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ITALIAN WARRANTS OUT FOR 13 AMERICANS BELIEVED INVOLVED IN RENDITION

GOSS SAYS HE KNOWN UBL’S WHEREABOUTS

DIA BOSS TO RETIRE

U-2 CRASHES IN THE GULF, PILOT KILLED

MUELLER SAYS KNOWLEDGE OF ISLAMIST TERRORISM HELPFUL BUT NOT ESSENTIAL FOR FBI MANAGERS

CIA REPORT SAYS IRAQ HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TRAINING GROUND FOR ISLAMIST MILITANTS

FRANKLIN INDICTED A SECOND TIME

BILL WOULD IMPOSE PRISON FOR FAILING TO WARN OF ID THEFT RISK

BUSH NOMINATES PETERSON AS USAF CIO

STATE TELLS CONGRESS BIOMETRICS WILL ENSURE IDENTITY

Books  

MISGUIDED MIDDLE EAST POLICY?

SECDEF WEINBERGER SPINS A WHITE HOUSE THRILLER

DISGUISED AS A MAN, SHE SOLDIERED IN THE CIVIL WAR

Issues

FBI BOSS FELT SHOCK AND BETRAYAL AT DEEP THROAT'S ADMISSION

HOUSE APPROVES IC AUTHORIZATION BILL

Careers

NEW POSITIONS AT DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Notes

SYRIAN INTEL REPORTED OPERATING AGAIN IN LEBANON

INDONESIAN INTEL IMPLICATED IN ASSASSINATION

Queries and Authors Seeking Assistance/ Participants –

Have you used the Analyst Notebook application or the Lockwood Analytical Method for Prediction (LAMP)?

SECTION I – CURRENT INTELLIGENCE

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/24/AR2005062400484.htm  and www.nytimes.com/2005/06/25/international/europe/25milan.html?th&emc=th

    The cleric, Hessian Mustafa Osama Knars, known as Abu Omar, has said that after his rendition he was tortured by Egyptian security police.

    The Italian judicial action is the first known case of a foreign government filing criminal charges against U.S. operatives in connection with overseas counterterrorism activities. Warrants for the arrest of the 13 Americans will be passed on to Interpol, effectively requiring countries around the world to assist the Italian investigation. An Italian official did not say whether the Rome government would seek their extradition. He did say Italy would ask the United States for judicial assistance.

    Abu Omar, who disappeared on 17 February 2003, was a veteran of Islamist training camps in Bosnia and Afghanistan. Italian counterterrorism police, who had had him under surveillance for a long time, made no secret of their frustration at his being taken out of Italy without their knowledge.

    "We do feel quite betrayed that this operation was carried out in our city," a senior Italian investigator said in Milan. "We supplied them information about Abu Omar, and then they [the United States operatives] used that information against us, undermining an entire operation against his terrorist network," the New York Times reported on 26 June.

www.nytimes.com/2005/06/26/international/europe/26milan.html?th&emc=th

    The Italian police and prosecutors said the CIA's top official at the United States consulate in Milan, a man accused in the arrest warrant of coordinating the abduction, had been in close contact with them as they pursued intensive investigations into al-Qa'ida and other Islamic militant networks in Europe.

    "The American system is of little use to us," a senior Italian counterterrorism investigator said. "It's a one-way street. We give them what we have, but we are given no useful information that can help us prosecute people."

    Sharing has become a sore point between American and other European officials in other cases. One concerns Mourner el-Motassadeq, a suspected associate of several 9/11 hijackers. His conviction by a German court in 2003 was overturned the following year. German officials blamed the United States for failing to provide crucial evidence. El-Motassadeq is currently being retried.

    The Bush administration has refused to allow the Spanish authorities to interview Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a central Qa'ida suspect, to strengthen their case against two men on trial in Madrid on charges of helping to plan 9/11.

    Although one senior Italian investigator said, "There is no shadow of proof of any Italian involvement,” another told the Times it was possible the Italian government had approved the rendition as operatives had operated openly and without apparent concern about being detected. For instance, the official said, the Americans used their Italian cell phones at the precise moment Abu Omar was abducted; they kept the phones switched on for hours at a time, making it easier to track their movements; and they dialed many phone numbers in the United States, most of them in northern Virginia, including at least one number at CIA headquarters.

    Michael Scheuer, a former CIA senior counterterrorism officer, said information provided by the Italians suggest that the rendition was not an agency operation and that it would never approve a kidnapping in Italy. However, Milan prosecutors have stated that the overall findings allow attribution of the kidnapping with certainty to the agency.

    Italian court documents report that Abu Omar was kidnapped just after noon by eight U.S. operatives, put into a van and taken to Aviano Air Base, a joint Italian-U.S. military installation, then put on a Learjet and flown to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he was transferred to another plane and taken to Cairo. A year after his disappearance, Abu Omar was released from prison and called his wife and colleagues in Milan. He told them he had been kidnapped by Americans and tortured with electric shocks by the Egyptians, according to wiretap transcripts of the calls. According to the Times he was later rearrested and has not been heard of since.

