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Polish cipher officer worked for Chinese intelligence? 22.12.2009 12:39 Stefan Zielonka, a cipher officer who mysteriously disappeared in April 2009, might have betrayed Poland and worked for the Chinese secret service. For many years Zielonka coded messages of Polish military intelligence. He had a unique knowledge of code names of Polish officers working abroad and access to secret sources of information. Zielonka also knew NATO’s codes. So far military intelligence linked his disappearance to suicide or accidental death, but the most probable scenario seems to be high treason. Zielonka is suspected of a long-term cooperation with the Chinese secret service....

In Afghanistan, the Taliban are finding that their Medieval warrior mentality and physical hardiness are no match for smart bombs and even smarter intelligence work. The Taliban fighters are often described as clever and adaptive. They are. But the Taliban fighters, including many of the leaders, are illiterate and uncomfortable with new technology. They constantly get nailed using cell phones and walkie talkies (like the Motorola models available worldwide), even though it's common knowledge that the U.S. frequently eavesdrops. The Afghans believe the Americans are using some kind of pagan "magic", and if an Islamic warrior is pure-of-heart, the magic...

The giant gold and silver satellite glittered against the black sky as space shuttle Atlantis closed in on it from below. Commander Hoot Gibson and pilot Guy Gardner flew the approach, while mission specialist Mike Mullane, at the other end of the flight deck, readied the shuttle’s robot arm for a capture. Downstairs in the airlock, mission specialists Jerry Ross and Bill Shepherd waited in their spacesuits for Gibson’s order to go outside and attempt a rescue. The mission of STS-27 had been to deploy the first in a series of new spy satellites that used radar to observe ground...

"So, if the mohajroon.com forum was shut down..." SNIPPET: "...back in 2007, when the UAE told the forum administrator it was either that or he was going to jail... ...how is it that the same forum administrator was able to turn right around and start the al-Shmokh forum? A forum which - ironically, or not so ironically - has recently become involved in accusing other forums of being fronts for intelligence agencies."

Last week, President Obama laid out his plan for prosecuting the 8-year-old war in Afghanistan. Thirty-thousand additional US troops will be headed to Afghanistan over the next several months, part of an intensified effort to regain territory from the Taliban and give the fledgling Afghan security forces a chance to take control of that nation. Regardless of what you think of the decision and the President’s announcement of it, here are some indisputable facts: Al Qaeda, the organization that actually attacked us on 9/11, retains almost no presence in Afghanistan. Its central leadership now operates primarily from an area across...

Klaus von Clausewitz, the famed Prussian military historian and theorist, defined war as being “an extension of politics, using violence to constrain the enemy to accomplish our will.” While that may have been a perfectly sound concept in Clausewitz’s time, the early 19th century, the destructive power of modern weaponry tells us that things are no longer that simple or clear cut. Something new has been added. Never in his wildest dreams could Clausewitz ever have imagined global real-time television and the influence that it has in world affairs. In an era when our most deadly enemies are no longer...

A number of Arabic and Pashtu interpreters at the terror-war detention center at Guantanamo Bay are under active investigation for omitting valuable intelligence from their translations of detainee interrogations, among other security breaches. This could taint some of the evidence at the "9/11 trial" in New York and proceedings against other detainees. Remarkably, the Pentagon never cleaned up the "mole infestation" at its highest-security facility after the FBI busted a Muslim spy ring at Gitmo in 2003. The 2003 probe involved at least two Arabic interpreters with high-level security clearance. Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi, a Syrian native, and former Army...

