Spy wars

Defense Ministry confirms military intelligence officer's death in car explosion in Kyiv

An officer of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Chief Intelligence Directorate, Col. Maksym Shapoval, was killed in a car explosion in Kyiv's Solomensky district on Tuesday morning, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on its website.

"National Police officers, rescuers, bomb disposal experts and criminologists are working at the scene of the incident, which has been qualified as a terrorist act. Measures are being taken to establish all circumstances of the tragedy. The leadership of the Defense Ministry and the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces sends its profound condolences to the family of the serviceman killed," the ministry said.

Censor.NET online newspaper editor-in-chief Yuriy Butusov said that Shapoval headed the special reserve department of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Chief Intelligence Directorate. This unit was actively involved in hostilities in Donbas, including in "the temporarily occupied territories," the journalist wrote on his Facebook account.

Spy wars

Russia Says U.S. Diplomat In Moscow Altercation A Spy

Russia's Foreign Ministry says a U.S. diplomat who was involved in an altercation with a Russian guard outside the Moscow Embassy was a spy returning from an unspecified intelligence operation.

The June 30 announcement comes amid a slew of complaints by both sides of improper treatment of diplomatic staff in each other's country.

The public statements represent a remarkable escalation with echoes of Cold War spy capers between Moscow and Washington.

The U.S. diplomat suffered a broken shoulder after being tackled on a sidewalk outside the U.S. Embassy compound in central Moscow on June 6, according to a U.S. official who spoke to RFE/RL about the incident.

The guard who was said to have tackled the man was part of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) division that both guards and monitors the embassy. That led to speculation that the American had been specifically targeted as an intelligence officer, a question raised by The Washington Post, which first reported on the incident.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on June 30that the guard attempted to stop the man to check his identity, but the man struck the guard in the face with his elbow before running into the embassy.

Spy wars

NATO’s Big New Russian Spy Scandal

Last weekend, in the latest development in the secret espionage struggle between Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin and the West, a major Russian spy was arrested in Italy. On Saturday, Frederico Carvalhão Gil, a senior intelligence official from Portugal, was picked up by Italian police along with his Russian intelligence handler, whom he was meeting clandestinely in Rome.

Although Portugal is hardly a big player in the global spy game, it has been a member of the Atlantic Alliance since its founding in 1949, and Lisbon’s intelligence services are full members of the West’s secret spy network. Finding a mole like Mr. Carvalhão in any NATO security service is a serious matter for the whole alliance.

Spy wars

Will spy wars between Cuba and the U.S. end with restored relations?

Though the United States has restored relations with Cuba, and President Barack Obama is planning to visit the island later this month, it’s unclear if the two countries have declared a truce in the spy wars they have waged for more than 50 years.

Lawmakers in Congress have warned the Obama administration that allowing Cuba to operate an embassy in Washington and consulates throughout the country will only make it easier for Havana to deploy spies and agents in the United States.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article64238792.html

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article64238792.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article64238792.html#storylink=cpy

Spy wars

Israel: We don’t spy on US, and expect US not to spy on us

Intelligence and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz on Wednesday maintained that Israel does not spy on the US and said it expects Washington to uphold the same standards.

The Likud minister was responding to a report in The Wall Street Journalthat said the White House instructed US spies to eavesdrop on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials earlier this year in an effort to counter campaigning against the Iran nuclear deal, despite having promised to curtail listening in on foreign leaders.

The National Security Agency’s spying dragnet was cast so wide it caught conversations Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders had with US officials and Jewish American leaders. This led to what one source called an “oh shit moment,” because of fears that “the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress,” according to the report.