REVIEW TOPICS:
Russian Foreign Intelligence used Estonian detective bureau to recruit him, Herman Simm alleges
Estonia’s Security Police detained large group of arms dealers
Former KGB officer ordered out by Canada’s court, asylum bid rejected
Spouse of Ukraine’s President charged up to United States CIA agents’
Did kidnapper know brother of former deputy head of Poland’s Intelligence Agency?
Ex-parliament member’s gun could fatally let off during scuffle with Polish security service agent - newspaper
Kyrgyzstan’s security service chiefs supporting reinstating death penalty and carrying out public executions
Russian Foreign Intelligence used Estonian detective bureau to recruit him, Herman Simm alleges
Herman Simm, the former high-ranking Estonian Defence Ministry official, sentenced for high treason to twelve and a half years imprisonment, claims that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) was using for his recruitment the information collected by the well-known detective bureau SIA, connected with so-called tapes scandal as a result of which the then Minister of Interior of Estonia Edgar Savisaar and together with him the whole government has fallen.
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| Herman Simm in Soviet uniform |
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It follows from the earlier classified Security Police (KaPo) of Estonia report that still in the end of 1994, Simm received in «an operative way» from Moscow security firm Vityazi a diskette which allegedly belonged initially to the SIA, Eesti Ekspress writes. The diskette contained 500 pages of the operative and search information on known people of Estonia. In particular, the SIA reportedly was watching also Herman Simm.
"As the Vityazi were formed by mainly former employees of the KGB and special division Alpha, I counted it really very dangerous from the state point of view», said Simm who from December, 1994, headed the Police Department of Estonia.
In the winter of 1995, Simm reported about the diskette to the Minister of Interior Kaido Kama and the chief of the KaPo Juir Pihl. However, after elections a new government came to power and the Ministry of Interior was headed by Edgar Savisaar. «As it was a question of very dangerous activity, I informed about the diskette and connection with it of the SIA firm Mr Savisaar personally», Simm told in the autumn of the same year to KaPo. But in May, 1995, Simm was discharged of the police chief’s post and Savisaar himself had used services of SIA. Four months remained till the tapes scandal at the moment of Simm’s dismissal.
Asked about the diskette with explosive evidence, Simm replied then, «It is impossible to name the site of the diskette, because the life of a person connected with it is in danger [it is underlined by Simm]. Therefore the diskette was not transferred to the KaPo. I will do it as soon as possible when safety of the source » will be guaranteed”.
In a recent interview for the documentary The Traitor, Simm specified that at the recruitment in summer 1995, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service used pressure on him, in particular, the information on his family, collected by the SIA bureau.
Kalle Klandorf, Veikko Kulla, Urmas Soorumma and Urmas Poir were the co-owners of the SIA at that time. Soorumaa managed to sell his share on the eve of the tapes scandal, and therefore he was not touched by the burst storm, the paper notes. Kalle Klandorf denies that the SIA bureau has secretly watched Herman Simm. The KaPo considers the Simm’s story about the SIA watching a kind of self-justification, the daily adds.
Estonia’s Security Police detained large group of arms dealers
The Security Police of Estonia (KaPo) last week completed a large-scale operation, during which ten persons who illegally stored weapons and ammunition were detained, Estonian national broadcaster ERR reported, adding that last week's search at the military history club Front-Line has been associated with this case. All the detainees are men, born between 1947 and 1972. Some of them have been previously penalized for illegal deprivation of liberty, as well for illegal storage and trade of firearms and explosives, KaPo statement says. The detainees lived in different parts of the country, in Tallinn, Viland, Pärnu and Eastern Virumaa districts, some of them are Russian-speakers, others are Estonians.
At the request of the prosecution and the court decisions, six-month detention has been applied concerning nine detainees. One of the detained has been released against proof of not changing place of residence. The KaPo Commissioner Andres Kahar told ERR that last week's search at the Front-Line club had been associated with this case.
„Suspicion does not apply to the activities of military history club, but some suspects were members of this club,”noted Kahar. ERR reveals that six out of ten detainees are members of the military history club. The KaPo Commissioner indicated that the detainees had been involved in large-scale arms trafficking and that they were engaged in trade of both historical and modern weapons.
The investigation has still to determine how far this arms business has reached and whether arms have been supplied also to the organized crime members, according to Kahar.
In his turn, the KaPo Deputy Director Erik Heldna marked that stopping illegal arms trafficking was one of the KaPo's priorities, since this activity presents a risk to many people and there was a possibility that the ammunition would ultimately come into the hands of criminals.
