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[This was sent on on Phil Agre's Red Rock Eater mailing list (see <http://communication.ucsd.edu/pagre/rre.html> for more info). It is, as he said, excellent--and it's also US$315/yr for a subscrip- tion. However, since exposing and reforming intelligence programs tends to happen over decades rather than months, the newsletter's archive of back issues (5 Sept 96 - 27 June 97) is still quite in- teresting--and free. See <http://www.blythe.org/Intelligence/>.-T] INTELLIGENCE ISSN 1245-2122 N. 78 New Series, 20 April 1998 Every Three Weeks Publishing since 1980 Editor Olivier Schmidt (email adi@ursula.blythe.org; web http://www.blythe.org/Intelligence) TABLE OF CONTENTS, N. 78, 20 April 1998 FRONT PAGE AUSTRALIA - FIGHTING THE ENEMY WITHIN ... LAW ENFORCEMENT p.1 TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES TRIPLE DES & AES ENCRYPTION "DOWN" BEFORE BEING SET UP p.2 BRITS & US TAKING BIOTERRORISM SERIOUSLY p.3 EUROPE STUDIES SPY TECH BUT APPLIES FBI LAW p.4 COMPUTERS - EU Project Crosses the Irish Border. p.5 TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES - Briefs and Media Reports. p.6 PEOPLE USA - DOUGLAS FRED GROAT p.7 ETHIOPIA/ZIMBABWE - MENGISTU HAILE MARIAM p.8 ISRAEL - EFRAIM HALEVY p.9 CHINA - XU YONGYUE p.10 PEOPLE - Briefs and Media Reports. p.11 AGENDA COMING EVENTS THROUGH 18 MAY 1998 p.12 INTELLIGENCE AROUND THE WORLD USA - "HOME GROWN" TERROR MEANER THAN "FOREIGN STUFF" p.13 PUBLIC ENCRYPTION DEBATE MOVES INTO "END GAME" p.14 CHINESE ROCKET FAILURE OPENS "CAN OF WORMS" p.15 Briefs and Media Reports. p.16 GREAT BRITAIN - "OUTSIDE" POLICING OF THE POLICE p.17 PRISONS NO "DRUG FREE" ZONES p.18 New Police Network Targets Fine Art Theft. p.19 NORTHERN IRELAND - UN CONFIRMS RUC HARASSES LAWYERS p.20 FRANCE - EUROTUNNEL FIRE CONTINUES TO SMOLDER p.21 GERMANY - BND CAN'T KEEP OUT OF THE NEWS p.22 DENMARK - PET's Cold War Past Catches Up with It. p.23 WESTERN EUROPE - Briefs and Media Reports. p.24 BULGARIA - CD Piracy On The Way Out. p.25 RUSSIA - Cop-To-Cop With ... Chicago. p.26 ARMENIA - And The Next Russian Arms Convoy. p.27 EASTERN EUROPE - Briefs and Media Reports. p.28 PARAGUAY - A Criminal Presidential Candidate. p.29 LATIN AMERICA - Briefs and Media Reports. p.30 NIGERIA - No Valid Official Documents. p.31 MAURITIUS - A Booming Economy ... Legal & Illegal. p.32 AFRICA - Briefs and Media Reports. p.33 PALESTINE - ISRAELIS WATCHING THE PALESTINIAN WATCHERS p.34 ISRAEL - Bad Luck Fortnight. p.35 MIDDLE EAST - Briefs and Media Reports. p.36 THAILAND - DIPLOMATIC JOCKEYING AROUND POLICE ACADEMY p.37 CHINA - Infowar, But Please Not Here. p.38 SOUTH KOREA - "WORST CASE" SCENARIO FOR THE ANSP p.39 NEW ZEALAND - SIS' New "Glossy Effort". p.40 ASIA - Briefs and Media Reports. p.41 --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 78, 20 April 1998, p. 17 GREAT BRITAIN "OUTSIDE" POLICING OF THE POLICE In an effort to allow Britain's chief constables to prosecute "the corrosive minority" of corrupt police officers, the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, has proposed that independent investigators, including retired Military Intelligence officers, HM Customs investigators, legal and accountancy firms, and specialized sections of government departments, such as the Post Office, should be used to examine allegations of police corruption and malpractice. Mr. Straw's "first step" in setting up an independent investigative agency to monitor police affairs, follows the publication of a Commons Home Affairs Committee report, which is highly critical of the present procedure in which the police investigate themselves, and which allows those accused of corruption and attempting to pervert the course of justice to retire early with full pension rights, or take indefinite sick leave to avoid disciplinary procedures. Other key reforms, announced at the end of March, after a 5- year consultation period and due to come into force in April 1999, include: - a reduction in the burden of proof in disciplinary hearings from the criminal trail standard of "beyond reasonable doubt" to the "balance of probability" as used in civilian cases; - the phasing out of the rule of double jeopardy by which an officer cleared by a civilian court cannot be subsequently disciplined; - disciplinary proceeding to be conducted even in the absence of the accused, linked to a "fast track" dismissal procedure; - an end to the "right to silence" during disciplinary hearings and "adverse inference" to be drawn from a refusal to answer questions; - the rights of a policeman to a full pension to be assessed by the Home Office if the officer has been convicted of a criminal offence. Up to 75 percent of the entitlement can be withheld. COMMENT -- The reforms were welcomed by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) and the Superintendents Association of England and Wales, but Fred Broughton, chairman of the Police Federation, representing 124,000 policemen up to the rank of chief inspector, who work at "the cutting edge of the criminal system", repeated the well-worn excuse that measures such as the reduction in the standard of proof in disciplinary cases would "damage the confidence and morale of the service". The MP's report highlighted a number of cases in which senior officers avoided disciplinary proceedings. Among the examples is the case of Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent, Tony Lundy, who retired on medical grounds after serious corruption and fabrication of evidence allegations and currently lives on full pension in southern Spain, and South Yorkshire Chief Superintendent, David Duckworth, the senior officer in charge of crowd control at Hillsborough football stadium