REVIEW TOPICS:
Russian security services already preparing to defend Kremlin against "extremists"
Ukraine to send SBU special-task troops against pirates to area of Horn of Africa
Security Service of Ukraine head: Ukraine can help NATO to combat terrorism
Ukrainian electronic business companies discontented with actions of Security Service of Ukraine withdrawing major provider’s equipment
Ex-head of West Germany’s intelligence says their best agent worked in KGB for 17 years, then was executed
In 1989, secret services tried to save Communism in Czechoslovakia but hastened it end
Polish investigators want to question Turkish attacker of John Paul II
Lithuanian parliament opened third inquiry into United States secret CIA prisons
Russian security services already preparing to defend Kremlin against "extremists"
In October the Russian Federal Protection Service (FSO) held a large-scale exercises in the territory of Moscow, online paper Forum.msk.ru reports. The Federal Security Service (FSB), the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Emergency Situations were involved in the
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exercises, too.
First the special equipment, including heavy equipment, was pulled together in the Moscow centre. All of it was concentrated around the Kremlin. The insulation and delimitation of the area operated round the clock. According to the caption of the exercises, a vehicles filled by explosives was revealed at the Red Square. It was the first time when such significant scale of the exercises were carried out, online paper marks.
According to Forum.msk.ru, the collateral aim of the exercises was training of defensive measures of the subject of the Kremlin in case of its blocking by crowds of extremists. The danger of such succession of events were realized back in 1993 when the officials in the Kremlin were expecting storm of supporters of the then Vice-President Alexander Rutskoy and parliamentary speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov.
Late October similar exercises were held by the Ministry of Interior in the Moscow oblast. According to the caption of exercises, police forces were deallocating the federal lane from the pensioners who have blocked it; the old age people were demanding increased social support from the government, online paper expands.
It is clear that similar exercises have been carried out from fears that the economic situation of the population can sharply worsen, Forum.msk.ru points out. The online paper considers that in the further one can expect certain preventive actions by the Ministry of Interior, the FSB, and the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Federal Protection Service (FSO).
Ukraine to send SBU special-task troops against pirates to area of Horn of Africa
The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine will send 30 members of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) special-task troops for participation in anti-piracy operation of the European Union, Atalanta, Rossiskaya gazeta reports.
The decision on sending servicemen of the SBU special-task division Alpha to area of the Horn of Africa, a peninsula in the North-Eastern Africa, opposite the Saudi Arabia Peninsula, was sounded by Foreign Minister of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko, the paper notes. He said that the number of the Ukrainian participants of Atalanta could increase in the long term due to an additional military intelligence unit.
One year participance in the EU operation will cost about $3.5 million, Rossiskaya gazeta writes. The Ukrainian parliament will soon consider corresponding amendments to the budget of current year, and also to the law on sending militaries abroad.
"Active participation of Ukraine in this project will allow, in our opinion, to expand the range of operation, will give us right to make offers with an aim of obtaining a possibility of accompanying the commercial ships, including those under the Ukrainian flag, and also those which have Ukrainians as a significant part of crew members,” Poroshenko said.
For the first time Poroshenko spoke about the intention to send the Ukrainian SBU special-task troops to African waters two weeks ago, however, without revealing the details.
Ukrainian electronic business companies discontented with actions of Security Service of Ukraine withdrawing major provider’s equipment
The officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Dnepropetrovsk directorate have withdrawn on November 9 the equipment of partners of the largest Internet provider. In this connection the Association of Participants of Electronic Business of Ukraine and member-companies of the association addressed an open letter to the state authorities of Ukraine, online paper HiTech. Expert reports.
“The association pays attention of the government bodies, the President and the Prime Minister of Ukraine, candidates for the President, and also the whole Internet community to the lawlessness on the behalf of the authorized state law enforcement bodies of Ukraine. On November 19, 2009, in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, withdrawals of the server equipment on which information resources of commercial and public structures were placed have been withdrawn by force from one of cable Internet-providers of the region. Such actions reflected on the work of the ColoCall company, the first Ukranian-language Internet-provider has been specializing on disposition of information on the Internet.”
