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£3.95£3.95NUMBER 11NUMBER 1188 2018 2018

• BUBBLES - ORIGINS OF SCIF • OPERATION STAGE• SPIES OF LONG ISLAND • CYBER UNDERWORLD

EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 118 20182

Russian cyber team exposed andidentified in joint MIVD-MI6 operation

64

The Salisbury Tales

THE GRU CLEANERSTwo GRU assassins despatched to kill MI6agent are Heroes of the Russian Federation

NEW COVER AND LEGENDNEW COVER AND LEGEND14

Phrases and words used by those engaged in theintelligence world... and by its covert operators

OPERATION STAGE

INVASION COUNTER-MEASURESINVASION COUNTER-MEASURES

45

STRANGE BUT TRUE

ARCTIC SPY GAMES

High stakes in Arctic region as tensionsbetween NATO and Russia increase

26

The Istanbul Incident

63

36

Language of SpiesA-Z

EYE SPY 118

3

•6 Hans-Georg Maassen •14 Igor Korobov •24 Meng Hongwei•41 Julian Assange •44 Reality Winner •54 Sergey Dorenko

•63 Jamal Khashoggi •82 Vladimir Putin

EYE SPY is published eight times a year by Eye Spy Publishing Ltd. All rightsreserved. No part of EYE SPY may be reproduced by any means wholly or in part,

without the prior permission of the publisher. Not to be resold, lent, hired out ordisposed of by trade at more than the recommended retail price.

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VOLUME XV NUMBER SIX 2018 (ISSUE 118)

ISSN 1364 8446 publication date: NOVEMBER 2018FRONT COVER MAIN IMAGE: TALISMAN INTEL LIBRARY

I N T E L L I G E N C E C H O I C E

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11 THE INADVERTANT SPYNSA employee jailed for removing classified materials in questto bolster his career

MIVD-MI6 OPERATION THWARTS GRU CYBER TEAM

22 MISSINGA selection of current case files involving the disappearanceof high-end technology, weaponry and a cyber specialist

2424

82826363

30 SPIES OF LONG ISLANDA journey through time as D. Anne Khol presents a fascinatingfeature on Long Island’s espionage connections

41411414

5454

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28 ARTCIC GOLDRussia and NATO hold major exercises in Arctic as spy gamesintensify in this important region

he Hague in Holland is home to many important internationalbodies, one of which is the Organisation for the Prohibition ofChemical Weapons (OPCW). Following the attempted assassina-


4 MH17 - ‘NEW’ EVIDENCE OF FATAL CRASHDutch investigators probing the attack on Malaysian airliner in2014 request Russia hands over alleged ‘new evidence’

7 IRANIAN INTELLIGENCE ASSETS SEIZEDUS counter-intelligence officers detain Iranian agents in newoperation against Tehran’s spy service - MOIS

4444

BUBBLESThe origins and development of rooms used as SensitiveCompartmentalised Information Facilities (SCIF)

59

26 SPY EXCHANGE GATEWAYPlans to exchange a Norwegian ‘intelligence courier’ and aRussian government employee fall through

GRU OPERATIONS EXPOSED AS SPIES IDENTIFIED

41 MAN OF SECRETSReports emerge that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange maybe asked to give evidence in Washington of Russian cyberinterference in the 2016 US General Election

SECRET LISTENERSDr Helen Fry provides an update on the quest to turn one ofBritain’s most important WWII intel buildings into a museum

56

•64 THE GRU CLEANERS

CYBER UNDERWORLDMike Finn examines how the world of cyber is being used as amanipulative tool in the intelligence cycle

74

Established December 2000

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“Soviet espionage has never stopped... it’s deeply embeddedin Russia’s DNA to use its capabilities to disrupt other nations

British Intelligence working with their Dutch counterparts and otheragencies, have assembled a convincing array of evidence toidentify who was responsible for the operation targeting formerMI6 agent Sergei Skripal in March this year. Few doubt Russia’sGRU was the agency that despatched a team to assassinateSkripal and elevate its own standing as the premier intelligencebody in Russia. Unfortunately for those who planned andauthorised the operation, it ended in failure. Far more damagingwas its exposure. And to compound matters, secondary opera-

tions in the Hague and Switzerland targeting a WMD monitoring body assisting theinvestigation were identified by MI6. This resulted in four GRU cyber operativesbeing detained and deported before they could engage with computer systems todiscover just how much evidence had been secured.

The ripples of events generated by the Skripal affair reached the United States. Iam reliably informed this led to a whole range of new measures being introducedto protect former Russian intelligence people who have defected; from creatingnew identities to relocation and additional security. The UK too has reviewed itsprotection of a number of individuals who might be at risk.

There are tales aplenty circulating that President Putin is most unhappy with theGRU and especially its head - Igor Korobov. However, despite his organisationbeing blamed for the intelligence debacle, Korobov remains the GRU chief fornow. Mr Putin is a great friend of Korobov, and just this summer both men enjoyeda hunting trip together. Rumours of an intelligence rift are just that... rumours.

MARK BIRDSALL, MANAGING EDITOR

36 A-Z THE LANGUAGE OF SPIESEye Spy once again delves into the ‘dictionary of spies’revealing phrases and terminology of those engaged in the‘great game of espionage’

THE MAHER ALLEY SECRETSIsrael’s spy service Mossad identify another Tehran warehousecontaining Iranian nuclear secrets

50

FORMER MI6 CHIEF SIR RICHARD DEARLOVE

OPERATION STAGEAn absorbing feature based on recently declassified papersreveals how the FBI intended to counter a military invasion ofAlaska by Russia in the Cold War

45

THE ISTANBUL INCIDENTAccusations, speculation and conspiracy theories aplenty asjournalist disappears in Turkey

63 tion of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury,England, using the Russian-manufactured Novichok nerve agent, sampleswere sent to the OPCW for analysis. This was public knowledge.

To understand just what had been submitted by Britain, the GRU sent aspecialist cyber team to Holland to access computers and retrieve vitaldata. Unbeknown to the GRU, MI6 soon discovered the plot and alertedcolleagues at Holland’s MIVD military intelligence service. Its agentssurveilled the GRU team and detained four officers outside the OPCWHQ. The MIVD-MI6 counter-intelligence operation is examined in full.


INTELLIGENCEREVIEW•NEWS•DIGEST

MH17: NEW KREMLIN CLAIMS

W

INVESTIGATORS AWAIT ‘CONVINCING’ NEW RUSSIAN EVIDENCE

D

estminster ISISterrorist KhalidMasood, who killedfour pedestrians and

WESTMINSTER BRIDGETERRORIST ‘KILLED LAWFULLY’

Police Constable Keith Palmer on22 March last year, was “killedlawfully” an inquest jury at the OldBailey Court has found.

Over the course of several weeks,those gathered in the courtroomheard how Masood, 52, used hisvehicle to kill American touristKurt Cochran, 54, retired windowcleaner Leslie Rhodes, 75,mother-of-two Aysha Frade, 44,and Romanian designer AndreeaCristea, 31. A further 29 peoplewere injured.

Masood was shot dead by aministerial bodyguard identifiedonly as SA74. “After shouting at

him to drop the knives andreceiving no change in hisdemeanour, I fired my pistol,” saidSA74, who believed Masood wasgoing to kill him.

Chief Coroner Mark Lucraft QCsaid “it was possible that Palmer’s

PC Keith Palmer

utch air accidentinvestigators are stillwaiting to receiveadditional informationon the shooting down of

MH17 over eastern Ukraine in2014, from Russia’s DefenceMinistry. This follows new claimsmade by Kremlin officials that“Moscow has proof the missilethat struck the aircraft was inUkrainian hands.”

Since the fatal incident, whichresulted in the deaths of 298people, Moscow said an interna-tional team of investigators “usedfaked video to create the view themissile had come from Russia.” Ina strange development, Kremlinofficials insist the JIT (JointInvestigation Team) used video ofan authentic Buk missile system,but “added the tow truck carryingthe missile at a later date.”

Despite debris carrying manufac-turing details which reveal it wasmade in Dolgoprudny nearMoscow in 1986, Russia insists itwas in the hands of Ukraine at thetime of the incident. This followsthe release of a purchase

document which allegedly showsthe missile was delivered by rail toa Ukrainian military site in theTernopol area of the country in thesame year.

Another piece of evidenceallegedly in the hands of Moscowis a purported audio recording ofUkraine troops in 2016, sayingthey would “bring down anotherMalaysian Boeing.”

All manner of evidence is beingused by Moscow to cloud the truefacts of the event. Perhaps theoddest is a satellite photographpurporting to show the exactmoment of the attack by a Ukraine

Air Force Mig-29 fighter. In thiscase the launching of an air-to-airmissile. Western Intelligence andphotographic experts agree it isalmost certainly bogus.

1986 delivery order?

WASHINGTON: Intelligencesources in the United Statesbelieve the CIA has identified thesource of the ‘sonic’ noise orelectromagnetic weaponswhich have affected more than20 US diplomatic staff on Cuba.

Langley reportedly believe thenoise was generated by aRussian team to test its impact.However, few details in respectof the exact nature of the equip-ment have been released.

Those who were taken illreported various symptoms,including headaches, tinnitusand vertigo. Several peoplewere treated in hospital andreturned to the USA.

Officials report the Pentagon istesting countermeasures atKirtland AFB in New Mexico.

CIA IDENTIFY SOURCEOF SONIC WEAPONS

5EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 118 2018

s reported in Eye Spy117, NSA DirectorGeneral Paul Nakasonewants to keep US Cyber

US CYBER COMMANDSEPARATION FROM NSA STALLS

ACommand (USCC) under theauthority of his agency (for theforeseeable future). Intelligencesources had reported US DefenseSecretary James Mattis green-lighted the separation, with USCyber Command becoming astand-alone intelligenceorganisation. Chris Inglis, 63, anexperienced intelligence man wasfavourite to become its newDirector, but now two intelligenceofficials speaking on condition ofanonymity, have disclosed thatbecause of Nakasone’s concernsthe cyber element is not ready to“stand on its own,” Mattis hasstalled in making a final decision.

Inglis, who served as NSA DeputyDirector from 2006-2014, hasworked at the NSA for 28 years.“He would be my number onechoice,” said Michael Hayden,

former NSA and CIA Director.Widely respected in the USIntelligence Community, Inglisrefused to comment on the NSA-US Cyber Command issue, norrumours he has already beenselected as head of the USCCshould it separate.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said:“No decision has been made.When it is, it will be reflective ofthe department’s commitment topre-empt, defeat and determalicious cyber activity.”

Shortly before he departed theWhite House, President Obamasaid: “Cybercom has sincematured to the point where itneeds to stand on its own.”

Established as a pro-activeintelligence element of the NSA in2009, US Cyber Command hasaround 6,000 dedicated person-nel.

Chris Inglis

NSA Director GeneralPaul Nakasone

NSA HQ Fort Meade. US Navy personnel engage in acyber operation at US Cyber Command

death could have been avoided,” ifarmed officers had been at theCarriage Gates at the Palace ofWestminster when Masoodstruck. Lucraft highlighted“shortcomings” in the securitysystem at New Palace Yard,including the supervision of armedofficers. Palmer’s widow,Michelle, said the security lapseswere “hard to believe.”

Khalid Masood

ritish national, MatthewHedges, from Exeter, willstand trial in the United Arab

BRITON ACCUSED OF SPYINGUAE Security Services Charge Academic

BEmirates following his arrest inDubai on espionage charges. The31-year-old is suspected ofattempting to procure sensitiveinformation during a trip thereearlier this year. UAE AttorneyGeneral Dr Hamad Al Shamsi saidthat while posing as an “academicresearcher Mr Hedges spied onbehalf of or for a foreign state.”

The UAE said Hedges actionsjeopardised the military, economyand political security of the UAE.

Dr Al Shamsi said that duringquestioning, Hedges admitted tothe claims against him, whichwere supported by evidence andinformation retrieved from variouselectronic devices. Dr AnwarGargash, UAE Minister of State forForeign Affairs, said that the casehad been “extensively discussedwith UK colleagues,” over the pastfive months. He also wrote onTwitter: ‘Unusual and embarrass-

ing revelations about friends and

allies had come to light’.

A court statement read: ‘...predi-

cated on evidence secured from

Mr Hedges’ electronic devices;

surveillance and intelligence

gathering by UAE intelligence and

security agencies; and corrobo-

rating evidence provided by Mr

Hedges himself’.

Prosecutors said they believe his“study trip was cover for hisspying.”

Dr Al Shamsi said Mr Hedges wasaccompanied by British Embassyofficials for his court appearanceand had been given an “accreditedlegal translator.”Matthew Hedges


irector CIA Gina Haspel continues toassemble Langley’s new ‘top floor’.After appointing Vaughn Bishop asDeputy Director, Haspel welcomed

LANGLEY’S TOP TIERNEW INTELLIGENCE HEADS ANNOUNCED

DAndrew Makridis as Chief Operating Officer(COO) and Sonya Holt, who will serve as ChiefDiversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO).Makridis will be responsible for managing theCIA on a day-to-day basis.

CDIO Holt takes the helm after a 34-yearAgency career. All assumed their newpositions in late August.

Haspel said this of the intelligence officers:“Vaughn is an incredible intelligence officer,highly respected in the analytic cadre and byour allies. Andy brings a wealth of expertisefrom his 32-year CIA career and has a deepunderstanding of how the Agency works. He isthe ultimate team player.

“To succeed against the intelligence chal-lenges facing us today, we must have officerswho bring a variety of life experiences andviewpoints to the job. Under the seasonedleadership of Sonya, we will continue topromote a diverse and inclusive workforcethat is so vital to our mission.”

Vaughn Bishop is sworn-in as Deputy Director CIA

Russian satellite made close contactwith an orbiting French satellite in2017, in an apparent effort to eaves-drop on secure military communica-

BIG EARSFrance Alleges Russian

Satellite Engaged in‘Space Eavesdropping’

Ations. France’s Defense Minister FlorenceParly said the operation involved a Russiansatellite called Louch-Olymp.

Parly said it approached the Athena-Fidus,a French-Italian satellite launched in 2014used for secure military communicationsand the planning of operations. “Trying tolisten to one’s neighbour is not onlyunfriendly... it’s an act of espionage,” shesaid. “It got close. A bit too close. So closethat one really could believe that it wastrying to capture our communications.”

Parly added: “This little ‘star wars’ didn’thappen a long time ago in a galaxy far away.It happened a year ago, 36,000 kilometresabove our heads. The Russian satellite has‘big ears’ and is well-known but a bitindiscreet.”

Without giving details, Parly said France hadtaken “necessary measures” and is stillwatching the satellite attentively.

Parly was speaking at the Toulouse-basedFrench space agency that developed theAthena-Fidus satellite jointly with the Italianspace agency ASI.

Athena-Fidus - French-Italian militarycommunications satellite

FlorenceParly

BERLIN: Germany’s domestic intelligencechief is being replaced following controversialcomments in response to far-right activity inChemnitz which brought accusations that hewas not taking the problem seriously - a claimhe vigorously rejected. Hans-Georg Maassenwill leave the BfV agency, the governmentsays, to become a senior official at the InteriorMinistry. The move follows a row that hasexposed divisions in Chancellor Merkel’sadministration.

However, critics point out that it actuallyamounts to a promotion for Maassen, who will

BfV Intelligence Chief Departs

reportedly be on a higher pay grade. Thedecision was reported as a compromisebetween Merkel and her right-wing coalitionpartners. Maassen was appointed BfV Directorin 2012 after joining the Interior Ministry in1991.

New Position FollowsInternal Differences

Hans-Georg

Maassen

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upporters of the Iraniannuclear deal were hopingthat France might lead theway in salvaging the 2015

30 June 2018. Rudy Giuliani presents NCRI President-electMaryam Rajavi with a statement signed by 33 US dignitaries andformer officials at the conference targeted by MOIS operatives

Iranian Intelligence Assets SeizedFrance Deals New Blow to IranNuclear Deal After Intelligence

Operatives Charged

Sagreement between Iran and theP5+1 world powers after the USpulled out. Those hopes havediminished following an an-nouncement in October that Parishas concluded Iranian Intelligence(MOIS) was behind a foiledbombing attack. Senior intelli-gence figures said that Tehran“targeted the annual conference ofthe National Council of Resistanceof Iran (NCRI),” organised byIranian opposition MeK (ThePeople’s Mujahedin Organisationof Iran) near Paris in June. (SeeEye Spy 117)

A joint statement from France’sInterior, Economic and ForeignAffairs ministries, said: “A plannedbomb attack was foiled atVillepinte on 30 June. Thisextremely serious attack that wasto take place on our territorycannot go without a response.

“Without prejudicing the results ofcriminal proceedings takenagainst the initiators, the perpetra-tors and the accomplices of thisplanned attack, France has taken

targeted and proportionatepreventative measures in the formof adopting national measures tofreeze the assets of Mr AssadollahAssadi and Saeid HashemiMoghadam [senior MOISintelligence men], Iraniannationals, as well as the InternalSecurity Directorate of the IranianMinistry of Intelligence.” Two

other persons connected to thebomb plot were also detained.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, the FrenchForeign Affairs Minister, said thefoiling of the bomb plot “confirmsthe need for a tough approach inour relations with Iran.”

Assadi has been identified by theMossad as the MOIS ViennaStation Chief and controller ofoperations throughout Europe.TATP explosives and a detonator

were recovered during thecounter-terrorism operation whichinvolved a number of countries.

Iran has denied the allegationsmade against it and said theincident was the result of aconspiracy to “sabotage Iran’sancient and long-standingrelations with France and othersignificant European countries.”Bahram Qasami, Iran’s ForeignAffairs Ministry spokesman said:“We deny the accusations andforcefully condemn the Iraniandiplomat’s arrest and call for hisimmediate release.”

The failed bombing impacts onFrance’s support of Iran in the2015 nuclear deal, according tointelligence sources. France’sDGSE and DGSI have already

President Trump and French President Macron. The US wantsFrance to re-evaluate its position over Iran’s nuclear programme

Assadollah Assadi

submitted reports which in partsupport the view that Iran isengaged in a covert programme toattack its opponents on Europeansoil.

Jean-Yves Le Drian

BERLIN: Following France’s conclusion of Iranian Intelligenceinvolvement in the bomb plot, a German court has approved theextradition of Assadollah Assadi. He was arrested whilst onholiday near the German city ofAschaffenburg on an arrest warrant.

Iranian Ambassador to Vienna DrEbadollah Molaei, was summoned byAustria’s Foreign Ministry to explainAssadi’s role and that of others based inthe embassy. This followed intelligencecommunications from various agencies,including the CIA, that the building wasused as a support and coordination cen-tre of all of MOIS’ European operations.

Extradiction Approved by German CourtMOIS EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE CONTROLLER

Dr Ebadollah Molaei


ISIS A WORLDWIDE THREATUK WARNS THAT TERROR GROUP ARE FAR FROM FINISHED

Speaking at the UnitedNations in New York, asPresident of the SecurityCouncil for August,British Foreign Secretary

Jeremy Hunt warned that ISIS isfar from defeated and remains aworldwide threat. He said thatdespite losing its capacity as anorganised fighting force, it hasevolved into a “covert terroristnetwork with tentacles around theworld.”

Referencing UN statistics, Huntsaid whilst the terrorist group haslost much control in Syria andIraq, some 20,000-30,000 of itsfollowers remain in the theatres.Citing intelligence reports, manyof the operatives are from foreignlands and are therefore a globaldanger. Hunt said of 900 terroristswith threads to the UK, 40% areknown to have returned to Britain,whilst 180 others have been killed.

Hunt told delegates: “The point Iwish to emphasise today is Daeshhas not been vanquished and theroot causes of its emergence have

yet to be resolved. Britain sharesthe assessment of the Secretary-General’s report that Daesh isresponding to the loss of territoryby evolving into a covert terroristnetwork, with branches as farapart as Afghanistan, Libya andYemen.”

Urging nations to continueconfronting ISIS militarily, he saidthat more should be done tocounter its activities on theInternet in respect of propagandaand recruitment. He also said itwas important to root out thecauses of why people join thegroup and adopt plans to counterextremism. Interestingly, hereferenced the UK endeavourPrevent, in which “500 people hadbeen turned away from terrorism.”

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt addresses UN Security Council

USAF air strike targetingISIS terrorists during theMosul offensive in 2017

ISIS leader Abu Bakral -Baghdadi

ormer FBI Deputy DirectorAndrew McCabe, hassuggested the release of his

WAR OF WORDSNEW ‘TELL-ALL’ BOOK DELAYED

Fbook - The Threat: How the FBI

Protects America in the Age of

Terror and Trump, has beendelayed because of his previousdisputes with President Trump,underhand politics and the on-going disagreements between the

US Intelligence Community andthe White House. When in office,McCabe, was criticised by DonaldTrump for allegedly siding withHillary Clinton’s election campaignpeople. The book, which wasscheduled for release in earlyDecember, will not reach thebookstands until February, at thevery earliest.

“I am disappointed that we havehad to substantially delay thepublication date for my book,because the FBI review has takenfar longer than they led me to

believe,” McCabe said. “Havingbeen singled out for irregularunfair treatment over the pastyear, I am concerned it could behappening again.”

McCabe said he wrote the bookbecause the “president’s attack onme symbolise his destructiveeffect on the country as a whole.”

All intelligence-related manu-scripts written by former seniorUS intelligence officers are sentfor pre-publication review.

AndrewMcCabe

RIGA: The Constitution Protection Bureau(counterintelligence agency of Latvia) sent aletter to the Parliamentary Commission onHuman Rights and Public Affairs and warnedthat the publication of former KGB files of theLatvian SSR (LSSR KGB) - referred to in thecountry as the ‘Bags of the Cheka,’ is an act

BAGS OF THE CHEKALATVIAN KGB FILES

that “meets the interests of the countries thatare unfriendly to Latvia.”

Earlier, the Latvian Ministry of Justice devel-oped a project of new rules that will allowLatvian residents to access and research thearchives of the LSSR KGB. Hundreds of sen-sitive case files and the identity of intelligenceofficers and Moscow-friendly individuals willbe made available to researchers and thepublic alike via the National Archive and onthe Internet.


K Real estate firm Knight Frank has listed 21 Queen Anne’sGate in Westminster for offers in excess of £11.5. In the early1920s, MI6 Chief Rear Admiral Hugh ‘Quex’ Sinclair used the

CLASSIFIED ADSDRIVING THE A4 WATCHERSSecurity Service Driving Instructors

A driving instructors’ advertposted by Britain’s MI5 hasattracted over 1,000

applications. The instructors’primary role will be to conductdriving assessments for MI5 staff,including surveillance officersoperating within its famous A4department known for over half-a-century as the Watchers.

The advert reads: ‘All assess-

ments follow a stringent reporting

process, you will be required to

assess a member of staff’s

driving ability and be asked for

your professional guidance

relating to staff meeting the

relevant criteria’. Other dutiescould include running trainingcourses lasting up to five days forpersonnel who are alreadyqualified drivers but who arerequired to ‘upgrade their skill

level’.

As is mandatory in all BritishIntelligence adverts, MI5 caution

potential applicants: ‘MI5 is

responsible for protecting the UK

against threats to national

security’. Those interested in theposition are cautioned: ‘You

should not discuss your applica-

tion, other than with your partner

or a close family member’.

Once qualified within the role,opportunities exist to develop‘driver capability and upskill in

various areas’, according to theadvert. Successful applicants canexpect to be paid between£33,783 and £36,103 plusbenefits.

BACK OFFICE INTELLIGENCEMI5, MI6 and GCHQ to Merge

Key Back-Office Positions

A nother UK Governmentadvert that attracted theinterest of intelligence

watchers concerns the likelymerging of a number of essentialintelligence administration offices.The Whitehall advert references anew post - ‘Director of MI5/MI6Estates’ and asks for applicantswith ‘proven experience leading

and embedding large-scale

transformative change’.

A joint Finance Director advertread: ‘We are in the process of

creating a new Shared Corporate

Services organisation to deliver a

range of services including HR,

Finance, Security, Commercial

and Estates. This organisation will

sit at the heart of the Agencies’

strategies and mission and will

allow us to deliver more whilst

keeping our staff safe and

secure’.

An official said: “It will be the firsttime some of the administrative orother services have been sharedin such a way. This is designed toincrease efficiency but it certainlydoesn’t signal a desire for thethree agencies to dilute their ownorganisation’s identity or to mergebuildings.”

The Shared Corporate Servicesorganisation will be based inThames House, MI5’s Londonheadquarters (left).

A RESIDENCE OF SECRETSFor Sale: Former MI6 Chief’s

Office, Residence and Corridor

Ubuilding as his residence and office. He actually built a small corridorwhich connected his apartment to the nearby Broadway Buildings -headquarters of MI6. Queen Anne’s Gate also supported numerousother intelligence elements.

