The United States on Wednesday announced a broad effort to push back on Russian influence campaigns in the 2024 election, as it tries to curb the Kremlin’s use of state-run media and fake news sites to sway American voters. The actions include sanctions, indictments and seizing of web domains that U.S. officials say the Kremlin […]
Read MoreTag: Espionage and Intelligence Services
Biden Is Hosting NATO This Week. Here’s What to Watch.
As NATO leaders gather in Washington starting Tuesday, they will celebrate the strength of their alliance on its 75th anniversary while confronting deep uncertainty about its future. In recent years, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has given NATO, founded after World War II to defend Europe from the Soviet Union, a renewed sense of purpose. But […]
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U.N. Panel Adds to Chorus Calling for Release of Evan Gershkovich
Russia arbitrarily arrested the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to punish him for his reporting on the war in Ukraine, a United Nations panel said in a statement released on Tuesday, adding to a chorus of public condemnation of his continued detention. In its statement, adopted in March but released on Tuesday, the U.N. […]
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How Julian Assange Lit the Fuse on the Digital World
On the morning of April 5, 2010, a tall, thin man with a shock of silver hair walked up to a lectern at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. He’d been operating an obscure news website out of Iceland for four years, trying and failing to find a scoop that would set the world […]
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Julian Assange Pleads Guilty to Espionage, Securing His Freedom
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a felony charge of violating the U.S. Espionage Act, securing his freedom under a plea deal that saw its final act play out in a remote U.S. courtroom in Saipan in the Western Pacific. He appeared in court wearing a black suit with his […]
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Russian Prosecutors Finalize Indictment of Evan Gershkovich
Russian prosecutors announced a major step on Thursday in their case against the imprisoned American journalist Evan Gershkovich, saying they had finalized the espionage indictment against him and that he would be tried in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, where he was arrested more than a year ago. The Russian authorities have suggested that they […]
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The Other War: How Israel Scours Gaza for Clues About the Hostages
The hostages in Gaza are being moved around, with Hamas shuttling some from one apartment to another to obscure their whereabouts, while others are believed to be in tunnels underground. All the while, at a “fusion cell” quietly formed in Israel last fall, American and Israeli intelligence and military analysts share imagery from drones and […]
Read MoreAllies Warn Former Fighter Pilots Not to Train Chinese Military Members
For years, U.S. officials have accused China of stealing American technology to design and build fighter planes. But while China learned how to build advanced fighters, its pilots could not fly them so well. That may be starting to change, according to American officials. U.S. and allied intelligence officials warned on Wednesday that Beijing was […]
Read MoreRussian Disinformation Campaign Targets Summer Olympics in Paris
With its athletes barred from competing in the Summer Olympics under the country’s flag, Russia has turned its fury on the Games and this year’s host, Paris. Russian propagandists have created an hourlong documentary, spoofed news reports and even mimicked French and American intelligence agencies to issue fake warnings urging people to avoid the Games, […]
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Once a Sheriff’s Deputy in Florida, Now a Source of Disinformation From Russia
A dozen years ago, John Mark Dougan, a former deputy sheriff in Palm Beach County, Fla., sent voters an email posing as a county commissioner, urging them to oppose the re-election of the county’s sheriff. He later masqueraded online as a Russian tech worker with a pseudonym, BadVolf, to leak confidential information in violation of […]
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Spying Arrests Send Chill Through Britain’s Thriving Hong Kong Community
Simon Cheng still visibly tenses when he describes his detention in China. In 2019, Mr. Cheng, a pro-democracy activist from Hong Kong and a former employee of Britain’s Consulate there, was arrested after a business trip to mainland China. For 15 days, he was questioned and tortured, according to his account. Beijing confirmed his detention […]
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Russia Steps Up a Covert Sabotage Campaign Aimed at Europe
U.S. and allied intelligence officials are tracking an increase in low-level sabotage operations in Europe that they say are part of a Russian campaign to undermine support for Ukraine’s war effort. The covert operations have mostly been arsons or attempted arsons targeting a wide range of sites, including a warehouse in England, a paint factory […]
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F.B.I. Shed Informants Linked to Russian Influence Operations
The F.B.I. cut ties to at least a handful of informants and issued warnings about dozens of others after an internal review prompted by concerns that they were linked to Russian disinformation, current and former U.S. officials said. The review was carried out in 2020 and 2021 by a small group within the bureau’s counterintelligence […]
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Assange Can Appeal U.S. Extradition, English Court Rules
A London court ruled on Monday that Julian Assange, the embattled WikiLeaks founder, could appeal his extradition to the United States, a move that opens a new chapter in his prolonged fight against the order in Britain’s courts. Two High Court judges said they would allow an appeal to be heard on a limited number […]
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Are Those Mimes Spying on Us? In Pakistan, It’s Not a Strange Question.
