The Estonian Spy Case - Herman Simm
Ran into this in a newsletter I receive. It is also very relevant to NATO.
Quote:
IHT
Estonia: Ex-security official accused of spying
The Associated Press Published: September 22, 2008
TALLINN, Estonia: The former head of security at the Estonian Defense Ministry has been arrested, suspected of spying, an official said Monday.
Gerrit Maesalu, a spokesman for prosecutor Lavly Lepp, said the Harju county court on Sunday issued a warrant to arrest Herman Simm, 61, on suspicion of treason. ....
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/...y-Suspects.php
Quote:
Kommersant
Sep. 23, 2008
........
Estonian police have arrested high-ranking member of the Defense Ministry Herman Simm on accusations of espionage. His wife Heete Simm, a police lawyer, faces similarly charges. Estonian authorities have not named the country the couple were providing information to, but Estonian media and local experts claim it was Russia. Herman Simm, 61, was responsible for military secrets. In spite of several earlier claims by the government of Russian espionage operations in the country, this is the first spy case in the modern history of the country in which an actual agent has been identified......
http://www.kommersant.com:80/p103016...onage_Estonia/
Quote:
bbn
Procecutors seize property of suspected Russian spy Herman Simm
Toomas Hõbemägi
25.09.2008 08:39
Public prosecutor Lavly Lepp has arrested all assets of Herman Simm and his wife who are suspected of having spied for Russians.
Eesti Päevaleht writes that the objective is to restrict transactions with the real estate owed by Simm who is believed to have fed NATO secrets to Russians for years as head of security department of Estonian Ministry of Defence.
According to the real estate registry, Simms own seven properties including large land holdings in Raplamaa, Suure-Jaani, Ida-Virumaa, Saue, Padise and Pärnu. Among others, the prosecutor seized his 500 square metre apartment near Tallinn.
http://www.balticbusinessnews.com/De...307e2c&ref=rss
Herman Simm Wiki Bio
Quote:
Herman Simm (born May 29, 1947 in Suure-Jaani) is a former chief the Estonian Defence Ministry's security department. On September 21, 2008, Simm was arrested with his wife Heete Simm on suspiction of illegal collecting and communicating classified information for Russia. In spite of several earlier claims by the government of Russian espionage operations in the country,[1] the Simm case is the first since the restoration of Estonia's independence in 1991 in which an actual agent has been identified and declared suspect in treason.[2] The criminal case is processed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and by the Security Police Board who co-operate with the Information Board and with the Ministry of Defence. According to the Penal Code, treason is punished with an imprisonment of three to fifteen years.[3] ......
.....
[1] Estonia Catches Its First Spy, Kommersant, September 23, 2008.
[2] Estonia: Ex-security official accused of spying, The International Herald Tribune, September 22, 2008.
[3] Law of Penalty of the Repblic of Estonia, §232.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Simm
Fallout from Herman Simm .....
views differ for various reasons, discussed here.
Quote:
Baltic Times
NEWS
Treason: the real cost of Simm’s betrayal
Oct 01, 2008
....
TALLINN - While some fear Estonia’s reputation as a NATO partner has been tarnished and others believe it’s stronger, most agree that national defense has been severely compromised by a deviant individual and some suspect widespread espionage. But where exactly does Estonia stand after Herman Simm’s treason?
Ask any Estonian whether Russia should be perceived as a threat and the answer is nearly always the same: Yes. The notion that history repeats itself seems deeply ingrained in the thoughts of Baltic citizens, and given the lengthy and disastrous consequences of the Soviet occupation, this hardly comes as a surprise.
With this in mind, it’s no wonder that the nation has bestowed upon Simm the status of public enemy number one. There’s nothing redeemable about selling state secrets to a nation’s long-term oppressor, especially when residual skepticism of Russia has existed in the Baltic states since their independence in the early ’90s.
Even more alarming, a British former civil servant has informed The Baltic Times that this might not be a one-off case, but part of a wider breach of national security. .....
http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/21475/
The 3-15 year sentence range for treason and espionage (noted in OP and in above article) seems a bit light - no.
1,000 Euros per month - Secretly
The latest in the Simm case made it to the papers this morning. Declaring Simm received 1,000 euros a month (but without indicating just how long he had received payments, or, how he received them).
The Interior Minister is quoted as saying Simm did not lead a luxurious lifestyle, but continued, that one can purchase smaller things and need not purchase land to be rich.
The amount of these payments has now cast doubt among both the defense and prosecuting attorneys as quoted in Õhtuleht.
