A day before the U.S. embassy in Moscow put out a rare public alert this month about a possible extremist attack at a Russian concert venue, the local C.I.A. station delivered a private warning to Russian officials that included at least one additional detail: The plot in question involved an offshoot of the Islamic State […]
Read MoreTag: Espionage and Intelligence Services
Russia’s Online Operations Focus on Ukraine Aid and Are Harder to Detect
Russia has intensified its online efforts to derail military funding for Ukraine in the United States and Europe, largely by using harder-to-trace technologies to amplify arguments for isolationism ahead of the U.S. elections, according to disinformation experts and intelligence assessments. In recent days, intelligence agencies have warned that Russia has found better ways to hide […]
Read MoreAssange Extradition On Hold Until U.S. Gives More Assurances
The High Court in London ruled on Tuesday that Julian Assange, the embattled WikiLeaks founder, cannot be immediately extradited to the United States, saying American authorities must offer assurances about his treatment first, including over his First Amendment rights and protection from the death penalty. The decision had been highly anticipated as the moment the […]
Read MoreU.S. and Britain Accuse China of Cyberespionage Campaign
The United States and Britain imposed sanctions on China’s elite hacking units on Monday, accusing Beijing’s top spy agency of a yearslong effort to place malware in America’s electrical grids, defense systems and other critical infrastructure, and of stealing the voting rolls for 40 million British citizens. Taken together, the actions on both sides of […]
Read MoreU.S. Says ISIS Was Responsible for Deadly Moscow Concert Hall Attack
A branch of the Islamic State claimed responsibility on Friday for the attack in Moscow that killed at least 40 people and injured about 100 others, and U.S. officials confirmed the claim shortly afterward. The United States collected intelligence in March that Islamic State-Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, the branch of the group based in Afghanistan, […]
Read MoreHong Kong Adopts Sweeping Security Laws, Bowing to Beijing
Hong Kong on Tuesday passed national security laws at the behest of Beijing, thwarting decades of public resistance in a move that critics say will strike a lasting blow to the partial autonomy the city had been promised by China. Hong Kong already had a national security law, one that was imposed directly by China’s […]
Read MoreNew Havana Syndrome Studies Find No Evidence of Brain Injuries
New studies by the National Institutes of Health failed to find evidence of brain injury in scans or blood markers of the diplomats and spies who suffered symptoms of Havana syndrome, bolstering the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies about the strange health incidents. Spy agencies have concluded that the debilitating symptoms associated with Havana syndrome, […]
Read MoreYour Car May Be Spying on You
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Read MoreWho Australia Caught When It Went Looking for Chinese Spies
The police officers asked the man what he meant when he said that involving an Australian government minister in a charity event could benefit “us Chinese.” Was he talking about mainland China and the Chinese Communist Party, or the local Australian Chinese community? Depending on the answer, he faced up to 10 years in prison. […]
Read MoreThe House Vote to Force Tik Tok’s Sale Is a Mistake
America is politically polarized. But there is an issue on which both sides agree: We need more privacy and TikTok should not be banned. A record 72 percent of Americans want “more government regulation” of what companies can do with their data, according to an October report from Pew Research Center. And only 31 percent […]
Read MoreTikTok’s Security Threats Go Beyond the Scope of House Legislation
In a capital where Republicans and Democrats agree on virtually nothing, it was notable when the House overwhelmingly declared on Wednesday that TikTok poses such a grave risk to national security that it must be forced to sell its U.S. operations to a non-Chinese owner. But that glosses over the deeper TikTok security problem, which […]
Read MoreIn Fighting the Far Right, Is Germany Undermining Its Democracy?
For Germany — a country that knows something about how extremists can hijack a government — the surging popularity of the far right has forced an awkward question. How far should a democracy go in restricting a party that many believe is bent on undermining it? It is a quandary that politicians and legal experts […]
Read MoreNetanyahu’s Coalition ‘May Be in Jeopardy,’ Intelligence Report Says
A new American intelligence assessment released on Monday raised doubts about whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel could stay in power, as the C.I.A. director said a hostage deal was the most practical way to halt, at least temporarily, the war in Gaza. The 2024 Annual Threat Assessment expressed concerns about Israel’s vision for […]
Read MoreBiden’s Armageddon Moment: When Nuclear Detonation Seemed Possible in Ukraine
President Biden was standing in an Upper East Side townhouse owned by the businessman James Murdoch, the rebellious scion of the media empire, surrounded by liberal New York Democrats who had paid handsomely to come hear optimistic talk about the Biden agenda for the next few years. It was Oct. 6, 2022, but what they […]
Read MoreThe Spy War: How the C.I.A. Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin
Nestled in a dense forest, the Ukrainian military base appears abandoned and destroyed, its command center a burned-out husk, a casualty of a Russian missile barrage early in the war. But that is above ground. Not far away, a discreet passageway descends to a subterranean bunker where teams of Ukrainian soldiers track Russian spy satellites […]
Read MoreU.S. Fears Russia Might Put a Nuclear Weapon in Space
When Russia conducted a series of secret military satellite launches around the time of its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, American intelligence officials began delving into the mystery of what, exactly, the Russians were doing. Later, spy agencies discovered Russia was working on a new kind of space-based weapon that could threaten the thousands […]