49.29 kilograms of ammunition, dozens of explosive items (hand-grenades, training grenades, explosive packets), about 200 bomb components, 76 firearms, as well as hundreds of firearms parts have been withdrawn from the detainees, according to the Security Police of Estonia.
Former KGB officer ordered out by Canada’s court, asylum bid rejected
A federal-court judge has upheld Ottawa's decision to deport the former KGB officer Mikhail Lennikov, 49, who moved to Canada with his family after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Lennikov's latest appeal to the courts has again been rejected, this time by a federal-court judge who rejected his request for a judicial review of the federal government's decision to deport him, the paper marks. Justice Michel Beaudry dismissed Lennikov's application, saying there were no reviewable errors to "warrant the Court's intervention," according to the paper. AIA reported earlier that Canada’s Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan had refused to overturn the deportation order.
Lennikov has said he worked as a translator and desk clerk for the Soviet spy service, but said he never engaged in espionage. He also claims that he was recruited against his will and quit at the first opportunity he had, The Globe and mail expands.
Lennikov has said he fears for his life if he's forced to return to Russia. He vowed he will remain at a Vancouver church indefinitely. He claims his life would be endangered in Russia as he would be considered a traitor and defector, as he was debriefed by Canadian intelligence officials when he first arrived in Canada, UPI reports.
Lennikov moved his family to Canada 12 years ago, arriving in Vancouver on a student's visa. Later, he applied for permanent-resident status, but his past with the KGB thwarted his attempts to stay. Lennikov told the CBC he was in talks with his lawyer about the federal court's latest ruling, but didn't disclose legal plans.
Spouse of Ukraine’s President charged up to United States CIA agents
The Moscow Post Ukraine alleges that a fact of negotiations between the United States intelligence and the spouse of the present President of Ukraine, Katherine Yushchenko has been documentary proved.
The parliamentary temporary investigative commission on investigation of circumstances of poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko has obtained evidence that his spouse has been receiving the help of the US secret services, the paper writes.
The samples of Yushchenko’s blood were secretly transported to the USA and already enriched by dioxine; then these samples have been delivered to the international laboratories, The Moscow Post Ukraine alleges.
"The temporary investigative commission of the Supreme Rada [parliament] has been demanding from the State Office of General Prosecutor and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to bring a criminal case on the fact of falsification of poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko using
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The Yushchenkos un the Bushes in Kiev |
dioxine and to dismiss the head of the State Office of General Prosecutor investigatory group on investigation of poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, Galina Klimovich", according to Ukrainian mass media.
"The commission possesses documentary evidence that the spouse of the President, Kathrine Yushchenko during the election campaign of 2004 consulted and received the help from representatives of the United States secret services", the statement says. One of the documentary proofs of contacts between the Yushchenkos and the CIA is an audio recording of conversation between the woman named Martha and an employee of the foreign intelligence. This conversation took place just in October, 2004. According to journalists, "The commission has addressed to the Ministry of Justice Odessa scientific research institute of judicial examinations which has drawn an official conclusion that the voice of the so-called Martha is identical to the voice of Katherine Yushchenko, the spouse of the President of Ukraine.”
A number of similar publications made the investigators think of an idea that other known Ukrainian politicians, except for Viktor Yushchenko's family, may also be connected with the American intelligence. One of them is the leader of the Front of Changes, Arseny Yatsenyuk, the paper alleges. It is not a secret that recently Yatsenyuk met his American "patron", the US Vice-President Joseph Biden who has publicly named him "a perspective politician", letting all to know that Washington has been supporting Yatsenyuk.
The ties of Yatsenyuk with Alina Steel and Andrew Sullivan and the support of Joseph Biden makes the leader of the Front of Changes the potential participant of a new espionage scandal. In the case if direct contacts of Viktor Yushchenko, Arseny Yatsenyuk and other influential politicians with the CIA will prove to be true, a major political scandal can burst in Ukraine, the newspaper points out.
For the present, only negotiations between the US intelligence and the spouse of the present President of Ukraine Katherine Yushchenko, have been documentary proved, the paper marks, adding that probably now the SBU will join investigation efforts, too.
Did kidnapper know brother of former deputy head of Poland’s Intelligence Agency?
