issue twenty one

Published 30 October 2003

Contents:

Main News Features and Reports
• MI6 and CIA warn of al-Qaida plot to kill the Queen in Nigeria - missing 727 could be connected with statement.
• CIA agent Valerie Plame, exposed in WMD debacle.
• Clear and Present Danger: A dozen ships suspected of belonging to al-Qaida now under observance.
• Al-Qaida European bomber (Nizar Trabelsi) who plotted to blow-up Kleine Brogel NATO base in Belgium, jailed for ten years.
• US DOD antiterrorist agency monitors Whisky Distiller.
• Hans Blix criticises UK and USA intelligence on Iraq’s WMD, despite some evidence being acquired.
• Extracts from Interim report on search for Iraq’s WMD (plus several interesting photographs).
• Attack on America: Bin-Laden scaled down attack on 9/11 for fear of compromising operation.

Espionage
• Latest developments of the UK fishing trawler MV Gaul, suspected of spying on Russian ships for MI6. The vessel sank mysteriously in the Barents Sea in 1974 with the loss of 34 men.
• French sting CIA in double agent affair (Henri Plagnol - French diplomat).
• Guantanamo Bay Spies: Three US officers (James Yee, Ahmad al-Halabi and Ahmed Mehalba) suspected of passing intelligence to third parties from al-Qaida suspects.
• NSA spy satellite identifies Syrian-based Islamic-Jihad training camp - later attacked by Israel.

Articles
• Lord of the Rings: Unique look at the new GCHQ spy headquarters in England.
• NSA’s Guardrail Project: Reconnaissance and national security.
• Holding Your Nerve: Spies, Agents and Operatives in the Field: What makes a good agent?
• Tantalising Evidence: No weapons of WMD found in Iraq - but several ‘smoking guns’.
• Shadow Wars: Unmanned spy plane (Shadow 200) monitors DMZ between Koreas.
• British Spies: An unlikely gathering of UK intelligence figures for exhibition in London.
• Death by Misadventure: The bizarre chance-in-a-million incident that killed secret agent, Frederick Boissevain, at Camp-X training site in WWII.

Intelligence Briefs
• FBI sent money to Hamas terror group in 1990s.
• Secret Stasi files on Kohl set to be released?
• North Korea stung Saddam for $10m in failed missile deal.
• Enriched uranium discovered at second Iranian site (Natanz).
• Cleared 9/11 suspect sues US government for $20 million (Lofti Raissi).
• British politician Robin Cook claims Tony Blair knew Saddam 45-WMD claim was “fantasy.”
• CIA accused of coup d’etat by Venezuela.
Intel Snips
Secret tapes of Marliyn Monroe; Former MI5 DG, Stella Rimington questions whether war on terror being won; Sky News correspondent James Forlong, commits suicide after reporting blunder; famous Cold War spy cafe (Daquise) threatened with demolition in London; Germ warfare sold by Pentagon over Internet FBI bugs Mayor of Philadelphia, John Street; al-Qaida agents target FBI and CIA sites in Iraq;

Columns
MICHAEL SMITH - Defence Correspondent Daily Telegraph. Inside Story - Iraq and the Intelligence War.
HENRY HOCKEIMER - Former Prosecutor for State of Oklahoma gives the reasons why the trial of suspected 20th hijacker, Zaccarias Moussaoui, may collapse.

Tradecraft
NEW SERIES: Surveillance techniques.

Photograph Specials
SO14 - Royal Protection Officers: UK police unit charged with security of Royal Family. • GCHQ.

Book Reviews
Fatal Silence; How to Build a Nuclear Bomb; Victim: The Secret Tapes of Marilyn Monroe; The Longest Battle; SS - A Warning From History; Blood in the Sea; Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security; Ultimate Special Forces.
 

Issue 21