EDIT:
Yet another paper (considered the source of the above article) indicates that the justice department would not have arrested Simm based on the facts above. Päevaleht also discloses Simm's MOD salary and Police pension. Both figures much larger than what he is accused of secretly receiving.
Not looking good for a spy novel !
The numbers compute, but ...
Quote:
15,600 - alleged "spy pay"
18,000 - MOD salary
50,000 - police pension
do not add up to what would be expected to turn someone. Herman was well above middle-class without the 15.6K (police pension looks huge = 4 middle class families).
I think we should indulge ourselves here in the presumption of innocence, until some better evidence turns up - e.g., Swiss bank account, ideology or an admission by Herman.
One wonders if Herman made some enemies when he was a cop ?
Intel efforts are usually fishy on several levels.
not really enough known here to make any sensible determination and that is unlikely to change...
MI5 to unravel spy’s treachery
From The Sunday Times
Quote:
Officers from MI5’s counter-espionage section are investigating possible damage caused to Britain and the West by Herman Simm, a high-ranking Estonian security official who has confessed to spying for Russia.
In an operation worthy of a 1960s spy novel, Simm is reported to have used an antiquated radio transmitter to send classified information to Russia.
He is accused of betraying Nato plans for Kosovo’s independence; the position of the alliance on last summer’s war between Russia and Georgia; and secrets from the American missile shield in Europe.
"how far to walk back the cat," Inside the NATO breach
We're really reaching this time with all the makings of a catastrophic failure :D
Quote:
Much of what NATO does is secret; it must be since it holds all of the military strategy and tactics of the Pentagon and our 25 allies. But this belief fell apart this month when Estonia, the tiny country on the Baltic Sea with just more than a million people, announced that two top government officials, a husband and wife team, had betrayed NATO's most intimate secrets to Russia.
The result: Russia, which always rejected NATO, has found that a detour through Estonia was the perfect way to stab into the heart of NATO.
Odd article, in many respects,
but its bottom line is clear enough:
Quote:
.... Can we trust and, even more important, can we afford the NATO alliance?
In 2009, do we need NATO? After all, as one top intelligence official in Washington said, "It must be assumed that the Russian intelligence service still has a few more Simms in the alliance."
Who has the most to gain from all this ? Is this a little wilderness of mirrors ?
Not odd, just not very intelligent.
He presumes that any information applicable to the US defense establishment is automatically available to anyone in NATO. That's not correct, nor is 'most' or 'a lot' correct -- very little and low order at that would be correct. There are other dumb statements as well...
Quote:
Regardless, the case will lead to far-reaching consequences for our newly elected president. Can we trust and, even more important, can we afford the NATO alliance?
Far reaching consequences? Beyond doubtful. You can't trust anyone -- and we know that, have done so for many years. As for affordability, this is not the first nor will it be the last time US classified info has been leaked by a NATO Ally; NATO has some political merit so affording it is not really an issue.
Quote:
In 2009, do we need NATO? After all, as one top intelligence official in Washington said, "It must be assumed that the Russian intelligence service still has a few more Simms in the alliance."
Doh. Well, of course they do -- the FSB /GRU is easily the worlds most effective intel service collaborative. That statement doesn't pass the 'so-what' test.
Quote:
Dateline D.C. is written by a Washington-based British journalist and political observer.
A British journalist who says "...our newly elected president..." arouses my suspicion. A 'political observer' commenting on intel matters arouses my chuckle factor. ;)
Yes, it is a mass of smoke and mirrors. :cool:
Simm update, which seems a collage ....
of media reports, is found here.
Quote:
18.01.200912:08 (GMT) - 007 News
Estonian newspaper Eesti Paevaleht, referring to data of the special parliamentary commission on supervision of activity of security services of Estonia, writes that the spy Herman Simm who was exposed in 2008 had worked for the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of Russia. He transferred secret data through a certain SVR officer with a nickname of Jesus.
According to the newspaper, during the investigation of Simm’s criminal case it was found out that the citizen of Estonia was supervised by an illegal who used cover as a citizen of Portugal and operated carrying out the SVR tasks.
It is said in the annual report on activity of the special parliamentary commission. According to the commission, Jesus was declared in the international search still on September 16, 2008, that is before arrest of Herman Simm and his spouse Heete Simm on September 21, Russian news agency Interfax reports.
Simm’s official duties included organization and coordination of protection of state secrets, participation in the international negotiations with the NATO and EU member-countries on protection of the classified information. So, he was a member of NATO and EU delegations on check-up of conformity of security systems in other countries.
