Ninetieth edition of the N&O column / Spooks newsletter

(Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 13:16:41 +0000)

Intelligence news

Russia

Alexander Torshin, the Federation Council vice-speaker who heads the parliamentary commission investigating the Beslan school seizure, has told Interfax that a foreign intelligence agency was involved in the September terrorist attack. "So far we have indirect evidence of this involvement, therefore I consider it premature" to name the country involved, Torshin said. "But when we gather enough convincing evidence, we will not hide it."

(Source: American Foreign Policy Council)

FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev has said that the United States, China and North Korea are among the most active countries trying to steal Russia's secrets. The FSB has exposed 18 foreign-intelligence officers this year and caught six "red-handed," the Russian spy chief said in comments carried by the Associated Press. He did not identify the countries involved. Patrushev also said that "about ten" al-Qaeda agents had been discovered in the North Caucasus and that the FSB was working to "neutralize" them.

(Source: American Foreign Policy Council)

Russia / Estonia

The Moscow District Military Court sentenced a former official of the FSB to 10 years in prison for spying for Estonia. Igor Vyalkov was found guilty of high treason. The investigation found that he had delivered secret information to Estonian intelligence for financial gain in 2001-2002. He was detained at the end of 2002. Vyalkov's case was considered by a military judge. The court also ruled to strip him of his rank of lieutenant-colonel. The former FSB official had also been charged with illegally crossing the border, but was not found guilty of the charge because of the termination of the limitation statute.

(Source: ITAR-TASS)

Iran / Israel

Iran announced on 23-12 that its security services have arrested 10 persons suspected of revealing information regarding its nuclear program to the American and Israeli intelligence agencies. Speaking to the media, Iranian Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi said that the suspects were apprehended in Tehran and in the southern Hormozgan province. Israeli intelligence sources said that they were not aware of the affair. Three of those arrested were described by Yunesi as being members of the Iranian Atomic Organization. The rest were "not state employees."

(Source: Haaretz Daily)

The Netherlands

Dutch intelligence officials warned that radical Islamic ideology is spreading to thousands of young Dutch Muslims through Internet web sites and on line chat rooms.

The Dutch intelligence agency, known by its acronym AIVD, identified the potential threat in an overview of domestic fundamentalist Islamic movements compiled for the Home Affairs Ministry.

Concerns about radical Islam are rising in Netherlands after filmmaker Theo van Gogh who was shot and stabbed to death last month on a busy Amsterdam street. A letter pinned to his chest with a knife threatened politicians and other "infidel nonbelievers."

The 60-page report said eight sources of radical Islam pose a threat to the country, ranging from Salifist mosques openly preaching anti-western, antidemocratic ideas to an underground political movement encouraging violent jihad, or holy war.

(Source: Associated Press)

Note:
You can download the report from the AIVD home page. It is in Dutch.
Check this website also for other interesting publications.
http://www.minbzk.nl/contents/pages/10835/notavandawatotjihad.pdf