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Two American hikers who were detained in Iran have been sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of "illegal entry" and "espionage," the state TV website says.

2011/08/06 10:01 KST S. Korea to raise reward money for reporting spies, spy ships SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will sharply raise the amount of money given to people who report spies and spy ships as part of its efforts to raise peoples' awareness toward national security threats, the government said Saturday. The Ministry of Justice said a preannouncement of legislation has been made that will revise current rules regarding rewards so a maximum 500 million won (US$467,700) can be given for information on spies, and 750 million won for people who report spy ships.

The Latest From Obamacare: Send Government Spies To The Doctors OfficeJoe Weisenthal | Jun. 27, 2011, 8:08 PM | 441 | 18 In order to figure out why it's so hard to get a doctor's appointment, or even obtain a primary care doctor in the first place, the Health and Human Services Department proposed to send "mystery shoppers" into doctor's office. This notice -- via ABC's Jake Tapper -- was posted by the HHS back in April, and basically it's exactly what you'd expect from such a plan: send mystery shoppers into various offices posing as either insured or uninsured...

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday the group had captured three spies among its members, two of whom were recruited by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The spies, one of whom was recruited five months ago, did not pose a serious threat to the movement or its military capabilities, he said. "None of these three cases are within the first line of senior leadership. They were not in positions of sensitive responsibility ... it is impossible to touch the military and security infrastructure of the resistance and its ability to confront," he said in a...

Was Huma Abedin — wife of Anthony Weiner and deputy chief of staff to Hillary Clinton — unaware that her mother was reported as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood? Did Western media miss what has been revealed in several Arab newspapers and left secret in American government circles? Al-Liwa Al-Arabi (translated here) claims to have leaked an extensive list, partially published by Al-Jazeera and several other major Arab newspapers, that includes Huma’s mother, Saleha Abedin, in the Brotherhood’s secret women’s division — known as the Muslim Sisterhood or International Women’s Organization (IWO).

Media blackout: CIA director accused of links to Communist spy contact -- scandal ignored Wes Vernon June 13, 2011 If you have been depending on the mainstream media for your news the past few days, you are probably learning here for the first time that CIA Director Leon Panetta has been called out for his links to an important open member of the Communist Party. Some background When this writer first arrived in Washington, D.C., as a reporter in 1968, one of my assignments was to cover the congressional delegation from Washington State. Occasionally, both Democrat and Republican members of...

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano warned Americans not to take the slaying of Osama bin-Laden as a cue to ease up on our vigilance. “Al-Qaeda is not the only threat to our government,” Napolitano said. “Enemies are everywhere.” Because enemies are everywhere Napolitano urged everyone to keep an eye out for signs of trouble. “If you know of people in your neighborhood who have guns let us know,” the Secretary requested. “If you overhear conversations that are critical of government policies or programs give us a call.” Napolitano counseled against “letting hazy conceptions about Constitutional rights deter anyone from...

In a major blow to the Justice Department, one of its biggest leak prosecutions in years all but collapsed late Thursday when federal prosecutors withdrew all their felony charges against a former National Security Agency official accused of providing classified information to a journalist. Instead, under a plea deal reached with prosecutors, former NSA official Thomas Drake has agreed to plead guilty in federal court on Friday to a single misdemeanor count of "exceeding authorized use of a computer" -- a minor charge for which he will receive no jail time, a senior administration official told NBC. “This is close...

decora writes "Crypto-mathematician Bill Binney worked in the Signals Intelligence Automation Research Center at the NSA. There, he worked on NSA's ThinThread program; a way to monitor the flood of internet data from outside the US while protecting the privacy of US citizens. In a new interview with Jane Mayer, he says his program 'got twisted. ... I should apologize to the American people. It's violated everyone's rights. It can be used to eavesdrop on the whole world. ... my people were brought in, and they told me, "Can you believe they're doing this? They're getting billing records on US...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - A former senior executive at the National Security Agency was charged Thursday with lying and obstruction of justice in an investigation of leaks of classified information to a newspaper. Federal prosecutors said Thomas Drake, 52, served as a source for many articles about the NSA in an unidentified newspaper, including articles that contained classified information.</p>

U.S.embassy personnel drove to the E-1 area of Maaleh Adumin last week and lied to activists who had erected tents, telling them they were police while taking photographs. Shortly after the vehicles left, police arrived and confiscated the tents, but the American embassy later confirmed that the license plates belonged to American diplomatic personnel. The incident was “espionage,” charged National Union Knesset Member Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, who said he will ask the Knesset to discuss the event. American officials responded that their personnel were carrying out “routine activities” but did not explain why they lied to activists. The area involved...