Simm had the same access to confidential materials as the President, the Prime Minister, Ministers of Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Commander of the Defence Forces of Estonia. According to mass media, NATO considers the Simm’s case the biggest intelligence failure after the USSR collapse.
Earlier it was the French press which reported on the agent nicknamed Jesus. According to magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, all the files with the index NATO Cosmic Top Secret, addressed to Estonia, passed through Simm and therefrom they got to Jesus. In particular, all documents of military character which were sent to Estonia from the countries with which it concluded treaties on exchange of classified documents were passed through Simm.
According to a NATO expert, the damage caused to Estonia and the alliance is huge; according to preliminary data, the damage could make about 100 million EEK (6.4 million Euro).
I Googled about (without success) to find the Eesti Paevaleht article, and the report of the special parliamentary commission. Stan, can you help out on this - i.e., did the report actually say what is asserted in the first three paragraphs quoted above.
Also, there are a number of alleged facts claimed in the quote; at least one of which has been disputed. E.g., this:
Quote:
Simm had the same access to confidential materials as the President, the Prime Minister, Ministers of Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Commander of the Defence Forces of Estonia.
Contra, Kahar quote in article cited in Stan's 25 Dec post above.
An indictment was projected for post-1 Jan - still waiting on that one.
Simm trial - possibly in March
This appeared in a few places:
Quote:
Estonian In Russia Spy Probe On Trial By March: Official
Wednesday February 4th, 2009 / 15h44
TALLINN, Estonia (AFP)--A former Estonian defense ministry official who is accused of spying for the country's Soviet-era master Moscow is set to face trial within weeks, justice authorities said Wednesday.
"The case will reach court in a few weeks, in March at the latest," Gerrit Maesalu, spokesman of the state prosecutor's office, told AFP.
.....
The defense ministry said Wednesday that it was also planning to seek 21 million kroons ($1.72 million) in damages against Simm.
"The sum was calculated by taking into account the amount the defense ministry has had to pay to change the various communication and guard systems of various institutions," spokesman Peeter Kuimet told AFP.
Shorwaves, One-time Pads, classic espionage devices?
Is there any further evidence so far that the radio device Mr. Simm was using, was receiving Shortwave radio broadcasts? Further, have there been any reports of one time pads, or message decryption devices, keys, or codes?
Thanks for the forum, this is great!
Please introduce yourself ....
either in this thread or here - web developer and an interest in films tells us not much. Thank you in advance.
Thank you for the full disclosure ...
Quote:
from m.c
I thought if anyone would know if he was using Shortwave Radios and One-Time Pads, it would be the people of this forum. So any thoughts?
My immediate thought is that the Simm case is so recent that anything detailed about his sources and methods would be classified. Possibly his guilty plea "proffer" (if Estonia uses that sort of document) would give some details. I haven't seen anything beyond the open-source material posted here.
Based on one of the news articles I read, Simm was discovered because the Checkist officer or agent running him had tried to recruit an official from another government. The official reported the contact and the Checkist was surveilled. That led to his meetings with Simm being observed, etc., etc.
The inference is that Simm was transmitting information person to person - also perhaps by dead-drops. If what was reported was true, discovery of Simm was something of a windfall realized because another official obeyed the rules and reported an illicit contact.
PS: You do have an interesting project - sometimes fact is more interesting than fiction, but more often is simply boring.
Dangers in meeting a spy exposed (again?)
The vulnerability to traditional methods (investigation and surveillance) appear to be present in this case. This vulnerability might explain the FSB's delight in exposing a UK spy network / method when an electronic dead letter box was found; IIRC disguised as a rock containing a recording device and you broadcast over a very short distance the text. This appeared on news websites in January 2006 and this is the BBC's report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4638136.stm
davidbfpo
I noticed that the FSB ....
did not reveal its sources and methods, at least in the BBC article, used to detect the "rock radio".
Since the transmission signals may have been very short range (don't know that, but that is an inference), signal intercepts may not have been the key. If the FSB surveils adversary diplomats as well as the KGB did, investigation and surveillence may, indeed, have been the key - too many UK diplos hanging around a location punching their hand-helds.
In any event, the 2006 incident seems closer to what m.c is looking for - simply updated in technology.
Allegedly this is how it worked....
1 Attachment(s)
Were it only so easy ....
Truly, this was a tragedy ...
which had to affect adversely many innocent people. Probably something I shouldn't have joked about.
Best as always
Mike
PS: I won't spend much time sreaching for the video. I think I'll stick with the old Meg Ryan romances, which always turn out well. :eek: