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Subject: [int-free] INT, N. 117, summary version
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SUMMARY VERSION
INTELLIGENCE ISSN 1245-2122
N. 117, 15 May 2000
Every Two to Three Weeks
Next Issue on 5 June 2000
Publishing since 1980
Editor
Olivier Schmidt
(email [log in to unmask];
web http://www.blythe.org/Intelligence)
TABLE OF CONTENTS, N. 117, 15 May 2000
FRONT PAGE
WORLDWIDE - "MELISSA", "ILOVEYOU" & FUTURE UPGRADES p.1
TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES
PHONE INTELLIGENCE PROBLEMS & EAVESDROPPING FIGURES p.2
INTERNET - Another FBI Net Unit. p.3
BRITS TO "CLEAN" INTERNET ... JUST LIKE THE RUSSIANS p.4
CRYPTOGRAPHY SOFTWARE DEREGULATION IN EUROPE p.5
CRIME - Australia Puts Data Base On-Line. p.6
CHIPS - Intel Drops Processor Serial Numbers. p.7
HACKERS - DDSA MStream Software Found on the Net. p.8
PEOPLE
USA - DAVID WISE p.9
- Jessie Mae Thompson. p.10
USA/GREAT BRITAIN - BARBARA MCNAMARA p.11
GREAT BRITAIN - HERMAN OUSLEY p.12
- John Betjeman. p.13
GREAT BRITAIN/NORTHERN IRELAND - TOBY HARNDEN p.14
MIDDLE EAST - Osama Bin Laden. p.15
AGENDA
COMING EVENTS THROUGH 1 JULY 2000 p.16
INTELLIGENCE AROUND THE WORLD
USA - ISRAEL DOESN'T SPY ON THE USA ... AGAIN p.17
- IRS' "TAIL BETWEEN ITS LEGS" p.18
- CIA RECORDS PROBLEM, ANNUAL REPORT & DEUTCH CASE p.19
- NEW STATE DEPT LIST & OTHER "TERRORISM" NEWS p.20
- FBI Does Its Own "Globalization". p.21
- The "Feds" Show Up at the LAPD. p.22
- RECENTLY-RELEASED BOOKS & WEB INFO p.23
CANADA - GOOD AND BAD ASIAN SPIES p.24
GREAT BRITAIN - HILDA MURRELL GOES BACK TO HAUNT MI5 p.25
- DORRIL BOOK ON MI6 p.26
- LITANY OF PROCUREMENT PROBLEMS CONTINUES p.27
- User's Guide to British Intelligence. p.28
NORTHERN IRELAND - MI5 BLAMES SINN FEIN FOR BLOODY SUNDAY p.29
- IRA STATEMENT RELAUNCHES PEACE PROCESS p.30
FRANCE - WELL-PLANNED INTELLIGENCE ROBBERIES p.31
- "FORTUNES OF WAR" IN PRIVATE INTELLIGENCE p.32
NETHERLANDS - FRENCH PRESSURE PROCUREMENT PLANS p.33
GERMANY - Heinz Fromm New BfV Chief. p.34
NORWAY - RADAR COVER STORY REVEALS USA NUCLEAR PLANS p.35
CZECH REPUBLIC - New Intelligence Coordination Committee. p.36
BULGARIA - New Anti-Organized-Crime Boss. p.37
RUSSIA - Siberian Mob Jamboree Rolled Up. p.38
COLOMBIA - "BAD GUYS" NOT BEHAVING AS THEY SHOULD p.39
CUBA - Lourdes Listening Post Debated in Congress. p.40
BRAZIL - Operation Condor Investigation Takes Off. p.41
KENYA - "List of Shame" For Everyone ... But Moi. p.42
ISRAEL - Arabs "With Blood on Their Hands" To Be Released. p.43
THAILAND - Waiting for a CIA Medal for Ho Chi Min. p.44
AUSTRALIA - "Legal" Aerial Spies Cause Diplomatic Row. p.45
---------------------------------------------
Intelligence, N. 117, 15 May 2000, p. 1
WORLDWIDE
"MELISSA", "ILOVEYOU" & FUTURE UPGRADES
At this time last year, Melissa and CIH/Chernobyl were the
worst viruses to have surfaced on the Internet (see "Computer
Viruses from Melissa to Chernobyl", INT, n. 99 3). Now we have
ILoveYou or the "Love Bug" virus, but, as we will show below,
far worse stuff is "just sitting on hard drives collecting dust
and waiting for a boring, rainy day".
...(cut)...
We agree with Zalewski that "Lame VBS application that isn't
even able to spread without user click-me interaction, and is
limited to one desk-end operating system... Worm that sends
itself to people in your address book, and, in its original
version, kills mp3 files on your disk. And you call it
dangerous? Stop kidding." Indeed, Zalewski lays out the seven
criteria for a "serious" worm project, his Samhain project: "1.
