 2004 Congressional investigators have uncovered new information showing how Saddam Hussein's government systematically purchased military-related goods for the seven years of the U.N. oil-for-food program.     According to officials involved in ongoing probes, motorcycles bought by Saddam under the United Nations' food program were used by the Fedayeen to attack U.S. forces in Iraq.     "Trucks, pickups, motorcycles and other equipment purchased by Iraqi ministries were pooled and then sent to the Defense Ministry," one official said. "They ordered motorcycles that were used by Fedayeen against us."     The black-hooded...

Texas Guard beat President Bush's tenure as a Texas Air National Guard pilot has become a cottage industry in Texas. A group of former guardsmen, led by Bill Burkett, offers up all sorts of sordid Bush stories to any reporter willing to fly into Texas and root around for a while. Former Bush colleagues in the guard have been interviewed scores of times. They tell some interesting stories about their press contacts. One retired officer quotes a reporter for a major East Coast daily as telling him she wants off the Bush guard beat, but her editors tell her to...

The U.S. subsidiary of a Japanese company will plead guilty to illegally shipping high-technology pumps with military applications to Iran through two French companies, The Washington Times has learned. Ebara International Corp., based in Sparks, Nev., has agreed to a plea bargain related to seven criminal violations from the sale of cryogenic transfer pumps to Iran, according to Bush administration law-enforcement officials.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded recently that al Qaeda — fearing its credibility is on the line — is moving ahead with plans for a major, "spectacular" attack, despite disruptions of some operations by recent arrests in Britain and Pakistan.     Officials said recent intelligence assessments of the group, which is blamed for the September 11 attacks, state that an attack is coming and that the danger will remain high until the Nov. 2 elections and last until Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.  "They [al Qaeda] think their credibility is on the line because there hasn't been a major attack since 9/11,"...

GERTZ: Al Qaeda seen planning for 'spectacular' attack; Intelligence agencies think danger is high to Inauguration Day... Developing...

How the CIA Funds Anti-Bush Propaganda By Bill Gertz The Washington Times | September 14, 2004 The CIA's Counterterrorist Center has spent more than $15 million in the past three years funding studies, reports and conferences produced by former Democratic administration officials and other critics of the Bush administration. The latest effort was a $300,000 grant by the CIA to the Atlantic Council for a study co-authored by Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism official who wrote a best seller accusing the Bush administration of failing in the war on terrorism by invading Iraq.

French connection armed Saddam By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES The United States stood by for years as supposed allies helped its enemies obtain the world's most dangerous weapons, reveals Bill Gertz, defense and national security reporter for The Washington Times, in the new book "Treachery" (Crown Forum). In this excerpt, he details France's persistence in arming Saddam Hussein. First of three excerpts New intelligence revealing how long France continued to supply and arm Saddam Hussein's regime infuriated U.S. officials as the nation prepared for military action against Iraq. The intelligence reports showing French assistance to Saddam ongoing in the...

WASHINGTON — France, Russia and China supplied Saddam Hussein with missiles, arms, defense technology and spare parts before — and after — the start of the Iraq war, an explosive new book claims. In the book, Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz cites a slew of illegal covert arms deals between Saddam and several countries that opposed the U.S. invasion in the months before and after the start of war in March 2003. The book, "Treachery: How America's Friends and Foes Are Secretly Arming Our Enemies," cites secret Pentagon and CIA reports and interviews with top U.S. defense and intelligence officials....

Linda Vester interviewed Bill Gertz on his new book 'Treachery.' Some of the findings: French government looked other way while arms dealers provided weapons to terrorists BEFORE and AFTER the Iraq war started. French passports were provided to certain Iraqis to help them out of the country. Russia provided terrorists expertise to jam our GPS bombs. Pres. Bush called Putkin to tell him to knock it off or Russians in Iraq would be potential targets.

Gertz will be discussing his new book Treachery after the Cubs game ends.

WASHINGTON — France, Russia and China supplied Saddam Hussein with missiles, arms, defense technology and spare parts before — and after — the start of the Iraq war, an explosive new book claims. In the book, Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz cites a slew of illegal covert arms deals between Saddam and several countries that opposed the U.S. invasion in the months before and after the start of war in March 2003. [snip] * U.S. forces discovered that a missile that shot down a U.S. A-10 Warthog fighter-bomber during the latest war was a French-made Roland that was shipped to...