Officers in masks and carrying weapons, under the cover of the court’s ruling, stopped working process of many companies, clients of Internet-provider ColoCall, including the official site of public organization of Association of Participants of Electronic Business of Ukraine and member-companies of the association.
According to official reports of the SBU, in Dnepropetrovsk the security service investigators have brought a criminal case on the fact of illegal trade and distribution of limited access data by one of cable Internet providers. Within the framework of the criminal case, the SBU officers carried out searches in the technical facilities of the company.
During the examination of the Internet server equipment the databases of state institutions containing information of limited access which the state property, more than one million of samples of computer programs, soundtracks and videos which have been distributed with infringement of copyrights were found out. The server equipment on which information resources were placed, have been withdrawn for carrying out of technical research and estimation.
Meanwhile the Association of Participants of Electronic Business of Ukraine and member-companies of the association have been paying attention to irresponsible attitude of the security services officers, concerning breaking contact of servers of companies which have no relation to the above mentioned criminal case concerning one of the regional providers.
Security Service of Ukraine head: Ukraine can help NATO to
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combat terrorism
At the session of NATO Special Committee in Brussels, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) chairman Valentin Nalyvaychenko discussed the question of struggle against cyber-criminality and terrorism, news agency UNIAN reports, referring to Nalyvaychenko’s remarks speaking to the press.
The SBU head marked that cybercrime issues had especial importance for the security service in connection with the forthcoming presidential elections. “For us it is a pending matter also in connection with the fact that we have promised to not allow any crime in computer system of the Central Electoral Commission and any crime in the register of voters, and during count of votes,we shall make everything to do so”.
Speaking on the topic of struggle against terrorism, he noted that during the meeting arrangements on holding in 2010 of conferences, seminars, joint exercises which can raise readiness of the Security Service for counteraction to displays of terrorism had been reached. “We are proud that here it is not so much NATO, but we are able to help them with counteraction to terrorism, thus protecting our citizens”, he emphasized.
Nalyvaychenko added that in Ukraine by means of the NATO member-countries a special anti-terrorist range had been arranged to which the SBU invited special-task units from neighbouring countries for carrying out of exercises, in such a way contributing to regional security. Besides the SBU and NATO have been already conducting operative cooperation in questions of struggle against terrorism, communicating, having the general lists of the persons involved in terrorist activity, etc.
The chairman of the Security Service supported strengthening of responsibility for terrorism. “We have the basic law on struggle against terrorism, it is very good, it is European, there is no questions... But it is necessary to go further: the Internet-space, cyber-crimes, shiberterrorism, it is necessary to protect you (mass-media), your online sites, you see how many attacks have been taking place, however, the SBU have no right to protect you, and we can advise only to the provider how to protect your websites”, Nalyvaychenko pointed out.
He also noted that for today the service had not enough powers for reaction to distribution of extremist literature. “We have the right to withdrawal of literature if there already are absolutely direct appeals to revolt or mutiny. But these are not at all those powers which possess the European or Russian security services in the struggle against terrorism. It is necessary to give more legal grounds both, for the SBU and the Ministry of Interior”, stressed the SBU head.
At the same time he noted that today in Ukraine there were no system displays of terrorism, therefore the given threat is actual from the point of view of necessity of realization of steps on the prevention. “From the operative point of view, to not allow illegal delivery of weapons, it is necessary to carry out joint operations on check of the whole regions on withdrawal of illegal weapons and the third is strengthening of legislative responsibility for extremism, appeals to extremism, to terrorism, strengthening of responsibility for distribution of literature of extremist character, for extremist Internet-sites”, UNIAN cites Nalyvaychenko.
Polish investigators want to question Turkish attacker of John Paul II
Polish investigators from the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) are intending to question Ali Agca, the Turkish citizen who is in Italian custody for the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna reports.
Investigators from the Katowice branch of the IPN are waiting for paperwork to go through in order to be allowed to interrogate Agca. Italian police are expected to allow the Poles to interrogate Sergei Antonov, who was jailed for violating the Pope's rights in surveilling him before the shooting, and Omer Bagci, who provided Agca with a gun.
IPN investigators are eagerly awaiting the legal documents from Italian law enforcement, held up in a translation process that is expected to be finished by the end of the year.
“For us, the person currently in charge of the investigation has discovered some particularly meaningful things related to the shooting. Without a full testimony it will not be possible, or at least more complex, to find out what happened, formulate a hypotheses and confirm it,” says Ewa Koj, one of the IPN investigators on the case.
The Italian documents are about 4,000 pages of paperwork. Ali Agca's testimony amounts to 856 pages. IPN investigators have already heard testimonies from Polish witnesses.
The assasination attempt took place on May 13, 1981 in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. The Pope was shot four times. Agca was arrested, tried in Italian courts, and sentenced to life imprisonment. It has been concluded since then that the Soviet KGB and Bulgarian Communist secret service was involved in the attempt.
Lithuanian parliament opened third inquiry into United States secret CIA prisons
Twice in the past three years, the Lithuanian Parliament investigated reports that the US CIA secretly imprisoned Al-Qaeda leaders in this Baltic country. Both times, legislators concluded that there was no evidence, The Washington Post reports. Now the Parliament is investigating a third time, and it is looking a little harder, the paper marks. Many Lithuanian officials said they remain unconvinced that their country’s secret services allowed the CIA to detain international terrorists.
In neighboring Poland, prosecutors in the capital of Warsaw have opened a criminal probe into reports that the CIA operated a prison for Al-Qaeda suspects near a former military air base. No charges have been filed, and it is unclear how far along prosecutors are in their investigation, The Washington Post notes.
Dainius Zalimas, a legal adviser to the Lithuanian Defense Ministry, said the existence of a covert prison would violate both Lithuanian statutes and international human rights conventions that the government signed. If firm evidence is gathered by the Parliament, he said, prosecutors would be obliged to open a case and could target both Lithuanian and US officials. Legal specialists said the odds of a successful prosecution are remote, given the extremely secret nature of the CIA’s overseas prison network for terrorism suspects.
Persistent media reports suggest that the complex, near the village of Antaviliai, about 20 km from Vilnius, served as a CIA “black site” from September 2004 to November 2005.
On November 19, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas told the Baltic News Service that "there are more important things in Lithuania than spending two days denying the gossip of ABC journalists." Usackas called the ABC Report “rumours and wild tales,” but much of the report was backed up by a simultaneous report by The Washington Post.
The US daily also reported that the Lithuanian parliamentary inquiry into the prison was proceeding. "The committee has all rights and tools to ultimately clarify the situation and to either confirm or deny any allegations of the transportation of detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States and their detention on the territory of the Republic of Lithuania," Arvydas Anusauskas, chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee, told the newspaper.
Lithuania and other European countries have been encouraged by a 2007 Council of Europe resolution to reveal "the existence of a 'spider's web' of illegal transfers of detainees woven by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in which Council of Europe member states were involved.”
The alleged former secret jail is now owned by the Lithuanian government and serves as an academy for its security services.
In 1989, secret services tried to save Communism in Czechoslovakia but hastened it end
Eight days after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, students sparked the revolution in Prague, The Independent recalls. They were allowed to hold a rally marking the 50th anniversary of the death of a young student who had been killed by the Nazis after the Germans had occupied Czechoslovakia.
After the procession a core of around 3,000 hung around, then a few shouted "To Wenceslas
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Square" and ran towards central Prague where they were immediately confronted by riot police and all but one of the exits to the square were blocked, the paper expands. Without any warning, the police charged into them; around 500 students were injured and 120 arrested. One young man was left lying, appearing lifeless, and taken away by ambulance. One of rumours circulating around Prague was that the prone body was a mathematics student, Martin Smid. The dissident activist Peter Uhl passed on the news to Radio Free Europe, the BBC and Reuters. Soon it was reported as fact.
The denials of the authorities were disbelieved. The following evening, and every night for the next 10 days, huge demonstrations of up to 400,000 people filled Wenceslas Square.
Without a doubt the Smid story was the catalyst, the paper marks. But there was a big lie at the heart of the story. In Czechoslovakia there really was a conspiracy behind the theory in 1989. The plot was hatched by General Alois Lorenc, then 53, and a small group of reformers near the top of the party. They had looked at events in Poland, Hungary and East Germany, where Communism had collapsed, and imagined that they could maintain their positions, if they negotiated with an opposition they would try to divide.
The details were worked out when they knew the "official" demonstration on November 17 would be allowed. A key player was Ludvik Zifcak, then 24, at that time a junior officer in Czechoslovakia's state security service and a secret police spy within the dissident movement for three years. After the main demonstration that afternoon, he was the first to make an impassioned call for the rest to follow him to Wenceslas Square. He knew there would be a trap there, found a place to keep his head down during the mêlée, and spotted the right time to lie down and play dead. There was also a female secret agent, with orders to tell dissident Uhl about Smid's "death".
It is still unknown how closely the Soviets were involved. It has since become clear that the top Kremlin leadership did not know and would have disapproved. But elements within the KGB certainly knew. While the riot police were beating up the students, General Lorenc was dining with the KGB's head of station in Prague, General Gennady Teslenko, and the deputy head of the KGB, General Viktor Grushko, who had arrived in Prague some days earlier. General Lorenc who was jailed for four years once said that he and his co-conspirators had tried to save Communism, but instead hastened its end.
Ex-head of West Germany’s intelligence says their best agent worked in KGB for 17 years, then was executed
The former head of the West German secret services (1985-1990), Hans-Georg Wieck, was a guest of prestigious political magazine Politique International. He told at his presentation that the German secret services had its agents in all countries of the Socialist camp, including in the USSR. Their best agent has worked in the KGB for 17 years, but the he was exposed and executed.
Already in 1988, if not in 1987, Moscow was undertaking attempts to strengthen the camp of reformers inside the East Germany’s ruling Communist party, SED. The future GDR Prime Minister Hans Modrow and the ex-head of its intelligence Markus Volf acted as intermediaries between Moscow and the reformers.
Residents of East Germany who wished to visit their relatives in the West Germany, should receive a sanction from the Stasi secret service. Nobody was happy that the sanction to a meeting with his/her mother should be received at secret services.
When Hans-Georg Wieck headed German secret services, the West German government believed, that the East Germans were happy with their life. The questioning of the GDR residents who visited Germany helped to change this viewpoint. When Wieck happened to travel to the GDR and Poland he received impressions that these countries were closer to collapse, than to stability. Therefore he decided to resort to system of questioning.
Wieck says they made a questionnaire of approximately 20 questions, including conditions of life, supply, opportunity to go abroad, social life (friendship, etc.). From these questions they followed to actually political themes, but they did not distribute the questionnaire for the answer in written form, they carried out informal oral questionings. The people did not suspect that these data were then processed by West German secret services. Each six months they received results from approximately 600 interrogations. The Federal government, the parliamentary institutes, engaged in East Germany affairs, and also the British, American and French allies received the results.
Ambassador Wieck personally transferred them to Elysee Palace accompanied by the leadership of the French secret services, and also to the US White House and the Downing-Street. Such questioning done for the first time in forty years was intended to understand whether changes are possible and whether the East German regime stands „foothold”.
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