Weekly Intelligence Notes 19 February 2000 WINs are covered by copyright laws and may not be reproduced without permission from the Producer/ Editor, Roy Jonkers  afio@afio.com  Commentary and opinions are those of the Editor. Members: Sponsor a new member -- keep AFIO healthy and productive!  For Membership details see our website at https://www.afio.com  Our target: ONE THOUSAND NEW MEMBERS IN 2000 -- EVERY MEMBER SPONSOR A MEMBER! Warning Notice: Perishability of Links:  WINs, sent weekly to members, often contain numerous webpage links to fast-breaking news, documents or other items of interest; unfortunately, after four weeks many of these websites [especially newspaper and other media sites] remove items or shift them into fee-only archives.  This underscores the benefit of receiving the WINs as they are released. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SECTION I:  CURRENT INTELLIGENCE US IMMIGRATION OFFICIAL ARRESTED AS CUBAN SPY - Mariano Faget, a 34-year veteran of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, was arrested Friday, Feb 18th, by the FBI in Miami on charges of espionage. Through technical and physical surveillance and videotaping, the FBI had watched Faget making unauthorized contacts with Cuban intelligence officers and agents in Miami, Washington and New York. Faget was then caught in a sting operation. Faget held a SECRET clearance and supervised naturalization decisions and requests for political asylum in Miami. As such he had knowledge of classified information about law enforcement sources and may have passed on information about Cuban defectors. He is the first INS official to be charged with spying. The FBI said that additional arrests were expected. Faget's reputation was said to be excellent and "he was the last person in the world you would have thought of as being part of something like this. He was thoroughly professional and from all appearances was 100 percent American." The case "speaks to the heart of public trust," said INS director Bob Wallis. Mariono's father was described by the Miami Herald as a hunter of communists for the government of Fulgencio Batista, overthrown by Fidel Castro in 1959. According to writer Carlos Franqui's book "Diary of the Cuban Revolution," Faget Sr. had worked with the FBI in the US. The Fagets were granted political asylum in the US in 1960, and Mariono became a US citizen in 1963. The State Department, acting on evidence presented by the FBI, on Saturday ordered the expulsion of a Cuban diplomat linked to the case. (Wpost Feb 19, p.A1,& Feb 20, p. A25; http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/ins-cuba.html  (Jonkers) CHECHNYA SITREP - Russian forces have captured Grozny and are pursuing rebel forces. AP reports Russian air operations against suspected rebel bases in Chechnya's southern mountains. Russian losses in Chechnya thus far are estimated to include some 1,500 Russian soldiers killed. It is not known if this number includes losses by Chechens who are fighting on the side of the Russian army, a much under-publicized phenomenon in US press coverage. The Russian army is said to have also lost some 70 armored vehicles, including 13 new T-90 main battle tanks. The T-90, Russia's most modern tank, with a 125mm cannon that can fire standard shells as well as laser-guided missiles, is equipped with special reactive armor. DIA sources stated that the Chechens were able to knock them out by firing five to ten rounds of rocket-propelled grenade launchers at them, indicating significant equipment deficiencies. DCI George Tenet testified in Congress saying that the Russians can expect a long-term type of guerilla warfare. About 7,000 Chechens are believed to be operating in the region. The rebels have been identified as associated with "Islamic extremists." The Taleban government of Afghanistan recently offered to allow the Chechen rebels to set up a government in exile on its territory. (WashTimes, Gertz, 10Feb00, pA1) (Jonkers) CYBERFRONT SITREP - The FBI is engaged in an intense cyberhunt in the wake of last week's denial of service attacks on some of the world's largest Web sites. Working hand-in-glove with the feds is the private sector -- the same Internet and high-tech companies that have consistently rebelled against government interference in their pioneering industry. This unusual cooperation perhaps foreshadows a new security order in which the government and the private sector will work together to a degree not seen except in national emergencies. In a related development, the Central Intelligence Agency's new venture capital fund, In-Q-Tel, has entered into a $3 million contract with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) for development of software designed to protect Web sites against "denial of service" attacks and to make computer addresses invisible to "sniffer" programs. http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/02/14/fp1s2-csm.shtml  http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/143949.html  (Jonkers) SECTION II:   CONTEXT AND PRECEDENCE CHECHNYA IMPLICATIONS -- THE NEW URBAN BATTLEFIELD -- The battle of Grozny was long and bloody -- for Russian attackers as well as the Chechen defenders. But you won't see any condescending head-wagging in the U.S. military. As one senior Pentagon official said last week, "I'm not so sure that we'd do a whole lot better than the Russians." In the view of many military analysts, the killing grounds of Grozny offer a view of tomorrow's warfare. The cost of street-fighting is high casulaties. That was one reason that the Army didn't try to take Berlin in 1945, a battle that Gen. Omar Bradley told Dwight Eisenhower "might cost us 100,000 men." Bradley