Portability - worm must be architecture-independent, and should
work on different operating systems ...; 2. Invisibility - worm
must implement stealth/masquerading techniques to hide itself
in live systems and stay undetected as long as it's possible;
3. Independence - worm must be able to spread automatically,
with no user interaction, using built-in exploitation of data
base; 4. Learning - worm should be able to learn new exploits
and techniques instantly ...; 5. Integrity - single worms and
wormnet structure should be really difficult to trace and
modify/intrude/kill ...; 6. Polymorphism - worm should be fully
polymorphic, with no constant portion of (specific) code, to
avoid detection; 7. Usability - worm should be able to realize
chosen mission objectives - eg. infect chosen system, then
download instructions, and, when mission is completed, simply
disappear from all systems."
According to Zalewski, his document was "written to show that
very serious potential risk, which we virtually can't avoid or
stop, isn't hypothetical. Code provided here is partial, often
comes from first, instead of most recent, Samhain release and
so on. But remember - working model has been written ... Winter
1998, three bored people somewhere in the middle of Europe. Sit
and relax." So it looks like Berkowitzwas right on one point:
they're bored ... for the time being.
---------------------------------------------
Intelligence, N. 117, 15 May 2000, p. 17
USA
ISRAEL DOESN'T SPY ON THE USA ... AGAIN
On 6 May, but dated 29 May for the newsstands, the conservative
magazine, "Insight" published an article entitled, "FBI Probes
Espionage at Clinton White House",
<http://WWW.INSIGHTMAG.COM/archive/200005306.shtml>,
concerning an extensive investigation into allegations that
Israeli spies had penetrated the White House and other US
government telephone systems. The report carries many details,
and, according to one specialist, "It does look like something
may have happened". The major press quickly replied that the
FBI investigation was "dormant" and had turned up "no proof" of
Israeli electronic spying and Mark Regev, a spokesman for the
Israeli Embassy stated, "Israel does not spy on the United
States" ... like in the Jonathan Jay Pollard spy case.
...(cut)...
This particular lapse was stressed by well-known counter-
eavesdropping specialist, James Ross, who recently stated that
the high-tech White House telephone exchange or PBX is a DMS-
100 and "I'm quite certain it was installed in 1993 because, I
was told, the Clintons did not like the idea that human
operators would be handling calls." The Clintons chose it
because the Northern Telecom switch appeared to be the most
modern. But, according to Ross, "modern PBXs allow the
manufacturer or its agent to remotely upgrade the software. My
advice to clients for years has been to have the PBX provider
install a local on-off switch so that the user can be sure
there is no remote access unless the telecom manager has
coordinated with the supplier to allow access only when the
supplier has requested it and only for the length of time the
supplier needs to upgrade the software ... I considered remote
modification of the software to be an extremely remote
possibility against my clients because of the complexity of
doing the job right, and the chaos that would be caused if any
error was made in the modified software ... Could the MOSSAD
have purchased the same switch and tested various software mods
on it? I think there is little doubt that they could do just
that." In short, there may well have been an unlocked "back
door" to White House phones and Mossad knew about it.
"Intelligence" readers can make the remaining logical
deductions.
---------------------------------------------
Intelligence, N. 117, 15 May 2000, p. 24
CANADA
GOOD AND BAD ASIAN SPIES
Former Chinese spy, Yong Jie Qu, 34, would have made things
easier for xenophobic elements in the Canadian administration
by not protesting an initial refusal to grant him permanent
resident status in Canada. But this "trouble maker" did just
that and compounded his case by winning in court. On 30 April,
the press reported that Federal Judge, Francois Lemieux, handed
Qu another chance to remain in Canada by ruling that his
espionage work against members of a Montreal student
association did not threaten democracy and that he could
reapply to become a permanent resident, despite the fact he
took part in espionage and subversion for the Chinese
government while a student at Concordia University. The ruling
overturned the decision of Canadian visa officer, Paul Whelan,
who denied Mr. Qu's application in September 1998. Based on a
still-secret report from the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service (CSIS), Mr. Whelan said Mr. Qu informed Chinese
officials about the activities of pro-democracy Chinese
students at Concordia during the early 1990s.
