Intelligence Operations

Philadelphia. -- With the revelations of CIA involvement in murder and torture in Honduras reported in The Sun's recent series, ''Unearthed: Fatal Secrets,'' the case for stricter control of U.S. intelligence operations continues to mount. The Sun found that the Central Intelligence Agency not only trained and funded units in Honduras that committed atrocities but also that the CIA lied to Congress about the extent of its involvement.Honduras is simply the latest scandal. From Irangate, in which the CIA was caught laundering drug money, to Guatemala, where it would appear a CIA-paid colonel was responsible for the torture and murder of the husband of a U.S. citizen, the TC intelligence community has shown a disturbing capacity for criminality.

The recent arrest of 10 Russian citizens in America on charges of espionage at first blush appears to be a typical Cold War scenario. But it clearly is not. Human intelligence operations are uniquely equipped to ascertain an enemy's intentions. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union ran extensive intelligence operations against the United States. They targeted just about any American they could, many of whom were insignificant employees of the U.S. Government and members of the armed forces.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is drawing up a plan that would give the military a more prominent role in intelligence-collection operations that have traditionally been the province of the Central Intelligence Agency, including missions aimed at terrorist groups and those involved in weapons proliferation, Defense Department officials say. The proposal is being described by intelligence officials as an effort by the Pentagon to expand its role in intelligence gathering...

WASHINGTON -- As al-Qaida rebuilds in Pakistan's tribal areas, a new generation of leaders has emerged under Osama bin Laden to consolidate control over the network's operations, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials. The new leaders rose from within the organization after the death or capture of the operatives who built al-Qaida before the Sept. 11 attacks, leading to surprise and dismay within American intelligence agencies about the group's ability to rebound from an American-led offensive.

For two decades, District of Columbia leaders have opposed efforts by western Anne Arundel County communities to close a beleaguered juvenile detention center between Laurel and Fort Meade. But now the district-run Oak Hill Youth Center may be getting in the way of a far more influential neighbor: the military. With the Pentagon planning to significantly expand Fort Meade, particularly intelligence operations there, some county and Maryland leaders sense an opportunity to shut down the maximum-security juvenile detention center and take control of the strategic parcel.

ROME -- What began as an investigation into the alleged CIA abduction of a radical Muslim cleric in 2003 has widened into a probe of possibly illegal domestic espionage by Italian intelligence agents compiling dossiers on judges, journalists and prosecutors. Investigators were raiding the files of one intelligence agency, while journalists figured in the growing scandal as both the purported spies and the purported spied upon. Prosecutors who on Wednesday arrested two senior Italian intelligence officials in connection with the CIA case also plan to question six other officers from the agency, known as Sismi, sources familiar with the widening probe said yesterday.

WASHINGTON -- Soviet intelligence agents dressed as firefighters entered secure areas of the U.S. embassy in Moscow during a major fire last month, and an inquiry is under way into whether any secret material was lost as a result, the Bush administration says.Marlin Fitzwater, the White House spokesman, said yesterday the United States would consider the 10-story building to be unsafe for classified operations until the inquiry was completed and the building deemed secure.A second administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that areas of the embassy housing CIA operations had not been entered by the Soviet agents.

The recent arrest of 10 Russian citizens in America on charges of espionage at first blush appears to be a typical Cold War scenario. But it clearly is not. Human intelligence operations are uniquely equipped to ascertain an enemy's intentions. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union ran extensive intelligence operations against the United States. They targeted just about any American they could, many of whom were insignificant employees of the U.S. Government and members of the armed forces.

The case has been made and remade. Now Maryland must sit back this summer and wait to discover whether the state will receive thousands of relocated military jobs, and whether Fort Meade will get its hands on most of them. But if a delegation of Maryland's top leaders proved persuasive last week, the Army post that's home to the National Security Agency could undergo an even larger expansion of its intelligence operations than previously anticipated. Before the commission that is overseeing the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure process in Towson, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski made the pitch to bring about 3,000 workers at National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Bethesda to the extra-secure confines of Fort Meade, a move that she said would bring together "the technical eyes and ears of U.S. intelligence."

The CIA is finally dead. It started with President Bill Clinton's "peace dividend," declared after the fall of the Soviet Union, which brought bipartisan underfunding and inattention to the CIA for over a decade. It continued with recriminations from the Bush administration for its putative failures to predict 9/11 and White House anger at and retribution for what it believed to be the CIA's lack of support for its foreign policies. It is now ending with the 20-month disaster of Porter J. Goss, which clearly demonstrated the Bush administration's desire to punish the CIA and reflected its proposition that the CIA is no longer needed.