The investigators are willing to determine whether a former subordinate of the intelligence service chief Zbigniew Siemiatkowski might have had something common with the Olewnik case, online version of the Polish daily Dziennik reports. Gdansk Prosecutor’s Office has been re-examining a notebook of the late Wojciech Franiewski, one of kidnappers of Krzysztof Olewnik.
The investigators found records of the number of former policeman Wojciech Derlatka. The prosecutors revealed that he was the brother of Andrzej Derlatka, the former Deputy Head of the Intelligence Agency (Agencja Wywiadu) under the SLD government. The then head of the board of UOP intelligence service was Zbigniew Siemiatkowski.
Siemiatkowski then worked as a parliament member form the SLD, he was not yet the head of the Intelligence Agency (AW). Colonel Derlatka explained that he had nothing to do with this
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| Zbigniew Siemiatkowski |
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matter. He said he did not know that his brother had been questioned as he did not have any contacts with him for several years.
Since 2004, Franiewski’s notebook is in the files of the criminal case of those accused of acts of kidnapping and murder of Olewnik, the paper adds.
Only recently, the prosecution of the Appeals Prosecutor's Office in Gdansk has reviewed who is Wojciech Derlatka. It turned out that he is the former officer of the Warsaw Police Headquarters Wojciech Derlatka who left the police in the first half of this decade. He was an assessor of mechanoscopy.
According to Dziennik, at the Prosecutor’s Office, Derlatka admitted, among other things, his acquaintanceship to the investigator Krzysztof Rutkowski whose assistance the Olewnikows enjoyed in locating their son. Currently Rutkowski is accused by the family of swindling money.
The name of the former policeman appeared also in other documents of Franiewski which were found after re-searching the Warsaw apartment of the gangster and his summer house in Kaluszyna, where Krzysztof was kept.
Zbigniew Niemczyk, deputy appellate prosecutor in Gdansk, said that he could not disclose their current activities. He only mentioned that eventual ties between the kidnappers and the secret services had been investigated, Dziennik writes.
Ex-parliament member’s gun could fatally let off during scuffle with Polish security service agent - newspaper
City of Lodz prosecutors, investigating the circumstances of the death of the former Polish parliament member Barbara Blida have found no evidence of obliterating traces, news agency PAP reports. The investigators also admit that they are still investigating whether the site of the events and traces and evidence in the Blids’ house was secured properly.
Prosecutor's Office announced that by the end of the year will end a procedure called. thread of political inquiry.
Spokesman for Lodz Prosecutor’s Office Krzysztof Kopania said that the „argument concerning the deliberate removal of traces of a revolver does not seem to be confirmed”.
Gazeta Wyborcza wrote today that „is not at all certain that Blida committed suicide. Her gun could let off during scuffle with an ABW female agent”. According to the newspaper, „the weapon from which Blida has been shot bears no traces of fingerprints”. „Only the ABW officers could obliterate them,” the newspaper concludes.
As stated by the spokesman for the prosecution, the reconstruction of the tragic course of events in the Blids’ house was carried out „very thoroughly”. „All of the evidence allowed to restore the course of events in the house of the former parliament member and our findings show that the death was suicidal in nature”. Recreating the facts, the prosecutors had considered all the available evidence, prosecutor Kopania marked. He added that the findings were based on a comprehensive forensic analysis, including procedural experiments and testimonies of the questioned persons.
Kyrgyzstan’s security service chiefs supporting reinstating death penalty and carrying out public executions
Kyrgyz security forces officials say they are exploring the possibility of restoring the death penalty in the country, and the national security chief suggests executions could be made public in a bid to stem rising criminality and extremism, news agencies are reporting.
Kyrgyzstan’s State Security Services chief Murat Sutalinov is quoted by the Associated Press as saying today the death penalty should be restored and some executions could be conducted in public to reduce crime. Sutalinov's proposals met with wide approval at a meeting of top security officials, the news agency marks.
Sutalinov added his voice to that of secretary of the Kyrgyzstan’s Security Council Adakhan Madumarov, in calling for the reintroduction of capital punishment. Kyrgyzstan imposed a moratorium on executions in 1998 and formally abolished the death penalty in a 2007 constitution. Earlier this year, it was Interior Minister Moldomusa Kongatiyev who recommended reinstating the penalty to cut the murder rate.
The National Security Council is scheduled to hold more discussions on the death penalty, and the findings will be submitted to President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
Also today, news agency Interfax reported that Kyrgyzstan’s Security Council was considering banning the Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamist organization believed to have some 10,000 members in the country.
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