Intel sharing

CIA Kept Giving Intel to Russia, Got Nothing Back

Not long before Christmas in 2017, Vladimir Putin, the former KGB officer turned Russian leader, did something uncharacteristic. He praised the CIA.

Russian security officials had arrested people on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks on St. Petersburg sites that included the majestic Kazan Cathedral. Intelligence warning of the allegedly imminent assault attacks came not from Russian sources, but from Langley. “The information received from the CIA was sufficient to search for and detain criminals,” the Kremlin announced. Putin asked President Trump to convey “words of thanks to the director of the CIA,” at the time Mike Pompeo, now the secretary of state.

That information reached Russia in response to an administration directive that troubled many in the intelligence community, according to a former senior CIA official. They didn’t have a problem with preventing innocent Russians from possibly dying. Instead, their problem was that the Trump administration, like several of its predecessors, had pushed the agency into a counterterrorism relationship that was nowhere near reciprocal.

According to Marc Polymeropoulos, who until July 2019 oversaw clandestine operations in Europe and Eurasia, the White House instructed a skeptical intelligence community to share counterterrorism intelligence with Russia, in pursuit of a great-power rapprochement that its predecessors in the Bush and Obama administrations had similarly tried. The effort began at the dawn of the administration.

Intel sharing

MI5 rejects claims that officials withhold intelligence from Priti Pate

MI5 has rejected claims that its officials are withholding information from Priti Patel because they do not trust her.

An informed security source said the report about Patel’s relationship with the agency in the Sunday Times was “simply untrue” and that she was getting the same information from the agency as any other home secretary.

The report was published after a series of stories – which have not been fully denied – claiming that Patel has had a series of difficult relationships with officials during her ministerial career, and that she is currently trying to oust the permanent secretary at the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam.

However a Home office spokesman said on Sunday: “The home secretary and permanent secretary are deeply concerned about the number of false allegations appearing in the media.

Intel sharing

French official details intelligence-sharing relationship with Five Eyes

French officials are regularly attending meetings in the United States’ capital to share information with the Five Eyes intelligence group, reflecting a capability to gather and exchange high-value data, according to French Air Force Col. Cyril, of the French DRM military intelligence agency.

“There was a realization that we have intelligence which counts,” he said at a Monday briefing of a French defense journalists association. Cyril gave only his first name at the request of Air Force Gen. Jean-François Ferlet, head of the DRM.

Those committee meetings consist of the “Five Eyes plus France,” Cyril said, referring to Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the U.S., who are in an allied partnership that routinely exchanges intelligence.

France joined that high-level group about a year ago, reflecting a strengthening of ties between Paris and Washington since 2013-2014, he said.

Paris has an “autonomous capability,” which cuts dependence on allies, he said. That allows a correlation and an exchange of information with allies, particularly the American services.

Intel sharing

Israel ready to share intelligence on Iran with Saudi Arabia – IDF chief

The chief of staff of Israel's military (IDF) told Saudi Arabia's Alaf newspaper in an unprecedented interview that his country is ready to share intelligence on Iran with Riyadh.

"With [US] President Donald Trump, there is an opportunity for a new international alliance in the region and a major strategic plan to stop the Iranian threat," Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), told the paper. "We are ready to exchange experiences with moderate Arab countries and exchange intelligence to confront Iran." 

When asked whether Israel had recently shared intelligence with the Saudis, Eisenkot said: "We are ready to share information if necessary. There are many common interests between us..."

Intel sharing

Europol and Brexit: Will UK retain access to EU intelligence sharing?

The UK government's "future partnership" paper made a strong case for "a bespoke relationship with Europol" after the UK leaves the European Union.

It looked at the scenarios of:

• no agreement being reached on future cooperation with Europol
• current cooperation being wound down before a new arrangement was put in place

It said: "Consideration would need to be given to ensuring that any ongoing investigations would not be affected in such a way that criminals might escape prosecution or vulnerable individuals might be rendered less safe."

And it would be difficult to find anyone in the EU who would disagree with the importance of fighting cross-border crime.

EU funding

Europol, the European Union's law enforcement organisation, was founded in 1999 and employs more than 1,000 people at a cost of about £100m a year.

Intel sharing

Italian prosecutor: We warned UK officials about London terrorist Youssef Zaghba after 2016 airport incident

British authorities were warned about the third suspect identified in the London Bridge attack after a suspicious March 2016 incident at Bologna Airport, said the Italian chief prosecutor who investigated the eventual terrorist.

Giuseppe Amato told the Guardian he’d kept close tabs and overseen a counterterrorism official’s report sent to London on Youssef Zaghba — who with two fellow assailants was shot dead by police — after the Moroccan-Italian man tried to fly to Syria via Istanbul to join ISIS.