21 Queen Anne’s Gate

©CL

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INSI

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he FBI has arrested asenior Chinese intelligenceofficial for allegedlyattempting to steal tradesecrets from GE Aviation

CHINA SPY GAMES

United States Detains Alleged Chinese Spy Accused ofAttempting to Secure Aviation and Technology Secrets

Tand other major US aerospacecompanies after luring the suspectto Belgium, in what the US JusticeDepartment called “an unprec-edented extradition.”

Xu Yanjun, who also uses thenames Qu Hui and Zhang Hui, isdescribed in court documents as‘An official of China’s Ministry of

State Security (MSS), responsible

for foreign intelligence and

political security’. Xu wasextradited to the US with assis-tance from Belgium Intelligencefor seeking “to steal trade secretsand other sensitive information

from an American company thatleads the way in aerospace,”Assistant Attorney General forNational Security John C. Demerssaid in a Justice Departmentannouncement.

“Beginning in at least December2013 and continuing until hisarrest, Xu targeted certaincompanies inside and outside theUnited States that are recognisedas leaders in the aviation field,”Demers said. “He identifiedexperts who worked for thesecompanies and recruited them totravel to China, often initially underthe guise of asking them to delivera university presentation.”

The extradition of Xu was a jointeffort between the FBI’s Cincinnati

Division, with “substantialsupport” provided by the FBILegal Attache’s Office in Brusselsas well as Belgian law enforce-ment officials, who “providedsignificant assistance in securingthe arrest and facilitating thesurrender of Xu from Belgium,”according to a Justice Departmentofficial.

Xu faces two counts each ofconspiring and attempting tocommit economic espionage andtheft of trade secrets, and couldbe given a prison sentence of upto 25-years in addition to fines ifcharged and convicted.

Xu’s case is linked to the arrest ofJi Chaoqun, 27, a Chinese citizen

living in Chicago in September,according to sources. Ji wasaccused of passing informationon eight Americans to Chineseintelligence officers for possiblerecruitment.

Ji targeted individuals in scienceand technology industries, seven

of whom worked for or recentlyretired from US defence contrac-tors. All were naturalised UScitizens born either in mainlandChina or the self-governed islandof Taiwan.

According to a criminal complaint,Ji began communicating withChinese intelligence officers in late2013. He travelled to and fromChina three times between 2013and 2015.

FBI Director Christopher Wraybelieves China represents a biggerthreat to US interests than Russia,while Vice President Mike Penceaccused Beijing of trying toundermine American interests,both “economically and militarily.”

Ji Chaoqun

MSS agent XuYanjun targeted

GE Aviation(amongst others)

which hassupplied engines

to companiessuch as Boeing

and Airbus

FBI DirectorChristopher Wray


ormer NSA employee Nghia HoangPho, 64, a naturalised US citizenoriginally from Vietnam hasreceived a prison sentence of upto 66 months for “wilful retention

THE INADVERTENT SPYNSA Staffer Receives Prison Sentence

Fof classified national defense information.”The US Department of Justice (DOJ), said Phoremoved “massive troves” of highly classifiednational defence information withoutauthorisation and kept it at his home. Pho saidhe took home classified hacking softwaretools and documents to train “in order to get abetter performance review.”

Former NSA and US Cyber Command DirectorAdmiral Mike Rogers, said that the removedmaterials “had significant negative impacts onthe NSA mission, the NSA workforce, and theIntelligence Community as a whole.”

Rogers said: “Some of NSA’s most sophisti-cated, hard-to-achieve, and importanttechniques of collecting [signals intelligence]from sophisticated targets of the NSA,including collection that is crucial to decision

makers when answering some of the nation’shighest-priority questions. Techniques of thekind Mr Pho was entrusted to protect, yetremoved from secure space, are forcemultipliers, allowing for intelligence collectionin a multitude of environments around theglobe and spanning a wide range of securitytopics. Compromise of one technique canplace many opportunities for intelligencecollection and national security insight at risk.”

The intelligence man also revealed that due toPho’s actions, the NSA “was left with nochoice but to abandon certain important

initiatives, at great economic and operationalcosts.”

Just as important, and information notcontained in court documents, Pho, probablyinadvertently, provided secret NSA code toRussian cyber security firm, Kaspersky Lab,which some intelligence commentators claim,employs a number of former Russianintelligence people. Kaspersky routinely scansits clients’ computers for viruses. In Pho’scase, the company allegedly detected the NSAcode and sent it to Kaspersky’s servers inMoscow for analysis. That analysis matchedthe new code with code Kaspersky hadpreviously connected to what it has nick-named the Equation Group - widely believed tobe NSA’s elite Tailored Access Operationsdivision where Pho worked.

This may have relevance to Rogers statementregarding the Agency having to end certainoperations. Pho is not alleged to have given upthe files knowingly. Kaspersky claims itdestroyed the NSA hacking tools when itrealised what they were.

Details of the Equation Group and otherNSA operations were leaked by NSA/

CIA contractor Edward Snowden.Thousands of secret documents thenfound their way onto the Internet via

entities such as WikiLeaksNghiaHoang

Pho

Admiral Mike Rogers

WASHINGTON: The latest spy cases involving the NSA coincided with the release of anew report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Following a lengthyinvestigation, officials revealed that “nearly all” the weapons systems developed by theUS military from 2012 to 2017 are vulnerable to cyber attack. The US watchdog saidthat during some tests, “operatives hacked into complex weapons systems and tookcontrol over them using relatively simple tools and techniques.”

Officials said a primary reason why the weapons systems are so vulnerable to cyberattack is because of their “connectivity to other systems,” something the Pentagonviews as an advantage. However, the GAO said that by engaging with other systems,potential hackers need only penetrate one of the connected systems to potentiallygain access to others.

US WEAPONS SYSTEMS VULNERABLE


wo Iranian nationals have beenarrested and charged with spyingoffences for allegedly surveillingpolitical targets on behalf of theIranian government. AhmadrezaMohammadi-Doostdar, 38, who

SURVEILLANSURVEILLANTHE IRANIAN

Two Charged UnderEspionage Laws in the

United States

Tholds duel US-Iran citizenship and MajidGhorbani, 59, who has lived in California sincethe mid-1990s, were detained following an FBIoperation in which the suspects conductedextensive surveillance on Jewish centres andpolitical gatherings. One target the suspectsallegedly photographed was the Rohr ChabadHouse in Chicago, a Jewish institution servingthe University of Chicago and Hyde Park. Herethey monitored visitors as well as takingphotographs of specific security features onthe building.

The Justice Department said Doostdar hadtravelled to the United States in July 2017,with specific instructions to gather intelligenceon the centres and Iranian opposition partyMujahdeen-e Khalq (MEK) members. InSeptember 2017, Ghorbani attended an MEKevent in New York City in which he reportedlyphotographed leading officials and senior

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participants. The FBI believe the informationwas then delivered to Doostdar in late 2017 inreturn of a $2,000 payment.

In December 2017, Doostdar was stopped ata US airport as he tried to make his way backto Iran. The FBI discovered handwritten noteson 28 photographs of MEK members and aconcealed receipt for the $2,000 payment.One of the photographs seized by the FBI wasthat of Alireza Jafarzadeh (below), DeputyDirector of National Council of Resistance ofIran (USA), a well known author and analyst.In 2002, Jafarzadeh, an active Iraniandissident, revealed a great many secrets aboutTehran’s secret nuclear facilities. Now apolitical commentator, he wrote the informa-tive book The Iran

Threat: President

Ahmadinejad and

the Coming

Nuclear Crisis.

On learning of themen’s arrest,Jafarzadeh said:“The Iranian

Logo of the NationalCouncil of Resistance

of Iran (NCRI)

regime hasbeen operatinghere underdifferentcovers, underdifferent waysfor the pastyears...decades. Theygot away withpretty mucheverything.”

ARREST

Now under surveillance, Ghorbani attended anMEK-affiliated Iran Freedom Convention forHuman Rights in Washington, on 5 May 2018.He was observed taking more photographs ofthe speakers and audience. Thereafter he metDoostdar again to discuss securing safepassage of the intelligence back to Iran andhow it would prove useful to the country. EyeSpy understands this particular liaison wasrecorded, and along with the surveillanceintelligence, led to the FBI arresting theoperatives in August.

“This alleged activitydemonstrates acontinued interest intargeting the UnitedStates, as well aspotential oppositiongroups located in theUnited States,” namelythe Mujahideen-e Khalq(MEK) or People’sMujahedin of Iran, said Michael McGarrity(above), acting executive assistant director ofthe FBI’s Counterterrorism Division inWashington DC.

The incident follows the arrest of an IranianIntelligence (MOIS) controlled cell in Europe.In this case the operatives sought to detonatea bomb targeting MEK members attending aconference in Paris (See Eye Spy 117).

Under surveillance - Rohr Chabad House, Chicago


THE NOVICHOK INCIDENT

ollowing extensive cross-referencing of 11,000 hours ofCCTV footage in London,Salisbury and other locations insouthern England, BritishIntelligence has identified twoF

ASSASSINS IDENTIFIED?

prime suspects in the attempted assassinationof MI6 agent Sergei Skripal on 4 March 2018.The alleged Kremlin-sanctioned operationinvolving the deadly Novichok nerve agentalso affected the health of Skripal’s daughterYulia. On 30 June, civilians Charlie Rowley andhis partner Dawn Sturgess fell ill after theysprayed what they believed was perfume ontheir arms. Rowley had found the bottle in arubbish bin in Salisbury. Sturgess died on 8July from Novichok poisoning.

Other additional information collected fromtravel documents, places the suspects visitedand stayed, plus unspecified documentationwhich Eye Spy understands was supplied by a‘third party’ (foreign intelligence service), ledto the naming of Russian nationals ‘AlexanderPetrov’ and ‘Ruslan Boshirov’. BritishIntelligence and New Scotland Yard CounterTerrorism Command believe the names arepseudonyms, assigned to the men byRussia’s GRU (military intelligence).

A JIGSAW PUZZLE

Investigative group Bellingcat (an assembly ofprivate investigators and news collectors

founded in2014) tracedmilitaryimagery of anindividualpictured in agroup photo ofgraduates inChechnya.Somecommentatorssuggest it isBoshirov.

GRU officers named by British Intelligence in theattempted assassination of MI6 agent Sergei Skripal

and murder of civilian Dawn Sturgess, as GRU‘Cleaners’ fail to remove evidence of Kremlin

involvement

Sergei Skripal

2009 photo of GRUColonel Anatoliy Chepiga

SalisburyTalesSalisburyTales

TheThe


Alexander PetrovRuslan Boshirov

However, the reference to the person isColonel Anatoliy Chepiga. Literature describedhim as an intelligence officer who served in

GRU chief Igor Korobov (right) and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu

UK Secretary of Defence GavinWilliam with US Secretary of DefenceJames Mattis at NATO headquarters.The US supports Britain’s stance onRussia’s involvement in the incident

A BBC investigate team travelled tothe village of Beryozovka whereChepiga once lived. At least one

resident recognised him

the 14th Spetsnaz Brigade in various theatresand was declared a ‘Hero of the RussianFederation’ in 2014. For accurate reporting itshould be recorded that on Bellingcat.com acaption read: ‘Bellingcat does not claim that

the person in the photograph is Chepiga’.

What is known of the officer is that Chepigawas born on 5 April 1978 and he trained atone of Russia’s most revered facilities - theFar Eastern Military Command Academy. Hisname also features on a memorial wallcelebrating elite officers.

Seemingly supportive of reports Boshirov isChepiga, UK Defence Secretary GavinWilliamson tweeted: ‘The true identity of one

of the Salisbury suspects has been revealed

to be a Russian Colonel. I want to thank all the

people who are working so tirelessly on this

case’. Interestingly, the tweet has since beendeleted.

Also in reference to the story, former ForeignSecretary Boris Johnson tweeted: ‘Utterly

predictable news that the GRU is behind

Skripal atrocity’. His tweet remains active.

CONFIRMATION?

In late September, a BBC investigative teamtravelled to the village of Beryozovka, 5,000miles east of Moscow and close to theChinese border. It was here where Chepigawas reportedly raised. A woman in the villagewas shown the photograph secured byBellingcat and other images and immediatelyrecognised him. She acknowledged that the

Bellingcat lead investigator on theSalisbury case - Christo Grozen


Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov caught on CCTV at Gatwick Airport 2 March

The photo which allegedly shows GRU Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga (far right)

UK Security Minister Ben Wallace

Photo of GRU Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga(above) and a still from the RT interviewshowing Ruslan Boshirov. It is alleged

Boshirov is Anatoliy Chepiga

TRADING PLACESVI

A BE

LLIN

GCAT

.COM

Below: Photographs secured byBellingcat of Dr Alexander Mishkin - A.k.a.

Alexander Petrov

image released by New Scotland Yard wasalso the same man, “only older.” Speaking onthe condition of anonymity, the woman said:“It’s him in the photos, of course.”

Of the allegations Boshirov and Chepiga areone and the same man, Kremlin spokesmanDmitry Peskov said the imagery provesnothing. “We don’t know to what extent wecan make any formal conclusions about wholooks like whom, are they alike, where theylived, where they grew up. On Red Squarethere are still 10 Stalins and 15 Lenins runningaround, and they look remarkably like theoriginals.” Peskov was referring to people wholook like Stalin and Lenin and pose fortourists.

THE GRU DOCTOR

On 9 October Bellingcat and The Insiderreleased a statement and imagery on thealleged true identity of Alexander Petrov. Hewas named as Dr Alexander Mishkin, 39 whois also a Hero of the Russian Federation.According to researchers at Bellingcat,Mishkin assumed his new identity in 2010.

Eye Spy was informed that much of thepainstaking investigative research intodiscovering the true identities of the GRU menwas conducted by The Insider’s founder,Roman Dobrokhotov and journalist SergeiKanev.

Eye Spy was informed initial identification wasmade by MI5 and MI6 just weeks after theMarch incident, but details withheld as theinvestigation widened. However, this wouldexplain why Britain was so quick to point thefinger of blame at Moscow. Of additional note,the two suspects had used the pseudonymsfor at least two years in several Europeancountries (including the UK), to “strengthenthe validity of their identification papers,”according to MI6 sources.

COVER AND LEGEND

The release of photographs of Petrov andBoshirov showing the men in various locations


Memorial of the Far Eastern Military Command School. Colonel Chepigais the last name that features on the wall (far right - boxed)

Tourists or assassins? Suspected GRU officers Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov pictured in Fisherton Road,Salisbury, England, close to the home of former MI6 agent Sergei Skripal on 4 March - the day of the attack

Salisbury Cathedral

The RT interview with RuslanBoshirov and Alexander Petrov

COUR

TESY

: NEW

SCO

TLAN

D YA

RD©

RT

in London and Salisbury accompanied by adetailed timeline of their movements,generated a plethora of stories and commen-tary from leading British officials andintelligence people alike. Downing Street saidthe assassins were both experienced GRUintelligence officers who had used “flawlessdocumentation” to enter the UK and completetheir mission - “to kill Sergei Skripal.” BritishSecurity Minister Ben Wallace, said PresidentPutin was “ultimately responsible” for the“pathetic GRU operation” and said theoperatives were “calamitous state assassins.”Wallace continued: “The [Russian] stateclearly decided to sit behind this action andlend its logistics. The men were given genuinepassports, provided with aliases that surviveda certain level of test and visas used by manylaw-abiding Russians to visit Britain forholidays or business.

“The Russian state, which we know hadinvented Novichok, must have made sure itwas put in a package that was there to disguise it. If you let them [the operatives] into

your system, airside in Russia, it becomes aharder thing to detect.”

In response, President Putin again insisted theRussians were simply civilians - “tourists whohad embarked on a trip to visit special areas,”

including Salisbury Cathedral. Putin’scomments followed an RT television interviewbroadcast in Russian, in which both menadmitted being in Salisbury and may well havepassed Skripal’s house, but denied sprayingthe nerve agent on his house door which theunfortunate spy and his daughter touched.


The charges against Petrov andBoshirov include the attempted murderof police officer Nick Bailey who was

exposed to Novichok and hospitalised

4 March - 11.58am: Boshirov andPetrov in Wilton Road, Salisbury.

Skripal’s house is just a fewminutes walk away

President Putin has insisted the suspects are not GRU intelligence officers

CharlieRowley

OFFI

CE O

F TH

E PR

ESID

ENT

OF R

USSI

A

so they remain in London after checking in atthe City Stay Hotel in the east of the capital.

SATURDAY 3 MARCH: The men book dayreturn train tickets from London to Salisbury,where they are again captured in CCTV in thetown. This trip was described as a “reconnais-sance mission” by intelligence analysts. Aftera few hours they returned to London.

SUNDAY 4 MARCH: In the morning theRussians again travel to Salisbury where theyare caught on a number of CCTV cameras inthe town. One image taken at 11.58am showsthe men on Fisherton Street, quite close toSkripal’s residence. According to policesources, the imagery was captured shortlybefore they had sprayed Novichok on the frontdoor handle of Skripal’s house. By 4.45pm,the men had returned to London

At around 4.10pm, both Sergei Skripal and hisdaughter Yulia are found unconscious on apark bench in Salisbury - both were “foamingat the mouth,” according to eye witnesses.

Petrov and Boshirov collect their sparsebelongings at their hotel and journey to

Mishkin’s passport

Heathrow Airport. At around 10.30pm theydepart the UK and a few hours later arriveback in Moscow.

Missing from the released timeline, butundoubtedly secured by MI5, is informationmost sensitive. This concerns a field support-ive group which, according to a number ofinformed correspondents, assisted Petrov andBoshirov in the operation and was probablycontrolled by other senior GRU people both inLondon and Moscow. According to thesources, Skripal was surveilled for weeks,perhaps months prior to the attack and hisroutine carefully noted. Similarly, on the day

Interestingly, while Putin supported the notionthe suspects are simply civilians, intelligencewatchers note that it is usually the presidenthimself who awards the Hero of the RussianFederation medal - meaning he almostcertainly handed it Colonel Anatoliy Chepigaand Dr Mishkin, who many now agree areBoshirov and Petrov. Though Boshirov isknown to have travelled widely in Europe forthe last two years, Eye Spy sources inMoscow believe he was given a new coverand legend almost a decade ago, making himthe “perfect international traveller for overseasoperations and tasks.”

72 HOURS

Following collaboration between varioussecurity services and authorities, MI5 andNew Scotland Yard developed a precisetimeline of the suspects movements, whichintelligence commentators believe negates themen’s story of a “tourist trip.”

FRIDAY 2 MARCH: Petrov and Boshirov flyinto the UK from Moscow arriving at GatwickAirport shortly before 3.00pm where CCTVshows them entering the country. They arealso captured on several cameras at Waterlooand Victoria Stations. For the next 24-hours or


Karen Pierce UK Ambassador to the UN, delivers ascathing report to officials of the assassination attempt

British newspapers generally agreed that RuslanBoshirov is in fact GRU Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga

Dawn Sturgess sprayedthe substance on

herself and succumbedto the poison

the Novichok was sprayed on his front doorhandle (in broad daylight), both suspects musthave acted without fear of being seen at hishome, or, as some surveillance authoritiessuggest, the operatives used a less-thanconspicuous third party to ‘deliver’ the poison- an act which would have taken seconds.Crucially, traces of Novichok were alsodiscovered in the room the men had booked inthe City Stay Hotel in London.

SUMMONED

Following release of the timeline and otherinforma-tion,Britainsummoneda seniordiplomat attheRussianEmbassyto confirmchargeshad beenbroughtagainst thetwoRussians.The officialserved to

replace Ambassador Alexander Yakovenkowho was not in the UK at the time. A govern-ment spokesmen said: “He [the Russiandiplomat] was informed of the charges wehave brought against the two Russian citizens,the fact that they were GRU officers and of ourdetermination that they should be brought tojustice.

“We also made clear that the UK expects theRussian state to account for the reckless andoutrageous actions of the GRU and that the UKexpects that Russia provide a full account ofits chemical weapons programmes to theOPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition ofChemical Weapons).”

The UK charges include conspiracy to murderSkripal by poisoning and UK police officerNick Bailey, plus the use and possession ofNovichok contrary to the Chemical WeaponsAct.

EVIDENCE AND ARRESTS WARRANTS

European-wide arrest warrants (Red Notices)have duly been issued by Interpol. However,Russia has an ‘embedded law’ that it does notextradite its own nationals, regardless of thenature of the alleged crime or incident; the pairtherefore are unlikely to return to the UK,though this does not mean New Scotland Yard

will simply end its pursuit of the GRUoperatives.

Besides an array of convincing imagery andsupporting evidence, much of which remainssecret, NSY also provided further detailsrelating to the delivery method of nerve agent.The poison was contained in a bottle (boxed)labelled Premier Jour by Nina Ricci. Oninspection, the label and container were foundto be “convincing counterfeits.”

Forensic specialists also confirmed the bottlehad been adapted to support a tube whichallowed the operatives to spray or drip thepoison on the door handle without risk ofcontamination. And sadly it was this bottle andplastic tube that civilian Charlie Rowley, 43,discovered and handled in June. His partnerDawn Sturgess, 44, died after spraying thesubstance on her person.

Complimentary information released by NSYalso revealed Rowley had found the items in arubbish bin in Salisbury, not in a park aspreviously reported. NSY described theconcealment method of the Novichok as a“perfect cover for smuggling the weapon intothe country and a perfect delivery method.”However, they still have not ascertained ifother items (contaminated) were used in theattack.

City Stay Hotel

© EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE


4 March - 1.50pm: Boshirov and Petrov are again caughton CCTV cameras at Salisbury Train Station

4 March - 11.40am: Boshirov and Petrov arrive atSalisbury Train Station

Analysts also said the amount of Novichokcontained in the bottle could have killed asmany as 4,000 people - a figure which hasfurther infuriated the British Government.

The entire case file of evidence has since beenpresented to the UN Security Council, whichmay result in further sanctions againstMoscow.

UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS

Despite the weight of evidence secured bynumerous investigative and intelligencebodies, Russia continues to blame the UK forthe “loss of a toxic poison,” and havedismissed suggestions the operation was

conducted by the GRU and supported by theKremlin. However, the interview given byPetrov and Boshirov to RT, was described byone Russian commentator as “uncomfortablewatching.”

The men, supposedly in the “sports nutritionbusiness,” told their RT interviewer they werein the UK to visit the “famous Salisburycathedral and its 123-metre tall spire,” as wellas the Stonehenge monument. However, thesnowy and chilly weather conditions were notconducive to a lengthier stay and they opted toreturn to London quickly.

They have denied bringing Novichok into thecountry and are now “fearful of their own

lives.” Boshirov said: “We areafraid to go out... we fear forourselves and the lives of ourloved ones. Our lives havebeen turned upside down.”The men insisted they want anapology from the UK authori-ties and want the realperpetrators to be caught andconvicted.

Asked directly if they work forthe GRU, Boshirov quicklyinjected, “I don’t,” whilePetrov said, “And I don’t... yesthis is probably the scariestpart of the UK charges andallegations.”

A body language specialisttold Eye Spy, the menappeared nervous anduncomfortable: “They weremotionless, and thoughattempting to display a calmexterior it appears they werebriefed. At times they injectedimprobable comments, suchas a specific reference to the

cathedral’s 123-metre spire; there is tensionand an obvious instruction to deliver theirresponses with little or no emotion.” DowningStreet called the RT interview “deeplyoffensive to the victims.”

As for Bellingcat’s information, there has beenno reference to the GRU or the re-publishingof imagery in any notable Russian mediahouse which convincingly shows two peoplewho look remarkably like Boshirov and Petrov.MI5 and NSY have not disputed or commentedon the investigative group’s material.

THE SWISS LABORATORY

Another case file which could be connected tothe Salisbury incident emerged in Holland andSwitzerland. Two alleged Russian ‘spies’ weredetained and later expelled from Holland earlierthis year as they planned an operation againstthe OPCW-designated Swiss Spiez Laboratorywhich was examining samples of theNovichok nerve agent used in the attack. Thisincident seems inextricably linked or is part ofthe Dutch Intelligence investigation into thealleged GRU operation to hack into thecomputer main frame of the OPCW at theorganisation’s headquarters in the Hague.(See page 64).

MI5 believes the two suspects were supportedby other individuals engaged in surveillance

activities prior to and during the attackThe OPCW-designatedSwiss Spiez Laboratory

EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 118 2018 21

4 March: The suspects pass through a security point atHeathrow Airport as they depart the UK for Moscow

Foreign SecretaryJeremy Hunt

According to the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper (a Zurich-based Swiss-German publication) the suspects were carrying ‘specialist equipment’

that could be used to engage with the computersystems used at the Swiss facility.