where almost 100 Liverpool FC supporters died. He retired suffering from post-traumatic stress days before he was due to give evidence at a judicial inquiry into why the police failed to control both the number of fans entering the ground, and their inadequate response to the tragedy. --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 78, 20 April 1998, p. 21 FRANCE EUROTUNNEL FIRE CONTINUES TO SMOLDER In December 1996, we mentioned that "there has apparently been some very heavy-handed information management concerning the 18 November fire in the Channel Tunnel", a statement that has been confirmed several times since then. The day after the fire, the "International Herald Tribune", which is published in Paris, headlined the burning train's frozen brake system. French papers have never mentioned the subject, but did cite Clive Durrant, head of security for Eurotunnel, who said emergency systems functioned "exactly as planned". When the train's engineer discovered the fire on board a truck on the train, he immediately brought the train to a halt and apparently tried to put the train into reverse and back it out of the tunnel as quickly as possible to get it to a specially- equipped fire station side track at the end of the tunnel (INT n. 50 42). When he tried to release the emergency brakes, they were frozen in locked position, so the train sat where it was and burned out of control for several hours. Certain specialists say a disaster was narrowly avoided. In early May 1997, the independent security panel investigating the fire issued its report criticizing security on the rail link and making several recommendations concerning the simplification of security procedures. The report in no way addressed the problem of the cause of the fire. In terms of security, we reported in February 1997 that Eurotunnel had rejected putting trucks in closed, fireproof cars to avoid a repeat of the incident (INT, n. 54 33). According to specialists, the decision is reasonable since the cause of the fire seems to be more related to personnel than to equipment. The press and the report noted that a truck apparently was already smoldering before the train entered the tunnel. So new, expensive fireproof cars for trucks, and even the panel's recommendations, would partially alleviate, but not solve, these problems. According to French intelligence, what would solve at least the November accident would be to find two disgruntled workers who disappeared not long before the fire took place. Some specialists believe the two may be responsible for the entire incident. While the major media were talking about the panel's security report, only the BBC had the courage to dig into the affair and mention the possible criminal origin of the fire (see "Eurotunnel Fire Still a Burning Issue", INT n. 60 30). In France, the consumer journal, "Que Choisir?", which apparently has some contact with French intelligence, also mentioned that the fire was of criminal origin. Much later, "Le Monde" also mentioned the fact, but no one ever mentioned the existence of two disgruntled workers. COMMENT -- Personnel problems may not be the only obstacles to security on Eurotunnel. Clive Durrant apparently didn't keep his job as head of security for long after the fire, and neither did his reported successor, Mr. Boubli, head of the Prodimas private security company now in charge of Eurotunnel security. The post had long been vacant when the January- February issue of "Preventique-Securite" (n. 37, p. 96) first publicized the job opening for a "Bilingual French-English Director of Security". The supposedly three-year contract -- it's been at least two chiefs in two years -- is being handled by the Mercuri Urval employment agency. British security arrangements for the Channel Tunnel rail link had been the responsibility of Department of Transport Security Division (Transec) and an MI5 senior official, Harry Ditmas, who found four international airlines operating in Great Britain which failed a security review in January 1994, including Virgin Atlantic, a member of a consortium which bid to take over and operate the British portion of the Channel Tunnel railway in January 1995 (INT n. 9 49). Ditmas is a known intelligence specialist who developed "traffic analysis" to observe movements of individuals and telephone calls to identify IRA members and ringleaders. But Eurotunnel recently announced that it wants to form its own company to be responsible for security and no longer depend on French and British law enforcement and fire brigades. This was greeted last week by a statement by Pas de Calais and Kent fire chiefs saying that they alone have responsibility for fire safety and security of Eurotunnel. It looks like what Eurotunnel needs most are diplomats and competent managers instead of security experts. --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 78, 20 April 1998, p. 26 RUSSIA - Cop-To-Cop With ... Chicago. Al Capone's "turf" will be taking on Russian organized crime. The US State Department awarded a $2.6 million grant to the Office of International Criminal Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago to develop a police exchange program with Russia and Poland. The program, called "Cop-To-Cop", represents the largest grant awarded to a non-federal law enforcement entity under the State Department International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau. The grant supports the formation of an international partnership aimed at improving the administration of justice and policing practices in Eastern Europe and in the US. Surely the Wild West and the Wild East have things in common and information to exchange. --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 78, 