HUMINT, Informants and more (merged thread)

[davidbfpo]

Via Perspectives on Terrorism (a free on-line journal):

This interview with former undercover agent Mubin Shaikh can help academics and security practitioner sunderstand the key role played and the challenges faced by covert human intelligence sources within domestic terrorist groups. The interview highlights the identity crisis, the personal factors, and the allure of jihadi militancy that initially drove Mubin Shaikh to join a Salafi jihadist group. It investigates Shaikh’s process of disengagement from the Salafi jihadist belief system and his rediscovery of a moderate, inclusive, and benevolent form of Islam. It explores his work as an undercover agent for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team responsible for disrupting domestic terrorist groups. The “Toronto 18” terrorist cell, the key role played by undercover agents in preventing terrorist action, and the challenges posed by entrapment are also discussed.

Link:http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/...e/view/502/990

[davidbfpo]

Thanks to a "lurker" for this pointer to a 2013 article in the CIA's history bulletin, even if the title is rather odd by using two abbreviations:https://www.cia.gov/library/center-f...%20RASCALS.pdf

[davidbfpo]

A BBC News item on the value and dangers of recruiting an informant in a CT campaign:

The most senior loyalist ever to agree to become a so-called supergrass volunteered to kill a Catholic to cover up the fact he was an informer.....He worked as an informer for 13 years...has pleaded guilty to 202 terror offences, including five murders, as his part of a controversial state deal that offered a significantly reduced prison term in return for giving evidence against other terrorist suspects.
He is said to have provided information on:

• 55 murders
• 20 attempted murders
• 56 conspiracies to murder
• 24 bombing offences

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-42337250

I will copy this to the Northern Ireland thread.

[davidbfpo]

A broad brush article by Gordon Corera, the BBC's Security Correspondent, on the future facing primarily MI6 aka SIS, the UK overseas HUMINT agency:http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/arch...-gordon-corera

He ends with:

It's becoming ever harder to keep secrets. For spies, this new world means deconstructing everything they do and analysing it for new opportunities and weaknesses, seeking out new sources of data and the latest tools to exploit. Every new trick they use to spy on someone else needs to be tested to ensure it doesn't offer an opportunity to the other side. Nation states are working hard to exploit the insights that data offers in a new arms race of technology-driven espionage. To the victor the spoils. To the loser - as with the rest of the tech-based world, but with greater consequences - defeat and irrelevance.

[davidbfpo]

A fascinating 2016 account by an American who served with the UN in Eastern Congo, in Duke University's journal 'World Politics'. It starts with:

When Daniel Fahey visited eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as coordinator of the U.N.’s Group of Experts, he found a charismatic charlatan known as “Mr. X” under the protection of the U.N. A star witness in a murder trial, Mr. X had convinced the U.N. of his tall tales. Fahey shows how Mr. X’s story sheds light on the emerging role of intelligence in peacekeeping operations and the unpredictable effects of its failures.

Link:https://read.dukeupress.edu/world-po...RYQxRw.twitter

The pitfalls of HUMINT amply made out.

[davidbfpo]

Discovered via Twitter from an unknown author, who appears to enjoy writing about intelligence matters, especially counter-intelligence. He explains:

This essay focuses on ethical and CI issues associated with running successful human assets inside terrorist organizations.

His two examples are the Provisional IRA and Black September. There are numerous footnotes. He ends with points about AQ & ISIS.
Link:https://medium.com/@horkos/hard-targ...s-5b1e13e53f06

[AdamG]

US officials say China is trying to influence US policymakers, steal secrets and spy on the US government. But how? The story of Kevin Mallory, a man who seemed to lead a typical suburban life in Virginia, provides the answer.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46557096

[davidbfpo]

A 2012 PhD thesis at a USA university by a Turkish police officer, using official data, id'd via Twitter:

Law Enforcement Intelligence Recruiting Confidential Informants within “Religion-Abusing Terrorist Networks

Link:https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/...16&context=etd
It is 261 pgs and no I have not read it! Someone might find it ueeful.

[davidbfpo]

HUMINT is rarely and rightly not a public topic in an active conflict, so I was interested to hear a short talk on Israeli HUMINT in the Second Intifada (September 2000 – 8 February 2005). Which touched on the relationship between Israel's three agencies with a HUMINT function: Mossad (external intelligence), Shin Beth (domestic) and Unit 504 of the IDF.

I was puzzled to learn that Shin Beth's relationship with the PLO's security agency (or agencies) was so close after the Oslo Agreement (signed in 1993 & 1995) that it affected Shin Beth's stance on what was likely to happen. The PLO strategy changed rapidly from cooperation to confrontation. Given the suddenness and the level of violence involved Shin Beth's informant network fell apart, into the breach went Unit 504, which could operate in harsh environment.