Read MoreU.S. Disrupts Hacking Operation Led by Russian Intelligence
The F.B.I., working with other countries, disrupted a Russian hacking operation that infiltrated more than 1,000 home and small-business internet routers in the United States and around the world, the Justice Department announced on Thursday. Russian intelligence, collaborating with cybercriminals, created a botnet, or a network of private computers infected with malicious software, to spy […]
Read MoreTalks in Cairo Aim for a Deal to Halt Gaza War and Free Hostages
Negotiators from multiple countries met in Cairo on Tuesday, struggling to reach an agreement to temporarily stop the war in the Gaza Strip, as international concern mounted over Israel’s plan to press its ground offensive into the city of Rafah, where more than half of the territory’s population has sought refuge. Talks involving lower-level officials […]
Read MorePigeon Collared as a Possible Chinese Spy Is Freed After 8 Months
Suspicion of foreign espionage, cursive messages in ancient Chinese, a sensitive microchip — and a suspect that could not be stopped at the border. Ravindar Patil, the assistant Mumbai police sub-inspector assigned to the case, was scratching his head for answers. But first, he had to find a place to lock up the unusual captive. […]
Read MoreHow China Censors Critics of the Economy
China’s top intelligence agency issued an ominous warning last month about an emerging threat to the country’s national security: Chinese people who criticize the economy. In a series of posts on its official WeChat account, the Ministry of State Security implored citizens to grasp President Xi Jinping’s economic vision and not be swayed by those […]
Read MoreWar in Ukraine Has Weakened Putin, C.I.A. Director Writes
The war in Ukraine has “quietly corroded” the power of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the C.I.A. director, William J. Burns, wrote in an essay published on Tuesday. While Mr. Putin’s grip on power was unlikely to soon weaken, Mr. Burns wrote in Foreign Affairs, disaffection had “gnawed away at the Russian leadership and […]
Read MoreTrump Signals Plans to Go After Intelligence Community in Document Case
Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump said in court papers filed on Tuesday night that they intended to place accusations that the intelligence community was biased against Mr. Trump at the heart of their defense against charges accusing him of illegally holding onto dozens of highly sensitive classified documents after he left office. The […]
Read MoreZvi Zamir, Israeli Spy Chief in a Critical Period, Dies at 98
Zvi Zamir, who as the director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency led a violent campaign to crush Palestinian terrorism after 11 Israelis were killed at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics — and who a year later relayed a warning to his government that Egypt and Syria were about to start the Yom Kippur War but […]
Read MoreHit Men Are Easy to Find in the Movies. Real Life Is Another Story.
It’s a scene as old as celluloid: a shadowy figure named Luca Brasi or John Wick or Barry Berkman lurking in the darkness, outfitted with sinister intent and nifty weapons, effortlessly committing a murder for cash, animus or cold political calculations. Whether they’re called hit men, contract killers or assassins, figures who kill for a […]
Read MoreU.F.O.s Remain a Mystery to Lawmakers After Classified Briefing
Alien bodies allegedly hidden by the United States government. Suspected Pentagon cover-ups of secret spending programs. Retaliation against any official who dares speak out. Perhaps no congressional briefing offers up more titillating claims — or does less to illuminate them — than one about U.F.O.s. On Friday, members of Congress entered such a session with […]
Read MoreC.I.A. Homes In on Hamas Leadership, U.S. Officials Say
The C.I.A. is collecting information on senior Hamas leaders and the location of hostages in Gaza, and is providing that intelligence to Israel as it carries out its war in the enclave, according to U.S. officials. A new task force assembled in the days after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attacks on Israel, in which […]
Read MoreA.I. Giant Tied to China Under Scrutiny
A U.S. congressional committee has asked the Commerce Department to look into whether a giant technology company controlled by the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates should be put under trade restrictions because of its ties to China. The company, G42, specializes in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, and is overseen by Sheikh […]
Read MoreAsian American Officials Cite Unfair Scrutiny and Lost Jobs in China Spy Tensions
When Thomas Wong set foot in the United States Embassy in Beijing this summer for a new diplomatic posting, it was vindication after years of battling the State Department over a perceived intelligence threat — himself. Diplomatic Security officers had informed him when he joined the foreign service more than a decade ago that they […]
Read MoreUkraine Intensifies Guerrilla Tactics, Targeting Trains
The saboteurs managed to place four explosives on a Russian freight train carrying diesel and jet fuel, roughly 3,000 miles from the Ukrainian border. But more important than the destruction of the train, Ukrainian intelligence officials said, was the timing of the blast. They needed it to blow up as the 50 rail cars were […]
Read MoreWhere Was the Israeli Military When Hamas Attacked?
Far beneath the Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv, in a bunker known as The Pit, commanders were trying to make sense of reports of Hamas rocket fire in southern Israel early on the morning of Oct. 7, when the call came in. It was a commander from the division that oversees military operations along […]
Read MoreChinese Spy Agency Rising to Challenge the C.I.A.
The Chinese spies wanted more. In meetings during the pandemic with Chinese technology contractors, they complained that surveillance cameras tracking foreign diplomats, military officers and intelligence operatives in Beijing’s embassy district fell short of their needs. The spies asked for an artificial intelligence program that would create instant dossiers on every person of interest in […]
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