AS WESTERN countries scramble to deal with Russia’s increasingly energetic espionage efforts, their security services are hurriedly rehiring some of the seasoned spycatchers they let go in the past years.
But at the European Union attitudes are still worryingly dozy. Russian spying in Brussels and Strasbourg, say those who try to keep an eye it, is [...]

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A Chinese woman pleaded guilty in a US court Wednesday to helping to spy for Beijing in a Pentagon-linked espionage case, the Justice Department said.
Yu Xin Kang, 33, admitted to “aiding and abetting” a Taiwanese-American, Tai Shen Kuo, who had earlier pleaded guilty to spying for China involving sensitive military secrets.
Businessman Kuo had obtained secret [...]

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The CIA almost blew its chance to recruit the specialist engineer Adolf Tolkachev in the late 1970s, but once he had been “landed”, Guilsher’s professionalism and bravery helped build a bond that yielded military secrets of incalculable importance.
Tolkachev, a senior engineer for Phazotron, provided key details of the research and development of the all-important radar [...]

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A BusinessWeek probe of rising attacks on America’s most sensitive computer networks uncovers startling security gaps
The e-mail message addressed to a Booz Allen Hamilton executive was mundane—a shopping list sent over by the Pentagon of weaponry India wanted to buy. But the missive turned out to be a brilliant fake. Lurking beneath the description [...]

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Prosecutors called Chi Mak the “perfect sleeper agent,” though he hardly looked the part. For two decades, the bespectacled Chinese-born engineer lived quietly with his wife in a Los Angeles suburb, buying a house and holding a steady job with a U.S. defense contractor, which rewarded him with promotions and a security clearance. Colleagues remembered [...]

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Almost indistinguishable from the average insect, these cyborg spies will provide our military and counter-terrorism specialists with a huge surveillance advantage.
The U.S. military could deploy the cyborgs in hostage situations or even send them into enemy barracks. The goal is to engineer insects that can fly up to 300 feet away, land within 15 feet [...]

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US weapons analyst Gregg Bergersen admits leak to China
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - 3 hours ago
Prosecutors alleged he divulged military secrets to New Orleans businessman Kuo Tai, who turned over the information to a Chinese foreign agent. …
Pentagon staffer guilty of handing secrets to China agent AFP
Guilty Plea in China Spy Case The Associated Press
Pentagon analyst admits selling [...]

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Q: What is your book about?
A: Well, “Comrade J” is about the highest ranking Russian intelligence officer to defect after the end of the Cold War. In other words, Sergei Tretyakov worked for us. He defected in 2000 after working secretly for us for at least three years. He worked for the Yeltsin and Putin [...]

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US engineer gets 24 years for exporting military data to China
AFP - 9 hours ago
Last month, a US defense official, an ex-Boeing engineer and two others were charged with spying for China involving sensitive military and aerospace …
Chinese-born engineer sentenced for helping export US military … CNN International
Engineer sentenced to 24 years in China conspiracy case [...]

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Five years ago, the US government presented what it said was proof that Iraq harbored biological weapons. The information came from a source developed by German intelligence — and it turned out to be disastrously wrong. But to this day, Germany denies any responsibility. By Erich Follath, John Goetz, Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark more…

SPIEGEL [...]

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Russia’s secret service has charged two Russian-Americans with industrial espionage, the service was quoted as saying Thursday, a day after raids on the offices of British oil major BP in Moscow.
The two men “were illegally collecting secret commercial information for a number of foreign oil and gas companies with the aim of gaining concrete advantages [...]

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Military sources reveal that the Russian Amur 1 Class PM 138 naval boat, caught up in the heavy storm raging across the Middle East and Mediterranean last week, flashed a distress signal Tuesday Feb. 19. The vessel was on its way from a Syrian port to Sevastopol on the Black Sea when it was thrown [...]

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But those facts are just the top of an enormous iceberg looming ahead of the United States. They reveal the focused challenge to American national security by the harnessed enormous resources of the People’s Republic of China. And they also document the real concern of senior officials in the FBI and the U.S. national security [...]

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Pentagon reveals plans to shoot down spy
Times Online, UK - 3 hours ago
US officials say that the craft carries no nuclear material. USA 193 was launched on December 14, 2006, from the Vandenberg US Air Force Base in California. …
US officials say broken satellite will be shot down International Herald Tribune
US will shoot down plummeting satellite International [...]

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China on Thursday told the United States to drop its “Cold War” attitude and stop accusing Beijing of espionage, after US authorities arrested four people on charges of spying for the Chinese.
“The so-called accusation against China on the issue of espionage is totally groundless,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said when asked to comment on [...]

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Former Boeing engineer accused of stealing trade secrets from NASA
Orlando Sentinel, FL - 2 hours ago
“Space is part of China’s military modernization plans, so we have had collection efforts targeted at space, aerospace and military technology. …
FBI arrests Chinese ’spies’ over theft of military data Independent
‘No. 1 Threat’ China Linked to Espionage Arrests CNSNews.com
US charges four in [...]

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When Alexander Litvinenko fled Moscow for Britain, he found it hard to find work; London was awash with former KGB agents. So he turned to Italy, where he found a ready market for intelligence, not all of it real. What happened next was to make him some dangerous enemies.
Read More…
A hat tip to Farouk for [...]

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With the Cold war long over, the CIA no longer faces any real competition, right? Wrong. The world’s top espionage agencies are as busy as ever. This week, the FP List looks at the countries that best know how to wield a cloak and dagger.
Read More…

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Congressional Quarterly’s Jeff Stein reports that a book about to be published alleges that “Tariq Rauf, the top U.N. official responsible for monitoring the clandestine nuclear programs of Iran and Pakistan is a Russian spy” who “hated America.”
Tariq Rauf, 54, a Pakistani-born Canadian who is chief of verification and security-policy coordination at the International Atomic [...]

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OFFICERS at the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the former KGB, suspect MI6 of using the British Council as a cover for gathering intelligence and recruiting agents in Russia.
The allegation is at the centre of a relentless campaign by the authorities against the council, which resulted in the closure of its offices in St Petersburg [...]

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China is the most acute threat not only to America’s national security information infrastructure but to commercial, financial, and energy information networks.
The New York Times reported that in a series of “sophisticated attempts” against the U.S. nuclear weapons lab at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Chinese hackers were able to “remove data.”[1] The story illustrates an alarming [...]

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