ATHENS, Ga. -- As soon as it became apparent that Democrats had won majorities in both chambers of Congress, Harry Reid of Nevada, who will become the new Senate majority leader in January, declared: "I believe that the first order of business when we reorganize after the first of the year is congressional oversight." He acknowledged that "there simply has been no oversight in recent years." In fact, oversight has long been a neglected task of Congress. "The purpose of oversight is to keep bureaucrats from doing something stupid," former U.S. Sen. Wyche Fowler Jr., Democrat of Georgia, wryly observed after his many years in Congress.

ROME -- What began as an investigation into the alleged CIA abduction of a radical Muslim cleric in 2003 has widened into a probe of possibly illegal domestic espionage by Italian intelligence agents compiling dossiers on judges, journalists and prosecutors. Investigators were raiding the files of one intelligence agency, while journalists figured in the growing scandal as both the purported spies and the purported spied upon. Prosecutors who on Wednesday arrested two senior Italian intelligence officials in connection with the CIA case also plan to question six other officers from the agency, known as Sismi, sources familiar with the widening probe said yesterday.

The CIA is finally dead. It started with President Bill Clinton's "peace dividend," declared after the fall of the Soviet Union, which brought bipartisan underfunding and inattention to the CIA for over a decade. It continued with recriminations from the Bush administration for its putative failures to predict 9/11 and White House anger at and retribution for what it believed to be the CIA's lack of support for its foreign policies. It is now ending with the 20-month disaster of Porter J. Goss, which clearly demonstrated the Bush administration's desire to punish the CIA and reflected its proposition that the CIA is no longer needed.

For two decades, District of Columbia leaders have opposed efforts by western Anne Arundel County communities to close a beleaguered juvenile detention center between Laurel and Fort Meade. But now the district-run Oak Hill Youth Center may be getting in the way of a far more influential neighbor: the military. With the Pentagon planning to significantly expand Fort Meade, particularly intelligence operations there, some county and Maryland leaders sense an opportunity to shut down the maximum-security juvenile detention center and take control of the strategic parcel.

The case has been made and remade. Now Maryland must sit back this summer and wait to discover whether the state will receive thousands of relocated military jobs, and whether Fort Meade will get its hands on most of them. But if a delegation of Maryland's top leaders proved persuasive last week, the Army post that's home to the National Security Agency could undergo an even larger expansion of its intelligence operations than previously anticipated. Before the commission that is overseeing the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure process in Towson, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski made the pitch to bring about 3,000 workers at National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Bethesda to the extra-secure confines of Fort Meade, a move that she said would bring together "the technical eyes and ears of U.S. intelligence."

Seeming to pre-empt any doubts about the selection of a career diplomat to be the nation's first intelligence director, President Bush chose one of the most experienced and controversy-free intelligence executives in the United States yesterday to serve as deputy to the new post. The appointment of Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, director of the National Security Agency, will deprive the Maryland-based eavesdropping and code-breaking agency of the longest-serving director in its 52-year history.

WASHINGTON -- As al-Qaida rebuilds in Pakistan's tribal areas, a new generation of leaders has emerged under Osama bin Laden to consolidate control over the network's operations, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials. The new leaders rose from within the organization after the death or capture of the operatives who built al-Qaida before the Sept. 11 attacks, leading to surprise and dismay within American intelligence agencies about the group's ability to rebound from an American-led offensive.

Seeming to pre-empt any doubts about the selection of a career diplomat to be the nation's first intelligence director, President Bush chose one of the most experienced and controversy-free intelligence executives in the United States yesterday to serve as deputy to the new post. The appointment of Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, director of the National Security Agency, will deprive the Maryland-based eavesdropping and code-breaking agency of the longest-serving director in its 52-year history.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is drawing up a plan that would give the military a more prominent role in intelligence-collection operations that have traditionally been the province of the Central Intelligence Agency, including missions aimed at terrorist groups and those involved in weapons proliferation, Defense Department officials say. The proposal is being described by intelligence officials as an effort by the Pentagon to expand its role in intelligence gathering...

If you've been fascinated by the Robert Hanssen spy case, here's a vacation for you: Former CIA, FBI and KGB intelligence officers and spy catchers will divulge tricks of their trade to cruise- goers aboard the Regal Empress' SpyCruise through the Bahamas next spring. During the day, guests can attend lectures about wartime espionage, double agents and moles. There will also be demonstrations of actual spy equipment. In the evening, guests will be joined at dinner by former intelligence officers, who will talk about celebrated spy cases and the art of counterintelligence.