The street performers first appeared a few years ago along busy intersections of Islamabad. Coated head to toe in eye-catching gold paint, they stood perfectly still, leaning on glimmering canes and tipping their top hats open. Some cracked a smile or offered a slow nod when they earned tips from passers-by. Perhaps in a different […]
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Texas Family Finally Learns Fate of Man Held in Syria
Since an American therapist from Texas disappeared while visiting Syria in 2017, his family has navigated years of milestones in uncertainty: his 41st wedding anniversary, the births of four grandchildren, his wife’s cancer diagnosis. Earlier this month, at a hotel in Washington, national security officials told the family that highly credible, classified information indicated the […]
Read More Texas Family Finally Learns Fate of Man Held in Syria
Since an American therapist from Texas disappeared while visiting Syria in 2017, his family has navigated years of milestones in uncertainty: his 41st wedding anniversary, the births of four grandchildren, his wife’s cancer diagnosis. Earlier this month, at a hotel in Washington, national security officials told the family that highly credible, classified information indicated the […]
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When Dynamite Turned Terrorism Into an Everyday Threat
July 4, 1914. 9:16 a.m. The first indication that something had gone terribly wrong on the upper floors of 1626 Lexington Avenue arrived in the form of a deafening sound wave. The Times would later compare it to “a broadside from a battleship.” Seconds after the boom, East Harlem pedestrians were shielding themselves from fragments […]
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Why a Tactic Used by Czars Is Back With a Vengeance
Diplomatic tensions are rising here in London. On Tuesday, the British foreign ministry summoned the Chinese ambassador for an official reprimand. The day before, the police charged three men with aiding the Hong Kong intelligence service and forcing entry into a residential address. In a statement, the Foreign Office criticized “the recent pattern of behavior […]
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U.K. Summons Chinese Ambassador for Reprimand as Tensions Rise
The day after U.K. police charged three men with assisting Hong Kong’s intelligence service, China’s ambassador to Britain was summoned for an official reprimand by the British foreign ministry in the latest sign of growing tension between London and Beijing. The British government said that it had called the ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, to its Foreign, […]
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Secret Hamas Files Show It Spied on Everyday Palestinians
The Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has for years overseen a secret police force in Gaza that conducted surveillance on everyday Palestinians and built files on young people, journalists and those who questioned the government, according to intelligence officials and a trove of internal documents reviewed by The New York Times. The unit, known as the […]
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Ukraine Says It Foiled Russian Plot to Kill Zelensky
Ukraine’s security services said on Tuesday that they had foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top military and political figures. Two Ukrainian colonels accused of participating in the plot have been arrested on suspicion of treason. The Ukrainian domestic intelligence agency, the S.B.U., said in a statement that the plot […]
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What to Know About Xi Jinping’s Trip to Europe
This week, for the first time in five years, President Xi Jinping of China will be visiting Europe, with stops in France, Serbia and Hungary. Mr. Xi’s trip comes at a time of tensions with many European countries over China’s support for Russia in the face of its war in Ukraine, its trade practices and […]
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Canadian Arrests Highlight Alleged Gang Role in India’s Intelligence Operations
Months after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada accused India’s government of plotting a murder on Canadian soil — plunging diplomatic relations between the two countries to their lowest level ever — the first arrests in the killing, which came on Friday, did little to demystify the basis of his claim. The police didn’t offer […]
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N.S.A. Disclosure of U.S. Identities in Surveillance Reports Nearly Tripled in 2023
The number of times the National Security Agency identified Americans or U.S. entities last year in intelligence reports containing information from a high-profile warrantless surveillance program nearly tripled from 2022, the government disclosed on Tuesday. The sharp increase in so-called unmaskings, to more than 31,300 times, arose from attempts by foreign hackers to infiltrate the […]
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Suddenly, Chinese Spies Seem to Be Popping Up All Over Europe
One of the men, a young Briton known for his hawkish views on China, worked as an aide to a prominent member of the British Parliament. Another, a German citizen of Chinese descent, was an assistant to a member of the European Parliament representing Germany’s far right. While from different countries and seemingly divergent backgrounds […]
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Jury Weighs Claims of Abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison Against Contractor, 20 Years Later
The journalist said he was left naked overnight in a cold prison cell with a bag over his head, chained by his wrists to a pipe. The fruit vendor said he was forced to take off his clothes and masturbate, while his captors watched and took photos. The middle-school principal said he was told he […]
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Surveillance Law Section 702 Keeps Us Safe
This is an extraordinarily dangerous time for the United States and our allies. Israel’s unpreparedness on Oct. 7 shows that even powerful nations can be surprised in catastrophic ways. Fortunately, Congress, in a rare bipartisan act, voted early Saturday to reauthorize a key intelligence power that provides critical information on hostile states and threats ranging […]
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How Mike Johnson Got to ‘Yes’ on Aid to Ukraine
For weeks after the Senate passed a sprawling aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, Speaker Mike Johnson agonized over whether and how the House would take up funding legislation that would almost certainly infuriate the right wing of his party and could cost him his job. He huddled with top national security officials, including […]
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Surveillance Bill Clears Key Hurdle in Senate Ahead of Friday Expiration
The Senate on Thursday agreed to move ahead with a two-year reauthorization of an expiring warrantless surveillance law, rushing to pass the legislation before a Friday deadline when the statute is set to lapse. The bill would extend a provision known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, that intelligence officials […]
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What Happens if a Powerful Surveillance Law Expires This Week?
Senate leaders of both parties are urging their colleagues to renew an expiring warrantless surveillance law before it lapses at midnight on Friday, as advocates of the law have argued that any expiration would mean going blind on a key source of counterterrorism information and other foreign intelligence. That deadline adds pressure to senators not […]
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