Besides speculation that the men were attemptingto glean information on the Salisbury case, thelaboratory was also investigating data on a poisongas attack in Syria. Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry

summoned Russia’s ambassador and protested“against the attempted attack,” and said“Russia should immediately cease spyingin the country.”

There was speculation the two menexpelled by Holland were theSalisbury suspects, but this is mostunlikely, despite the men admittingthey had visited Switzerland on a

least one occasion in the last 12months.

A NOTE OF CAUTIONDR YURI FELSHTINSKY

Dr Yuri Felshtinsky authored the importantbook Blowing Up Russia with former FSBofficer and MI6 agent Alexander Litvinenko. In2014 he gave an exclusive interview to Eye Spyfeatured in issue 90. Here he provides insight

on two important aspects of the Salisbury investigation

Bellingcat.com’s evidence that Dawn Sturgess’s killer Boshirovis in fact GRU Colonel Chepiga seems plausible.However, caution needs to be exercised to avoid a situationwhere Moscow parades the war hero on TV together withBoshirov to show how Western media fakes news.

Two facts give pause for thought at the moment: the fact thatretired FSB PR General Alexander Mikhailov has denouncedthe identification. Only on Vladimir Putin’s instruction would heget involved in a campaign of disinformation to make the Westlook unreliable as the creator of fake news about the killer ofDawn Sturgess. Secondly,Chepiga has a high-profileas a war hero, which mustmean limited usefulness asa GRU secret agent ifsecrecy was the objective.In any case, while Boshirovand Chepiga may be thesame or may be differentpeople, one fact remainsthat Moscow cannot‘cloud’ - Dawn Sturgesswas definitely killed byRuslan Boshirov.

GRU MINDSETEven though they botched their covert attack on Sergei Skripaland are now publicly named, President Putin will praise thetwo members of the GRU and reward them in ways that willadvance their career, promoting them as heroes now that theircover is blown. GRU attacks, moreover, have a broader briefthan the lethal precision attacks organised by the FSB. In thecase of the GRU, the death of innocent bystanders is seen asan accepted risk as was the case with the first use of Novichokagainst Ivan Kivelidi in 1995, when not only he but alsohis secretary died in Moscow from the poison placed on thereceiver of his office phone.

For the GRU, a campaign in Britain is no different from themilitary campaign in Syria where civilians get killed.

BELLINGCAT DATA

Continued on Page 78

Guy ParmelinFIS Director

General Alexander Mikhailov

Russian Intelligence Specialist


Eye Spy examines a number of recent unexplained eventsthat have attracted the attention of the intelligence world

MISSINGFrom a Nuclear Warhead

to a Cyber Specialist

WC-135Constant Phoenix

ussia has quietly engaged in anextensive search for a nuclear-poweredmissile that went missing during a firing

RUSSIABUREVESTNIK MISSILE

Rtest several months ago, according toAmerican intelligence sources. It is believedthat the missile crashed in the Barents Sea, avast expanse of water located off the northerncoasts of Russia and Norway. The nuclearcore failed to activate mid-flight.

The search is being linked to the testing offour Russia Burevestnik (Storm Petral)missiles between November 2017 andFebruary 2018. President Vladimir Putin saidthe prototypes could “attack any target at anyrange” and even referenced Florida in theUnited States. Intelligence sources said all fourtests failed, with the best attempt lasting justtwo minutes and covering a distance of only22 miles. Intelligence watchers report thePentagon may have authorised a secretoperation to locate the lost missile. This

follows sightings of USAF WC-135 ConstantPhoenix aircraft over the Barents and BalticSeas from March to August 2018. The aircrafthave sensitive equipment onboard to detectairborne samples from the atmospherefollowing a nuclear explosion.

The Russian search mission, which has nodefinite timeline, consists of various vessels,including a nuclear-powered Delta-IVsubmarine and at least one ship which isspecially equipped to handle radioactivematerial from the missing missile’s nuclearcore - should it ever be located.

Moscow has not commented on the allegationthat “one of its missiles is missing.”

Russian NavyDelta-IV

hile on a routine patrol, a NATOfighter warplane (SpanishEurofighter 2000) accidentally

ESTONIATHE TRIGGER MISSILE

Wfired an air-to-air missile near the Russian-Estonian border which has yet to be retrieved.

The aircraft was part of a group of SpanishEurofighter Typhoon 2000 jets and FrenchMirage 2000 jets. According to EstonianDefense Forces, AMRAAM missiles areequipped with a self-destruction mode thatshould self-activate in such situations.However, it has not been confirmed whetherthe procedure was triggered and thus thereremains the possibility that the missile issomewhere on the ground.

Confirmation of the incident came as theDefense Forces of Estonia issued an alert,warning the public an unexploded missile or

An AIM-120 AMRAAM missilefitted to a USAF F-16 Fighting

Falcon


parts of it could be on the ground. Officialsadvised that should a citizen discover thedebris, they should immediately contact theauthorities. A search operation was launchedto identify where the missile is.

Estonia’s Prime Minister said the incident was“extremely regrettable.” Chief of the Staff ofthe Estonian Defence Forces (EDF) MajorGeneral Martin Herem said: “In all likelihoodthe missile exploded in mid-air.”

Military analystswarn that thefiring of a NATOmissile so closeto the Russiaborder could have“triggered amilitary responsefrom Moscow.”

Spanish Air Force Eurofighter 2000

Major GeneralMartin Herem

highly radioactive device used by anenergy company has gone missing inMalaysia, sparking a nationwide

MALAYSIADIRTY BOMB SCENARIO

Aemergency for fear that it might have beenstolen by a terrorist group. According toMalaysia’s New Straits Times newspaper, aradioactive dispersal device (RDD), which isused for the industrial radiography of oil andgas supplies, disappeared during transit inAugust.

The device, which weighs approximately 50pounds, or 23 kilogrammes, disappeared fromthe back of a company truck in the early hoursof the morning while it was being transportedby two technicians. They were reportedlytransporting the RDD from Kuala Lumpur toSeremban, an industrial town with a popula-tion of approximately 600,000, located 40miles south of the Malaysian capital KualaLumpur.

A major question regarding the missing deviceconcerns the amount of iridium containedwithin. Iridium is a radioactive substance thatis used for the non-destructive testing (knownas industrial radiography) of oil and gassupplies. Some experts have expressedconcerns that the radioactive substance insidethe missing RDD could be combined withconventional explosives and be used as a‘dirty bomb’ in order to contaminate a highlypopulated area with radiation.

Journalists quoted an unnamed official atMalaysia’s Atomic Energy Licensing Board as

Radioactive dispersal device (RDD)

saying that “under no circumstances can theRDD fall into the wrong hands, as theconsequences could be deadly.”

onfusion and controversy still surroundsthe fate of a Russian Air Force IL-20surveillance aircraft (NATO reporting

SYRIAAERIAL SURVEILLANCE

Cname Coot) which disappeared over north-west Syria on 18 September. Moscow said theaircraft was carrying 15 specialist crew. Someintelligence commentators believe Syrian airdefense forces may have accidentally shotdown the aircraft during an attempt to respondto Israeli air strikes against targets in Syria’scoastal Latakia region.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have notcommented on its alleged Syrian operations orthe incident involving the IL-20. This report-edly involved F-16 fighters firing stand-offweapons, possibly from Lebanese airspace,into Latakia at a Syrian Organisation forTechnological Industries facility. This agencyis linked to Syria’s chemical weapons andadvanced missile programmes.

Some Russian intelligence sources believethat the Israeli warplanes used in the attack onthe plant, flew perilously close to the surveil-lance aircraft. A Russian MOD spokesmansaid: “The IL-20 was given less than a minutewarning to depart the area. The Israeli planes

RussianDefenceMinisterSergeiShoigu


hile much media attention has beenafforded on the reported disappear-ance of Washington Post journalist

deliberately created a dangerous situation forsurface ships and aircraft in the area.” Hewent on to accuse the IDF of “using theRussian aeroplane as cover putting it in line offire coming from Syrian air defence systems.”Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu toldhis Israeli counterpart that the “blame restsfirmly with Israel.”

As for the aircraft, it remains missing.

THE CYBER MAN

WNORWAY

Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey on 2 October,intelligence watchers continue to investigatethe strange case of Arjen Kamphuis, a leadingDutch cyber security expert. He reportedlydisappeared from the small northern town ofBodo, Norway, in late August and hasn’t beenseen since. He told friends he was taking atrain to Trondheim, a journey which wouldhave taken 10 hours, but he reportedly neverboarded the train, nor did he catch a sched-uled return flight back to Amsterdam, Holland.

A white foldable kayak believed to belong toKamphuis, was pulled from the sea along withan ID card around 30 miles east of Bodo. Butmobile phone records show that 10 days afterKamphuis was seen leaving his hotel, both hiswork and personal mobile phones were brieflyswitched on - with German SIM cards inserted- more than 1,000 miles from Bodo nearStavanger.

Kamphuis is known to have helped WikiLeaksmembers with advice on avoidingcybersnooping and government surveillance,the subject of a book he co-wrote with SilkieCarlo, but it is unclear how often or regularlyhe worked with the site. WikiLeaks, who calledthe disappearance “strange” speculated thathe may have gone undercover on a secretmission for Julian Assange, the group’sfounder, who has been living in the EcuadorEmbassy in London since June 2012.

However, one of Khampuis’s friends, Ancillavan de Leest said his connections toWikiLeaks had been “strongly overblown bythe press.”

Police have denied any connection betweenKamphuis’s disappearance and the fact thatBodo houses a Norwegian military airbase,and that buried deep inside a nearby mountainis a major part of the Scandinavian country’ssecret cyber defence operation.

Police Inspector Trond Lakselvhaug, who isleading the investigation, said they were“holding all possibilities open in respect towhat might have happened to Kamphuis” andpursuing three distinct lines of inquiry:Voluntary disappearance (including a possiblesuicide); an accident or foul play.

eng Hongwei, Chinese head ofInterpol, and vice minister in theChinese Ministry of Public Security,

Police Inspector Trond Lakselvhaug

Arjen Kamphuis

INTERPOL INTRIGUE

MCHINA

was reported missing in late September aftertravelling from Interpol HQ in France to China.On the day he went missing, his wife said hehad sent her a social media message tellingher to ‘wait for my call’, before sending a knifeemoji, signifying danger.

After Meng’s disappearance was made public,speculation mounted that he had been takeninto custody. A number of senior ChineseGovernment officials, billionaires and even an‘A-list’ celebrity have vanished in recentmonths.

On 7 October, Beijing announced that themissing president of Interpol, was underinvestigation on “suspicion of violating thelaw” and “under the supervision of the CentralCommission for Discipline Inspection.” A fewhours later Meng resigned from Interpol.

Julian Ku, a professor at Hofstra University’sMaurice A. Deane School of Law, who hasstudied China’s relationship with internationallaw, said while China may have had its eye onplacing its citizens in other top posts atprominent global organisations, “the fact thatMeng ‘disappeared’ without any notice toInterpol will undermine China’s globaloutreach effort.”

Meng Hongwei

The recoveredKayak

Russian AirForce IL-20


eaked US Navy images have capturedthe moment Chinese and Americanwarships almost collided as the USdestroyer conducted a ‘freedom ofnavigation’ patrol in the South China

Tensions Grow in South China Seas

Near-Collision Between US Warshipand ‘Aggressive’ Chinese Destroyer

Caught on Camera

LSeas. The incident is said to have occurred inlate September or early October.

A series of pictures show the USS Decatur(DDG-73) within yards of a People’s LiberationArmy Navy (PLAN) destroyer. Eye Spy wasinformed the Chinese vessel was the de-stroyer Lanzhou (PRC 170).

The Pentagon accused the Chinese ship ofconducting an “unsafe and unprofessionalmanoeuvre” near USS Decatur as it sailedclose to Gaven Reefs, which are claimed byBeijing. “A Luyang destroyer approached USSDecatur in an unsafe and unprofessionalmanoeuvre in the vicinity of Gaven Reef in theSouth China Sea,” said Captain CharlesBrown, a spokesman for US Pacific Fleet, in astatement. Brown said the Chinese warship,“conducted a series of increasingly aggressivemanoeuvres accompanied by warnings for theDecatur to depart the area.” For its part, China

has accusedthe US andits allies inthe region of“provoca-tion.” AChinesedefencespokesmansaid: “TheUS has sentwarshipsinto watersnear China’sislands andreefs inSouth ChinaSea time andtime again,

which is a grave threat to China’s sovereigntyand security. We resolutely oppose suchactions.”

Retired Royal Australian Navy CommodoreRichard Menhinick said the photos appear toshow the Chinese were not acting in accor-dance with the International Law of the Sea.

Bob Bowen - USS DecaturCommanding Officer wasinterviewed by US Navy

intelligence officers

“My guess is that the Chinese vesselpositioned itself ahead of the American Shipand then slowed down,” Mr Menhinick said.“It’s certainly uncomfortable, it’s certainly notwhat’s supposed to happen under the Law ofthe Sea... which is designed to have a ‘giveway’ vessel and another vessel, and not toend up in situations like that.”

Australian DefenceMinister ChristopherPyne (right) describedthe reports as “con-cerning,” and added:“We would view anyuse of intimidation oraggressive tactics asdestabilising andpotentially dangerous.Australia has consistently expressed concernover ongoing militarisation of the South ChinaSea and we continue to urge all claimants torefrain from unilateral actions that wouldincrease tension in the region.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australiawould strive to provide a calming influence inthe region. “Australia will continue to conductitself around these issues in a very modest,and very constructive way - in a way thatwould seek to de-escalate any issues, ratherthan escalate,” he told reporters in Perth.

The incident comes at a time when the CIAhas secured much evidence that China hasestablished a major military and intelligencecollection site in the area, as well as claiminga huge area of water as Chinese territory,something which several nations dispute,including the United States, hence itscontinued naval activity.

USS Decatur fires a SM-3 missile

USS Decatur (left)and Chinese warship


Plans to exchange a Russian arrested on suspicion of spyingin return for Norwegian ‘intelligence courier’ fall through

‘SPY’ EXCHANGE GATEWAY

Frode Berg - “did not know what hewas carrying...”

Russia-Norway border gate atSkafferhullet- as seen from Norway

ussian national MikhailBotsjkarev, 51, an informationtechnology advisor, who wasarrested on suspicion of spying ata two-day seminar held foradministrative employees of 34R

European parliaments, has been released. Theevent, held in Norway’s Parliament building inOslo, featured no sensitive information, butNorway’s police intelligence service - PST,feared Botsjkarev may have planted electronicsurveillance equipment. The PST wanted toextend his detention, but an Oslo courtrejected the request.

Botsjkarev presented himself at the seminar asan information technology adviser to theRussian government and has spoken oncomputer security to foreign colleagues.Marianne Andreassen, Director of theNorwegian Parliament, said the security

service wascalled afterattendeesnotedBotsjkarev’s“strangebehaviour.”What thisinvolved hasnot beenreported. PSTofficersdetained theRussian ashe was about

to depart thecountry on 28September. Thenext day he wasformally chargedwith “illegalintelligenceactivity againststate secrets.”

Botsjkarev’ssolicitor said itwas all a“misunderstand-ing.” At the time,

Russia’s Ambassador in Norway TeimurazRamishvili criticised the detention, calling it“ridiculous.” In Moscow, Norway’s Ambassa-dor was summoned to explain the action. AneLunde, Norway’s Foreign Ministry spokes-woman said: “I cannot comment on thecontents of the conversation. This is anongoing police matter that PST is handling, notthe Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

ESPIONAGE HYSTERIA

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokespersonsaid: “It looks as though the wave of espio-nage hysteria in the campaign against Russia,which also comes from the outside, takesdisgusting shape in Norway. Such actions willnaturally not occur without consequences.”

At the Norwegian Parliament building,technical experts joined PST investigators

Ane Lunde, Norway’sForeign Ministryspokeswoman

to search for incriminating evidence.Several printers and telephones were orderednot to be used, for fear they may be tapped.Photos emerged of one printer with a signtaped over it which read ‘Must not be used’.

Other rooms in the building were alsosearched. “We’re trying to find out whatBotsjkarev has done at the Parliamentbuilding,” PST spokesman Marting Bernsensaid.

Botsjkarev in an Oslocourtroom Russia’s Ambassador to

Norway Teimuraz Ramishvili

“The PST’s intelligencearm believe Botsjkarevdid not act alone andhad accomplices...”


Norway’s Parliament building

Marianne Andreassen

Norwegian Army conscripts at aRussia-Norway border point

Russian submarine Tomsk returns to its base at theKamchatka Peninsula in north-east Russia

© SERGEY KONOVALOV

PST Director Marie Bjornland PST headquarters, Oslo

to Moscow via the country’s 120-miles Arcticborder with Russia. He has reportedlyadmitted helping Norwegian Intelligence byacting as a courier on several occasions. Hemaintains he didn’t know what he wasdelivering. Berg had served as a bordercheckpoint officer for more than 20 years.

Intelligence watchers believe if the spycharges against Botsjkarev had been upheld,Oslo could have moved to exchange him forBerg. Before Botsjkarev’s release, speaking inMoscow, Berg’s solicitor Ilya Novikov said:“The exchange is quite possible.”

Eye Spy understands that the Norwegian tookpossession of an envelope containingclassified Russian naval documents, from aRussian national identified in papers as AlexyZhinyuk, who faces charges of high treason.Berg was carrying around 3,000 euros incash, money the FSB say was to obtainintelligence of Russia’s far north nuclearsubmarine fleet. The incident was surveilledby FSB counter-espionage officers. Other FSBcourt papers state he was mailing cash and‘spying instructions to a woman called Natalia

in Moscow’, again for naval intelligencesecrets.

“The FSB is certainly using Berg’s arrest toundermine Norwegian Intelligence,” said Lt.

A SPY EXCHANGE WAS RAISED

In December 2017, a Norwegian national wasarrested in Russia suspected of espionage.Frode Berg, 62, remains in detention inMoscow pending his trial. Berg had travelled

Colonel Geir Karlsen, Director of StrategicCommunication and Psychological Operationsat the country’s Defence University College.Former intelligence officer Lt. Colonel TormodHeier, said Berg’s arrest was made because of“sloppy tradecraft.”

The incidents come as Moscow warns thattensions between NATO and Russia areintensifying in the Norwegian Arctic region.In October 2018, Berg was again remanded incustody until December.


ARCTIC GOLDMOVES TO ENHANCE INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION ON RUSSIA’S ARCTIC AMBITIONS

Royal Marines participate in atraining exercise in Harstad, Norway

Russia’s Northern Fleet hold anti-submarinedrill in Arctic waters ahead of NATO’s annual

Trident Juncture exercise in Norway

uclear-powered submarines fromtwo of Russia’s Northern Fleet’sflotillas have conducted anti-submarine exercises in the BarentsSea. Moscow said as part of theexercise, “submarines searchedN

and tracked ‘enemy’ vessels, before initiatinga hunt and torpedo launches.” The NorthernFleet reportedly has over ten multi-purpose

Above: Ice Camp Sargo, Arctic Circle, served as theprimary staging post for ICEX 2016. More than 200

troops, scientists and officials from the UnitedStates, Canada, Britain and Norway participated inthe five week exercise to test and evaluate opera-tional capabilities in the region. Left: Royal Marine

nuclear-powered submarines based along theBarents Sea coast of the Kola Peninsula.

Perhaps not coincidental, the exercise tooktake place shortly before NATO launched itslarge-scale Trident Juncture 2018 exercise.Involving around 45,000 troops from 30countries, the near two-week NATO exercisewas held 1,000km from the Russian border.

The largest ever held in Norway, it examinedvarious scenarios including communicationand control of expanded multi-nation forces.Russian military observers were invited byNATO to observe the exercise.

UK ARCTIC DEFENCE STRATEGY

UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said anew defence strategy will enhance theMinistry of Defence’s focus on the Arctic:“This is underlined by our current commit-ments in the region and future deployments.As the ice melts and new shipping routesemerge, the significance of the High North andArctic region increases. Russia, with moresubmarines operating under the ice andambitions to build over 100 facilities in theArctic, are staking a claim and militarising theregion. We must be ready to deal with all

Admiral James G. Foggo III,Commander of NATO Joint Force

Command Naples, oversawOperation Trident Juncture 18

28


Head of the Russian Navy AdmiralVladimir Korolyov

threats as they emerge. We will not let theKremlin rewrite the outcome of the Cold War.”He compared Russian submarine activity withthat not seen since the Cold War.

NEW UK AERIAL SURVEILLANCE AIRCRAFT

Britain’s Royal Marines conduct cold weathertraining in Norway on an annual basis. In2019, around 800 marines are due to deployat an unspecified facility. As part of the MOD’scontribution to the new NATO Defence ArcticStrategy, the troops will join with NATO forceson a long-term basis and be integrated intoNorway’s long-term defence plan.

Main: A USAF E-3B Sentry aircraft waits to take off as a US Navy P-8A Poseidonlands at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. Inset: UK and Norwegian officials at

RAF Lossiemouth pictured with a US Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft

Also scheduled to begin operations next yearare four RAF Typhoons which will patrolIcelandic skies. The move follows an increasein Russian Air Force overflights in waterssurrounding Greenland, Iceland and the UK.

The MOD has also announced that in 2020 itwill increase operational commitments in theArctic regions and North Atlantic area with theintroduction of eight Boeing P-8A Poseidonaircraft. Based at RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland,the surveillance and submarine-hunters willhelp combat a range of intensifying threats,

ussian Foreign MinistrySpokeswoman MariaZakharova responded to

recent NATO operations and thebolstering of its forces in Norwayand the wider Arctic region: “Theescalation of NATO’s military andpolitical activity in the Arcticregion, namely, in the immediatevicinity of Russia on the territoryof northern Norway, hasn’t goneunnoticed.”

not least increasing Russian nuclear subma-rine operations in the Arctic. “The submarineactivity poses a new threat and is somethingthe Royal Navy is ready to combat,” a defencespokesman said. Norway too has enhancedits intelligence collection capabilities with thepurchase of five such aircraft.

In 2018, a Royal Navy submarine took part inOperation ICE X (Ice Exercise) with the USNavy for the first time in ten years as part ofthe new NATO Arctic initiative.

RECKLESS SABRE-RATTLINGThe Kremlin accused Oslo ofviolating a Cold War understand-ing “not to provide bases onNorwegian territory for armedforces of foreign powers unlessNorway is under attack or underthreat of attack.”

Zakharova referenced TridentJuncture 2018. “We have to statethat such irresponsible actions willinevitably destabilise the military

R and political situation in the north,increase tensions and underminethe fabric of Russian-Norwegianrelations. All these NATO prepa-rations cannot be ignored, and theRussian Federation will take thenecessary tit-for-tat measures toensure its own security.

“Reckless sabre-rattling in thispreviously calm region can havefar-reaching consequences, andnot through any fault of ours,”Zakharova concluded.

The Russian Embassy in Londonhas also objected to Britain’splans to boost its military presencein the Arctic: “We call on Britishauthorities, who have recentlybeen actively promoting theconcept of Global Britain, to pur-sue their ambitions in other fields,”the embassy’s press secretarysaid. “The unjustified British plans

Russia continues toincrease its naval presence

in the Arctic regionAkula-class Russian

submarine - Vepr(Wild Boar)

to build up its military presence inclose proximity to Russia’sborders will only result in creatingunnecessary tensions. Russia andother Arctic countries consider thisregion to be a space for construc-tive cooperation. There is nopotential for conflict, nor shouldthere be.”

KREMLIN WARNS WEST OF BREAKING COLD WAR RULES


he 118 miles of Long Islandtechnically includes the New Yorkboroughs of Brooklyn and Queenson the west edge, but for most of itslocals, Long Island begins wherethe city ends, and features

SECRET HISTORY

SPIES OF LONG ISLANDTHETHE

SPIES OF LONG ISLAND

1772. Colonel George Washington

Twindswept dunes, pine trees, popular summerresorts, fresh farms and wineries, and whalingand fishing ports established in the 17thcentury.

Few would associate the quiet tree-linedvillages of the region with espionage, but ithas been home to spies since the time of

Culper spy ring chief ColonelBenjamin Tallmadge

The operatives were tasked with sendingmessages to General Washington about theactivities of the British Army in New York City.The members of the ring operated mostly inthe city, Long Island, and Connecticut. Theircovert operations started in late October 1778and continued through the British evacuationof New York in 1783, but its heyday wasbetween 1778 and 1781.

There are numerous locations connected tothe spy wars involving Britain and AmericanPatriots which can be visited. One of the mostinfamous is Execution Rocks near Sand’s

George Washington and more recently whenone of two Russian compounds were closedfollowing confirmation of the hacking of the2016 General Election by cyber groupsoperated by Russia’s GRU military spyservice.