The peaks of the Hindu Kush mountains create a stunning backdrop for the U.S. military's Kabul headquarters, but Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn rarely notices. Sheltering Taliban fighters and American combat outposts, the mountains symbolize the old way of fighting. Flynn was sent here to help define a new strategy for the war. In a heavily fortified teleconference center at the military complex, Flynn sat before a microphone pressing his case for more Predator drones, intelligence analysts and satellites to peer beyond those craggy peaks. An ocean away in the United States, a senior officer seemed to be dragging his heels,...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair should sign by Dec. 1 a document laying out new responsibilities for the National Reconnaissance Office, builder and operator of America’s spy satellites. This will set in motion the first substantial changes to the NRO charter since 1965, four years after then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara created the NRO and drafted its charter. The NRO is led by former Air Force Gen. Bruce Carlson, The new document, called a statement of principles, lays out eight core ideas meant to guide the NRO, according to a source familiar with the document....

Dsvid Littman, 75, was awarded the Order of "Hero of Silence" last Summer 2009 by the Israeli Mossad for having been an undercover volunteer helping 500 children leave Morocco clandestinely in 1963. The Order of "Hero of Silence" is a very rare award. Only nine people have received it, seven whose identities remain classified. "drzz.info" obtained exclusive photographs of this private event taking place at the heart of Israel's intelligence community and featuring Ephraim Halevy, the Mossad's former director general, and the current Mossad's deputy director whose face has been "blacked" for confidentiality restrictions.

Fort Hood Texas Shootings Free Republic Archives This thread is for everyone, be sure to bookmark it. If you create a new thread, feel free to post a link to it here as well. Our prayers Continue...... *Update:13 Soldiers Killed 31 Wounded Fort Hood Shooting [Muslim terrorist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan] *MAJ. GEN. ROBERT SCALES (RET.) "This was a deliberate act of execution." (FOX NEWS) *Barack Obama Gives "Shout-Out" Before He Comments on Shooting -- FOX News (here's the video) *Transcript: President Obama delivers remarks on Ft. Hood shooting (after shoutout) *NBC CHICAGO: Obama's Frightening Insensitivity Following Shooting *Obama...

Looking for some advice and perhaps assistance from Texas FReepers who work in the Industrial Security and/or Intelligence fields. Recently I was let go from my job as a Quality Manager for a building wire and cable manufacturing company after 8-1/2 years of service. Although it was an unexpected shock, I soon afterwards realized it was time for a career change. I have been in the field of Quality Assurance for almost 12 years yet have never felt any fulfillment in that work. Since I have some experience in the field of intelligence, have held Top Secret/SCI security clearances during...

Several high-priority and high-priced satellites crucial to U.S. national security are slated to launch over the next 15 to 18 months, according to Bruce Carlson, director of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). During a keynote address here at the Strategic Space Symposium, Carlson did not provide details of the upcoming missions. Most of the NRO’s satellite programs are classified. Carlson noted the launches to make the point that the NRO continues to perform its mission despite having had its struggles in recent years. But Carlson also said the NRO has suffered a steep decline in its research and development...

A forthcoming study on Hispanic children’s cognitive skills underlines the challenges the country faces in aspiring to close the achievement gap between these children and their white and Asian counterparts. Hispanic “children fall behind their peers in mental development by the time they reach grade school, and the gap tends to widen as they get older,” reports the New York Times. “The drop-off in the cognitive scores of Hispanic toddlers, especially those from Mexican backgrounds, was steeper than for other [low-income] groups and could not be explained by economic status alone. . . . From 24 to 36 months, the...

Note: The following text is a quote: Home • Briefing Room • Presidential Actions • Executive Orders The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release October 29, 2009 President Obama Signs Executive Order to Amend Executive Order 13462 THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary __________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release October 28, 2009 EXECUTIVE ORDER ---------------- AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 13462 By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Executive Order 13462 of February 29, 2008, is amended...

President Barack Obama named University of Oklahoma president David Boren co-chairman of his Intelligence Advisory Board today. But at the tail end of his speech announcing the decision, Obama had this to say: “I thank David for agreeing to serve in this capacity, even as he continues to lead the University of Oklahoma.” Obama added: “And we are sorry about (Sam) Bradford’s shoulder.”

The CIA may have misled Congress at least five times since 2001, two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said Tuesday. Intelligence subcommittee Chairwomen Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) are leading an investigation into what they described as a practice of incomplete and often misleading intelligence briefings, which arose in the wake of CIA Director Leon Panetta’s June 24 admission that intelligence officials failed to notify Congress about a top-secret program to assassinate al Qaeda leaders.

Why do Democrats in Congress want to change key laws that have helped to discover terrorist plots? One would think that the arrests of Najibullah Zazi...and of two others charged with planning to blow up buildings in Dallas, Texas, and Springfield, Ill.—would generate support for the intelligence-gathering tools that protect this country from Muslim fanatics. In Mr. Zazi's case, the government has already confirmed the value of these tools: It has filed a notice of its intent to use information gathered under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was specifically written to help combat terrorists and spies. Nevertheless, there is...

A new generation of electro-optical imaging satellites to be built by Lockheed Martin pending congressional approval will have an aperturesize of 2.4 meters, a senior U.S.intelligence official said. James R. Clapper, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, disclosed the aperture size — or diameter of the satellite’s primary imaging mirror — of the Next-Generation Optical satellite system Oct.19 during a keynote address here at the Geoint 2009 Symposium. Technical details and capabilities of the nation’s spy satellites typically are closely guarded secrets. Aperture size and altitude are the two factors that determine a satellite’s imaging resolution, which is the minimum size...

As the Obama administration reconsiders its Afghanistan policy, White House officials are minimizing warnings from the intelligence community, the military and the State Department about the risks of adopting a limited strategy focused on al-Qaida, U.S. intelligence, diplomatic and military officials told McClatchy Newspapers. Recent U.S. intelligence assessments have found that the Taliban and other Pakistan-based groups that are fighting U.S.-led forces have much closer ties to al-Qaida now than they did before Sept. 11, 2001, which would allow the terrorist network to re-establish bases in Afghanistan and would help Osama bin Laden export his radical brand of Islam to...

THE current disagreement between our intelligence agencies and those of our allies regarding Iran's nuclear program reveals the debased state of our $75-billion- a-year intel system. The Germans, French, Israelis and now the Brits agree that Iran has an active nuclear-weapons program, differing only as to how swiftly Tehran can field warheads. The US intel community's holding out. It's worried about political risks. A reassessment's supposedly under way, but we're clinging to our comforting conclusion that Iran gave up on designing nuclear weapons in 2003.

President Barack Obama may have shelved the term “Global War on Terrorism,” but he praised the intelligence community’s worldwide fight against al Qaeda during a speech at the National Counterterrorism Center Tuesday. “It should now be clear — the United States and our partners have sent an unmistakable message: We will target al Qaeda wherever they take root; we will not yield in our pursuit; and we are developing the capacity and the cooperation to deny a safe haven to any who threaten America and its allies,” Obama said at the McLean, Va. center. Obama’s comments Tuesday made clear that...

PETER Wright, the British agent whose publication in Australia of Spycatcher was a victory for free speech, has been slammed in a new history of MI5 as a dangerous conspiracy theorist, whose work in the intelligence service was as damaging and distracting as that of some traitors. Christopher Andrew, the leading historian who has had unprecedented access to MI5 files to write the first official history of the secret service, concluded that while he was an active officer Wright's "conspiracy theories arguably did as much damage to the service as the treachery" of traitor Anthony Blunt. The Cambridge University historian...

This article talks about intelligence. There are a great number of smart people in the world, and in general the intelligence quotient (IQ) of someone may determine how well he or she may perform in certain situations. In general, there is almost certainly a correlation between a high IQ score and being more intelligent according to IncreaseBrainPower.com. However, if you have even average intelligence, you can find examples of cultural biases on many IQ tests. Furthermore, there are specific test-taking skills that have been proven to raise scores on many tests, including IQ tests. This last point makes perfect sense,...

