Archive for the 'Covert Operations' Category
Chinese Hackers Who Breached Google Gained Access to Data on U.S. Surveillance Targets
May 21st, 2013Via: Washington Post: Chinese hackers who breached Google’s servers several years ago gained access to a sensitive database with years’ worth of information about U.S. surveillance targets, according to current and former government officials. The breach appears to have been aimed at unearthing the identities of Chinese intelligence operatives in the United States who may […]
‘Al-Qaeda’s Syrian Wing’ Takes Over Oilfields Once Belonging to Assad
May 19th, 2013Via: Telegraph: Al-Qaeda’s Syrian wing is helping to finance its activities by selling the product of oilfields that once helped to prop up the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Up to 380,000 barrels of crude oil were previously produced by wells around the city of Raqqa and in the desert region to its east that are […]
Gladio B
May 18th, 2013Via: Cease Fire Magazine: While the reality of Gladio’s existence in Europe is a matter of historical record, Edmonds contended the same strategy was adopted by the Pentagon in the 1990s in a new theatre of operations, namely, Asia. “Instead of using neo-Nazis, they used mujahideen working under various bin Ladens, as well as al-Zawahiri”, […]
Official Cover Espionage Bust in Russia
May 15th, 2013Update: Activity Possibly Linked to Boston Bombing Via: USA Today: The U.S. diplomat expelled for allegedly spying for the CIA was trying to recruit a senior Russian intelligence officer involved with fighting terrorism in the North Caucasus, the region linked to the suspects in the Boston bombing case, the Russian newspaper Kommersan reported, quoting Russian […]
Former Dictator Efraín Ríos Montt Convicted of Genocide in Guatemala
May 11th, 2013“President Ríos Montt is a man of great personal integrity and commitment. … I know he wants to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice.” —U.S. President Ronald Regan, 1982 Via: Independent: Former dictator Efrain Rios Montt’s conviction of genocide is a historic moment in a country still healing […]
FBI Documents Suggest Feds Read Emails Without a Warrant
May 11th, 2013Via: ACLU: New documents from the FBI and U.S. Attorneys’ offices paint a troubling picture of the government’s email surveillance practices. Not only does the FBI claim it can read emails and other electronic communications without a warrant—even after a federal appeals court ruled that doing so violates the Fourth Amendment—but the documents strongly suggest […]
Afghanistan: ‘U.S. Kicks Drug-War Habit, Makes Peace With Afghan Poppies’
May 10th, 2013You’ll love this one. Via: Wired: Because of the poppies, the raw material for most of the world’s heroin, the list of things 1st Lt. Christopher Gackstatter and his 2nd Platoon can’t do in Sartok is far longer than the list of things they can. Marching into the mud-walled village in this sun-baked district of […]
‘And – you’re going to laugh – he said he was in the CIA.’
May 9th, 2013Update: Ariel Castro Found Hanged in His Ohio Prison Cell And that’s that. Via: USA Today: Ariel Castro, who was convicted last month on charges related to the capture and imprisonment of three women in Cleveland, has been found hanged in his prison cell, according to various sources. Castro, 52, was being held at the […]
Alex Rovt, The Fertilizer Baron Of Manhattan
May 6th, 2013This is from 2012, but it’s a keeper. Would someone out there please email this story to Joel and Ethan Coen? This could make Miller’s Crossing look like Sunday School. Via: Bloomberg: Everyone looking to unload overleveraged or overpriced property, another broker who dealt with Rovt told me, is now chasing a stereotype: the Ukrainian […]
Former FBI Agent: U.S. Government Recording All Telephone Calls, Internet Activity; ‘There’s a Way to Look At Digital Communications in the Past… No Digital Communication Is Secure’
May 5th, 2013Well, Cryptogon readers have only been aware of this for about a decade. Via: Guardian: The real capabilities and behavior of the US surveillance state are almost entirely unknown to the American public because, like most things of significance done by the US government, it operates behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy. But a seemingly […]