“I’m not blaming anybody,” Amato said. “I don’t know the details of the investigation in London. I can just say the Italians did everything they could. We monitored him while he was here and our officers had alerted the British authorities.”

Intel sharing

FBI 'warned MI5 in January that the Manchester bomber was planning an attack on Britain'

UK security chiefs were warned in January that Salman Abedi was planning an attack in Britain, it was claimed last night.

According to a security source, the FBI told MI5 that Abedi was part of a North African Islamic State cell plotting to strike a political target in the UK.

The information came from a US investigation into Abedi and his links to terrorist groups in Libya. The Mail on Sunday has also been told that US security services put him on a terror watch list – used by agents to identify key suspects – in 2016.

Intel sharing

Well that didn't last long! Britain reopens intelligence sharing with the US less than 24 hours after halting information exchange over a series of leaks from the Manchester bombing

Britain has reopened information-sharing ties with the US again - less than 24 hours after suspending intelligence sharing over leaked evidence from the Manchester bombing.

An extraordinary row erupted between British and US authorities after highly sensitive images of the blood-smeared remnants of attacker Salman Abedi's backpack and a diagram showing precisely where his victims died were handed to the New York Times.

The halting of intelligence sharing with the US happened for what is understood to be the first time. 

It applied only to intelligence related to the Manchester attack.   

Prime Minister Theresa May warned the flagrant breaches were undermining the Special Relationship and 'posed a grave threat to our national security'.

Intel sharing

NATO chief says 'trusts all allies' on intelligence sharing

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that he had complete confidence in allies' sharing of sensitive intelligence, amid an uproar over US President Donald Trump's reported disclosure of classified information.

Trump is due in Brussels next week to meet EU and NATO leaders on his first foreign trip since taking office in January on a promise to force allies to take on more of the defence burden.

"I very much appreciate the cooperation we have inside NATO on information sharing," Stoltenberg told reporters when asked about Trump's conduct.

Intel sharing

Europol boss: Britain will carry on sharing intelligence after Brexit

Britain will retain its intelligence-sharing agreement with European nations after Brexit, the head of Europol has predicted, as he said continued co-operation with EU countries on counter-terrorism should be a top priority in Theresa May’s negotiations with member states.

Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol, told MPs that the organisation’s future plans included Britain remaining a member of the EU’s law enforcement agency “in at least one form or another”.

Intel sharing

Russia-Turkey Intelligence Sharing in Syria Signifies Major Changes in Relations

Commenting on the recent reports that Russia has started exchanging intelligence data with the Turkish Army to ensure the effectiveness of Ankara's Euphrates Shield operation in Syria, retired Turkish Air Force Lt. Gen. Erdogan Karakus told Sputnik that the move signals major changes in Turkish foreign policy.

Russia has already started sharing its intelligence data with the Turkish army, which will ensure the effectiveness of Ankara's Euphrates Shield operation in Syria, Russia's Izvestia newspaper reported on Monday.

According to the newspaper, the agreement was been reached during recent negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Defense and Security at the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Franz Klintsevich told the newspaper that Turkey quietly joined the intelligence sharing pool created by Russia, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

Intel sharing

German Terrorism Case Highlights Europe’s Security Challenges

The warning came to the German security authorities in early September from “our best partners,” as they euphemistically refer to the American intelligence agencies: A terrorist assault might be in the works.

In the weeks that followed, the Germans identified a suspect, a refugee from Syria. They unearthed evidence that he had been casing a Berlin airport for an attack, and they recovered powerful explosives from his apartment, only to see him slip through their fingers. When they eventually captured him, the suspect promptly hanged himself in his jail cell.

The case was notable for its dramatic turns. But it also underscored two central challenges facing the Continent: getting a handle on the security risk related to the arrival of more than a million migrants last year, and addressing the continued reliance of European governments on intelligence from the United States to avert attacks.

Intel sharing

EU States Lack Intelligence-Sharing to Combat Common Threats

European Union member states lack data sharing capabilities and should boost intelligence-sharing with Russia to counter common threats like the Daesh terror group, Member of the European Parliament Ivan Stefanec told Sputnik.
The EU Counterterrorism Coordinator revealed in a 2015 report that a number of member states were not connected to the Interpol crime database, failed to adequately track foreign fighters, and did not properly document border crossings within the bloc’s visa-free Schengen zone.
"I'd like to see firstly better information sharing in the European Union because there is still not enough information sharing between [EU] countries," Stefanec stated on Thursday.
When asked whether his home country of Slovakia should increase intelligence-sharing with Russia, Stefanec said, "I am not against information sharing on the common enemy like ISIS [Daesh]. So, the answer is yes. We would like to share information and would like to talk about common interests."