20 April 1998, p. 32 MAURITIUS - A Booming Economy ... Legal & Illegal. In late March, Noah Beckwith of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in London, presented his report, "Mauritius Country Risk Service", in Mauritius at a meeting where Prime Minister, Navinchandra Ramgoolam, Finance Minister, Vasant Bunwaree, Bank of Mauritius Governor, Mitrajeet Maraye, Minister of Economic Development & Regional Cooperation, Rundheersing Bheenick, and Minister of Telecommunications & Information Technologies, Sarah Duut Lallah, were all speakers. The EIU puts Mauritius in third place in sub-Saharan Africa, close behind Botswana and Namibia for overall political and economic risk. According to Beckwith, "Mauritius is now one of the most attractive and diverse markets in the region for foreign investors". The International Southern Oceans Longline Fisheries Information Clearing House (ISOLFICH) in Australia sadly agrees, considering Mauritius' central role in the commercialization in 1997 of $140 million of illegal "takes" in the region. The EIU and ISOLFICH reports came out at about the same time but seem each to have ignored the existence of the other. Together, they furnish a good description of Mauritius' "booming economy". --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 78, 20 April 1998, p. 38 CHINA - Infowar, But Please Not Here. In January, we mentioned China's entry into the age of cyber-warfare with the success of a full-scale test of the "CIN High Intelligence Network" (INT, n. 74 4). CIN, supposedly developed "independently" by China, forms an integrated intelligence network, and saw its first application in March 1997 at the Beijing regional military headquarters, the only military region that has not recently been dissolved and reorganized. Also, China's first computer- virus warfare exercise was held on 10 October by the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Now it seems that China may have been "welcomed to the club" by one of the "Big Boys" with a particular "informative" initiation ceremony. On 9 April, Chinese authorities announced they were investigating mysterious disruptions of the Apstar-1 telecommunications satellite due to interference from a signal source on earth which began in mid-March by disrupting earthquake monitoring systems and pager services in China, and had nothing to do with the satellite itself. According to a government statement, "up to this moment, they [Chinese intelligence services] have not located the source of the interference and we cannot rule out the possibility (that the source is outside China)". Someone was "jumping the gun" on recommendations by Zhang Deyong, Zhang Minghua and Xu Kejian in their article, "Information Attack", published by Chinese army newspaper, "Jiefangjun Bao", on 24 March, which stated: "We should try to attack and paralyze an enemy command system (...) launch an electronic attack on an enemy; and (...) ensure electromagnetic control in an area and at a time favorable to us. To this end, we should cultivate partial information superiority by combining active interference with passive interference ..." Theory is fine, but someone hasn't been doing their field work. --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 78, 20 April 1998, p. 40 NEW ZEALAND - SIS' New "Glossy Effort". Following British MI5's "glossy public relations effort", their New Zealand counterparts thought it would be a good idea to do the same, resulting in the information booklet, "Security in New Zealand Today", about the Security Intelligence Service (SIS), made public on 8 April. Researcher and writer on intelligence matters, Nicky Hager (INT, n. 42 50 & n. 65 5), claimed that the main reason for the booklet was to justify the SIS's existence, adding that he was planning a book on the SIS, though not as comprehensive as his book on the Government Communication Security Bureau, "Secret Power". "The booklet makes no mention of the SIS's disreputable past, where numerous New Zealanders' lives were intruded upon for taking part in worthy political causes, many of which are part of mainstream opinion today," Hager stated. The other members of the New Zealand intelligence community are: the External Assessments Bureau which is responsible for researching and assessing overseas developments, situations, or issues likely to affect New Zealand's interests, but does not collect secret intelligence; the Directorate of Defence Intelligence and Security responsible for the New Zealand Defence Force's intelligence and security. On 8 April, the "Evening Post" published long extracts from the SIS brochure. --------------------------------------------- Intelligence, N. 78, 20 April 1998, p. 41 ASIA - Briefs and Media Reports. - Pakistan Prime Minister vows to exterminate terrorism; Pakistan and India secretly at war. - India India is working on a spy satellite; India is currently developing a spy satellite, the air force chief announced; West gun-running to rebels. - Sri Lanka Scores killed when air force bombs rebel flotilla and troops attack; Sixteen Tamil rebels killed in northern Sri Lanka; Sri Lankan police cracking down on mobsters helping rebels; Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) profile. - China China's Spies Target Corporate America. - Macau The driver of Macau's security chief was shot and killed at point blank range outside his home; On two occasions last week the Triads killed policemen in Macao; Similar problems in Macau and Hong Kong. - Australia Jailed hacker exposed net's vulnerability; Serious problems in law enforcement. --------------------------------------------- <END OF FILE> -----End of forwarded message----- --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl