HUMINT, Informants and more (merged thread)

[davidbfpo]

A curious public information film aimed at US students planning to visit and study in China, in part for the methods, but also the timing of the release now - as teh subject was arrested in June 2010:

The "Game of Pawns: The Glenn Duffie Shriver Story" video dramatizes the incremental steps taken by intelligence officers to recruit Shriver and convince him to apply for jobs with the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Link to YouTube film (28 mins):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8xlUNK4JHQ

Or the official FBI link:http://www.fbi.gov/news/news_blog/st...ligence-threat

Or Wiki:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Duffie_Shriver

[davidbfpo]

Just started to watch this 48 minutes long documentary, the focus is on FBI informants:

Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit takes you inside the shadowy world of FBI informants and counterterrorism sting operations. Following the 9/11 attacks, the FBI set about to recruit a network of more than 15,000 informants. Al Jazeera's investigative film tells the stories of three paid FBI informants who posed as Muslims as they searched for people interested in joining violent plots concocted by the FBI.

Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMRns...ature=youtu.be and the summary:http://webapps.aljazeera.net/aje/cus...nts/index.html

Three informants are shown, alongside FBI photos and audio - presumably from court trials, such as the 'Liberty City Seven'.

Not sure what to say so far.

[davidbfpo]

A Sunday NYT review of Morten Storm's book '‘Agent Storm: My Life Inside Al Qaeda and the CIA' by Scott Shane which ends with:

In the end, his loyalty to the intelligence agencies proved no more lasting than his allegiance to Al Qaeda. Nearly as fed up with the spies as with the jihadists, Storm decided to go public and says he turned down an offer of $400,000 to keep his mouth shut. The result is a valuable window on both sides in a lethal underground war.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/bo...ten-storm.html

Jason Burke, of The Observer, hada review in July 2014:http://www.theguardian.com/books/201...n-storm-review

See for more reviews:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Agent-Storm-.../dp/0241003776 and http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...n%2Cstripbooks

[davidbfpo]

A new review of the book, it first appeared a month ago in The Washingon Times and now in the online journal Perspectives on Terrorism:http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/.../view/380/html

It ends with:

The drama of "Agent Storm" will no doubt attract Hollywood's attention (it's already an hour-long CNN documentary), but bright lights aside, the book is an indispensable guide to how the West can counter the appeal of violent jihadism and its al Qaeda terrorist groupings. Today, when so many young Western Muslims are flocking to Syria and Iraq to join the ranks of genocidal insurgents such as the al Nusra Front and ISIS/Islamic State, this book's insights could not be more important.

[davidbfpo]

A review on WoTR, which ends with:

Today, when so many young Western Muslims are flocking to Syria and Iraq to join the ranks of genocidal insurgents such as the al Nusra Front and the Islamic State, this book’s insights could not be more important.

Link:http://warontherocks.com/2014/11/joi...ow-to-guide/#_

[davidbfpo]

A fascinating book that crams in so much, even if it has an overwhelmingly Anglo-US focus - the Soviet era KGB and East German HVA get a mention. The historical setting is good, using Russia in 1917 as one and Northern Ireland for another. Oddly very little from Israel.

Then the 'new world' intrudes with the demise of the 'Cold War' and the 'new jihadist terrorist' threat taking centre stage.

A few puzzling references appear to non-warfare threats, notably multinationals moving billions and whether in the future there is a national political requirement to spy on them. What would have been the impact of a spy in some of our banks prior to the 2008 "crash" ?

The interplay between HUMINT and TECHINT (in all its varieties) is covered well.

I have made a lot of notes to think further about and some online, anonymous research in 2016.

Yes the author is a journalist and his Amazon bio states:

Stephen Grey is a British writer, broadcaster, and investigative reporter with more than two decades of experience reporting on intelligence issues. He is best known for his world exclusive revelations about the CIA's program of "extraordinary rendition," as well as reports from Iraq and Afghanistan. A former foreign correspondent and investigations editor with The Sunday Times, he has reported for The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC, and Channel 4, and is currently a special correspondent with Reuters. Grey is the author of Ghost Plane.

"Insiders" on both sides of the Atlantic have expressed their admiration for the book, including details they thought were not in the public domain.

Amazon (US):http://www.amazon.com/New-Spymasters...y+stephen+grey

Amazon (UK):http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Spymaste...s+stephen+grey

[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]

I rarely spot the FBI's open bulletin, but today via Twitter I caught this article and it is even more topical as the author is a Belgian Federal Police officer. The full title is 'Using Human Sources in Counterterrorism Operations: Understanding the Motivations and Political Impact':https://leb.fbi.gov/2016/april/using...litical-impact

[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 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.