On Tuesday evening in New York, top officials of the world nuclear watchdog agency approached two of President Obama’s senior advisers to deliver the news: Iran had just sent a cryptic letter describing a small “pilot” nuclear facility that the country had never before declared. The Americans were surprised by the letter, but they were angry about what it did not say. American intelligence had come across the hidden tunnel complex years earlier, and the advisers believed the situation was far more ominous than the Iranians were letting on... Senior intelligence officials said Friday that several years ago American intelligence...

About that 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran . . . In November of 2007, the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) drafted a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear program. In its publicly released “Key Judgments,” the IC concluded: “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.” A footnote at the end of that sentence made it clear just what the IC thought had been “halted” (emphasis added): For the purposes of this Estimate, by “nuclear weapons program” we mean Iran’s nuclear weapon design and weaponization work and covert uranium conversion-related and uranium...

When did you Brits suddenly get so thin-skinned – particular you “newer” ones? Apparently it’s now acceptable in the UK to unleash a legal hurricane on someone with whom you disagree, just because you’re incapable of debating an issue intelligently. Word has traveled all the way to North America about a couple of hotel owners in Liverpool being criminally charged under the “Public Order Act” for getting into a religious discussion about Islam within earshot of at least one Muslim guest, who promptly ran crying to the police...Do what I do in movie theatres to loudmouths, lady – go tell...

Ugh…someone needs to pay closer attention to intel reports By Leah Farrall, Australia SNIPPET: "I’d just like to know what definition of “strong” we are talking about?"

"EU funding 'Orwellian' artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for "abnormal behaviour" The European Union is spending millions of pounds developing "Orwellian" technologies designed to scour the internet and CCTV images for "abnormal behaviour"." SNIPPET: "A five-year research programme, called Project Indect, aims to develop computer programmes which act as "agents" to monitor and process information from web sites, discussion forums, file servers, peer-to-peer networks and even individual computers. Its main objectives include the "automatic detection of threats and abnormal behaviour or violence"." SNIPPET: "Project Indect, which received nearly £10 million in funding from the European Union, involves the Police...

C.I.A. Chiefs Ask Obama to Stop Abuse Inquiry WASHINGTON — Seven former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency asked President Obama on Friday to shut down the new Justice Department inquiry into past abuses during interrogations of terrorism suspects, arguing that it “will seriously damage” the nation’s ability to protect itself. In a letter to Mr. Obama, the former C.I.A. chiefs said the cases under study had already been examined by career prosecutors who found that no criminal charges were warranted. To reopen cases based on a change in which political party controls the government, they wrote, will make it...

Seven former heads of the CIA wrote President Obama on Friday to ask him to end an investigation launched by former Attorney General Eric Holder into the actions of CIA interrogators who used "enhanced" techniques to question terror detainees.

The Somali pirates preying on shipping in the Gulf of Aden and more recently the Indian Ocean are zeroed in on their targets by well-placed informers in London, a world center for shipbroking and insurance, using satellite phones, according to a European military intelligence report. The document, which was obtained by Cadena SER, a Spanish radio station, says the "consultants" in London help the pirates select their targets, providing data on the ships' cargoes and courses... The U.N. International Maritime Bureau reported this month that there had been a dramatic surge in piracy in the waters of the Horn of...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Intelligence activities across the U.S. government and military cost a total of $75 billion a year, the nation's top intelligence official said on Tuesday, disclosing an overall number long shrouded in secrecy. Dennis Blair, the U.S. director of national intelligence, cited the figure as part of a four-year strategic blueprint for the sprawling, 200,000-person intelligence community. In an unclassified version of the blueprint released by Blair's office, intelligence agencies singled out as threats Iran's nuclear program, North Korea's "erratic behavior," and insurgencies fueled by militant groups, though Blair cited gains against al Qaeda. Blair also cited challenges...

MI6 is being investigated by the police over allegations of torture for the first time. It follows a similar investigation already launched into MI5.The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) has referred an unidentified case involving alleged complicity in torture to the Attorney General who has in turn referred it on to the Metropolitan Police, the Daily Telegraph can disclose. The police are already investigating MI5, the Security Service, over allegations that they colluded in the torture of the former Guantanamo detainee, Binyam Mohamed. It is the first time that the foreign intelligence service and domestic security service have been the...

Posted in ubiwar Tagged intelligence, terrorism SNIPPET: "Friends of this blog and others, Palantir Technologies, are profiled in a new article by Siobhan Gorman in the Wall Street Journal, How Team of Geeks Cracked Spy Trade: From a Silicon Valley office strewn with bean-bag chairs, a group of twenty-something software engineers is building an unlikely following of terrorist hunters at US spy agencies."

Officials say an explosion has killed Afghanistan's deputy chief of intelligence. Sayed Ahmad Safi, the spokesman for the governor of Laghman province, says Dr. Abdullah Laghmani died in the blast. Laghmani is the No. 2 at Afghanistan's intelligence service, known as the National Directorate for Security. A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, tells The Associated Press that a suicide bomber had targeted Laghmani. The blast occurred during the inauguration of a new mosque in the city of Mehterlam in Laghman — 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Kabul.

Barbara Lauwers Podoski, who launched one of the most successful psychological campaigns of World War II, which resulted in the surrender of more than 600 Czechoslovakian soldiers fighting for the Germans, died of cardiovascular disease Aug. 16 at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Washington, D.C. She was 95. One of the few female operatives in the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime predecessor to the CIA, she found creative ways to undermine German morale. Much of her work remained secret until last year, when her OSS personnel records were declassified. The multilingual Barbara Lauwers, as she was then known, primarily...

EARLY in 2002, Eric Holder, then a former deputy attorney general, said on CNN that the detainees being held at Guantánamo Bay were “not, in fact, people entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention,” particularly “given the way in which they have conducted themselves.” Six years later, declaring

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) was created in 1961 to oversee the development and operation of the United States’ intelligence satellites. But it was not until September 1992 that the organization’s very existence was declassified. The press release making the announcement, however, omitted two key words: “satellites” and “launch”. It took several more years before the NRO actually admitted that it operated satellites and that they were launched into space, and it was not until 1996 that the NRO admitted that it actually owned a classified satellite launched atop a rocket. This seemed rather anticlimactic to anybody who paid attention,...

EXCLUSIVE: Gen. David H. Petraeus plans to open an in-house intelligence organization at U.S. Central Command this week that will train military officers, covert agents and analysts who agree to focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan for up to a decade. The organization, to be called the Center for Afghanistan Pakistan Excellence, will be led by Derek Harvey, a retired colonel in the Defense Intelligence Agency who became one of the Gen. Petraeus’ most trusted analysts during the 2007-08 counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq. Mr. Harvey distinguished himself in Iraq by predicting that the Iraqi insurgency would spiral out of control, at...

The CIA released the documents today that former Vice President Dick Cheney requested earlier this year in an attempt to prove his assertion that using enhanced interrogation techniques on terror detainees saved U.S. lives. The documents back up the Bush administration's claims that intelligence gleaned from captured terror suspects had thwarted terrorist attacks, but the visible portions of the heavily redacted reports do not indicate whether such information was obtained as a result of controversial interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding. Cheney's initial request in the spring that the documents be declassified was rejected by the CIA. Lawmakers derided his claims...

As I listen to the report of the Attorney General making the decision to go forward with an investigation into the CIA – It hit me, these are the same exact steps that lead to the terrorist attacks during the Clinton years. a. Weaken the defense of the nation. b. Blame America for everything. c. Slowly bleed away support for the Intelligence Agencies. Coming from the “Blame America First” crowd, apparently, in their eyes, the US is not allowed to defend against, interrogate, and/or investigate terrorism or terrorist suspects. The blame America first crowd has roots in this country going...

Sen. Kit Bond (Mo.), the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, ripped the Obama administration Monday over its proposal to create an enforcement team to question suspected terrorists. The program, known as the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG), would operate out of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), under direct White House oversight. It will be overseen by the National Security Council. President Barack Obama approved the elite unit last week, which will be made up of intelligence and law enforcement officials. Traditionally the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has taken the lead interrogating suspected terrorists, but its practices have...

US President Barack Obama has approved a new elite team to question key terror suspects, the White House has said. The unit will be housed at the FBI headquarters in Washington and be overseen by the White House. The announcement came hours before the publication of fuller details of the CIA's treatment of terrorism suspects. Also on Monday US media said the justice department was to reopen about a dozen prisoner abuse cases that could lead to prosecution of CIA employees. 'Different elements' The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Washington says there has been strong concern that interrogation has been carried...

Moscow, Aug 21 (DPA) A Russian newspaper claimed Friday that suspected pirates who boarded the freighter Arctic Sea were actually agents of the Israeli secret service trying to stop it from smuggling arms into Iran. According to Russian media, the Arctic Sea may have been carrying illegal X-55 cruise missiles destined for Iran hidden among its cargo of lumber. Men acting on behalf of the Israeli Mossad secret service commandeered the ship to divert the weapons away from Israel's regional enemy, the daily Novaya Gazeta said. Citing Moscow publicist Yulia Latynina, the daily pointed to the surprise visit of Israeli...

SNIPPET: "In March, La Nueva Cuba, an online newspaper, reported that “Russian personnel has been in Cuba for several months working on modernizing SIGINT operations in the old Lourdes surveillance and monitoring facility.” The Web site said the supposed renovation was: …part of a project of rearming and modernization of Russian armed forces and the goal of completion by 2011. The new operations could include military sections dedicated to hacking or computer systems espionage with a capacity to neutralize U.S. military networks… Then last week, an opinion piece appeared in Miami Herald. The headline: Cuba capable of waging a cyberwar....

According to the CDC, 66% of adults over the age of 20 are overweight or obese. That is approximately 140 million adults. Somewhere between 15 and 20 million Americans can be classified as alcoholics. As many as 50% of those on welfare are alcoholics. There are 225 million people over 18 years old and 32 million of them do not have a high school degree. There are 32 million adults or 14% who are illiterate (23% in California, 22% in New York, 20% in Florida, 17% in New Jersey). The United States’ spending per pupil in public schools at $9,266...

There, I said it. After a year of campaigning, and 8 months of his Presidency, I have seen no evidence whatsoever that Barry Obama is actually more intelligent than George Bush. If we were keeping a running tally of gaffes, they are on course to be dead even. Without benefit of media cover, the populace at large would see the new President as a likable, sometimes well spoken buffoon. I would like to invite my fellow Freepers to use this post to present some of their favorite obama goofs and gaffes as sort of a reference post when engaging the...

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., Aug. 14, 2009 – People join the military for many reasons, some for college assistance, some to stay out of trouble and some to fulfill a patriotic need to serve their country. Army Staff Sgt. Megan E. Brunty, an intelligence analyst with U.S. Central Command, is honored with a certificate of promotion at a ceremony on MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., Aug. 3, 2009. Brunty also was awarded the command’s Noncommissioned Officer of the Year award earlier in the year. U.S Army photo by Sgt. Rick Nelson   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. For...

TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tightened his grip on Iran’s powerful intelligence services, ousting four senior officials in a widening purge against authorities who challenged the harsh crackdowns after June’s disputed elections, lawmakers and media said Monday. The shake-up at the Intelligence Ministry — the nation’s main spy agency — deepened the rifts straining Iran’s conservative ranks over Ahmadinejad’s strong-arm political tactics and the crushing response to the pro-reform opposition since the June 12 election. It also sought to bolster Ahmadinejad allies in the Revolutionary Guard, which led the assaults and arrests against protesters who claimed the election was...