From the team that brought you Blackwater and the pre-9/11 counterterrorism program Able Danger comes “Jellyfish Intelligence.” That’s the name a group of former US intelligence officials and executives from the controversial security firm have chosen for a new private outfit that offers “predictive intelligence” for Fortune 500 corporations and senior-level executives and that aims to “protect human lives and their business interests throughout the world. The company blends traditional models of a strategic consulting firm with what it claims is an extensive network of human sources—people who, in an official context, would be called spies. Jellyfish employs a network...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Extradited Hacker Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison for Masterminding First-Ever Hack Into Internet Phone Networks Defendant Also Ordered to Pay Over $1 Million in Restitution NEWARK, NJ—The first individual ever charged with hacking into the networks of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers and reselling hacked VoIP services for a profit was sentenced today to 120 months in prison, United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Edwin Andres Pena, 27, transmitted over 10 million minutes of unauthorized telephone calls over the victims' networks. Pena, a Venezuelan citizen, fled the United States...

It wasn’t a typical catwalk display. But then, Anna Chapman isn’t your typical catwalk model. The former Russian spy, who was unmasked working in America by the FBI last year, made a surprise appearance at Moscow Fashion Week in a fur-lined jacket and black leather trousers.

A jury on Friday acquitted a former military translator of secretly working as an Iraqi agent in the US but convicted him of making false statements when he sought a security clearance. The split verdict offered some relief to Issam "Sam" Hamama, who claimed he was only passing along basic information about Iraqis in the US when he reached out to Iraqi officials in the 1990s during the regime of Saddam Hussein. "We've been vindicated. They were accusing him of voluntarily working as a spy," defense lawyer Haytham Faraj said. Hamama, 60, of El Cajon, California, was found not guilty...

Ex-CIA Officer Indicted for Leaking Classified Info to New York Slimes Reporter Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer, was indicted today for leaking classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen. The indictment shows that the federal government had access to their e-mail and phone contacts going back several years. Sterling served on the Iran desk of the CIA in the 1990s, and oversaw a classified program aimed at sabotaging the development of its nuclear programming. He left the CIA in 2000 and sued for racial discrimination (he is African American) in a case that went all the way...

Vladimir Putin better set his digital recorder! Russian spy and Putin favourite Anna Chapman still shuns questions about her years undercover in the United States, but starting next week she'll uncover other mysteries on Russian television. A spokeswoman for REN-TV, a private nationwide channel, announced that Chapman will host a new weekly television show that allows her 'to use all her talents to solve the world's most complicated mysteries.'

"....Gaffney, deputy assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan, is founder and president of the Center for Security Policy and co-author of the new book "Shariah: The Threat to America." He told WND that Islamism has infiltrated the American Conservative Union, the host of CPAC, in the person of Washington attorney and political activist Suhail Khan and a group called Muslims for America.

The Rules of War Can't Protect Al Qaeda By RUTH WEDGWOOD NEW HAVEN — It makes no sense to win a trial but lose the war. With this in mind, a majority of the American public favors giving President Bush the option to use military tribunals against the Qaeda terror network. The tribunals are designed to permit a "full and fair trial" of war crimes without compromising our ability to track the network's future plans. Al Qaeda's skill at countersurveillance has made plain the need to protect sensitive intelligence sources at trial. But some international-law scholars suggest that President Bush's ...

Iran has hanged one of seven suspected spies for supplying Israel with secrets on Iran’s missile programs, and the regime’s courts have sentenced a second man to death for “counter-revolutionary activities.” The regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrested seven people in October on charges of spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. “These spies supplied the enemy with information on Iran's judiciary, military and space agencies, among other things, prior to their arrest,” trumpeted Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency. Ali Akbar Siadat was hanged in a Tehran prison after being convicted of receiving $60,000 dollars “to give classified information to...