"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
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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:
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.... 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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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:
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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 ...
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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.