    The court documents show that police and prosecutors in Milan identified 19 Americans, four of them women, suspected of playing a role in the kidnapping, although only 13 were charged with a crime. Police said they were able to trace nearly every step the Americans took during the nine days they were in Milan. They identified the suspects by examining all cell phones in use near the abduction. Investigators said they were able to trace several calls by Americans on the road from Milan to Aviano. Other evidence came from hotel registries, car rental receipts, and electronic highway toll passes. The Italian investigators also collected photocopies of the operatives' passports, photographs, cell phone numbers and credit card numbers.

    The suspects stayed in five-star Milan hotels, including the Hilton, the Sheraton, the Galia and Principe di Savoia, in the week before the operation, at a cost of $144,984, according to the warrant. After the rendition, two of the officers took a few days' holiday at five-star hotels in Venice, Tuscany and the Alto Adige.

    A Washington Post search of public records showed that the majority of the people named have no listed residence, workplace, working telephone or corporate history. Two of the individuals listed their addresses as boxes at the same post office in Dunn Loring, VA, which is used by a man who is listed as an officer of Premier Executive Transport Services, a company that owns two planes used by the CIA for renditions. The man's name also appears to be a cover. Three of the 19 people named in the court documents, however, appear to be legitimate identities. One is listed in public records as a longtime USG employee who has been stationed abroad.

    Scheuer, who according to the Post, started the CIA's rendition program, said, "The agency might be sloppy, but not that sloppy. There is no way they would sanction a kidnapping on Italian soil."

    Details of the operation, as described in the court documents, bear little resemblance to the way the agency handled previous renditions, Scheuer said. "Renditions have never worked this way," he said. "If I had taken a plan to my bosses to kidnap someone in Europe, it better have been Usama himself, and I doubt I would have gotten permission even then." (DKR)

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4110786.stm

    The DCI's remarks followed comments on Afghan television by departing U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad about a Pakistani TV interview with a senior Taliban commander in Afghanistan. He said both bin Ladin and Taliban leader Mullah Omar were alive and well.

    "If a TV station can get in touch with them, how can the intelligence service of a country which has nuclear bombs and a lot of security and military forces not find them?" Khalilzad asked.

    Goss told Time there were weak links in the U.S.-led war on terror. "When you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play, “Goss said. "We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways that are acceptable to the international community." (DKR)

www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/politics/21military.html?pagewanted=all

    In an e-mail message to agency personnel, Jacoby wrote that he was leaving the military after 37 years of active duty at the end of his tour as DIA head.

No successor has been announced. (DKR)

    In addition to the opening created by Jacoby's departure, the top positions are open at the NSA and the NRO. (DKR)

www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/politics/23u2.html?pagewanted=all

    It was the first crash of a U-2 flying reconnaissance missions in support of the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    Military officials said there were no initial indications of hostile fire. The Pentagon withheld the pilot's name pending notification of his family. Col. Darryl Burke, commander of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing, ordered an investigation. (DKR)

ap.washingtontimes.com/dynamic/stories/F/FBI_TERROR_JOBS?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME

    Mueller described his top anti-terror managers' knowledge of dealing with foreign governments, Middle East history, international terrorism and al-Qa’ida as helpful, not essential. Leadership ability is transferable, he said. "And often you can pick up the subject matter if you've got leadership skills."

    "Let me tell you that we want to develop that within the bureau, but making that an absolute requirement -- if you do not have it you would be precluded from advancing in counterterrorism – no,” Mueller testified recently in an employment lawsuit.

    Mueller described his own expertise in Middle Eastern terrorism as having been relatively limited when he took over the bureau a week before 9/11. He also testified he didn't give any guidance to his top managers to seek out the most experienced counterterrorism agents to work on the war on terror immediately after 9/11. He said he expected the managers to make good choices in a wide-ranging deposition obtained by AP.

    Most of the men Mueller appointed to run the war on terror testified that they didn't believe Middle East and terrorism experience had been important for choosing the agents they promoted. Gary Bald, executive assistant director in charge of terrorism, testified he had to get his terrorism training on the job when he came to headquarters two years ago. When asked about his grasp of Middle Eastern culture and history, he replied: "I wish that I had it. It would be nice."

    When shown Bald's statements, Mueller defended his selection by saying Bald had run the FBI's Baltimore office, which had a terrorism program, and had also run the Washington sniper shootings investigation.

    The testimony was given in a lawsuit brought against the FBI by special agent Bassem Youssef, considered by some to be one of the FBI's most accomplished pre-9/ 11 agents in matters of terrorism. He claims he was passed over for top jobs at headquarters, despite his expertise, because of his Arab origins.

    After interviews with FBI field agents in the war on terror, the staff of the independent commission that reviewed 9/11 failures reported, "Many field agents felt the supervisory agents in the counterterrorism division at headquarters lacked the necessary experience in counterterrorism to guide their work."

    FBI Assistant Director Cassandra Chandler said on 20 June that FBI agents in the field are getting valuable training on everything from Muslim culture to Arabic language and that hundreds of new intelligence analysts and linguists have been hired. Deputy Assistant Director John Lewis suggested it might take the FBI until 2020 to get the sort of top-level anti-terrorism experience it needs. (DKR)

www.nytimes.com/2005/06/22/international/middleeast/22intel.html?pagewanted=all

    Congressional and IC officials said the assessment, completed in May and circulated to government agencies, made it clear that the fighting in Iraq was likely to produce a dangerous legacy by dispersing to other countries Iraqi and foreign combatants more adept and better organized than they were before the conflict. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries would soon have to contend with such militants.

    The officials said the report spelled out how the urban nature of the war in Iraq was helping combatants learn how to carry out assassinations, kidnappings, car bombings and other kinds of attacks. (DDR)

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062101720.html

    The one-count indictment issued in West Virginia on 21 June charged Franklin with having improperly kept classified documents concerning Usama bin Laden, al-Qa'ida and Iraq.

Previously Franklin was charged in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA, with conspiring to give classified information to a foreign government.

    The charges arise from an investigation into whether U.S. classified information was provided to the government of Israel as a result of Franklin's contacts with officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and an Israeli diplomat. (DKR).

news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5757920.html

    Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and Sen. Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat, would also restrict trading in Social Security numbers.

The bill is the first to find Republican sponsorship. It follows the largest security breach announced to date after an outsider gained access to 40 million credit card accounts held by CardSystems Solutions, a payment processor. (DKR)

www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/36161-1.html

    Peterson currently is serving as director of information services and integration, succeeding Maj. Gen. Charles Croom. Croom is being promoted to lieutenant general and assumes the directorship of the Defense Information Systems Agency next month, according to USAF spokesman Capt. James Cunningham.

Before his current position, Peterson served as director of the Strategic Command and Air Component Coordination Element in the U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. (DKR)

www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/36185-1.html

    Facial imaging is consistent with International Civil Aviation Organization standards, said Moss. He was testifying at a hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cybersecurity.

    DHS will require that Visa Waiver Program countries produce passports with digital photographs by 26 October, but will allow another one-year extension for those countries to comply with issuing e-passports.

    A chip in the e-passport’s rear cover will contain the same data as that found on the biographic data page of the paper document, including the photograph, name, and date and place of birth The chip will also have 64 KB of writeable memory in case State introduces additional biometrics such as fingerprints and iris scans. (DKR)

BOOKS  

Haidar, a member of Washington's Cato Institute, argues that by supporting Israel and stationing military forces in Saudi Arabia, the United States helped set the stage for the events of 9/11.

    Pushing for democracy in Iraq is the latest instance of a misguided adherence to a flawed Middle East paradigm, he writes, reprising the outlook set forth in his 1992 book, Quagmire: America in the Middle East,  It foresaw the Arab and Muslim backlash against America. Foreseeing disaster in Iraq, he fears that Arab oil producers might switch from holding dollars to euros with disastrous results for the United States.

    Haidar's solution is a disengagement from the Middle East by means of switching to Latin American sources of oil and setting up a regional balance of power led by the European Union. How effective such a policy would be will strike many readers as highly doubtful. (DKR)

Two terms Reagan SecDef Weinberger makes his debut as a thriller writer in collaboration with Schweizer. The result is a crackling story about politics and dirty dealing that has the ring of authenticity.

    The novel tracks, through the eyes of a Secret Service Special Agent attached to the presidential security detail, the assassination of the president and nearly of the vice-president. Sworn in as president, the former veep declares martial law throughout the country.

    As he prepares to destroy a right-wing militia he blames for the attack. Special Agent Delaney finds himself accused of complicity.

    Fast paced and tightly plotted, Chain of Command is just the read for the summer (or any other) season. (DKR)

    At 17, Sarah Edmonds fled south from her native Nova Scotia to escape an abusive father and an unwanted marriage. She earned her living, disguised as a male traveling book salesman. When the Civil War came, she joined the 2nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, serving for two years as a medical orderly and mail courier. She may also have been a Union spy. At least two men penetrated her disguise. After the war she settled in Texas, married, raised two adopted children and eventually claimed a pension under her wartime name, with the enthusiastic support of most of her old comrades. Gansler has told Sarah's story well and with a sound knowledge of the Civil War. (DKR)

ISSUES

www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/politics/27gray.html?pagewanted=all 

    Gray told the ABC News program "This Week," that he felt "like I was hit with a tremendous sledgehammer" by Felt's disclosure that he was the source for Washington Post reporters who broke Watergate news relying on Felt's information.

    Gray, now 88, resigned from the bureau in disgrace in 1973. In the ABC interview, he said that Felt "told me time and again he was not Deep Throat." Gray said he now realized that he failed to halt news leaks because Felt was in charge of stopping them.

Gray also said he had been badly misled not only by Felt but by President Nixon and his aides. (DKR)

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062101659.html

    Rep. Peter Hoekstra, chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said the bill will for the first time prioritize the programs under the DNI's management and implement the intelligence reorganization legislation that passed in December.

    The amount of funding provided by the bill, adopted 409 to 16, is classified but estimated at $42 billion.

    Rep. Duncan Hunter had sought to include language in the bill barring Negroponte from transferring employees without prior approval of congressional committees. But earlier in June, Hunter agreed to have that provision removed after Negroponte pledged to consult him before making transfers.

    The bill made important cuts in the funding sought by the Bush administration for new high-tech satellites, applying some of that money to increase HUMINT and analysis programs. (DKR)

Careers

NEW OPENINGS AT Department of Homeland Security - 19 vacancy announcements for positions at DHS-headquarters. These positions are also posted on www.usajobs.opm.gov

Supervisory Budget Analyst GS-0560-14/15
Writer/Editor GS-1082-12/13
Intelligence Operations Specialist GS-0132-11/12
Intelligence Operations Specialist GS-0132-12/13
Program Specialist (Citizen Corps) GS-0301-12/13
Information Technology Specialist (Information Security) GS-2210-15
Administrative Officer GS-0341-13/14
Management & Program Analyst GS-0343-12/14
Managment & Program Analyst GS-0343-13/15
IT Specialist GS-2210-14/15
General Engineer GS-0801-14/15
Contract Specialist GS-1102-05/07
Grants Managment Specialist (Trainee) GS-0501-5/7
Appropriations Liaison Officer GS-0501-14/15
Supervisory General Engineer GS-0801-15
Auditor GS-0511-09/11
Auditor GS-0511-12
Senior Auditor GS-0511-13
Director, Infrastructure Coordination Division ES-0301

Notes

www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20050621-085512-7861r.htm

    Brig. Gen. Mohammad Khallof, chief of Syria's intelligence service in Lebanon before the withdrawal, continues to command operations there, UPI said, citing a Labanese opposition leader and local press reports. Khallof is said to be based in the northern port city of Tripoli where he met with pro-Syrian elements lead by Suleiman Franjieh, the Maronite leader MIchel Aoun and former prime minister Omar Karame.

    A U.S. intelligence source said Khallof had two deputies who were also Syrians who had returned to Lebanon. They were Nabil Hishmeh, formerly in charge of the Akkar region, and Khalil Zogheib, who headed Syrian intelligence in Tripoli.

    Other sources confirmed as basically accurate press reports of at least five Syrian intelligence officers recently entering the country to help Syria's allies win seats in recent parliamentary elections. U.S. sources said the Syrian officers have operated from northern and eastern Lebanon to help Syrian allies in such cities as Baalbek and Tripoli and in the Akkar region.

    Lebanese opposition sources told U.S. officials Syrian officers transferred cash and instructions to pro-Syrian candidates as well as providing intelligence on their rivals. The officers headed a pool of operatives, most of them Lebanese or Palestinians.

    Nevertheless, an anti-Syrian bloc was victorious on 19 June in the fourth and final round of voting. But it was unclear whether the bloc will have a two-thirds majority needed to end pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's term in office. (DKR)

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/24/AR2005062401667.html

    Police Brig. Gen. Marsudhi Hanafi, who heads the commission, said investigators had obtained a document detailing plans at the agency, known by its Indonesian initials as BIN, to kill Munir and discovered telephone records showing calls between numbers used by a former BIN deputy director and the suspected assassin. The former deputy director, Maj. Gen. Muchdi Purwopranjono, and other BIN officials have told the press they did not know the suspect.

    Human rights activists have long accused BIN and other security forces of atrocities. But U.S. officials have praised BIN for cooperating with the CIA in tracking down Muslim extremists, including several linked to al-Qa'ida.

    Munir, a frequent critic of the security forces, became ill on an overnight Garuda Indonesia flight a few hours after leaving Jakarta. He died before reaching his destination, Amsterdam. An autopsy two months later in the Netherlands found he had ingested a highly lethal dose of arsenic. (DKR)

Queries and authors seeking assistance

The tools and methods cover topics that range from established academic methods to software applications and more. For additional information, contact Mike at forme3d@yahoo.com. You can access the survey at:   https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=22535595713

If you have any questions about this request, feel free to contact Mike at (510) 770-1942. (DKR)