Intel sharing

Officials: E.U. and U.S. Need to Do Better Job Sharing Terrorism Intelligence

The U.S. and the European Union need to do a better job of sharing information immediately and in a secure way to best deter terrorist attacks, two senior international security officials said Monday.

But even after years of effort, the E.U. and the United States are not yet there.

Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think-tank, Francis Taylor, undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, said, “the world of terrorist-inspired attacks has changed.” While still including al Qaeda and its affiliates and the Islamic State, the threat is morphing to add “self-radicalized” men and women who are “often difficult to detect” as terrorists. Their attacks, such as that in San Bernardino, Calif., in December, can “occur with little or no warning.”

Intel sharing

U.S. offers to share Syria intelligence on terrorists with Russia

The Obama administration has offered to help Russia improve its targeting of terrorist groups in Syria if Moscow will stop bombing civilians and opposition fighters who have signed on to a cease-fire and use its influence to force Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to do the same.

The offer early this week of what one administration official called “enhanced information sharing” does not include joint military planning, targeting or coordination with U.S. airstrikes or other operations in Syria.

But it would expand cooperation beyond the “deconfliction” talks the U.S. and Russian militaries began last year to ensure their planes do not run into each other in Syria’s increasingly crowded airspace.

Intel sharing

Europe under pressure to overcome intelligence-sharing obstacles

Obama's counter-terror top guns are in Europe on a mission that sounds easy enough: to cajole European partners into sharing intelligence.

On Wednesday, the administration's team were meeting with European officials: Lisa Monaco, the assistant to President Obama for homeland security and counter-terrorism; Francis Taylor, the undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and John Mulligan, deputy director of the U.S. National Counter-terrorism Center are sitting down with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and his intelligence chiefs to establish a protocol to exchange information.

Intel sharing

U.S. Seeks Stronger Intelligence Ties With Belgium

Senior U.S. officials arrived in Belgium on Tuesday, intent on pushing their Belgian counterparts to intensify intelligence cooperation to deal with an unprecedented number of foreign fighters now flowing back into Europe.

The U.S. officials said intelligence sharing in Europe needs to improve because small terror cells in Europe are able to carry out attacks quickly, without an extended period of planning.

Lisa Monaco, the White House counter terrorism adviser, will meet Wednesday with Charles Michel, the Belgium prime minister. In a round table with reporters Tuesday, she said the flow of foreign fighters into Europe continues and the U.S. wants to help Europe find ways to better share intelligence to counter terror networks.

Intel sharing

Europe’s failure to share intelligence hampers terror fight

...But in Europe, the barriers are more complex: not only does each individual EU member state have its own domestic sharing restraints, but passing data across borders between 28 countries — some of which were in the Soviet sphere within the last generation, and others with historic ties to Russia — throws up far bigger legal and political hurdles.

“With eastern European countries as EU members, no one wants to share details on sensitive operations. It’s a question of trust,” said Bernard Squarcini, France’s spy chief under former president Nicolas Sarkozy. “Europol is useful to arrest Serbian criminals. But no one wants to disclose details on covert operations, the sources you have infiltrated or taken out of judicial procedures, you want to protect your sources . . .”

Intel sharing

Spy chiefs tell U.S. lawmakers plan to share raw data protects privacy

American spy chiefs have told congressmen that a plan to allow the National Security Agency (NSA) to share more raw eavesdropping reports with other agencies will not be unlawful and will protect the privacy rights of U.S. citizens.

In a letter sent on Monday to two members of Congress and reviewed by Reuters, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the NSA's proposal to give other spy agencies access to "unevaluated signals intelligence" will ensure data is used only for intelligence activities directed at foreigners.

Last week, U.S. Representatives Ted Lieu and Blake Farenthold of the House Oversight Committee asked the NSA to halt the sharing plan, suggesting it would be "unconstitutional and dangerous." The specifics of the proposal are still secret.

Intel sharing

White House moves to expand 'sharing intelligence between NSA, FBI and CIA'

The Obama administration is reportedly moving to broaden the current scope of information sharing between the National Security Agency (NSA) and other US intelligence agencies by stripping away existing restrictions on who exactly has access to communications data scooped up by surveillance programmes.

The change would impact the sharing of both phone calls and email content collected alongside data from satellite transmissions and messages acquired from overseas intelligence agencies, according to The New York Times.

Up until this point, the NSA experts have filtered communications data and surveillance content before it reaches the rest of the government – including agencies such as the FBI and the CIA. Once implemented, the new system would allow analysts at these other agencies to obtain direct access to raw information from the NSA collections...

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/white-house-moves-expand-sharing-intelligence-between-nsa-fbi-cia-1546284