SPY WARS AGAINST BRITAIN

Early in the American Revolutionary War(1775-1783) the island was captured by theBritish from General George Washington in theBattle of Long Island, a decisive clash afterwhich Washington narrowly evacuated histroops from Brooklyn Heights using the coverof a dense fog. After the British victory manyPatriots fled, leaving mostly Loyalists behind.The island remained a British stronghold untilthe end of the war.

General Washington became convinced thatwell-organised intelligence was a necessityafter several intelligence failures, including thecapture and execution of soldier-spy NathanHale.

Washington chose to base his espionageactivities on Long Island, due to the westernpart of the island’s proximity to the Britishmilitary headquarters in New York City. Thenow legendary Culper Spy Ring includedagents operating between Setauket andManhattan and was led by Colonel BenjaminTallmadge. This clandestine group alertedWashington to valuable British secrets,including the treason of Benedict Arnold and aplan to use counterfeiting to induce economicsabotage.

Eye Spy examines an area of the United States with an enduring andlong association with the world of espionage, intelligence and intrigue

D. Anne Kohl


1776. The British hang Nathan Halein New York City

Two paintings depicting the Battle of Long Island 1776. Lord Stirling’s attack on British troops was intended to buytime for hundreds of retreating American Patriots. Stirling lost the battle and was captured, but his actions saved

many American lives. He was later freed in a prisoner exchange

Raynham Hall in Oyster Bay was listed on the American National Register ofHistoric Places in 2008

Codes used by the Culper spy ring

Execution Rocks nearSand’s Point


The only image remaining of Culperspy ring member Robert Townsend -

drawn in the early 1800s

Ernst Peter Burger and George John Dasch

July 1942. The Military Commission opens to try eight captured Nazis fromOperation Pastorius in the Department of Justice building in Washington DC

the two men who had turned themselves in -the others were executed on 8 August 1942 inthe electric chair on the third floor of theDistrict of Columbia jail and buried in apotter’s field in Washington DC. In 1948President Harry Truman granted executiveclemency to Dasch and Burger on thecondition that they be deported to theAmerican Zone of occupied Germany. Theywere not welcomed back in Germany, as theywere regarded as traitors who had caused thedeath of their comrades. Although they hadbeen promised pardons by FBI Director J.Edgar Hoover in exchange for their coopera-tion, both men died without ever receivingthem.

COLD WAR

In 1947 Brookhaven National Laboratory(BNL), located in Upton on Long Island, was

President Harry Truman

formally established at the site of CampUpton, a former US Army base. BNLspecialised in nuclear and high energy physicsresearch, energy science and technology,environmental and bioscience, nanoscienceand national security. Many of the physicistswho worked on the Manhattan Project - thesecret US atomic bomb programme, also

Brookhaven National Laboratory(BNL) built on the former site at

Camp Upton, Long Island

Point. Here captured rebels were held down bychains until drowned. Another building thatstill exists is Raynham Hall in Oyster Bay -once the home of Robert Townsend, perhapsthe most important spy in the Culper ring.

WORLD WAR II

More recent espionage activities began in1942 with Operation Pastorius, a failedGerman intelligence plan for sabotage insidethe United States during World War II. Inaddition to sabotage of American economictargets, the German agents were alsoinstructed to spread a wave of terror byplanting explosives on bridges, railroadstations, water facilities and in public places.

On the night of 12 June, two U-boats landed atAmagansett, New York, some 115 miles eastof New York City, on Long Island, today knownas Atlantic Avenue beach.

The operation was betrayed by two of thespies, George John Dasch and Ernst PeterBurger, who reported the plan to the FBI. Eightmen were subsequently arrested, tried, foundguilty and sentenced to death. PresidentRoosevelt commuted the sentence to life for


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EYE SPY BEST-SELLERSAtlantic Beach,

Long Island

Mayknoll and D/CIA William Casey

President Ronald Reagan andD/CIA William Casey

worked at BNL. Less than year after it was established, then CIADirector William J ‘Bill’ Casey moved to nearby Roslyn Harbor toMayknoll, a mansion and secretive compound set in 8.2 acres.

Casey went on to run Ronald Reagan’s victorious 1980 presidentialcampaign, and later served as Director CIA from 1981-1987 under the40th president.

Mayknoll was at the epi-centre of the most momentous years of theReagan administration as Casey helped his commander-in-chief asthey moved the geopolitical chess pieces into place, executing astrategy that ultimately triggered the demise of the Soviet Union in theearly 1990s.

The mansion, still occupied by Casey’s daughter, contains traces of theestate’s famous occupant, including the Casey Cold War library,formerly an enclosed porch. Casey was such a voracious reader hissecurity detail got in the habit of carrying an extra, empty duffel bag tocarry all the books he would purchase during his trips. The library,once used by Casey’s CIA security guards, is home to a collection of10,000 books on history and espionage tradecraft.

“George Washington was his own intelligencer,” said, a 72-year-oldformer member of the CIA and a specialist in library and informationsciences. “He was the guy who masterminded the intelligence systemthat we had then. But it wasn’t until Franklin Roosevelt and Bill Donovan

during World War II thatthe United States reallygot interested in aformal intelligencenetwork.” Casey wassent by Donovan, aformer Roosevelt aide inAlbany, to England tostart an intelligenceoffice in London.


The Soviets purchased Killenworth, an historic mansion in Glen Cove. It wasa “hive of espionage activities,” according to US intelligence officials

Russian access to the site was commuted inthe wake of the alleged Russian involvement inthe 2016 United States Presidential Election as

Elmcroft in Upper Brookville. Purchased by the Soviets in 1952

1963. Soviet leader NikitaKhrushchev pictured at Killenworth

mansion in Glen Cove

1984. Presentation of a modelSputnik by Soviet Ambassador YuriDubinin at Nassau County Cradle of

Aviation Museum (below)

In 1951, Casey found he had new neighbours- the Soviets. Killenworth, an historic mansionin Glen Cove, was purchased by the SovietUnion in to become the country retreat of theSoviet, and later Russian, delegation to theUnited Nations. Soviet leader NikitaKhrushchev even visited the site in 1963.

ESPIONAGE ACTIVITIES

In the 1980s the property was subject toallegations it was being used for espionage,and there was a long-standing conflict with theCity of Glen Cove over its tax status. In 1982the city council voted to revoke the Russians’ability to secure permits for city beach, golf,and tennis facilities. The Soviet Unionretaliated by denying use of a Moscow beachto members of the American Embassy inMoscow. Defector Arkady Shevchenko statedthat Killenworth’s top floors were occupied byequipment for signals intelligence to spy onLong Island’s technological and nuclearindustry in the 1980s. Tensions remained asprotesters often gathered outside forcing GlenCove to increase its police presence at themansion.

Friendly relations with the Soviet UnitedNations Mission personnel living atKillenworth were restored later in 1984 whenthe City Council approved by a 5 to 2 vote,those living on the Glen Cove compound toonce again have access to the City’s recre-ational facilities. As relations improved, apainting of the Killenworth mansion by aRussian artist was presented to Mayor Suozziat a luncheon held on the estate. The paintingnow hangs in the Glen Cove Public Library.The Mayor also accepted a gift of a replica ofSputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite,

0

donated to the Nassau County Cradle ofAviation Museum by Soviet Ambassador YuriDubinin, despite objections of some politicalfigures.

KGB EYES

Another property, Elmcroft, also called theNorwich House, in Upper Brookville, waspurchased by the Soviets in 1952 for $80,000- less than seven miles from Casey’sMayknoll. It too was reportedly bought as aplace for diplomats at the United Nations,located 40 minutes away in New York City.

One local resident, Judith Berkheimer, whorented the cottage across the street fromElmcroft, confirmed that before she stayed onthe top floor, the FBI rented it and had devicesset up to listen and see into the compound.The US Government was reportedly aware ofthe Russian presence and monitored theproperty throughout the Cold War and after.NBC News described the estate as a placewhere diplomats held secret meetings.


part of a number of sanctions taken by theUnited States government against Russiandiplomatic personnel.

It is not hard to see why Long Island would beconsidered a prime target for espionage. Itwas the site of Mitchel Air Force Base and amajor centre of military aircraft production bycompanies such as Grumman and FairchildAircraft during World War II and for somedecades afterward. The air base was also thestarting point for Charles Lindbergh’s historicfirst solo trans-Atlantic flight from the USA toFrance in 1927. Decommissioned in 1961,just this year the remaining buildings on the

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site were recognised as an historic district andlisted on the National Register of HistoricPlaces.

Aircraft production on Long Island extended allthe way into the ‘Space Age’ - Grumman wasone of the major contractors that helped tobuild the early lunar flight and space shuttlevehicles.

Plum Island, in proximity to Long Island andoften grouped with it, is home to the PlumIsland Animal Disease Center, a biologicalweapons research facility. Long Island haslong played a prominent role in scientificresearch and in engineering. Along with BNL,it is also home to the Cold Spring HarborLaboratory and major computer companies.From around 1930 to 1990, Long Island wasconsidered one of the aerospace manufactur-ing centres of the United States, withcompanies such as Grumman Aircraft,Republic, Fairchild, and Curtiss having hadtheir headquarters and factories on LongIsland.

It is also home to some of the wealthiestcommunities in the United States. In 2016,according to Business Insider, the 11962 zipcode encompassing Sagaponack, withinSouthampton, was listed as the mostexpensive in the United States, with a medianhome sale price of $8.5 million.

Bill Casey’s home Mayknoll, has recently beenput up for sale - a perfect opportunity to setup a base to enjoy an area rich in spylore andthe many spy stories associated with this partof the United States.

1937. Mitchel AFB, Long Island. Many of the original buildings remain andhave been placed on the US National Register of Historic Places

Brookhaven National Laboratory -Center for Functional Nanomaterials

20 May 1927. Lindbergh’s take-offroute at Mitchel AFB

35

THE ULTIMATETHE ULTIMATESPY SITES TRAVELSPY SITES TRAVELGUIDE OF LONDONGUIDE OF LONDON

Plum Island


hose engaged in intelligence collectionoften find themselves using a plethoraof methods to secure information.Naturally the first option is to utilise

Eye Spy returns to the dictionary of phrases andwords used by those engaged in the intelligence

world... and by its covert operators

py bases, or to give them a moreformal designation, communicationsand listening posts, all receive andforward electronic signals by use ofS

satellites, advanced systems and microwaverepeater stations. And it is the latter, which inthe intelligence world, the phrase ‘Big Ears’ is

used to describe such facilities. One importantand non-descript station lays way beyond theboundaries of its primary user, and is locatedin Yorkshire. And it is here from whence theterm big ears originated by NSA staffers at theworld’s biggest communication base - RAFMenwith Hill, or Menwith Hill Station. In the1960s it was known as Field Station 8613, butother numbers have been applied. It is alsofamously associated with the defunct Echelonprogramme. Today the base has the capability

to intercept over 300 million emails andtelephone calls in any given 24-hour-period.Structures such as big ears in Yorkshire canbe found throughout the world.

BIG EARS BRIDGE AGENT

Ttrusted operators affording some security tothe task, but this is not always possible. In theevent intelligence is beyond the reach of aservice using ‘regular’ collection methods,sources, or via recruited agents, occasionallya controlling officer may turn to unconven-tional measures. One such action, which isusually only authorised by senior intelligenceofficials, is to use a third party who hasaccess to the target information. He is knownas a ‘Bridge Agent’ or ‘Fixer’.

A well known example of the alleged use of abridge agent was popularised in StephenKing’s motion picture Munich. In this case the

‘Big Ears’ - Microwaverepeater station

RAF Menwith Hill, North Yorkshire - the NSA’s biggest overseas station


Eric Bana played thelead Mossad agent

Yuval Aviv in the motionpicture Munich

The building in Munich which housed the Israeli athletes who were killed byterrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games

names andwhereaboutsof the PLOterroristsinvolved in the1972 MunichOlympicGamesmassacre of11 Israeliathletes, wasimparted toMossad (formoney). Thecivilianintelligencesource had

access to information beyond that immedi-ately available to those engaged in OperationWrath of God - the codename for the Mossadoperation to eliminate the controllers andperpetrators of the attack in Germany.

COOKING

Ahe recent verbal war which has brokenout between serving, ‘removed’ andretired intelligence officers and theWhite House, has only served to

dated phrase still in use today thatsignifies an operation is beingplanned and that all the ‘ingredients’(elements and individuals) are being

assembled for ‘Cooking’.

Eye Spy discovered references to cooking andassembling ingredients in early bookscovering the exploits of British adventurers inthe late 19th century, many of whom wereattached to departments and individualsworking for the War Office or other govern-ment departments.

FAIR GAME

Tresurrect the old spy term ‘Fair Game’ in manymedia houses. Editors believe that even seniorfigures caught up in recent happenings arenow fair game for investigation.

The phrase stems from descriptions applied topersons-of-interest or others associated withindividuals who have crossed paths with anintelligence agency, or seen as a legitimatetarget for further investigation. However, ittook on a different meaning in 2003 following

events surrounding CIA case officer ValeriePlame, when she was outed by Washingtondiplomat - Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby. Thisfollowed events when her husband, former USdiplomat Joseph Wilson, was assigned tosecure information on Saddam Hussein’sattempts to obtain yellowcake uranium fromNiger to help build a nuclear bomb. Wilsonprovided negative feedback and upset some inWashington’s Establishment. As a result, anda clear negative action intended to punish thecouple, Plame’s role as an internationaloperative was disclosed. The incident was thestory line of the emotive motion picture Fair

Game based on Plame’s memoir: ‘Fair Game:

My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White

House.

In respect of the recent Russian cyberinterference in the 2016 US General Election,and claims some of Donald Trump’s team metwith Russian intelligence and political people,anyone today caught up in the affair, is beingdeemed fair game, including the presidenthimself.

As an ironic twist to the Plame affair, Libby, asolicitor, had his licence to practice lawreinstated in 2016, and was fully pardoned byPresident Trump in April 2018.

President Trump is regarded as ‘FairGame’ by some media commentators

and especially his opponents

Former CIA officerValerie Plame


AGATEKEEPER

CIA term usually applied to officersassigned to counterintelligence, orprotectors of vital intelligence. A‘Gatekeeper’ can be anyone holding a

In 2007, Eye Spy interviewed John F. Sullivan,a former senior polygraph examiner with theCIA. Sullivan, who performed more than 5,000tests in over 40 countries on persons fromboth inside and outside Langley, was himselfknown as the Gatekeeper at Langley.

Gatekeeper can also be applied to less thanreputable figures operating in other fields,

President Obama and seniorsecurity officials watch the end

game of Operation NeptuneSpear from the Situation Room

in the White House

CIA ‘Gatekeeper’John F. Sullivan

position of security whereby the primary roleis to protect a nation’s secret from external orinternal threats: if it is necessary to examinethe validity of a would-be defector, forexample, or in today’s modern world, ensuringcomputer systems and therefore data, isbeyond the grasp of unauthorised personnel orhackers.

including terrorism and organised crime. Theterm was assigned by the CIA to Hassan Ghul(Mustafa Mohammad Khan), a leading al-Qaida figure who revealed details of Osamabin-Laden’s courier network eventuallyenabling Langley to locate the terror chief’swhereabouts. Intelligence in-hand, OperationNeptune Spear followed and the world’s mostwanted terrorist killed.

n internal and derogatory term appliedto intelligence people by colleagueswho believe he or she will use anymeans to climb the intelligence ladder,

hen an intelligence officer comesacross or is offered informationthat he or she believes is ofimportance, yet cannot beW

GLITTER

Sullivan withpolygraphmachine

secured or fully understood without furtherinvestigation, the material is dubbed ‘Glitter’.Case examples in spylore exist whereby a

simple word or seemingly mundane incidentor action, attracts the attention of theintelligence world. If the agency controllerbelieves it would be worthwhile to explore,then the officer may be afforded assistance toinvestigate further. However, they are warned,“that not all that glitters is gold or treasure.”

ALADDER MAN

including blighting the reputation of associatesor giving the impression that they are of asuperior frame. Securing leads and acquiringgood information, whilst downplaying the roleof colleagues is an everyday occurrence.

In most cases those who engage in suchactions are usually identified by line managersand can find themselves isolated and with littleprospect of promotion. However, historicalcase examples of disputes and internalmischief are numerous, and some of the‘greatest’ intelligence chiefs have been issuedwith the unwanted term ‘Ladder Man’ bycolleagues.

ILOTUS EATER

n Greek mythology a ‘Lotus Eater’ was arace of people who lived on an islandwhere lotus plants were plentiful. Theywere the primary food stuff, but unbe-

known to the residents they contained a


hen an intelligence target is putunder surveillance or the endgame of an operation to arrest theperson or persons nears, one of

narcotic, which once consumed caused themto sleep in extended apathy - essentiallyrendering them useless or incapable ofperforming even the most rudimentary oftasks.

This rare intelligence description is given tospies and operators who are believed to bedead, or have since departed the intelligencegame and are no longer regarded as a threator asset. The description was recently appliedby one Moscow intelligence source to SergeiSkripal, the former MI6 agent poisoned by theNovichok nerve agent in Salisbury, England.

Men of the legendary Greek kingOdysseus lay in a state of uncon-

sciousness after eating lotus fruits

WPAPER HOUSE

the primary tasks is to ensure all is knownabout their base of operation, residence andvisitors. For example, entry or exit points,locks, window security, access for vehicles,

fire escapes etc. Just as important, if thebuilding contains any harmful items, includingin a counter-terrorism case, firearms,explosives and chemicals. If the location isdeemed assessable without too muchdifficulty and there are no obvious threats it isdeemed a ‘Paper House’. However,organisations such as MI5 and the FBI, preferif the actual detention of the subject can bemade in what are deemed safe zones, andpublic safety is always a priority.

The term is also used to describe vulnerableor exposed residences housing agentsengaged in foreign operations - wherecontrollers are fearful of security and the well-being of their operatives.

IREGISTRY QUEEN

n Cold War Britain, MI5’s Registrycontained the names of an estimated twomillion people, and was the beating heartof the Service. It was regarded as the most

vital component of initiating operations or as aresearch reference to source vital intelligenceon ‘persons-of-interest’. Unlike today’sRegistry, which is contained on secure internalcomputers and overseen and protected byexperienced cyber controllers, it was all onmanaged index cards which were distributedto its various branches and offices by trolleyswhich ran quickly on miniature tracks.

Most of the 100 staffers who managed thesystem in the 1950s and 1960s, analysing,sorting, delivering and writing the cards werefemale. This swelled to more than 300 - stillmostly women - by 1970. According to

former officers, most were recruited from thearistocracy or from the families of senior andtrusted male officers. New Registry stafferswere generally of a younger age and this led tomany internal relationships and marriage.Within MI5 itself, they were known as‘Registry Queens’ and led to an internal jokethat their average career expectancy was justnine months - the time it took the girls to getpregnant.

Such derogatory language would not betolerated today.

he Komitet GosudarstvennoyBezopasnosti better known as the KGB(Committee for State Security) was amost formidable spy agency. Estab-T

SCOUTS

lished in 1952, it ran a global network ofagents until its break-up in 1991 following thecollapse of Communism. Throughout itsoperation, the KGB’s senior managementalways referred to its overseas operators, notas agents, intelligence officers or spies, but as‘Scouts’.

1977. Former KGB agentAleksei Myagkov

SWHITE NOISE

cientifically, ‘White Noise’ is aprocessed signal and has manyapplications in various fields. In thegame of espionage white noise is

commonly used to mask a conversation orforwarded signals and defeat those intent onrecording, intercepting or understanding


the spoken or electronic word. Examples ofhow to mask a conversation in locations suchas a bugged hotel room have appeared in EyeSpy tradecraft features in the past. Two of themost common counter-measures are using ahotel fan or speaking in the bathroom withwater running or the shower turned on.

However, the term white noise also hasanother meaning in the language of spies.When analysts are invited to examineintelligence secured from an adversary, oreven passed on by friendly associates, theymust determine if the data is authentic, or hasbeen ‘masked’ by ‘white noise’ in order toconceal aspects of the information. Similarly,the intention may be to elevate its significancefrom the ordinary using material that is neitherrelevant or true. Propaganda anddisinformation are also associated with itssecondary intelligence meaning.

UX-FILES

hilst the FBI’s X-Files may belegendary in popular spy culture,they do not officially exist. Yet thiscannot be said of the ‘Y-Files’

ndoubtedly the most famous FBIscreen agents are Scully and Mulder,the inquisitive officers who investi-gated the strange, bizarre and

supernatural. These were unusual incidentsand case files which couldn’t really beclassified in conventional terms, and beyondthe filing system of the Bureau. The series,produced by Chris Carter, ran for nine yearsand over 200 episodes were made securing aworldwide following. This all conspired to

create a much loved rumour that the FBI doesindeed categorise some case investigations as‘X-Files’. The truth, as the Bureau is keen topoint out, is a little more mundane.

However, it does acknowledge that in itsrecords are investigations of UFOs, such asthe famous Roswell incident of 1947, andcattle mutilations supposedly conducted by‘folks from outer space’. Another caseconcerns a supposedly secret grouping ofleading US military and intelligence officialsattached to Operation Majestic Twelve. Thesemen, including CIA Directors, were named in anumber of documents which circulated in themid-1980s, and were linked to a programmeof ‘alien contact’. The Bureau looked at thepapers, which seemed convincing, but were infact a carefully orchestrated hoax. Eye Spysupports that view, indeed, we actually knowthe identity of the cunning perpetrator.

Beyond this, the FBI does investigate caseswhich Scully and Mulder would gratefully haveaccepted, however, they are engaged becausein many cases a potential violation of the lawhas been reported. And whilst at its headquar-ters in Washington there is no cabinet labelledX-Files, some agents do refer to odd investiga-tions as X-Files, though with a slight smirk andhumorous glance.

David Duchovny played agent ‘Fox Mulder’ and Gillian Anderson agent‘Dana Scully’. Pictured is Mulder’s screen-set office. Note his poster -

‘I want to Believe’ - the real FBI does not... but still investigates

WY-FILES

managed by their counterparts in BritishIntelligence - MI5. This Cold War termconcerned the most important person-of-interest operation contained within thelegendary MI5 Registry. Various boxes were inoperation; the main card index listing holdingnames ranging from suspected subversives tomembers of the Communist Party of GreatBritain. But there was one highly regarded andmost secret storage system called the Y-Box.All sensitive identity case files ended up here,including defectors and suspected and knownspies. Access to the Y-Files was strictlyregulated and in most cases prohibited. EvenMI5’s most trusted personnel and spycatcherscould only obtain the files by authorisationfrom the very top - the Director-Generalhimself. Today’s computerised Registry holdsan estimated two-and-a-half million names.

Running water can be used to‘create’ white noise in order to

mask conversations


he whistle-blowing websiteWikiLeaks, has published an allegedmemo by Mark Warner, ViceChairman of the US SenateIntelligence Committee, requestingthat its former leader Julian

MAN OF SECRETSIntelligence people want to question former head

of WikiLeaks for his insights into US electioninterference by Russian cyber hackers

GATEWAY TO FREEDOM FOR WIKILEAKS RECLUSE?

Above: Letter allegedly signed by MarkWarner, Vice Chairman of the USSenate Intelligence Committee,

requesting Assange testifies

Left: Assange supporters outside theEmbassy of Ecuador in London onlearning of the new developmentwhich could provide a gateway to

freedom for Assange

TAssange, testify about interference in the2016 US General Election. In a tweet,WikiLeaks announced: ‘US Senate Intelligence

Committee calls editor@JulianAssange to

testify. Letter delivered via US Embassy in

London. WikiLeaks legal team say they are

‘considering the offer’ but testimony must

conform to a high ethical standard’.

WikiLeaks solicitor Jennifer Robinsonresponded to the development by saying: “Weare seriously considering the offer but mustensure Mr Assange’s protection is guaranteed.

It’s not known what information Assangecould provide, but he still retains numerouslinks with users sourcing information from theInternet, and who may have deep insight intothe hacking of US computer systems byRussian operators. Indeed, some intelligencesources believethe US investiga-tive unit headedby former FBIDirector RobertMueller, believesWikiLeaks andAssange were“conduits ofRussian hackinginto the election.”WikiLeakspublished in

©IS

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©IS

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MarkWarner


excess of 20,000 emails from Democraticsupporters and networks leading up to theelection. Most are thought to have beensourced and delivered by Russian cyberhackers. A great many were internal partydiscussions, giving support to Hillary Clinton

over her Democratic opponentBernie Sanders. This action

caused much embarrass-ment and debate. Andthough Mueller hasreferenced an Internet web

site as a “primeplayer” in hisinvestigations, he didnot name WikiLeaks.

Assange, who is nolonger wanted forquestioning about anumber of sexual-

related incidents in Sweden, has been a virtualrecluse for over five years - staying at theEcuadorian embassy in London. Thoughpolice in Sweden have dropped their requestfor extradition, there remains an outstandingwarrant for his arrest issued by Britain for‘failing to surrender in court’. He believes if heexits the building, he will be detained andeventually flown to the United States where hewill be questioned by the security services forinformation breaches, primarily by WikiLeaks.

News of the development follows reports thatboth the Ecuadorian Government and Assangehimself believe the ‘status quo’ situation in theembassy is becoming untenable, and that hemight be forced to leave. Though he wasgranted citizenship of Ecuador earlier in theyear, this in an attempt to resolve the situation,tensions are rising. In March, EcuadorPresident Lenin Moreno ordered that

NEW HOUSE RULESASSANGE TOLD TO CLEAN UP OR GET OUT

J

Assange’s connection to the Internet andsocial media, be disconnected. Morenoconfirmed that his country and Britain were“holding talks to try and end his stay at theembassy.”

Eye Spy sources say Assange is seekingguarantees about his safety if he agrees totestify. Other intelligence watchers believe hecould be asked to give evidence from theembassy via an Internet conference link. Thenew developments in Washington come at atime when doctors looking after Assange saidhis “continued confinement is dangerous tohis physical and mental health.”

In respect of the authenticity of the documentrequesting a meeting, a spokesperson for theUS Senate Intelligence Committee declined tocomment, but most intelligence sourcesbelieve it is genuine.

Former FBI DirectorRobert Mueller and

Special Counsel leadinvestigator into alleged

Russian interference in the2016 US General Election

JenniferRobinson

Julian Assange

ulian Assange hasbeen issued with astern warning from his‘landlords’ to eithercomply with new house

rules or the diplomatic asylumgranted by the Ecuadorian statewill be terminated.

A leaked memo issued by theembassy to Assange states thattop of the list he is expresslybanned from activities whichcould be ‘considered aspolitical or interfering with theinternal affairs of other states’.

Assange’s Internet access wassuspended in March, because

he had breached a writtencommitment made to Ecuadorat the end of 2017 not to issuemessages that might interferewith other states. While the banon weekend Internet access hasbeen partially lifted, theWikiLeaks founder will only beallowed to use the embassyWiFi for his personal computerand phone.

In addition, he and his guestsare explicitly prohibited fromusing or installing unauthorisedequipment. According to thememo, the embassy ‘reservedthe right to authorise securitypersonnel to seize equipment’ or

ask the British authorities toenter the embassy and do so.

Any attempt to bring suchequipment into the embassywould be viewed as a ‘securitybreach and reported to thecompetent British authorities’.

According to embassy insiders,the Ecuadorians are “disgusted”with his personal hygiene andthe treatment of his cat. Assangewas told to take charge of the

“well-being, food, hygiene andproper care” of his pet cat, or itwould be given to someone elseor handed in to an animalrefuge. They also “implored”Assange and his guests to keepthe bathroom clean and statedthe diplomatic mission wouldnot pay towards his food,laundry, quarterly medicalcheck-ups or any other costsrelated to his stay from1 December 2018 onwards.

LEGAL ACTION LAUNCHED

Assange responded by launch-ing legal action against Ecuador,for violating his “fundamentalrights and freedoms.” BaltasarGarzon, a solicitor for WikiLeaksarrived in London to beginproceedings.


legal case has beenfiled by Elliott Broidywho served on theHomeland SecurityAdvisory CouncilA

(Future of Terrorism Task Force)from 2006 to 2009, against theState of Qatar and severalindividuals. The complaint statesQatar conspired in a cyberattackagainst him and numerous others,and states the computers of morethan 1,200 US nationals, includingassociates and friends ofPresident Donald Trump,European counter-terrorismofficials, Arab leaders and otherhigh profile individuals, werehacked.

Broidy is being represented byformer US Ambassador and

solicitor Lee Wolosky who servedin significant national securitypositions under the last three USpresidents. Wolosky, said:“Ongoing litigation in the UnitedStates sought to hold Qatar and itsagents in the US accountable. Aswe have alleged in our courtfilings, Qatar and its agents triedto silence Elliott Broidy, targetinghim because of his outspokenadvocacy against Qatar’s supportfor terrorism, its alliance with Iran,and its support of extremistgroups across the Middle East.”

Broidy said that at least 19 UAE-based officials were targeted in

Lee Wolosky

the cyber attack, includingMinister of State for ForeignAffairs Anwar Gargash and theambassadors to the UK andFrance. Lawyers in the case saythat the four-year operation wasaimed at those who threaten amulti-million dollar public relationcampaign to clean up thereputation of Qatar.

Congressional Advisor on MiddleEast Policy Aaron Keyak said thathe believes President Trump,

UAE Minister of State forForeign Affairs Anwar Gargash

National Security Advisor JohnBolton, and the Department ofState should send a strongmessage to Qatar to halt itsespionage activities. “Thecyberattack showed another levelof how ruthless Qatar was willingto play with the internationalcommunity,” said Keyak. “It’s onething to hire lobbyists to push anagenda or make a convincingargument... but it’s another thingentirely to engage in cyberespionage on US citizens.”

QATAR CYBER GAMESLEGAL CHALLENGE AFTER BREACHES

K Security Minister BenWallace has delivered anominous evaluation of theterrorist threat facing the

WMD THREAT INCREASING

U SECURITY MINISTER ISSUES WARNING

UK. “Britain must face up to thepossibility of a chemical orbiological attack as terroristsrelentlessly pursue new methodsto commit murder,” Mr Wallacesaid. In a stark assessment hesaid he saw plots where “the onlylimits to the ambition of ouradversaries is their imagination.”

Speaking at a security gathering inLondon, Wallace said whilst thelikelihood of such an attack is“very unlikely,” the attack threatlevel in the UK remains at Severe.

Mr Wallace warned: “As I speak,terrorists continue to explore newways to kill us on our streets.Chemical and biological weaponsare marching in closer. They havedeveloped and worked on a betterarsenal, and we have to beprepared that might come to ourstreets here.

NSY AssistantCommissioner Neil Basu

INTELLIGENCE

REVIEW•NEWS•DIGEST

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

LONDON: A judge has ruled that the Britishgovernment has the right to withhold informa-tion relating to alleged links between Britishspy agencies and exiled Russian, AleksandrPerepilichny, a wealthy and influential invest-ment banker, who died in 2012 with traces ofgelsemium in his stomach. The plant is a“known weapon of assassination [used] byChinese and Russian contract killers.”

The judge, Nicholas Hilliard QC, has security clearance and wastherefore able to review the relevant evidence behind closed doors,during a secret session. He then ruled that “publicly releasingintelligence information [relating to Perepilichny] would pose a realrisk of serious harm to national security.”

“Be under no doubt the threat isreal. Our open, liberal and freesocieties are easy prey to thosethat fear little and care even less.”

New Scotland Yard AssistantCommissioner Neil Basu, Britain’smost senior counter-terrorismofficer echoed Mr Wallace’swarning that the threat must betaken seriously. “We are operatingat a pace not seen since the veryheight of the Troubles.”


Secret classified documents to amedia house in 2017. Winner,who worked at an NSA facility inAugusta, Georgia, admittedprinting classified papers andremoving the material from thebuilding. The documents werenotes and commentary about aRussian GRU cyber attack on the

facility and concerned a supplierof US election voting software.

Following an internal audit whichrevealed the papers had beenwrongfully duplicated or copied,investigators identified six personswho had access to the material,eventually leading to Winner.

Whilst some commentatorsbelieve the sentence was harsh,including journalists who receivedthe papers, she could have

received a 10-year prison termand $250,000 fine. “She’s a goodperson who didn’t understand themagnitude of what she wasdoing,” said her solicitor JohnBell. In court, Winner, who oncecalled President Trump an “orangefascist,” said: “I had no intentionof harming national security.” Shealso called her actions a “severecrime against the government.”

John Demers, US AssistantAttorney General for National

Security, praised the prosecutionand decision: “I hope theirsuccess will deter others fromsimilar unlawful action in thefuture.”

Reality Winner

ormer NSA contractor andUSAF translator RealityWinner, 26, has beensentenced to five-years inprison for leaking Top

NSA INTELLIGENCE LEAKSSPECIAL CONTRACTOR JAILED FOR TOP SECRET DOCUMENTS ABUSE

F

ritain’s former MI6 Chief(1999-2004), Sir RichardDearlove, says he now

PUTIN’S MI6-KGB GATEWAYTHE REGRETFUL SPY

Bregrets helping Vladimir Putin inhis quest to become President in2000. Speaking at a literaryfestival, Sir Richard revealed hewas approached by a KGB officer

who asked if MI6 would helpestablish ties between the would-be president and Prime MinisterTony Blair.

The plan involved Blair attendingthe premiere of War and Peace inSt Petersburg at the Mariinsky

Theatre, here a liaison would beforged. Sir Richard said: “We hada long discussion in Londonwhether Tony Blair should acceptthe invitation or not, and wedecided on balance that this wasan unusual and unique openingand we accepted the invitation.”

Asked today if he has any regretsover his well-intended actions, the

intelligence man said, “sure thereis significant regret.”

The ex-spy chief also commentedon Russian interference in the2016 US General Election. Heaccepted that whilst it may havebeen possible to use technologyto influence public opinion, he didnot think the “impact was such asto change the result.”

Prime Minister Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin in 2000

Sir RichardDearlove

COUR

TESY

: SKY

NEW

S

WASHINGTON: North Korean hackers with a known history of conductingonline bank heists, have successfully breached at least 16 victims in 11 coun-tries in the last four years, making millions of dollars for Kim Jong-un’sregime in spite of international sanctions, a US cyber security report revealed.

An investigation into criminal activity attributed to the North Korean Govern-ment assessed that a particular hacking group called APT38, began breakinginto foreign banks to raise funds in the wake of the United Nations’ imposingfinancial penalties in response to Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

The hackers are responsible for stealing millions of dollars earlier this yearfrom banks in Mexico and Chile and remain ‘active and dangerous to

financial institutions worldwide’, the report said. Conservative estimates placeAPT38’s total haul over one hundred million dollars.

APT38 COVERT CYBER CRIMINALSNorth Korea ‘Bank Robbers’ Secure $100 million


STAGEOPERATION

INVASION COUNTERMEASURESEye Spy Navy Consultant Christopher Eger delves into an FBI project which wasinitiated to train a select number of hardy Alaskans to act as the ‘eyes and ears’

of American Intelligence, should the Soviets invade the northern most state in theUSA. Utilising the content of more than 2,100 pages of recently declassified

intelligence documents relating to OPERATION STAGE, the author provides aunique and engaging overview of this little known endeavour...

ust a half-decade after the end ofWWII, it was thought that theSoviets could soon make a push toreclaim their lost North Americancolony - Alaska - purchased by theUnited States in 1867 for around $7million. The US Government turnedJ

to the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover’s ‘G-men’ toestablish a plan to continue to generateclandestine intelligence from “somewhere inoccupied Alaska” in the event of a Russianinvasion.

The programme started in January 1950,when US Navy Captain Minor Heine, who heldthe position of Director of Intelligence for theservice’s Alaskan Command, called the FBISpecial Agent in Charge, John H. Williams in

The Secret Alaska FBI Sleeper Agent Plan

and just a few years later appointed byPresident Eisenhower as Chairman of the JointChiefs of Staff- was to enlist the FBI inestablishing a network of sleeper agents. Theoperatives would be chosen from amongstlocal Alaskans, trained and placed in stasisduring peacetime, then activated in the eventof a potential future occupation. Their rolewould be two-fold: to spy on the Soviets,sending back information of tactical andstrategic importance to US forces; andprovide a system of safe houses for shotdown US and friendly aircrews or othermilitary personnel behind the lines.

General Nathan Twining

Anchorage - the State’s largest city, whichsupported about a third of Alaska’s 135,000population. Heine wanted to see how theBureau could fit into the intel game in theevent of a Soviet invasion or occupation. Bythe end of the month, Williams was meetingwith Heine, Colonel Wallis Perry, the USArmy’s top intelligence officer in Alaska; Lt.Colonel Donald Springer, Perry’s correspond-ing representative with in US Air Force; andother top military intelligence officers in thestate.

GENESIS OF STAGE

The subject of the meeting, which had beencleared by Heine with General Nathan FarragutTwining - one of top commanders of the USAF


One of the proposed operatives was a 45-year-old hunting guide in Anchorage. Anotherwas a native-born Alaskan who was a medicaldoctor and avid outdoorsman that had helpedlocal FBI agents in cases from time to time. Athird was a 69-year-old Italian immigrant whohad come to Alaska during the Klondike GoldRush as a teenager and was consideredsomething of a local legend. Another immi-grant, a Croatian who the FBI noted wasrumoured to have been a bootlegger duringthe Prohibition-era, owned an area bar andhotel. In all, the youngest considered was 29-years of age, while the bulk were over 35. Athird were big game hunters and guides, withthe famous Holger Larsen, the bush-pilot headof the US Fish & Wildlife Service in the state,instrumental in helping the Bureau with itsrecruiting efforts.

Many of the men owned boats or smallairplanes and were skilled in their use in thepoorly-mapped state. Others had dog teams.About a third already had experience using

There was genuine fear in Washingtonthat Russia would order its troops to

‘retake’ Alaska

FBI Director J.Edgar Hoover

been vetted by the Bureau - confidentialinformants and local sources who the FBI wasalready using to surveil and monitor possibleCommunist agitators in dockworkers unions,movie theatre operators who showed Russian-language films, and the like. This lattersuggestion was rebuffed by the agents on theground in Alaska, who cabled back via codedradiogram in June: ‘Anchorage informants

presently prevailing not believed to be the

type suitable for this project, although office

has contacts who possibly could function in

such a programme’.

SELECTING STAY BEHINDS

Among the best people Hoover officialsthought would work as stay behind operatives,were the sort of hard, frontier men who hadproven themselves in this unforgiving regionand had established ties that would keep themthere in the event of a foreign invasion. In fact,most of the proposed stay-behinds hadpreviously weathered WWII in the territory, aconflict that saw Japanese troops occupyseveral islands in the Western part of thestate.

HANDS OFF CIA

The local FBI went for the idea, then contactedWashington’s military Inter-departmentalIntelligence Conference Committee at thePentagon - where the Bureau had a seat onthe table due to their traditional role in counter-intelligence hashed out some behind thescenes details over the next several months,the minutia of which are still classified. Thissmall and very select chamber predated theefforts of today’s Defense Intelligence Agency(DIA), which was only formed in 1961. Therecently established CIA was deliberately keptout of the loop in discussions, with one FBImemo on the subject openly stating: ‘The

principal advantage to the FBI’s assuming

joint responsibility in these two programmes

is that it will preclude any other intelligence

agency, such as the CIA, getting into the

intelligence field in Alaska at this time’.

By May 1950, Washington, with the blessingof infamous FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover,decided to greenlight the effort in Alaska,which was to be headed by the Anchorage FBIoffice, using local contacts who had already


Right: FBI document discussing howthe agents were to be trained in close-quarter fighting. Above: British agenttrainer William Fairbairn at the secret

agent training Camp-X in Canada usingknives in hand-to-hand combat

radios. All were known to the Bureau asdependable and had - mostly - clean records.The majority also had occupations andpursuits that had required them to travelacross broad swathes of Alaska and knew thevast and rugged territory like the back of theirhand after a lifetime of adventures. Some wereemployed by local and state government insurvey, conservation and road work. Theircollective skillset was unlike any that could betaught.

LEARNING TRADECRAFT

What had to be explained to the planned 75-100 operatives across the state to berecruited, was a crash course in being ahidden agent. Initially each man - there wereno women - was to be given about two weeksof intense training in the Washington DC area.

This was performed by FBI ‘subject matterexperts’ in aircraft and ship recognition,Russian language, firearms, first aid, bacterio-logical and nuclear warfare and, mostimportantly, sending and receiving codedmessages via hidden radios.

When it came to codes and ciphers, each wastrained in the use of pocket-sized DIANACryptosystem one-time pads, double meaningwords to signal distress, and issued acommon paperback novel- for example the25-cent Trouble on the Border by GordonYoung - as an emergency key. This would laterbe expanded to include the use of secretwriting to include ‘damp pressure’ and ‘anilinepencil’ methods. They were also prepped intechniques known to be used by the Soviets inthe past to ferret out espionage agents. Finally,each trainee was given courses in selecting

and training sub-agents and informants,defensive tactics such as disarming assailantsand the close-in use of knives. Due to thebackgrounds of each of the selected stay-behinds, the training in the latter was likely tobe an easy task.

Although each candidate was approachedquietly by the FBI to gauge their willingness toparticipate in the programme - which wasvoluntary - they were to be paid for training($150 per week plus $11 per diem forexpenses) and, naturally, in the event of theiractivation in standby periods and full-scaleinvasion. To hide the fact from local bankerswho may talk in small communities and blowthe operative’s cover, each had a bankaccount established at a stateside bank towhich their payments were made. Eachoperative was vetted locally before they wererecruited, then given a more extensivebackground check prior to their travel toWashington. A cursory medical exam by anArmy doctor at Fort Richardson for ‘deformity’was also part of the ‘onboarding’ process.

By the end of June 1951, three operatives hadbeen trained and another 75 were in therecruiting pipeline. Four dedicated FBI agentsin Anchorage were detailed to run the top-secret programme, which by now had beencodenamed Operation STAGE.

COVER AND LEGEND

Earnest efforts were made to maintain thesecrecy of the sleepers’ identity. All the stay-behinds were given a cover name. At no timeduring the recruitment or training process didany operative learn about the identity of othersin the programme. Candidates were never toldabout other stay-behinds, always met withcontrolling agents on a one-on-one basis, andtravelled to training alone. Classes, staggeredto begin every three days, were attended

The stay behind agents were to receive training on the use of field radios byFBI instructors, and how to communicate in code


What are my instructionsAdopt Plan AAdopt Plan BAdopt Plan C

I am controlled

Do not contact me untilfurther notice

I need medicineI need menI need food

I need medicine/men/food urgently

Forced to move

IdeaEasyFoxHow

Sugar

Uncle

CloudRabbitsFish

(Repeat above cover word)

Walk

AGENT TABLE OF EXCHANGE WORDSTHE SPOKEN WORD

SUFF

OLK

COUN

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ISTO

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STAGE were to be evacuated, but only afterdestroying files, with a backup set of filesmaintained in Washington.

Once the stay-behinds returned to Alaska fromtraining, they were encouraged to becomecivilian ham radio operators to provide coverfor their regular practice of sending andreceiving coded transmissions from an FBIagent in the Anchorage office. They weregiven 45-hours of radio training in Washingtonfor that purpose. In the event of activation,pre-planned radio call signs, protocols andfrequencies were established.

The programme moved along, and by late July1951, the first dedicated escape and evasionstay behinds, with orders to help shepherddowned aircrew to ‘Free America or Canada’,were sent off for training.

‘... it will preclude any other intelligence agency, such as the CIA,

getting into the intelligence field in Alaska at this time’

At times, typical Washington bureaucracyreared its head in bizarre and illogical ways.One memo, ordering 504 pencils for the useof the stay-behinds, specified that the writinginstruments should not be stamped ‘Property

of the US Government’ and ‘We do not want

all the pencils to look alike’. Another round ofmemos debated the value of plannedparachute training for operatives, with themain issue being increased per diem costs tothe country at a time of tight budgets. Stillanother urgent radiogram requested a cashincrease of $1,000 to the Anchorage office astwo trainees were scheduled to come and get$500 advances and the office was low onfunds. Further, to protect the carefullymanicured persona of the suit-wearingcollege-degreed FBI special agents thatHoover had spent decades nurturing, it wasspecifically ordered that the stay-behinds,characteristically flannel and wool-cladbackwoodsmen, should never be termed‘agents’, and instead be referred to only as‘contacts or informants’. Similarly, use of theword ‘spy’ was forbidden.

AGENT SURVIVAL BASES

It was thought that Soviet secret police,moving in with the occupation forces, wouldsoon liquidate or remove local populationcentres to Siberian gulags, which meant thesleepers had to be ready to relocate to moresurvivable locations early in the invasion. ByAugust 1951, an effort was made to scout outhidden cache locations for the stay-behinds atremote abandoned mines, cabins and ghosttowns, each to include a full year’s worth offood, survival gear, radios, generators, and

by only a single student and their instructors.Stay-behinds were forbidden to talk about theprogramme or their new job to anyone otherthan their handler, including family members.Operatives were coached to provide coverstories about their travel, for which the FBIwould help supply receipts and items such aspostcards and fake documents to support theruse.

COMMUNICATIONS

Correspondence for the programme wasdirected to a secure Post Office Box at theAnchorage Post Office in the name of AlfredBurr. The programme was handled from Room#1533 in the Anchorage FBI office on a strict‘need-to-know’ compartmentalised basis. Ifinvasion threatened and the ‘balloon went up’,the six personnel at the office familiar with

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other supplies sealed in weatherproofpackaging along with shelter for the operativeand a guest.

The list of recommended supplies wasimmense for each location, to include asmuch as 5,000 gallons of petrol, a tractor,three tons of fuel oil for heating, 150 poundsof canned meats, 400 pounds of dried fruits

and vegetables, extensive fishing kits andlockers full of clothes. It was estimated thateach location would take a team of six men aperiod of 10-days to install and cost some$2,800 to outfit and complete. When youmultiply this by 75-100 planned stay-behinds,it was a small fortune. This figure drew firefrom FBI Director Hoover himself, whopenciled on one memo on the cache proposal:‘What about this? Are we left holding the bag

with no assistance?’.

Then, on 17 September 1951, the ‘rug waspulled’ out from under the feet of the STAGEprogramme with Hoover personally firing offan order to shut the operation down and for

agents in Anchorage to tell stay-behinds thatthe FBI was pulling out of the operation.However, redacted intelligence documentsinfer that other unnamed agencies or serviceshad expressed interest in stepping into theBureau’s now-vacated spot.

By November, the programme had beenwound down as far as the FBI was concerned,although the Anchorage office would continueto process background checks on stay-behinds for several additional months,possibly in support of the unnamed agency orservices who expressed interest in OperationStage. In all, just 20 stay-behinds completedthe FBI training programme of the 78 selectedand cleared persons. Some 140 individualswere considered. And, according to meticu-lous records, the FBI spent $10,260.62 on theprogramme.

As for Alaska, the invasion never came.

Selecting locals who were familiar and used to the harsh landscape ofAlaska was a major consideration for FBI recruiters

Today’s protectors: An F-22 USAFRaptor takes off from Joint BaseElmendorf-Richardson, Alaska

US Navy Special Warfare Centerdetachment train in Kodiak, Alaska,watched by former Secretary of the

Navy Ray Mabus

Canada

Russia

Alaska


Following the audacious Mossad operation in Iran whichresulted in the capture of thousands of sensitive documents

pertaining to Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, IsraeliPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed new intelligence

on previously unknown and secret nuclear storage sites

The Maher Alley SecretMossad Secures More Iranian Nuclear Weapons Intelligence

Israel’s PrimeMinisterBenjaminNetanyahu

addresses theUnited Nations

GeneralAssembly

resenting more evidence ofTehran’s nuclear ambitions andregional aggression at the UnitedNations General Assembly,Netanyahu said: “What I’m aboutto say has not been sharedP

publicly before,” holding up what looked likesatellite images of alleged nuclear-relatedstorage warehouses. Titled ‘Iran’s SecretAtomic Sites’, he supplied visual aids, aposterboard map, then a posterboard photo,then another map and naming its location -The Maher Alley in Tehran’s Turquzabaddistrict.

Without sharing how his premier spy agencysecured the intelligence, he described a non-descript warehouse as an “innocent-lookingcompound” next to a rug-cleaning business.He mocked: “I hear they do a fantastic job

cleaning rugs... but by now they may beradioactive rugs.”

Within the warehouse - “300 tonnes ofnuclear-related equipment and materiel” in 15metal shipping containers. Netanyahudemanded an international inspection “righthere, right now.” He also accused the Iraniansof “scurrying” to clean up the warehouse and“spreading 15 kilograms of radioactivematerial around Tehran,” this in an effort tohide the evidence.

Netanyahu said the nuclear facility is under thesupervision of a secret Iranian DefenseMinistry department headed by physicistMohsen Fakhrizadeh. He was previouslynamed as head of Iran’s nuclear programmeby Netanyahu in his April presentation at theUN, following Mossad’s seizure of Iran’s

April 2018. Benjamin Netanyahuholds aloft a card display at the UN

to show Iran’s progress in securing anuclear weapon

nuclear archive. He called on the UnitedNation’s Vienna-based International AtomicEnergy Agency (IAEA) to investigate theMossad’s findings, revealing thus far it “hasnot taken any action.” He said Israel sharedthe information with the IAEA and urged theorganisation to inspect the site. The IAEA hadno immediate comment.

© UNITED NATIONS


27 September 2018. Benjamin Netanyahu uses card displays showing the site of another concealed nuclearweapons warehouse in Tehran, which he said the IAEA has yet to investigate. Iran has rejected the allegations

Iran and its allies have long accusedIsrael of double standards by opposingnuclear weapons in other countries in theMiddle East, while having its own nucleararsenal. For over half-a-century Israel hasnever confirmed or denied reports that itpossesses nuclear weapons.

Details of Israel’s primary nuclear plantnear the southern city of Dimona wereexposed in 1986, by technicianMordechai Vanunu, an act which resultedin a lengthy prison sentence - and onehe will never be forgiven for. Israel hasrefused international inspections at itsnuclear site, though it is not required todo so because it has not signed the NPTAct (Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weap-ons). It is believed Israel maintains anarsenal of around 200 nuclear warheads.

© AVI OHAYON GPO

THE DIMONA PLANT

Mordechai VanunuHeadquarters of the International AtomicEnergy Agency in Vienna. The IAEA, accordingto some commentators, seems unconvinced by

the Mossad intelligence

uphold the 2015 nuclear agreement. “Whilethe United States is confronting Iran with newsanctions, Europe and others are appeasingIran by trying to help it bypass those newsanctions,” he said. “Have these Europeanleaders learned nothing from history? Will theyever wake up? You have to ask yourself aquestion: ‘Why did Iran keep a secret atomicarchive and a secret atomic warehouse?’” Hethen issued a warning about the prowess andcapabilities of Israeli Intelligence “What Iranhides, Israel will find.”

THE SECRET SITE

Netanyahu told delegates at the UN GeneralAssembly meeting held in late September: “It[the IAEA] has not posed a single question toIran. It has not demanded to inspect a singlenew site discovered in that secret archive. So Idecided to reveal something else today thatwe revealed to the IAEA and to other intelli-gence agencies.”

Mr Netanyahu accused Britain, France andGermany of appeasing Iran by continuing to


Mr Netanyahu named Dr Mohsen Fakhrizadeh as lead Iranian nuclear scientist EURO

PEAN

PAR

LIAM

ENTA

RY R

ESEA

RCH

SERV

ICE

PRIMARY IRANIAN NUCLEAR SITESAND MAJOR POWER FACILITIES

HUNDREDS OF BOMBS

Netanyahu attacked the 2015 nuclear deal,saying Iran “immediately” used moniesreleased following the accord to bolster itsdefence forces - a “40 percent increase,” hesaid. “The essence of the nuclear deal wasthat, in return for not enriching uranium for asingle bomb, Iran in a few years will get theright to enrich for hundreds of bombs. Iran hasalready announced that it will produce200,000 centrifuges, some of them 20-timesfaster than the current generation.” Netanyahusaid Iran had been exposed “as deceiving andcheating the international community.”

He concluded by issuing a chilling warning tothe international gathering - that Iran wasaiming to break out a nuclear arsenal when itdeemed the time was right and intelligenceeyes were distracted. “There will be a crisissomewhere... to break out its nucleararsenal... that’s the Iranian plan.”

A THIRD SITE

Intelligence sources in Tel Aviv said Netanyahuhad intended to reveal more intelligence on athird secret Iranian nuclear facility. However,

the Mossad and senior Israel Defence Forcesofficials asked for restraint. This site was alsodescribed as a “secret atomic warehouse” inTehran. Intelligence watchers believe whilst theMossad has “reasonable proof of thewarehouse, it is still gathering intelligence.”

IRAN RESPONDS

Iran duly used its right of reply at the GeneralAssembly to refute Netanyahu’s accusations.

“His fallacies and his statement confirm hispathological tendency to tell monstrous liesand distort reality,” said a representative of theIranian delegation. “Exhibiting some photo-graphs of Google Street View? Today theIsraeli showman claimed that he discoverednew nuclear facilities in Iran. This is yetanother false story.”

In Iran, state media said the comments andinformation were “ridiculous.” The country’sIRNA news agency said “Netanyahu annuallylaunches a ridiculous show at the UN GeneralAssembly.” An Iranian Foreign Ministryspokesman said: “the world will laugh loudlyat these types of theatrics and false anduncalculated statements.”

Location of the ‘atomic archive’ raidedby Mossad spies earlier this year and

the new ‘atomic warehouse’ referencedby Netanyahu at the United Nations

In a Tweet just hours after Netanyahu’s UNpresentation, Iranian Foreign Minister JavadZarif wrote: ‘No arts & craft show will ever

obfuscate that Israel is [the] only regime in

our region with a secret and undeclared

nuclear weapons programme - including an

actual atomic arsenal. Time for Israel to fess

up and open its illegal nuclear weapons

programme to international inspectors’.

THE WAREHOUSE

In an action perhaps orchestrated by Iran’sMOIS (Ministry of Intelligence of Security) spyagency, Iranians published ‘selfies’ on social

An Iranian stands outside the ‘atomicwarehouse’ site mentioned by Netanyahu

Netanyahu exits the UN GeneralAssembly protected by his

security delegation after hisscathing attack on Iran


NEW YORK: At the UN General Assemblymeeting, US National Security Adviser, JohnBolton, warned Iran there would be “Hell to pay”if it crosses the United States.

Tensions are growing between the two nationsfollowing President Donald Trump’s re-instate-ment of economic sanctions on Tehranfollowing the US withdrawal from the 2015nuclear deal. Iran responded by threatening toblock the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterwaywhere over one-fifth of all the world’s oil passes.

The US Navy has already repositioned anumber of warships and surveillance vessels tothe region in the event Iran attempts to disruptshipping. Aerial and ground intelligencecollection has also been stepped-up, includingthe relocation of several spy satellites tomonitor Iranian military activity.

In September, the CIA blamed Iran-backedparamilitary forces for several incidents in Basra,

Iraq, where anumber ofpeople werekilled inclashes. TheUS dulyannounced itwill close itsconsulate inthe southernIraqi city. USSecretary ofState MikePompeo saidall but emer-

July 2018. Watchful US Navy officers aboard the guided-missile destroyerUSS The Sullivans, monitor shipping on the Strait of Hormuz

WASHINGTON-TEHRAN TENSIONSTRILLION DOLLAR WATERWAY

JohnBolton

media taken outside the facility referenced byNetanyahu. A senior Israeli official responded:“The fact that you have young Iranians takingselfies there is unbelievable.”

IRAN - A REGIONAL AGGRESSOR

Netanyahu also blamed Iran for sponsoringHouthis forces in Yemen, threatening to closethe Persian Gulf, attacking Kurds in Iraq,several incidents in Syria, and backing groupsopposed to Israel.

Regarding Hezbollah, Netanyahu held upsatellite photos of the international airport inBeirut, Lebanon. “The Shia militia is upgradingits missiles for better accuracy,” he said, andhas placed three secret conversion sites nearthe airport, using civilians as human shields.“We will act against you in Syria, we will actagainst you in Lebanon, we will act againstyou in Iraq, we will act against you inwherever and whenever, Netanyahu warned.

gency staff would be relocated to Baghdad, andwarned that the US would hold Iran responsiblefor any harm to its citizens or facilities.

TREATY OF AMITY

President Trump is terminating the little-knownfriendship Treaty of Amity between the UnitedStates and Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeoannounced 3 October. The treaty was used asthe basis for Iran taking the US to the Interna-tional Court of Justice (ICJ) after Washingtonimposed fresh sanctions after withdrawing fromthe nuclear deal. Iran said the treaty allowed forsanctions relief.

“This is a decision frankly that is 39 years over-due,” Pompeo said. President Trump’s team re-jected the court’s authority over the matter un-der any circumstances; the theory of Iran’s caserelied on the existence of a decades-old friend-ship pact that Pompeo emphasised is obsolete.“The Iranians have been ignoring it for an aw-fully long time,”he said. “Weought to havepulled out of itdecades ago.”

The ICJ is themain judicialbody of the UNand used tosettle disputesbetween mem-ber states.

MikePompeo

JavidZarif


ussia’s Deputy Prosecutor GeneralSaak Albertovich Karapetyan, 58,was killed in a helicopter crash on 3October near the village ofVonyshevo in the Kostroma region.

FALLING DOWN

DEATH OF SENIOR KREMLIN FIGURE INVESTIGATED

RThe incident generated a plethora of rumoursand conspiracy theories, with some commen-tators speculating he was assassinatedbecause of his deep knowledge of varioussensitive and secret investigative files, manyconnected to the world of intelligence.

Karapetyan had intimate knowledge of Kremlinactivities. He was lead official in charge ofseveral high-profile Russian criminal probes,

including threemajor incidents inthe UK. Theseinclude the recentpoisoning of MI6agent Sergei Skripalin March; theunexplained death ofbusinessman BorisBerezovsky (left) in

2013, and the assassination of former FSBofficer and MI6 agent Alexander Litvinenko inLondon in 2006.

Karapetyan is also said to have directed theforeign operations of Natalia Veselnitskaya,another Kremlin operative who engaged withsenior Trump campaign officials at thenotorious 9 June 2016 Trump Tower meeting.

THE CRASH

Three other people perished in the crash, AregArutyunyan, 47, pilot Stanislav Mikhnov, 54,and passenger Viktor Kopteev also 54. Aircrash investigators said the aircraft - aEurocopter AS350 - was overloaded andclipped tree tops as it took off in bad weatherconditions. The men were about to embark ona hunting trip. Some Russia media housesreported the flight was ‘unauthorised’.

Russian journalist Sergey Dorenko accusedinvestigating authorities of concealingevidence of gun shots and suggested the

prosecutor was assassinated. Dorenko saidauthorities hid details of two bullet wounds tothe highly experienced pilot as well as gunshot damage to the helicopter’s rotor blade.However, others speculate that because themen were on a hunting trip, there is apossibility that ammunition could havedischarged on impact. Authorities in Moscow

Karapetyan handled the Russianprobe into the circumstances of

MI6 agent Alexander Litvinenko’sassassination in 2006

Sergey Dorenko


8 NOVEMBER 2016: SERGEIKRIVOV. An alleged Russiancounter-espionage officer whodied after falling from the roofof the Russian Consulate inNew York. Moscow said hedied of a heart attack. NYPDsaid foul play wasn’t sus-pected.

21 DECEMBER 2016: YVESCHANDELON.Chief NATOAuditorGeneralresponsible forinvestigatingRussian

Eurocopter AS350 operated by the Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm

dispute the claims and said there was noevidence of gunshots whatsoever. From wherethe gunshot story came is unclear, butDorenko is highly respected in the media. Witha superior insight into Russian intelligence andpolitical affairs, in 2007 Dorenko famouslyprovided journalists with a video tape of aninterview with FSB officer Alexander Litvinenkoand colleagues in 1998. In the recording,Litvinenko and colleagues hint they had beenordered by their FSB superiors to “kill, kidnapor frame various leading Russian politiciansand business people.”

Anonymous Kremlin blogger ‘NezygarTelegram’ claimed “Karapetyan’s death willresolve a number of very painful issues and

Deputy Prosecutor General SaakAlbertovich Karapetyan

Union, political murder has beeninstitutionalised.”

Former MI6 Chief Sir Richard Dearloverecently entered the assassination debate:“The attack in the UK [Sergei Skripal)] fits ahistorical pattern, Russia historically hasalways used assassination as weapon, it’spart of the Russian political DNA, it’s a ratherterrible thing to say but it’s a violent countryand they tend to kill each other.”

Intelligence sources say whilst it may never bepossible to establish the exact circumstancesof Karapetyan’s death, it has been added to agrowing list of suspicious deaths.

RECENT CASE FILES money laundering is foundshot dead in his car in theBelgian town of Andenne.Investigators speculate theshooting could have beenmade to resemble suicide.

26 DECEMBER 2016: OLEGEROVINKIN. Former FSB spylinked toinformation inthe so-called‘SteeleDossier’ whichcontained allmanner ofdisparaging information onDonald Trump. He was founddead in the back seat of hischauffeur-driven Lexus car inMoscow.

20 FEBRUARY 2017: VITALYCHURKIN. Russia’s UnitedNations Ambassador withthreads to Russian Intelligencedied suddenly in a New Yorkhospital after falling ill. Some

US mediahousesspeculate hewas murderedby poisoning.

2 MARCH2017: ALEXORONOV. A naturalised UScitizen, Oronov died inmysterious circumstances inhis native Ukraine, accordingto some media houses. Heallegedly helped set-up ameeting involving Trumplawyer Michael Cohen regard-

ing a backchannel Ukrainepeace plan. Theassassinationallegation isdismissed by hisfamily.

21 MARCH 2017: NIKOLAIGOROKHOV. A lawyer for theMagnitsky family and keywitness for the US Government

in a moneylaundering suitagainst aRussianholdingcompany, fallsor is thrownfrom the 4thfloor of his Moscow apartment.He is seriously injured butsurvives. Sergei Magnitskywas of course a tax accountantwho specialised in anti-corruption cases. He wasfound dead in a Russian policecell in 2009 sparking allmanner of assassinationrumours.

23 MARCH 2017: DENISVORONOKOV. A formerRussian military colonel,Voronokov was shot dead inKiev, Ukraine, allegedly by anFSB unit despatched to findhim. He was due to testifyabout various controversialhappenings in the Kremlin.

stop leaks of highly confidential information tothe West and prevent attacks on Putin’ssecurity council chief Nikolai Patrushev.”

ASSASSINATION CULTURE

In July 2018 at Portcullis House opposite theUK Parliament building, an event was held bythe Henry Jackson Society titled: ‘Russia’s

Assassinations Abroad’. Delegates hearddetails of several case studies involving recentdeaths, a number of those were containedwithin the so-called ‘Russian List’ revealed byEye Spy. Amongst the speakers, Giles Udy, ahistorian who studied Soviet Communism. Hesaid: “There is a long-standing culture inRussia to target enemies. Like in the Soviet


THE

LISTENERSSECRETTHE

LISTENERSSECRET

TRENT PARK MUSEUMSPECIAL UPDATELatest developments of the campaign tocreate a unique museum at Trent Park inNorth London - the location of a crucial

WWII clandestine spying operation

uring the Second World War, Trent Park (once the home ofSir Philip Sassoon - a decorated military veteran) took on atop-secret role that would not be revealed for nearly 70years. At the heart of this very secret war were the teams of‘Secret Listeners’ - the German refugees (the majority ofD

them Jewish) - who had themselves escaped Nazi persecution andwere now working for British Intelligence. From the oft claustrophobicand atmospheric basement of the mansion house, they secretlylistened into the conversations of Hitler’s captured generals living inrelative luxury above them. The information the secretlisteners uncovered included details of Hitler’s deadly weaponsprogramme and evidence of war crimes and the concentration camps.

Sir Philip Sassoon

Relaxed and talkative - German officers at Trent Park

Within two weeks of thebombing of Pearl harbour,American intelligence officersarrived at Trent Park. Theywere soon part of the Office ofStrategic Services (OSS laterCIA), and went on to make avaluable contribution asinterrogators and intelligenceofficers here. Trent Park,alongside Bletchley Park, is aprime example of the closeAnglo-American intelligencecooperation that wascemented in WWII and whichcontinues today.

The clever handling of Hitler’s generals by British and AmericanIntelligence continues to captivate the public imagination. Giving 59German generals and nearly 40 senior German officers a life of relativeluxury in the mansion house at Trent Park arguably led to one of thegreatest intelligence coups of the war. From their bugged conversa-tions, the intelligence services gained the first concrete proof of Hitler’ssecret weapon programme at Peenemünde on the Baltic coast - V-1, V-2 and V-3.

OSS Trent ParkinterrogatorHelmwarth

Jestin

By Dr Helen Fry


Above: A vision of one of the display rooms. Left: Trent Park Museumcampaign directors Councillor Jason Charalambous, Dr Helen Fry and

campaign advisor Sir Michael Bear, former Lord Mayor of London

widespread intelligence on U-boat operations,German campaigns on the Russian front,enemy operations ahead of D-Day and theArdennes campaign, as well as details ofmass atrocities and concentration camps.

In February 2017, Historic England formallyconcluded that Trent Park’s wartime work was

1943. RAF reconnaissance photo ofPeenemude V2 launch facility

Trustee, actress and comedian Helen Lederer with Eric Mark, the lastsurviving Secret Listener. Lederer’s grandfather was involved in the

clandestine work conducted at Trent Park in WWII

OPERATION CROSSBOW

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill soonordered reconnaissance flights overPeenemünde; the subsequent aerial photo-graphs were analysed at RAF Medmenham inBuckinghamshire. As a result, Churchillsanctioned Operation Crossbow on 17/18August 1943 to bomb Germany’s secretweapon establishment. It is a prime examplewhere wartime intelligence operations had amaterial effect on the outcome of the war. Thevast amount of bugged conversations gainedintelligence ahead of the Battle of Britain in1940, information from prisoners captured inthe commando raids in 1941 and 1942, to


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“of considerable national and international historical interest whichbears comparison to the code-breaking work at Bletchley Park.”

A major part of the mansion house has now been secured as a nationalmuseum - with a vision to create an exciting ‘living’ interactive andimmersive AV museum to the secret listeners. This will be establishedin the historic spaces where the secret operations took place under MI6spymaster, Colonel Thomas Joseph Kendrick. The museum is due toopen in 2021.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Eye Spy urges readers to support this splendideducational and learning endeavour with a donation.

LINKS: www.trentparkmuseum.org.uk/donation

Intelligence gleaned at Trent Park helped Allied Intelligence iden-tify Germany’s secret rocket programme and facilities. Picturedhere is La Coupole (The Dome), also known as the Coupoled’Helfaut-Wizernes and originally codenamed Bauvorhaben 21(Building Project 21) - a WWII bunker complex in the Pas-de-Calaisnorthern France.

Built by Germany between 1943 and 1944, the facility was to serveas a launch base for V-2 rockets directed against London andsouthern England. Following repeated heavy bombing by Alliedforces during Operation Crossbow, the Germans were unable tocomplete construction and the complex never entered service.The site now hosts the La Coupole Museum

THE INTELLIGENCE

FOR 2018


2016. President Obama speaks tosecurity colleagues from an SCIF inHavana, Cuba, following a terrorist

attack in Europe

Eye Spy examines the origins of secure communication roomsknown as SCIF’s or Bubbles and their historical links to famous

espionage case files and a classic American comedy show

he discovery of a listening bug inthe Great Seal in the US Embassy inMoscow during the first years of theCold War, was an early example ofthe prowess and cunning of Sovietspycraft. Dubbed ‘The Thing’ by UST

Intelligence, a listening device was concealedin the Great Seal and was gifted to W. AverellHarriman, US Ambassador to the USSR on 4

August 1945, by the Soviets. He duly hung thesplendid carving in his office, and there itremained - undetected until 1952. Soon USIntelligence became aware of just how prolificthe Soviets had become in the placement ofbugs with scores of listening devicesdiscovered in American facilities throughoutEurope and Russia.

ACOUSTIC CONFERENCE ROOMS

In addition to regular bug sweeps to countersuch activity, US technical experts came upwith a novel tactic: A special room-within-a-room inside ultra secure facilities whereofficials could hold sensitive discussions. Thethinking was that even if the facility had beencompromised, the listening devices wouldn’tbe able to hear what was going on inside theAcoustic Conference Rooms (ACR) or‘Bubbles’, as they were called by intelligencestaffers. These were in effect, the earlyancestors of modern Sensitive Compart-mented Information Facilities (SCIFs). Perhapsthe most famous SCIF in operation today, andoften referenced by the media, is the SituationRoom in the White House. However, even

W. AverellHarriman

(SCIF)SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION FACILITIES

1960. US Ambassador Henry LodgeJr. shows ‘The Thing’ to diplomats

and press at the United Nations

Donald Trump had one built years ago inTrump Tower, New York: and one of his firsttasks after reaching the White House, was tobuild a SCIF at his Mar-a-Lago resort inFlorida, nicknamed the Winter White House. AtLangley, a CIA auditorium is nicknamed ‘thebubble’, though this is due more to its


The KGB listened-in to conversations at the US Embassy for seven yearsbefore the Great Seal bug was discovered. The device required electro-

magnetic energy from an external source to become active

Former building which housed the US Embassy in Moscow,and where ‘The Thing’ remain undetected

Conference auditorium at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Staff callthe building the ‘Bubble’, which has been used more recently as an

exchange word for ‘Langley’

interior design. However, it too is protected byelectronic countermeasures. And at CIA, thereis an unwritten code. “What happens in thebubble stays in the bubble,” according toHoward Richards, who provided personalprotection for four CIA Directors.

Since their creation, and due to advancementsin technology and versatile shielding, SCIFsare now highly adaptable and portable. Someare even contained within aircraft such as AirForce One. In an emergency or ongoingoperation where secret and classifiedinformation is being discussed, SCIFs can bequickly transported and made operational in avery short space of time.

THE ORIGINAL BUBBLES

The first Bubbles came in two sizes 12ft by15ft and 12ft by 20ft and were primarilymanufactured using aluminium and plastic.They had five inches of space between twolayers of walls, according to US StateDepartment officials and declassified papers.They were suspended a few inches off theground enabling security people to seesuspicious protruding wires or devices. Theouter-shield had noise or wind generatingcapability (white noise). In 1960, the firstBubble was installed in the US Embassy inMoscow and soon they began to appear in allmajor and sensitive places abroad, includingone Bubble in Tehran (1961), which intelli-gence sources likened to a space rocket.

BLACK FALCON

The way the Soviets got around this problemwas simple. Rather than attempt to defeat theACR technology, they would place hidden


Left: President Trump’s SCIF inFlorida known as the Winter White

House. Here the president discussesevents in Syria with senior officials

and security personnel

Harry G. Barnes Jr

bugs on American staffers, who in turn woulduse the Bubbles, essentially compromising thefacilities. Other tried and trusted spy methodscould also be actioned. An example of suchaction can be found in a declassified US StateDepartment file:

‘In 1969, Harry G. Barnes Jr., also known as

the Black Falcon, Deputy Chief of Mission in

Bucharest, Romania, called a classified

conference, which met in the ‘bubble.’ [State

Department Office of Security] officer Lou

Grob was monitoring the meeting from

another room and heard the conversation. He

immediately informed the Administration

Officer... that there was a bug in the ACR.

After searching, they found something

resembling Don Adams’s ‘shoe phone’ from

the 1960s television series Get Smart! - the

bug was located in the heel of Barnes’s shoe.

Barnes had had the butler take his shoes out

A still from the 1960s show Get Smart!,shows two men engaged in a conversationinside the bubble. The running joke in theseries was that neither could properly heareach other, though the conversation wasfully audible to anyone listening outside.

THE GET SMART! BUBBLE

A rather poor SD photo showingHarry Barnes shoe bug

to be modified, and someone had installed

the bug in the process. After this incident,

[Office of Security] officers covered ACRs

with Reynolds plastic wrap (cling film) to

reduce the radiation of low-power devices

such as shoe bugs until the proper security

modifications could be made’.

CONE OF SILENCE

The American television comedy show Get

Smart, as referenced in the SD file, would alsobe responsible for the creation of a phraseused by intelligence people and in relation tousers of ACRs. ‘Cone of Silence’ has beenadopted into popular culture and is a slangphrase meaning that the speaker wishes tokeep the indicated information secret and thatthe conversation should not be repeated toanyone not currently present. In the comedyseries which ran in the 1960s about an ineptspy, ‘Get Smart’, in episode 1 - Mr Big (1965)‘Cone of Silence’ was introduced and used asa recurring joke. The essence of the joke isthat the apparatus, designed for secretconversations, makes it impossible for thoseinside the device - and easy for those outside

the device - to hear the conversation. The endresult being neither secret nor communicative.

President Trump speaks to reporters on board the Boeing VC-25aeroplane - better known as Air Force One. This aircraft, along with

a second VC-25 also in operation, has complete SCIF

Actor Don Adams, who plays the maincharacter - agent Maxwell ‘Max’ Smart

in Get Smart!, listens to his shoe!


Sealed State Department investigative reportsalso show that Mrs Barnes allowed thechauffeur into the embassy in Bucharest,where he duly planted electronic eavesdrop-ping devices on behalf of his KGB spymasters.Pacepa said in an interview that he had toldUS officials that the chauffeur had plantedelectronic transmitters in the embassy prior toimportant dinners hosting senior figures.

A former high-ranking US intelli-gence official said theCIA and the FBI hadconducted a damageassessment in 1978and were “90 percent sure” thatimportant intelligenceoperations had notbeen compromised.

For the record, StateDepartment officials

said Mrs Barnes had denied helping thechauffeur obtain sensitive information. FormerSecretary of State Cyrus Vance said heordered the information sealed (classified)during the Carter administration after USinvestigators determined that it was unlikelythat Mrs Barnes had disclosed any secrets tothe Romanians.

As for Clayton J. Lonetree, he was tried in amilitary court in Quantico, Virginia andconvicted of espionage on 21 August 1987.He served nine years in prison and was thefirst US Marine to be convicted of spyingagainst the United States. Lonetree, who wasstationed in Moscow as a guard at the USEmbassy in the early 1980s, confessed in1987 to selling documents to the SovietUnion. His entry into the spying game beganwhen he was seduced by a 25-year-oldfemale KGB officer named Violetta Seina inthat year. He was then blackmailed intohanding over documents when he wasreassigned to Vienna, Austria. The documentsreportedly included blueprints of US Embassybuildings in Moscow and Vienna and thenames and identities of undercover Americanintelligence agents in the Soviet Union.

Sensitive Compartmented InformationFacilities may provide a layer of unprec-edented security, but infiltration and compro-mise remain a constant threat, as evidencedby these historic cases and a more recentevent in Moscow (see Eye Spy 117). Here aRussian national operated in the US Embassyfor over a decade. She was duly sacked in2017 after US Intelligence discovered she wasliaising with an FSB contact person. Similarly,the case of the Barnes’ over half a century agoinvolving a simple shoe repair and covert loveaffair reflect the dangers of how easy it is tolisten-in to secrets. Such activities are beyondthe scope of SCIF.

General Ion Mihai Pacepa

Walk-in. General Ion Mihai Pacepa defectedwhen he walked into the US Embassy in Bonn

HONEYTRAPS AND SHOE BUGS

The case involving US Ambassador Harry G.Barnes as mentioned in the US State Depart-ment document, was typical of the actions ofboth the West and Soviets during the ColdWar. It was also referenced by defenselawyers in 1987, who sought dismissal ofespionage charges against a Marine Corpsguard by citing Barnes’ wife who was notpunished for having an affair with a Romanianintelligence agent in the mid-1970s.

Marine Sergeant Clayton Lonetree, a Marinecommander in Quantico, was denied thedismissal motion as irrelevant at a preliminaryhearing on charges that he gave Soviet agentsaccess to the US Embassy in Moscow andfailed to report sexual liaisons with a Sovietwoman.

The Marine’s lawyer referred an affair betweenElizabeth Barnes and a Romanian agent whowas a chauffeur at the US Embassy inBucharest. General Ion Mihai Pacepa, theformer acting chief of Romania‘s ForeignIntelligence Service, said he had tipped USauthorities about the affair after he defected tothe United States in 1978, but was never toldwhether the US had acted on the information.

President Obama pictured with his inner circle in the White HouseSensitive Compartmented Information Facility - the Situation Room.

Inset: Ribbon cutting ceremony in 2007 to mark the completerefurbishment of this important room


The Istanbul IncidentJoint Investigation Team Established

over Journalist’s Death in Turkey

SKhashoggi enters the consulate

Mike Pompeo speaks to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed binSalman concerning the Khashoggi case

Pompeo arrives in Riyadh

Jamal Khashoggi

audi-born US-based journalistJamal Khashoggi, 59, has beenconfirmed dead by officials inRiyadh. CCTV showed Khashoggientering the Saudi Arabian consu-

late in Istanbul, Turkey, on 2 October, to obtainpaperwork for his forthcoming wedding; hewas never seen again leading to all manner ofrumours and speculation. The first allegationsthat Khashoggi had been killed inside theconsulate building were made on 6 October byTurkish officials.

President Trump spoke with Saudi Arabia’sCrown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a 20-minute telephone conversation concerning themissing US-based journalist. President Trumpsaid the King adamantly denied any knowl-edge of what happened to Khashoggi.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was thenhastily despatched to Riyadh for talks with the

Kingdom’s leader over the missing Washing-

ton Post columnist. The next day Pompeodeparted Saudi Arabia and flew to Turkey todiscuss the case with Turkey’s PresidentTayyip Erdogan. King Salman and Erdoganannounced they had formed a joint workinggroup to investigate Khashoggi’s disappear-ance; both stressed the investigation would betransparent.

A statement was released by Saudi Arabia’sPublic Prosecutor on 19 October that said:“Following the initial inquiry it was found that afight broke out between Mr Khashoggi andpeople who met him in the consulate - endingwith his death. The Kingdom expresses itsdeep regret at the painful developments andstresses commitment of the government tobring the facts to the public.”

As a result, King Salman relieved Ahmad BinHassan Bin Mohammed Asiri, the VicePresident of General Intelligence (GID), andSaud Bin Abdullah Al Qahtani, Advisor to theRoyal Court, of their posts. In a second order,King Salman terminated the services ofAssistant Chief of General Intelligence Major

General Mohammad Bin Saleh Al Rumaih,Assistant to the Head of General Intelligencefor Human Resources; Major General AbdullahBin Khalifa Al Shaya; and the Director of theGeneral Directorate of Security and Protectionat the General Intelligence, General Rashad BinHamed Al Mohammadi.

Saudi Arabia’s Attorney General said in astatement: “The Public Prosecutor’s Officeaffirms that its investigations continue in thiscase with 18 detainees so far, all of whom[are] Saudi nationals, in order to uncover andannounce all the facts, and to hold account-able all those involved in this case and bringthem to justice.”

On 22 October, Saudi Arabian Foreign MinisterAdel al-Jubeir said the “act was a tremendousmistake,” and blamed “rogue elements.”

In Saudi Arabia, all eyes will be on whathappens next. US President Donald Trumpsaid he found Saudi Arabia’s explanationabout the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi“credible,” calling it an “important first step.”Trump added if the US takes action, he doesnot want it to impact arms sales to theKingdom. White House press secretary SarahHuckabee Sanders said the US will closelyfollow international investigations into MrKhashoggi’s death and will advocate forjustice that it is “timely, transparent and inaccordance with all due process.”

Ahmad Bin Hassan Bin Mohammed Asiri


10 April 2018. The GRU team arrive at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and aregreeted by a diplomat from Russia’s Embassy in Holland

utch Intelligence supported byMI6 have foiled attempted GRUoperations at the Hague and inSwitzerland, both are relevant toBritain’s investigation into theattempted assassination of former

THE GRU CLEANERSRUSSIA’S GLOBAL

CYBER ATTACK UNITSEXPOSED IN JOINT

MIVD-MI6 OPERATION

DMI6 agent Sergei Skripal, in Salisbury, Englandon 4 March 2018.

At a joint Dutch-UK government newsconference held in The Hague, officials andintelligence chiefs from Holland’s MIVD(Military Intelligence and Security Service)revealed details of “brazen attempts” byRussia to manipulate international affairs.Much of the information revealed the extent ofa GRU ‘clean-up unit’ despatched in April tohelp conceal Moscow’s alleged involvement inthe operation against Skripal, .

The Dutch accused the GRU of targeting theworld’s chemical weapons watchdog, theOrganisation for the Prohibition of ChemicalWeapons (OPCW), through a foiled cyber

Major General Onno Eichelsheim, Director MIVD, addresses the media

Passports of the four GRU operativesdetained near the Hague

country just hours after the car they hadrented was found parked near the OPCW’sbuilding in The Hague. Its boot was packedwith equipment for hacking WiFi networks. Alarge antenna was also discovered concealedunder a coat. The assembly was in operationtargeting login details when security services,who had been surveilling the team, detainedthe GRU officers. One Russian operativeattempted to destroy his cell phone, but it wasto no avail. Analysis of the subsequentequipment, including computers, revealed aplethora of incriminating evidence that theteam was operational, and had plans to visitanother OPCW facility relevant to the Skripalinvestigation in Switzerland.

The four GRU officers had entered Holland ondiplomatic passports, according to the Dutch

operation. The OPCW was working toindependently verify the UK’s analysis of thechemical used in the poisoning of the Skripalsin Salisbury. The OPCW was also due toconduct analysis of a chemical weaponsattack in Douma, Syria on 7 April.

On Friday 13 April, Dutch authorities escortedfour Russian intelligence officers out of the

EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 118 2018 65

The rental vehicle used by theGRU operatives was packed withequipment capable of engaging

with computer systems

Reconnaissance photographs of theOPCW building found on AlexeyMinin’s camera taken on 11 April

Alexey Minin, Oleg Sotnikov, Aleksei Morenets and Evgeni Serebriakov

Defense Ministry, which acknowledged BritishIntelligence had worked with the MIVD todisrupt the operation. The head of Dutchcounter-intelligence, Major General OnnoEichelsheim, named the four Russian officersas Aleksei Morenets, Evgenii Serebriakov, OlegSotnikov and Alexey Minin. Eye Spy under-stands both GCHQ and the NSA helped toexpose the attempted “cyber break-in.”

Location of rental vehicle and OPCWheadquarters on 13 April

GRU vehiclesurveilled

here

OPCWHQ

UK Ambassador to The Netherlands PeterWilson, supported by a diplomatic team wasunequivocal in his condemnation of Russia:“This operation in The Hague by the GRU wasnot an isolated act. The Unit involved, known

in the Russian military as Unit 26165 (alsoknown as APT 28 and GRU 85 Main SpecialService Centre), has sent officers around theworld to conduct brazen close access cyberoperations.”

OPCW HQ,The Hague


Reconnaissance photographs of the OPCW building found on Alexey Minin’s camera taken on 13 and 14 April

A confiscated laptop computer containedinformation that they planned to travel on tothe OPCW designated laboratory - Spiez inSwitzerland. This facility was analysing asample of the Novichok nerve agent used inthe Salisbury attack. In addition, investigatorsfound out about their past activities, includinga record of connecting to a WiFi network at ahotel in Lausanne, Switzerland, in Septemberof 2016, as the World Anti-Doping Agencywas holding a conference at the hotel. AnOlympic Committee laptop was compromised,and the APT 28 malware infection thatresulted spread widely, eventually compromis-ing the IP addresses of the InternationalOlympic Committee, Wilson said.

During the press briefing, officials also saidthe GRU had attempted to engage withcomputer systems at Porton Down, the UK’sDefence Science and Technology Laboratory(Dstl), Wiltshire, which has been active in theinvestigation of the Novichok incident.

Wilson added: “One of the GRU team alsoconducted malign activity in Malaysia,” in an

UK Ambassador to TheNetherlands Peter Wilson

Various high-end specialist equipment was recovered from the rental vehicle

Taxi receipt found by the MIVD showingone of the operatives had travelled from

the GRU HQ in Moscow to Moscow’sSheremetyevo Airport on 10 April

operation that targeted the inquiry intoMalaysia Airlines Flight MH17, the airliner thatwas shot down in eastern Ukraine on 17 July2014, after being hit by a missile. Hoursearlier, it had taken off from Amsterdam. Thiscase is still under investigation, thoughintelligence watchers are satisfied the aircraft

was brought down by a Russian-controlledBuk surface-to-air missile.

Ambassador Wilson concluded: “The GRU isan aggressive, well-funded, official body of theRussian State. It can no longer be allowed toact aggressively across the world, and against

66


Dutch securitypersonnel detainthe GRU opera-

tives. Right: Logoof the cyber

hacking groupFancy Bear whichis almost certainly

a GRU outfit

Incriminating web search data uncovered by the MIVD includes references tothe Spiez Laboratory in Switzerland which was examining samples of the

Novichok nerve agent used in the Salisbury attack

Headquarters of Unit 26165

MOSCOW: The intelligence secured by theMIVD was described as “remarkable” bysenior officials. Perhaps more extraordinaryis the fact that British and Dutch Intelligenceofficials agreed to make much of it public.Amongst the treasure trove - documentsrevealing the GRU agents inadvertentlyexposed the identity of more than 300colleagues, many still operational. Two ofthe men caught in The Hague used theirreal names on diplomatic passports - bothregistered as living at the GRU’s MilitaryAcademy in Moscow.

Alexey Morenets’ Lada vehicle is also reg-istered at GRU’s cyber warfare department- and investigators say by searching othervehicles registered to the same addressthey have identified an astonishing 305other operatives of the 26165 unit accusedof cyber attacks all over world.

Perhaps more embarrassingly for RussianIntelligence, the lists are believed to con-tain authentic and accurate names, includ-ing birth dates and cell phone numbers.Some intelligence sources have alreadystated that following the failed April opera-tion, a furious President Putin instructedsenior officials to investigate the Haguedebacle. Speculation is rife in Moscow that“repercussions” are imminent and somesenior GRU officials may be purged.

REPERCUSSIONS

PUTIN PRIVATELY FURIOUSWITH GRU FOR EXPOSURE

GRU chief Igor Korobov


vital international organisations, with apparentimpunity. With its aggressive cyber cam-paigns, we see the GRU trying to clean upRussia’s own mess... be it the dopinguncovered by WADA (World Anti-DopingAgency) or the nerve agent identified by theOPCW.

“The GRU is an aggressive, well-funded,official body of the Russian State. It can nolonger be allowed to act aggressively acrossthe world, and against vital internationalorganisations, with apparent impunity.

“We are now stepping up our collective effortsagainst malign activity, and specifically againstthe GRU. We will increase further ourunderstanding of what the GRU is doing, andattempting to do, in our countries. We willshine a light on their activities. We will exposetheir methods and we will share this with ourallies. This includes strengthening internationalorganisations, and working to protect otherpotential targets from further harm.”

Holland’s Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten said: “By revealing this Russianaction, we send out a clear message - Russia

Google Street Map print outs ofRussian diplomatic missions in Bernand Geneva, Switzerland, found on

the GRU team

WiFi panelantenna

concealedunder coat

The GRU cyber element was accused of attempting toengage with computer systems operated by Britain’s Porton

Down Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)

Holland’s Defence Minister AnkBijleveld-Schouten - she is

responsible for the running andactivities of the MIVD


Various cell phones and cameras recovered by the DutchIntelligence service provided a plethora of information

must stop this.”Dutch officialsdefended theirdecision not tocharge andprosecute theGRU team. PrimeMinister MarkRutte (left) saidthe men had beenejected immedi-

The GRU team were careful not toleave any evidence at their hotel,

including rubbish (above) found bythe MIVD. However, it was the items

discovered on their persons,electronic devices and in the hire

vehicle that exposed their activities

A revealing image showing search records of OPCWheadquarters found on Serebriakov’s laptop computer

The GRU team was carrying 20,000Euros and 20,000 Dollars in cash

Director-General OPCW Ahmet Uzumcu

THE HAGUE: The Director-General of theOrganisation for the Prohibition of Chemi-cal Weapons (OPCW) was briefed byofficials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ofthe Kingdom of the Netherlands about acyber operation targeting the OPCW thatwas disrupted by the Netherlands DefenceIntelligence and Security Service.

The Netherlands is the OPCW’s host coun-try and, as such, is in charge of ensuringand exercising due diligence in protectingthe OPCW Headquarters. The OPCWthanks the Netherlands for its actions andwill remain in contact in regards to anyfurther developments.

The OPCW takes very seriously the secu-rity of its information systems and networks.Since early 2018, the Organisation hasobserved increased cyber-related activities.The Director-General has informed OPCWMember States about these activities andthe OPCW Technical Secretariat has under-taken measures to mitigate them.

OPCW STATEMENTGRU CYBER ATTACK

As investigators detained the GRUteam, one agent attempted to crush

his cell phone

ately because it was “not a criminal inquiry.”Intelligence officials backed the premier bystating that the evidence is sufficient todamage the reputation and hamper furtheroperations attempted by one of Russia’sleading spy agencies. Other officials said theoperatives should have been charged.

THE AMERICAN RESPONSE

The Dutch decision not to prosecute the GRUteam contrasts greatly to the actions taken byUS law officials. Twelve men were recentlyindicted in the United States following the US2016 General Election hacking by GRU units26165 and 74455. The indictment describesthe activities of each department in a way thatgenerally suggests a division of labour, withUnit 26165 carrying out core hackingactivities and Unit 74455 carrying outinformation operations.

US Assistant Attorney General for NationalSecurity John Demers said the attacks were“altering perceptions of the truth.” Interest-ingly, four of the men indicted by the US, werealso involved in the Hague OPCW operation tosource information on Britain’s Skripalinvestigation.


US Assistant Attorney General forNational Security John Demers

THE RUSSIAN TWELVE

VIKTOR NETYKSHO: Commands Unit 26165

BORIS ANTONOV: Head of Department thatoversees spear-phishing targeting

DMITRIY BADIN: Assistant Head of Depart-ment conducting spear-phishing targeting

IVAN YERMAKOV: Works for Antonov, usesidentities Kate Milton, Kames McMorgans,Karen Millen. Hacked at least two emailaccounts the contents of which were releasedby DCLeaks. Helped hack DNC emails serverreleased through WikiLeaks

ALEKSEY LUKASHEV: Senior Lieutenant inAntonov’s department. Uses identities DenKatenberg, Yuliana Martynova. Sent spear-phishing emails to Clinton campaign, includingone to John Podesta (head of 2016 campaign)

SERGEY MORGACHEV: Lieutenant Colonelwho oversaw department that developed andmanaged X-Agent

UNIT 26165UNIT 26165

FBI Cyber Division Deputy Assistant Director Eric Welling discussescomputer intrusion and related charges against seven Russian GRU officers

as Western District of Pennsylvania US Attorney Scott W. Brady (left) andRoyal Canadian Mounted Police Director General Mark Flynn look on

NIKOLAY KOZACHEK: Lieutenant Captain.Used monikers including ‘kazak’ and‘blablabla1234565’. Developed, customised,and monitored X-Agent used to hack DCCC

PAVEL YERSHOV: Helped customise and textX-Agent before deployment against DCCC

ARTEM MALYSHEV: Second Lieutenant inMorgachev’s department. Used handles‘djangomagicdev’ and ‘realblatr’. Monitored X-Agent implanted in DCCC and DNC servers

ALEKSANDR OSADCHUK: Colonel andcommanding officer of 74455, which assistedin release of stolen documents throughDCLeaks, Guccifer 2.0, and the publication ofanti-Clinton propaganda on social media

ALEKSEY POTEMKIN: A supervisor respon-sible for administration of computer infrastruc-ture used to assist in release in DCLeaks andGuccifer 2.0 documents

ANATOLIY KOVALEV: Assigned to 74455involved in hacks of State Boards of Election

UNIT 74455UNIT 74455

KREMLIN RESPONSE

Russia’s response to the findings of Britishand American Intelligence was swift anduncompromising. Foreign Minister SergeyLavrov dismissed reports that the GRU wasinvolved in the attempted cyber operation atthe Hague. He said the reports were a“conspiracy to “distract people from starkdivisions between Western nations.”

Mr Lavrov said: “They weren’t hiding fromanyone when they arrived at the airport,settled in a hotel and visited our embassy.They were detained without any explanation,denied a chance to contact our embassy inHolland and then asked to leave. It all lookedlike a misunderstanding.” He said the fourRussians were on a routine trip to the Hague.Lavrov also accused the Dutch authorities ofusing “loudspeaker diplomacy,” instead overquiet diplomatic channels to address itsconcerns.

President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskovchallenged the West to provide “specificinformation” also using official channels.

Relevant to the equipment discovered in thevehicle used by the GRU team, a report wascirculated amongst Russian media. Russianintelligence officials said it was to be used to“test the resilience of the embassy’s cybercounter-measures,” and not against theOPCW.

The Kremlin has also rejected the FBI’simpressive investigative findings.

An ironic meeting - Sergey Lavrov withHillary Clinton at the 2011 MunichSecurity Conference. Just five yearslater Russia’s cyber elements wouldengage in an operation that somebelieve derailed her ambition tobecome President of the United States


LONDON: Ciaran Martin, head of Britain’sNational Cyber Security Centre, warnedMoscow was accessing UK data systemsin attempts to spy or as a first step towardsunleashing attacks on the UK’s criticalnational infrastructure such as the energyor telecoms networks.

“One of the things that we need to worryabout is the fact that Russia and otherhostile states have put down landingpoints on networks from which they couldbuild out,” said Martin. “They can use themfor spying... but they can also use themas the potential foundation for a futuredestructive attack.”

Martin said if you are going to launch adestructive attack, “you need an entrypoint, a landing point on the network andyou start and build from there.”

UK WARNSOF RUSSIANCYBER PLOTS

WOULD-BE KGB AGENT PASSESMichael John Bettaney, MI5’s first convicted traitor and KGB

hopeful who served 23-years in prison for espionage has died

espionage. After locating theaddress of senior KGB manArkady Guk in London (StationChief), he duly posted themthrough his letterbox in the hopeof enticing Moscow with moresecrets. Also inside, a note signed‘Kuba’ and a contact address inthe city. If the KGB were inter-ested, Bettaney said Guk shouldplace a drawing pin on the signabove the underground entranceto Piccadilly Circus Station. Therewere also details of several deadletter drops which could be usedin the exchange.

Guk hesitated, fearful the materialwas an MI5 ruse. In June, and

with no response from theSoviets, Bettaney tried again. Hedelivered a second package thistime containing an MI5 filedetailing KGB officers known to beoperational in Britain. And likebefore, a letter saying he waswilling to work for Moscow.

Guk was a little more interested,but still uncertain the material wasnot an MI5 trap to expose his KGBwork in London, he advised hissecond-in-command at the SovietEmbassy Oleg Gordievsky.Unbeknown to Guk, Gordievskywas already operating as an MI6agent and he duly alerted hisLondon handler. Through aprocess of elimination, Bettaneywas soon identified. In themeantime, Bettaney had triedagain with a third package, but hewas beginning to look elsewhere

for establishing a relationship withthe KGB - Vienna.

Before he could depart for Austria,Bettaney was arrested and Gukdeported. In April 1984, the hard-drinking and disaffected MI5 manwas convicted and sentenced forhis treachery. As for the intelli-gence he did impart, whilstawaiting trial, he provided the IRA

n April 1983, Bettaney used aspecial camera to photographtop secret documents at MI5;he was now engaged inI

Arkady Guk

Arkady Guk operated from this house in HollandPark, London, where Bettaney posted three packages

containing MI5 secrets

© C

LASS

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SIDE

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GUID

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500

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with the names of Britishintelligence officers and agentsoperating in Northern Ireland.

Bettaney died on 16 August 2018,aged 68, though his passingsurfaced only recently.

MichaelBettaney

Ciaran Martin - NCSC(National Cyber Security Centre)

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PART 15TheDeceptiveFactor

The deceptive factor is a multi-faceted tool that is now appearingin diverse areas of Intelligence. In cyber terrorism for example,the growing threat heralds new initiatives that encompass this

factor. Mike Finn examines the framework created to support thedeceptive factor in a cyber environment, explaining how theprinciples can be used to target and destroy individuals who

pose a threat to national security

I N T H E I N T E L L I G E N C E C Y C L E

CYBER UNDERWORDAttacks, False Portraits, Electronic Language,

Initiatives, Disinformation and Dangers

Mike Finn

First we need to review some aspectsof the Internet and cyber vulnerability.An open and enquiring mind is neededto take on board the few poignantfacts that relate to this article, thesewill be the building blocks for the

concluding feature in Eye Spy 119. I will leaveit up to the reader to separate reality from urbanlegend, but often, there is more in the improb-able than the probable.

It is reputed that some 23% of the world’sfinancial market hinges on drugs, firearms,illegal goods, slavery and similar ‘deviantglobalisation’ and underworld activities, muchof which takes place on the digital blackmarket. In respect of terrorism, ‘cyber attacks’are slowly becoming more sophisticated andfrequent: Internet hacking tools and skills beingmore accessible that ever. Terrorism inparticular is finding that hacking attackknowledge is becoming easier to learn.Organisations such as ISIS are making cyberweaponry an adaptable part of its warfare. As

far back as 2003 the LOphtCrack programmeused to test password strength was found bythe FBI on an al-Qaida computer. Theprogramme was one of the codebreakers toolsof choice at the time.

It must be remembered that cyber terrorismgoes hand-in-hand with information warfare(mentioned in previous articles). Both terrorismand organised crime look for viable targets andhow to attack them. These target areas include:organisation infrastructure, banking, finance,utilities, corruptible websites, Internet facilita-

tion, propaganda outlets etc. Intelligenceorganisations are constantly upgrading theirtechnology to counter this growth. GCHQ, forexample, tackles these threats with newinitiatives and tools such as ‘Auto Blocker’; theASI Data Science brainchild, which reputedlyuses extremist recognition software and canblock the IP addresses. There are manyorganisations now utilising sophisticated toolsto deal with malicious attacks. However, part ofthe big picture is in understanding a little abouteveryday threats from the Internet as well.

BACK DOOR TECHNOLOGY

Everyone is exposed to basic Internet threats.Some typical cyber devices used by hackersinclude Phishing (tricks to secure personaldetails), Trolling (sowing discord and maligningpeople’s reputation), Dogpiling (a large group


• Iranian hackers known as Rocket Kitten repeatedly target American defencecompanies to boost Tehran’s missile and space programmes. The Iranian Cyber Army,Tarn Andishan and Ajax are three other government sponsored groups.

• Russian hackers last year compromised dozens of US energy companies and areknown to have meddled in the 2016 General Election. The NSA and GCHQ hasalready identified various groups controlled by Moscow’s intelligence services suchas Fancy Bear, APT28, Sandworm, Cozy Bear, Turla Group. The most notorious amongthem is called Sofacy. Dragonfly, also Russian controlled, operates from locations inEastern Europe.

• Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) support Bashar al-Assad.

• Tarh Andishan is Iran’s answer to Stuxnet.

• China seems well ahead of everyone else. There are more than 50 groups with tiesto the country, far more than any other nation. Perhaps the most notorious amongChina’s APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) groups is the Comment Crew sometimesreferred to as Comment Panda or APT 1 by other firms. It is actually a Chinese militaryunit known as PLA Unit 61398. Numerous Chinese groups operate in cyberspacesuch as Naikon, Shell Crew , Toxic Panda and Hidden Lynx. Attacks on worldwidegovernment agencies, financial services and the energy sector have been attributedto these outfits.

• In North Korea, numerous groups operate on behalf of the government, perhaps themost infamous being Bureau 121. All are controlled by the country’s ReconnaissanceGeneral Bureau (RGB) part of military intelligence. Other outfits such as the notoriousLazarus Group have threads to North Korea and are known to have stolen millions ofdollars in past raids.

GOVERNMENT CYBER PROXIESA LIMITED OVERVIEW

some form of deviant globalisation activity areprime subjects). There are two powerful factorsthat make this type of personal attack effec-tively possible. (1) The plausibility of the attackshould be within believable parameters. (2)Explanation of the event to others makes thetarget seem unbalanced or paranoid. We knowfrom the above that any information on the

Internet can usually be accessed, altered, orexploited; the target’s computer can alsobecome a two-way door. The Internet allowsfor websites to suddenly appear to be underpreparation, or simply not available. E-mailscan be intercepted, read and even altered.Misleading information can cause the target towaste considerable time. Contradicting web

try to intimidate and humiliate the target),Gaslighting (making the target doubt them-selves), Doxxing (making a target’s personaldetails public and encouraging misuse). Apartfrom worms and viruses, many other everydaythreats exist. One that is often overlookedconcerns accessibility to computers through a‘back door’. Access in this manner has beenattributed to programmes created by some wellknown companies - where a ‘back door’ iswritten into the programme installed on acomputer. As far back as the 1990s the NSAdeveloped backdoor technology. Apart from theabove, attacks and counter-measures representbig business in this ever-growing and ever-changing economic field.

DISINFORMATION

Another use of such technology is to target afigurehead, or discredit an organisation; inessence making them ‘persona non grata’.Special intelligence departments that performsuch tasks have existed in the real world foryears. In recent times the Internet has proved amore flexible medium for this type of work.Some intelligence watchers claim that Britain’sJoint Threat Research Intelligence Group(JTRIG), a branch of GCHQ, exploits theInternet, using such tactics to damage thereputation and credibility of the target. It is atthis point the deceptive factor comes into play.Of course special computer packages are usedto facilitate and prepare the groundwork. Oneprogramme reputably used by the ‘Five Eyes’alliance is called ‘Ambassador’s Reception’.This can encrypt your files, remove e-mails,affect computers and much more.

Many invasive cyber weapons were exposedfollowing Edward Snowden’s damaging leaksof NSA intelligence papers. ‘Royal Concierge’ isa programme that is used by Intelligence, toobtain information about an individuals travelplans and hotel bookings. ‘Tempora’ (not to beconfused with tempura) works in conjunctionwith the Internet fibre optic system tapping; thismakes it possible to access almost unlimitedInternet data. A few years ago ‘Tempest’ wasintroduced, which used the EMF field directlyfrom the computer to access the information.The eclectic programme referred to as‘Mastering The Internet’ (MTI) involves portscanning. This has the apparent potential toscan innumerable Internet connected comput-ers simultaneously throughout the world.However, many strategies begin on the Internetbut are implemented in the real world. Oneexample is the ‘honey trap’ (sexual enticementsused to compromise).

PERSONAL ATTACKS

Anyone can become a target and be made‘persona non grata’ (although those involved in


C

Available from Eye Spy Ref: ES/1732UK £27.50 USA $38.00 ROW £30.00

ALL PRICES INCLUDE POSTAGE (AIR) AND PACKING

CHURCHILL: Military Genius orMenace?Stephen NapierThe History Press

sites can be set up inopposition to thetargets, falseinformation can be fedto the target via e-mailand similar devices. Inshort there are ‘norules in love and war’.

What one personperceives as secureon the Internet, otherswill see as a chal-lenge. In general mostlook at the Internet ona ‘what you see iswhat you get basis’(WYSIWYG). In factit’s like looking at the surface of the ocean,without a concept of what life exists beneaththat surface. Cyber crime and cyber intelli-gence are locked in constant conflict. Hackersare like flowers; there are many different

classifications. For example: (a) White Hats areethical (b) Black Hats are not ethical (c) AScript Kiddie is a newbie who relies heavily onpre-made hacking tools, the list is extensive. Inthis ‘cyber soup’ it is an easy task to imple-

ment initiatives thatdiscredit targets,especially when so feware discerning enoughto check the validity ofpresented facts.

Character assassinationskills are a specialistfield in their own right,but it’s not onlyintelligence agenciesthat employ thesetechnologies. Somespecialists are em-ployed by the corporateworld to destroycompetitors, but that’s

another story. In the second part of this article,we will look at the target, the implementation ofthe skills, the tell-tale signs, and especially howthe deceptive factor is woven into this wholematrix.

Protesters in Washingtonfollowing Edward Snowden’s

illegal release of NSAmaterial

hurchill has gone down inhistory as one of thegreatest leaders the world

has ever known. From the day theSecond World War was declared hestood out as the only man wantingto take offensive action. But is thisaccolade deserved?

The first few years of the war werenothing short of disastrous, andauthor Stephen Napier shows howChurchill’s strategies - and hisdesire not to be the first BritishPrime Minister to surrender thenation - brought the war effort to thebrink of ruin and back again. Did hisseries of retaliatory raids in

response to a German accidentalbombing help cause the Blitz? Wereplans already at large for the US tojoin the war, with Churchill as theprimary puppet master? Napierexplores all this and more in a

controversial examination ofChurchill’s leadership using first-person accounts from his peers andhis electorate. Hardback 448pp

WII had been won, butrelationships between theWestern allies and the

SECRET SERVICE IN THE COLDWARJohn and Myles SandersonFrontline Books

WSoviet Union were becomingincreasingly strained, as the nucleararms race made world peaceprecarious. It was vital that Britainknew the Soviets’ intentions andmilitary capabilities, both offensiveand defensive. As a Military Attachein Sofia, and Commandant of anIntelligence Centre in the Balkans, itwas SIS officer Colonel JohnSanderson’s job to find out.Sanderson handled agents whooperated secretly behind the IronCurtain at the height of the Cold Warand organised hidden arms depotsfor stay-behind agents in case of aRed Army invasion.

Based on Sanderson’s letters andpersonal accounts of his time withMI4 and MI6. For over thirty years,John Sanderson worked for theBritish Secret Services - with his

last mission, aged 74, as exciting ashis first, being helicoptered intoSarajevo with an SAS team at theheight of the Balkan War. Hardback288pp


une 1940. Britain is Europe’sfinal bastion of freedom - andHitler’s next target. But not

AGENT JACK: The True Story ofMI5’s Secret Nazi HunterRobert HuttonWeidenfeld & Nicolson

Jeveryone fears a Nazi invasion. Infactories, offices and suburbanhomes are men and womendetermined to do all they can tohasten it.


Throughout the Second World War,Britain’s defence against the enemywithin was Eric Roberts, a formerbank clerk from Epsom. Equippedwith an extraordinary ability to makepeople trust him, he was recruitedinto the shadowy world of espio-nage by the great spymasterMaxwell Knight. Roberts penetratedfirst the Communist Party and thenthe British Union of Fascists, beforeplaying his greatest role for MI5 - asHitler’s man in London.

Codenamed Jack King, he single-handedly built a network ofhundreds of British Nazisympathisers, with many passingsecrets to him in the mistaken beliefthat he was a Gestapo officer.Operation Fifth Column, run by abrilliant woman scientist and aJewish aristocrat with a sideline inbomb disposal, was kept so secretit was omitted from the reports MI5sent to Winston Churchill.

Drawing on newly declassifieddocuments and private familyarchives, Agent Jack shatters thecomfortable notion that Britain couldnever have succumbed to fascism.Hardback 336pp


Eric Roberts - Jack King

he true story of librarianRichard Hayes, an unassum-ing librarian and Ireland’s

CODE BREAKER: The UntoldStory of Richard HayesMarc McMenaminGill Books

Tsecret role in turning the tide ofWWII. When Hayes, a giftedpolymath and cryptographer, wasdrafted into Irish Intelligence to trackthe movements of a prolific Nazispy, Hermann Gortz, Dublin becamethe unlikely venue for one of themost thrilling episodes in Irishhistory.

In a complex game of cat-and-mouse that would wind its waythrough the city and its suburbs,Code Breaker reveals how RichardHayes cracked a code that helpedturn the tide of World War II, anduncovers a secret history of thecapital that has remained hidden inplain view for the past 70 years.Softback 256pp


n his last days, Adolf Hitler ragedin his bunker that he had beenbetrayed by his own people,

NEIN!: Standing up to Hitler1935-1944Paddy AshdownWilliam Collins

Idefeated from the inside. In part, hewas right. By 1945, his armies werebeing crushed on all fronts, hisregime collapsing with many fleeingretribution for their crimes. Yet, evenbefore the war started, there wereGermans very high in Hitler’scommand committed to bringingabout his death and defeat.

Paddy Ashdown tells, for the firsttime, the story of those at the very

top of Hitler’s Germany who triedfirst to prevent the Second WorldWar and then to deny Hitler victory.Based on newly released files, therepeated attempts of the plotters towarn the Allies about Hitler’s plansare revealed.

Key strands to the book’s narrativelie with the actions of Abwehr headAdmiral Wilhelm Canaris to frustrateHitler’s policies once the war hadstarted; the plots to kill Hitler and,finally the systematic passage ofkey German military secrets toLondon, Washington and Moscowthrough MI6, the OSS and the LucyRing Russian spy network based inSwitzerland. From 1943 onwards,concerted efforts were made tostrike a separate peace with theWest to shorten the war and preventeastern Europe falling under theSoviet yoke.

What is revealed is that the anti-Hitler bomb plots, which havereceived so much attention are, infact only a small part of a muchwider story. Hardback 416pp


PaddyAshdown

rounded in extensiveresearch and reporting,Spy Schools reveals that

SPY SCHOOLSDaniel GoldenPicador

Gglobalisation - the influx of foreign


students and professors and theoutflow of Americans for study,teaching, and conferences abroad -has transformed American highereducation into a front line forinternational spying. In labs,classrooms, and auditoriums,intelligence services from countrieslike China, Russia, and Cuba seekinsights into US policy, recruits forclandestine operations, and accessto sensitive military and civilianresearch. The FBI and CIA recipro-cate, tapping international studentsand faculty as informants.

Universities ignore or even condonethis interference, despite the tensionbetween their professed globalvalues and the nationalistic cultureof espionage. Golden uncoverscontroversial campus activity - fromthe CIA placing agents undercoverin Harvard Kennedy School classesand staging academic conferencesto persuade Iranian nuclearscientists to defect, to a Chinesegraduate student at Duke Universitystealing research for an invisibilitycloak, and a tiny liberal arts collegein Marietta, Ohio, exchanging facultywith China’s most notorious spyschool - to show how relentlesslyand ruthlessly both US and foreignintelligence services are penetratingthe ivory tower. Paperback 368pp


No details concerning the exact date of theincident were published, but the GRUoperation at the OPCW headquarters hap-pened in April.

Eye Spy was told the attempted ‘Swiss break-in’ followed the Skripal incident and MI6 was“actively involved.” This seems accuratefollowing a statement released by the SwissFederal Intelligence Agency (FIS). Head ofCommunications Isabelle Graber acknowl-edged British and Dutch Intelligence had“actively participated in the operation.”

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister SergeyLavrov dismissed the reports, noting thatnothing was “picked up at the time by themedia.”

Lavrov insisted the story was “bogus andmade up by Western media,” and called thereport “groundless allegations.”

THE SALISBURY SANCTION

There has been enormous speculation as towhy Sergei Skripal was targeted by the GRU.

He of course was exchanged in 2010 alongwith three Western intelligence contact menfor several SVR spies and officers arrested inthe USA. Besides the obvious - being adesignated traitor of Russia - Eye Spy sourcessuggest that the GRU initiated the operation

Russian Foreign Minister SergeyLavrov denies all UK charges

The Salisbury TalesContinued from Page 21

The converted perfume bottle foundby Charlie Rowley which contained

the Novichok nerve agent

3 March - 4.11pm: Boshirov and Petrov at Salisbury Train Station as they prepare toreturn to London after they had allegedly performed a reconnaissance mission

DenissMetsavas

(planning) around the same time as high-profile meetings began in Moscow to explorethe possibility of merging Russian intelligenceorganisations such as the FSB and SVR (SeeEye Spy 117). “It’s possible... to avoid beingdrawn into the talks and to retain its indepen-dence, the GRU wanted to prove it couldaction the most ‘impossible’ tasks,” oneinformed Russian intelligence watcher told EyeSpy. “The GRU in proving its operationalprowess, was determined to show itscolleagues that it had the know-how andcapabilities to act anywhere. By removing atraitor, the GRU would elevate itself further.The Skripal sanction was too good anopportunity to ignore.”

Other scenarios have also been mentioned,including Skripal was still “active in theintelligence game.” There are stories heprovided background intelligence in 2012 toCzech Intelligence on the activities of Russianspy networks in the country. One reporter withNATO threads said that “so accurate wasSkripal’s observations and information, hewas visited in Salisbury on at least twooccasions by the Czechs to glean furthermaterial.” Another report said he also providedofficials in Spain with useful intelligence onRussian activities in the country.


© RIA NOVOSTI

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said comparing imagery was notreliable, and referenced the many Stalin and Lenin lookalikes who can be

found in Red Square, Moscow, posing for tourists (top)

In Russia itself, one story has been deliber-ately circulated amongst senior media editors,undoubtedly by Russian Intelligence. Thisconcerns the ‘outing’ of several Russian spiesin the Baltics and Eastern Europe. Skripalallegedly helped expose a number of Russianagents (GRU) in Estonia. Two of the agentswere named as Deniss Metsavas (EstoniaDefence Forces) who had access to NATOsecrets, and his father, Pjotr Volin, believed tohave worked in the Main Directorate of theGeneral Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

And then there are tales of a “polite wellspoken Englishman who Skripal regularly metin Salisbury. He has been dubbed the ‘tweedman’ because of the type of suit he alwayswore. Some intelligence commentators believehe is in fact Skripal’s MI6 controller or handler.Another report suggests the unidentifiedintelligence man has commercial threads tothe so-called ‘Trump Dossier’ which has so-damaged relations between the White Houseand US Intelligence Community.

Beyond the rumours, speculation andimagination of some reporters, and far moreimportant, Skripal knows the identities ofdozens of key GRU and other Russianintelligence people and agents, some of whomhe disclosed to MI6 in 2006 which led to his

The packaging and labelling found by Charlie Rowley which contained thelethal bottle of Novichok. The manufacturers said the items were counterfeit

Dmitry PeskovOleg Gordievsky pictured following

his defection

arrest and jail sentence. This was one primaryreason why Britain agreed to the exchange.“Moscow sees this as a danger to other activeagents,” a specialist in Russian Intelligenceaffairs said. “Skripal will have providedinformation and names useful to MI6 andallied forces.”

DIPLOMATIC RESPONSE

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that despite the“new evidence” put forward by Britain, theSkripal case is “falling apart.” Foreign MinisterSergey Lavrov also said he has sent around60 diplomatic letters to London demandingaccess to the investigation and Skripals. Alsoof note, Karen Pierce, UK Ambassador to theUN, referenced the worldwide operations ofthe GRU and Russia’s continuing use ofchemical weapons in several theatres.

UK Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt, whoseorganisation oversees MI6 said: “It is notacceptable for Russia to instruct two GRUagents to use chemical weapons on British

soil. We have international norms where youdon’t use chemical weapons.” He warned thatthe “price will be high.”

Mr Hunt also drew reference to the assassina-tion of MI6 agent Alexander Litvinenko inLondon over a decade ago by RussianIntelligence operatives.

THE CODE OF CONDUCT

As reported in Eye Spy, British Intelligence hasaccused the GRU (again), of breaking the spyexchange ‘code of conduct’, where unwrittenrules apply that spies exchanged throughdiplomatic channels and even non-publicisedcovert ones, will not be targeted. In a littleover a decade, several incidents in the UKhave occurred whereby former Russian

intelligence officers who, for whatever reasonsopted to switch sides have been targeted, themost infamous being Alexander Litvinenko in2006. However, this was not an isolated case.In 2008 the former head of the KGB in Britain,Oleg Gordievsky, who defected in 1985, wasalmost certainly the victim of a poison attackat a party in southern England.

Speaking recently about his latest spy book -The Spy and the Traitor, which focuses on the


2018. Sergei Kanev speaking ata conference for investigative

journalists in Riga

Russian journalist Sergei Kanev whoparticipated in Bellingcat’s probe toidentity the two GRU officers in theSalisbury Novichok incident, has saidhe has left Russia “fearing prosecutionbecause of his work.” Kanev, whospecialises in crime and police corrup-tion, said “there are many of my inves-tigations that have angered certainhigh-ranking officials. This is not onlyabout Boshirov and Petrov.

JOURNALIST FEARFUL

Opposite the hotel is a car rental company

City Stay Hotel

Bellingcat.com founder Eliot Higginsaddresses journalists outside Parliament

life and work of Gordievsky, intelligence writerBen Macintyre said since the Skripal affair,security has been increased dramatically toprotect the former spy.

In America, moves are already underway toprovide additional security to a number offormer Russian CIA spies who have settled inthe country. While the security programmehas been hastened following events in the UK,new security procedures for the agents wasalready underway after an incident in Floridafour years ago when FBI officers surveilled asuspected Russian assassin who had arrivedin the country. There was real fear in Washing-ton that the operative had been charged withconducting a “revenge attack,” according tohighly informed intelligence sources.

US INTEL RESETTLEMENT PROGRAMME

The top secret CIA and US Intelligence‘Resettlement Programme’ for the spies hadnot been breached, but officials did engage ina project to discover just how easy it would befor an outside party to track the spies andpersons described as ‘informants’. It isbelieved upto 100 individuals and theirrelatives are under protection. Neither Langleynor the FBI would engage with reportersregarding rumours a number of former agentshave been relocated and given new identities.However, sources believe this is exactly whathappened following the Salisbury incident.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Eye Spy has learned MI5believe the men opted to travel by train toSalisbury, not for convenience or speed, butbecause there was little chance they would bestopped (routine or perhaps due to a trafficviolation or incident). Of further interest,virtually opposite the City Stay Hotel inLondon is a major car rental company, thusMI5 believe the men kept their options openregarding travel arrangements. Similarly, wewere advised the security services are stillsearching for other people, perhaps asurveillance support team.

Despite the complexities of this case, it’s fairlyobvious British Intelligence had no exact priorknowledge that the GRU were about to launchsuch an audacious and dangerous operation

against Skripal. This does not mean they werenot fearful.

As for the header on our report - The Salisbury

Tales, we heard reference amongst British

Anatoliy Chepiga’s driving licence

© EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE


he niece of poisoned MI6agent and former GRUintelligence officer SergeiSkripal, 67, continues tospeak to journalists

FATE OF POISONED RUSSIAN SPYCONTINUES TO CAUSE DEBATE

RUMOUR MILLTHE KREMLIN

Tabout the fate of her uncle.Viktoria Skripal believes there is a“very real possibility he is dead.”Her comments seem to contradictSkripal’s daughter, Yulia, 46, whowas also a victim of the Novichoknerve agent attack in Salisbury,England. Yulia spoke with Victoriaa few weeks ago on the tele-phone, where she was told “he is

on the mend.” She also said herfather would telephone the familyin three days - this neverhappened and there has been nocontact whatsoever.

“I don’t think Yulia is entirely freein her actions,” said Viktoria, whoalso believes that the UK Govern-ment has purposely shieldedSergei because of a lack ofevidence to prove he waspoisoned by Russian agents. “It’seither [because] he is dead, orthey have nothing to show,” she

said. “Just like in the Litvinenkocase, they would have let us seehim.” Her reference to AlexanderLitvinenko, another formerRussian intelligence officer whoworked as an MI6 agent inLondon, concerned releasedphotographs of him laying in ahospital bed. He was the victim ofa Polonium-210 attack in 2006,but unlike Sergei, died a fewweeks later. “They did not let us into see Sergei. I do not understandwhat is so terrible if we see him,”said Victoria.

Russian Foreign Ministryspokeswoman, Maria Zakharova,agreed with Viktoria. “We find ithighly suspicious and outrageousthat there is no information on thestate and health of Russiancitizens Yulia Skripal and herfather Sergei.” Zakharova saidRussia has a team of experiencedintelligence officers and scientistsready and assembled to travel tothe UK at any time to assist theinvestigation. “Why do they notwant our help?”

Senior media editors in Russiabelieve reports and snippets ofinformation surrounding his fateare being generated by BritishIntelligence to create a coverstory. “Britain acted hastily andwithin days Russia was blamed

leading to the expulsion of over100 diplomats from Russianembassies,” one commentatorsaid. “They have too muchinvested in their line of thought tobe diverted now.” Another said: “Itwould be of huge embarrassmentif an alternative explanation was tosurface in future weeks ormonths, naturally they want tokeep everyone away from theSkripals and keep us guessing.”

A former MI5 contact mandismissed the possibility that theUK would deliberately leak storiesof Skripal’s death in order toprepare him with a new identityand place of residence, whichmany journalists in Russia believecould be abroad. However,intelligence sources told Eye Spy:“The intention is to keep theRussians guessing until all thepieces of evidence have beensecured. If the Kremlin does notfully understand what informationhas been assembled, then it willlimit their commentary.”

Viktoria Skripal

Sergei Skripal.Inset: Yulia Skripal

Sergei Skripal wasexchanged for SVR spiescaught in America in 2010

Russian Foreign Ministryspokeswoman, Maria

Zakharova


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intelligence people to the famous The

Canterbury Tales. Within this fourteenthcentury collection of stories, text includesreference to a contest involving a group ofpilgrims who embarked on a journey fromLondon to the cathedral city of Canterbury inKent. Included was a prize for telling the ‘beststory’ - a free meal.

British officials at the United Nations told theSecurity Council that up until 6 September2018, Russia have proposed 37 differentaccounts of what took place in March - andthis continues to grow. One includes a ratherbizarre story that the future mother-in-law ofYulia Skripal carried out the attack. It’s likelythat the use of the phrase originated fromMoscow’s story-telling.

Bellingcat must also be congratulated for itsinvestigation. Interestingly, the website saidmost of the information it used to identify theculprits came from materials already in thepublic domain (open source).

Despite denials from Moscow that thesuspects are simply civilians, it’s unlikely theywill receive any commendations, for ultimatelythey failed in their task and the GRU operationwas embarrassingly exposed.

To conclude, the investigation by DutchIntelligence which identified a GRU team sent

by Moscow to hack into computers at theOPCW headquarters in the Hague, leaves no

one in doubt concerning who was ultimatelyresponsible for events in Salisbury.

MOSCOW: In October, President Putinspoke to a gathering of journalists and wasasked about his thoughts on the GRU andthe Skripal affair. He responded:

“I see that some of your colleagues arepushing the theory that Mr Skripal is almostsome kind of human rights activist. He isjust a spy. A traitor to the motherland. Thereis such a thing - a traitor to the motherland.Here he is - one of them.

“Imagine, if there’s a person in your coun-try who betrayed it. How would you treathim?” Putin added. “He’s plainly [a]scumbag.”

Putin also said the entire Skripal affair hadbeen blown out of proportion and resultedin a chain of unrelated incidents leading toattacks on Russia.

“The faster [this] ends, the better. ThisSkripal, as I’ve already said, is a traitor, whowas caught, punished and who spent fiveyears behind bars. That’s it. He went abroadand continued to cooperate, consultingsome intelligence services there,” Putinadded. His ‘consultancy’ reference is anindication the GRU and Kremlin believeSkripal was still active for MI6.

MIVD headquarters. Inset: MIVD DirectorMajor General Onno Eichelsheim

‘Boshirov’ and ‘Petrov’

dinner_out.118/usukcanada


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