In what looks like a blatant attempt to influence Judge
Lemieux's decision, certain elements in Canadian intelligence
leaked the CSIS Project Sidewinder report to the press which
"Canadian security threatened by Asian gangs, Chinese
government" a day before Judge Lemieux's decision. The reports
claimed the Chinese government and Asian criminal gangs had
been working together in drug smuggling, nuclear espionage and
other criminal activities that constitute a grave threat to
Canadian security. "In many ways, China remains one of the
greatest ongoing threats to Canada's national security and
Canadian industry," the secret report claimed. The study,
entitled "Chinese Intelligence Services and Triads Financial
Links in Canada", was prepared in June 1997 by five analysts
from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) internal security
service and the CSIS foreign intelligence service. According to
press reports, the study "was considered by some CSIS managers
to be so controversial that it was watered down and rewritten
before a sanitized version was circulated to other government
agencies last year", which tends to indicate the "hard-line"
RCMP "got it right" and the "soft" CSIS "got it wrong" on
Asians and China. The allegedly "soft" Security Intelligence
Review Committee (SIRC), an independent oversight body, is
investigating allegations that the original Sidewinder report
was suppressed because of political pressure ... but that will
take some time.
...(cut)...
---------------------------------------------
Intelligence, N. 117, 15 May 2000, p. 31
FRANCE
WELL-PLANNED INTELLIGENCE ROBBERIES
One specialist told "Intelligence", "no one doubts it was a
'professional job'. They carried away the whole damn safe full
of classified wiretaps." On 2 May, the court of Nanterre
(Hauts-de-Seine), a suburb of Paris, opened an investigation
following the 22-23 April robbery in a building of France
Telecom Mobiles in Montrouge, also a Paris suburb, of documents
classified "secret defense" (equivalent to "Top Secret"). The
investigation was first turned over to the Gendarmerie but then
given to the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST)
internal security, thus implying it has much more to do with
intelligence and national security than with common crooks. The
robbery took place apparently without a break-in and despite
the presence of a security alarm system. A safe, containing
several hundred wiretap documents, disappeared. To add insult
to injury, the same building was robbed again on 25-26 April,
this time with a break-in, and the office of a wiretap
surveillance agent was ransacked. Apparently nothing was taken
... according to the police.
...(cut)...
---------------------------------------------
Intelligence, N. 117, 15 May 2000, p. 39
COLOMBIA
"BAD GUYS" NOT BEHAVING AS THEY SHOULD
For the mainstream media and stodgy governments, identifying
the "bad guys" in Colombia is getting harder and harder since
Bogota negotiates with supposedly leftist rebels and turns over
large territories to them and "law and order" right-wingers
shooting up women and children.
...(cut)...
To complicate things further, Colombia's main Marxist rebel
force, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which
reputedly reaps huge profits from its links to the drug trade,
announced, on 28 April, in a communique signed by rebel and
government negotiators, that it will co-host an international
forum on illicit drug crops. The FARC, Latin America's largest
and oldest rebel group, controls or has a dominant presence in
roughly 40 percent of Colombia, including much of the country's
deeply-impoverished south, where coca leaf -- the raw material
for cocaine -- is the N. 1 cash crop. The statement said
delegates and ambassadors from 21 countries, including the US,
Great Britain, Germany and France, would be invited to attend
the 29-30 May forum on "illicit crops and the environment". It
added that the governments of Spain and Norway had agreed to
act as "facilitators" for the event. The FARC wants financing
for a rebel-devised crop substitution program to help poor
peasants break their dependency on coca. FARC commanders
strongly deny direct involvement in drug trafficking but admit
imposing a 15% "war tax" on local traffickers and producers of
cocaine. Cocaine production in Colombia has doubled over the
last four years, despite an ambitious, US-backed drug crop
eradication program. Colombia supplies roughly 80 percent of
the world's cocaine and it is a leading source of the high-
grade heroin consumed in the United States.
---------------------------------------------
Intelligence, N. 117, 15 May 2000, p. 44
THAILAND - Waiting for a CIA Medal for Ho Chi Min. On 1 May,
taking up the responsibilities of its predecessor, the CIA
honored members of the World War II "Free Thai" movement
trained by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to operate
against Japan after Pearl Harbor and the US entered the war. At
a private ceremony at CIA headquarters outside Washington, CIA
director, George Tenet, presented five of the original 43
members of the group with an agency medallion for their service
during the war. When the US entered the war, Thai minister in
Washington, Seni Pramoj, asked the US to help organize, train
and equip a force to liberate Thailand from Japan, and the
"Free Thai" movement was born. He recruited Thai students at US
universities including Cornell and MIT, who were then trained
by the OSS, the CIA predecessor. It's still "a bit early" for
the CIA to give similar honors to Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh
who, alongside the OSS, fought the Japanese during the war, and
then the French after the war, when the OSS saved Ho Chi Minh's
life. But then anti-Communism became more fashionable than
anti-Colonialism, the Viet Minh became the NVA and the Viet
Cong, most of the OSS became the CIA and picked up the
unsuccessful fight against "Uncle Ho" where the French dropped
it.
---------------------------------------------
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