was right. The Red Army, which did fight its way into Berlin, lost 102,000 men. In addition, 125,000 German civilians died in the battle and 150,000 to 200,000 German troops. A 1994 Pentagon study after Mogadishu, Somalia, concluded that " new capabilities will have to be developed." What might those new capabilities be? In the last couple of weeks a company of U.S. Marines has been trying to find out. The Marines have been "fighting" their way through the houses and office blocks of Fort Ord, Calif., an Army base abandoned in 1994. If the results mimic those at a similar exercise last spring, they won't be encouraging. In "attacks" on a naval hospital in Oakland, Calif., the Marines took casualty rates as high as 70 percent. For urban warfare requirements the military needs new equipment. Its long wish list includes handheld sensors to detect an enemy in the next room and the sort of trolley that mechanics use to go under cars. Why? To rescue wounded buddies. In Grozny, Chechen snipers deliberately aimed at the legs of Russian soldiers, waited patiently for a rescue squad -- then shot them, too. The wish list includes high tech-like robots, and ARPA has recently let contracts for research on a number of urban warfare systems, including science-fiction reconnaissance "birds" or even "flies," and concrete-piercing sensor devices. Unless the resulting systems procurements are funded, the price will be paid in American blood. (based on John Barry, Newsweek, February 21, 2000; courtesy J.P. Maher) http://www.newsweek.com/nw-srv/printed/us/in/a16338-2000feb13.htm  (Jonkers) L'AFFAIRE DEUTCH (cont'd) -- What were the secrets found on Dr. Deutsch's home computers? Bill Gertz cites CIA sources saying that the data reflected CIA's global covert action programs, covering political influence and paramilitary and financial activities that are "semi-secrets," leaked to the media but officially "unacknowledged" by the US government (such as the widely publicized so-called "covert" action programs against Iraq or Serbia). Deutch also used his home computer to write presidential "findings" that provide the underpinnings of covert action programs. If the computers were used only for "open secrets," the possible intelligence losses may be less than previously thought. On the other hand, we have the word of CIA Director George Tenet, who recently told Senate Select Committee on Intelligence."There was enormously sensitive material on [the computers], at the highest levels of classification." Administration and congressional sources say a "top-to-bottom review" has been launched in the wake of the Deutch affair to determine how widespread the practice of using home computers for classified work really is. Counterintelligence experts on computer spying are concerned that information may be exposed to foreign intelligence services, terrorists or organized criminal groups that are known to be monitoring the homes of U.S. intelligence and defense officials. As a result of the investigation, classified information has now allegedly been been found on a number of personal computers of members of the intelligence community. There are "many unsecured home computers that have classified materials on them, " said a high-level counterintelligence electronic surveillance specialist. "The Deutch affair shows you just how high the problem has gone." If all this is true, our Taiwanese-American scientist at Los Alamos, now in jail, may be no more than one part of a widespread security deficiency, and our intelligence system may be be far leakier and more vulnerable than we thought. This is not trivial. (Wash Times, 11 Feb00, Gertz)  Sources, http://www.dso.com  (Jonkers) TAIWAN MISTAKES LED TO LOSS OF AGENTS IN CHINA - After China fired missiles in the direction of Taiwan in 1996, the Taiwan Defense Ministry issued a statement to reassure its citizens, to the effect that they should not worry, the missiles were unarmed, and only contained devices to check their accuracy. That statement is said to have tipped off the Chinese security services that somebody high-up was spying for Taiwan. The resulting probe resulted in the arrrest and execution of a Chinese general, his mistress and a senior colonel, and was a setback to Taiwan's espionage network in China. The Reuters news agency reported last September that Major General Liu Liankun, 58, and Senior Colonel Shao Zhengshong, 56, were executed following a lengthy three-year long counter-espionage investigation. The Chinese missiles were fired on March 8th, 1996, two weeks before the Taiwanese presidential elections, as part of an in exercise to discourage Taiwanese voters from supporting a unilateral declaration of independence. The M9 missiles landed 35 miles off Taiwan's biggest port, Kaohsiung, in the south, and 23 miles from Keelung, the second biggest port, in the north. According to Taiwan sources, General Liu had informed Taipei during the missile exercises that the three missiles fired contained dummy warheads, and further provided information on Chinese army mainland troop deployments and strengths. After the election, plans were said to have been made to exfiltrate Liu out of China, but bureaucratic snafus caused delays and a lack of timely action. General Liu had been recruited in the early 1990's in HongKong, where he represented a PLA front company. Liu was said to have been an easy target for Taiwan's agents because, at the time, HE FELT HE HAD BEEN WRONGED. He had been implicated in an army corruption scandal and denied a promotion. After his recruitment, he was well paid by Taiwan for his services. Chinese investigators were said to have found almost two million dollars in Liu's house and overseas accounts. His mistress was implicated as a courier and "bag woman." General Liu spent many years of his career in the PLA General Logistics Department. In 1989 he was listed as the armaments department's director. By the mid-90's he had reached the rank of general and was the deputy director of the logistics bureau. The Chinese counterintelligence probe has rolled up a number of other Taiwan agents, including the Deputy Chief of Hainan province, Lin Kecheng, who was sentenced to life inprisonment last August. Lin and nine colleagues were said to have provided economic, political and other kinds of intelligence information. Last October a local official, Wang Ping, was sentenced to 10 years for working for Taiwan military intelligence in Nanchong, Sichuan province. Also as part of the probe, hundreds of PLA officers and all its defense attaches and diplomats who deal with security matters have been required to provide information on their foreign bank accounts and financial holdings. It appears from these open source reports that Taiwan's intelligence network on the mainland has been, and probably still is, impressive, but that the Taiwan Defense Department's politically-motivated statement not only led to the loss of an important asset, but must have had damaging effects on the network and its capability to produce intelligence. (Wpost 20Feb, J. Pomfret, p.A1/29) (Jonkers) JORDANIAN INTELLIGENCE - The Jordanian intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat, has recently grown in stature as CIA's partner in the fight against Islamic terrorism. In December, Jordan arrested 13 people associated with Osama bin Laen, in connection with a plot to attack Christian and American targets in Jordan. Last year the Mukhabarat is said to have alerted CIA to at least three plots by Bosnia-based Islamic terrorists to attack US targets in Europe. According to the NYTimes, the rapport between Jordanian and American intelligence is so strong that the CIA declares all of its agents in Jordan to the Mukhabarat rather than to keep them under cover. Indeed. (NYT 6Feb00; Jerusalem Post7Feb2000) (Jonkers) SECTION III:  BOOKS GALLANTRY IN ACTION: A Biographic Dictionary of Espionage in the American Revolutionary War, by Harry T. and Marjorie L. Mahoney, University Press of America, Lanham, Md,1999, ISBN 0-7618-1479-5. This is an interesting compendium of American espionage agents, prefaced by George Washington's letter written eight miles east of Morris Town, July 8, 1777, containing the telling ending "The necessity of procuring good intelligence is apparent and need not be further urged - All that remains for me to add is, that you keep the whole matter as secret as possible. For upon Secrecy, Success depends in Most Enterprizes of this kind, and for want of it, they are generally defeated, however well planned and promising of a favorable issue." It continues to serve as a reminder, of the need for security consciousness (e.g. Deutch et.al.), and of the importance of intelligence to the public at large -- the reasons for AFIO's existence and mission. The discussions of individual agents is preceeded by a 38 page history of the revolution. Since neither geography nor history appears to be any longer taught in our schools - including even the seminal history of the American revolution -- this well written and interesting dictionary is instructive and useful to readers young and old. All kudos to AFIO member Harry Mahoney - an excellent contribution. Highly recommended. (Jonkers) THE PSYCHIC BATTLEFIELD: A History of the Military-Occult Complex, by W. Adam Mandelbaum, St Martin's Press, 2000. ISBN 0-312-20955-X. This is a history of psychic spying, a compendium addressing paranormal phenomena seldom covered as a serious topic, but as old as mankind. There have been books published on the role of the occult in the Third Reich, and we have had books on remote viewing programs, but this is a first attempt to provide a historical context from the time of the pharaohs to CIA's use of military-trained psychics during the Cold War. The author, a New York attorney, practicing psychic, dark-side investigative reporter and former intelligence officer, stated that he researched newly declassified files ("too few") and interviewed "government psychics," but did not include any classified or sensitive materials obtained during his period of service. In his foreword, Mandelbaum provides a glimpse of his perspective in writing this book. "Gratitude is herein paid in advance to all those who will have read this history, opened their minds to the potential that is within all of us, and closed their hearts to those in government who would not have this potential be publicly known. Some secrets must be kept in order to maintain national security. Others, in time, must be revealed in order to maintain the dream for a wiser and more perceptive humanity. " Unfortunately the publicity pamphlet undermines seriousness of stated purpose by asserting that the book will " blow the lid off the CIA cover-up." This is a book by an member of AFIO that is unusual in content, potentially interesting and instructive, however controversial it may be. I have only perused it, and will be pleased to print a review by a member. (Jonkers) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++end+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Back to Top Back to Top About AFIO | Chapters & Chapter Activities | Membership | Corporate | Weekly Intelligence Notes | Event Schedule | Bulletin Board | Book Reviews | Search | AFIO Store | | Other Intel Sites | Home Page AFIO Central Office 6723 Whittier Avenue, Suite 303A McLean, Virginia 22101-4533 Telephone: 703 790 0320 | Facsimile: 703 991 1278 Email: afio@afio.com