Jeff Stein: June 2009 Archives

U.S. Journalist Quizzed on Foreign Contacts After Landing at Miami

By Jeff Stein | June 29, 2009 6:05 PM | | Comments (2)

A veteran American journalist returning from Latin America on Saturday was closely questioned by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent about where he went and whom he talked to.

John Dinges, a former NPR managing editor for news and currently professor at Columbia University's School of Journalism, landed at Miami International Airport June 27 after visiting Venezuela and Chile.

After examining his passport, he said, the CBP agent asked him, "What were you doing on this trip?"
Continue reading U.S. Journalist Quizzed on Foreign Contacts After Landing at Miami.

Harman Comes Out Swinging Once More in Israel Wiretap Flap

By Jeff Stein | June 25, 2009 4:46 PM | | Comments (2)

Rep.  Jane Harman, D-Calif, who was reportedly overheard on a 2005 NSA wiretap agreeing to lobby Bush administration officials on behalf of two accused Israeli agents, released a letter from the Department of Justice today that she says clears her of any wrongdoing. 

"It states I am not a target or subject of an investigation," a press release from Harman's office said. "This reaffirms similar information I received in early 2007 following initial unsubstantiated leaks."

But in claiming absolution from the Justice Department, Harman has continued a public relations tack of effectively denying something she was never charged with.
Continue reading Harman Comes Out Swinging Once More in Israel Wiretap Flap.

Ex-CIA Columnist Suspects Interference by His Former Employer

By Jeff Stein | June 24, 2009 11:32 PM | | Comments (0)

Stephen Lee, a former CIA operations manager who blogs for The Washington Examiner, suspects the spy agency's censors are trying to sabotage his new career.

Lee recently launched the critical "Examiner Spy" column for the Examiner newspaper chain, which has a D.C. daily edition.  He also pens a biting cartoon for his own Web site, NationalSecurityDrone.com, under the name Frank Naif.

"I believe I am being subjected to a campaign of low-level harrassment," Lee said Wednesday.
Continue reading Ex-CIA Columnist Suspects Interference by His Former Employer.

Mousavi, Celebrated in Iranian Protests, Was the Butcher of Beirut

By Jeff Stein | June 22, 2009 7:45 PM | | Comments (4)

He may yet turn out to be the avatar of Iranian democracy, but three decades ago Mir-Hossein Mousavi was waging a terrorist war on the United States that included bloody attacks on the U.S. embassy and Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.
 
Mousavi, prime minister for most of the 1980s, personally selected his point man for the Beirut terror campaign, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi-pur, and dispatched him to Damascus as Iran's ambassador, according to former CIA and military officials.
Continue reading Mousavi, Celebrated in Iranian Protests, Was the Butcher of Beirut.

Times Was Prepared to Pay Ransom for Rohde

By Jeff Stein | June 20, 2009 6:59 PM | | Comments (0)

The New York Times was prepared to pay Taliban kidnappers a $5 million ransom to free its reporter David S. Rohde, who escaped Friday after seven months of captivity, according to a source with direct knowledge of the case.

Over months of secret contacts with Rohde's captors preceding his escape, The New York Times accepted the prospect of paying the ransom to free Rohde, said the source, who was involved in the hunt for Rohde. The source insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Bill Keller, the executive editor of the Times, refused to comment Saturday on the circumstances that led to Rohde's release, but said, "We paid no ransom."
Continue reading Times Was Prepared to Pay Ransom for Rohde.

CIA, Mossad Hitting Iran's Hezbollah Hard, Report Says

By Jeff Stein | June 18, 2009 3:03 PM | | Comments (1)

American and Israeli intelligence organizations, in cooperation with local security services, have scored notable recent successes against Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terror organization, according to a new report.
Continue reading CIA, Mossad Hitting Iran's Hezbollah Hard, Report Says.

Ensign Affair: It's Not About the Sex

By Jeff Stein | June 17, 2009 3:02 PM | | Comments (0)

Embattled Sen. John Ensign's admission of an affair with the wife of a staff aide made him vulnerable to blackmail by hostile spy services or other interests eager to pry secrets from his position on sensitive national security committees, veteran counterintelligence officials say.

Ensign is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, including its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, giving him and his staff access to extremely sensitive national defense information.

Continue reading Ensign Affair: It's Not About the Sex.

Should the CIA Meddle in Iran Now?

By Jeff Stein | June 15, 2009 6:13 PM | | Comments (1)

A half century ago the CIA could bring down an Iranian prime minister with a few rent-a-crowds, well placed payments to key generals and a pliable replacement.

Could it do the same today?

Not likely, but events in Iran have often contradicted the prognostications of Westerners, especially at the CIA.
Continue reading Should the CIA Meddle in Iran Now?.

Cuba Spies: Riggs Bank Had More Secrets Than State Department

By Jeff Stein | June 9, 2009 6:35 PM | | Comments (0)

The arrest of a northwest Washington couple on charges of spying for Cuba has put a spotlight on the career of Kendall Myers, a senior State Department intelligence analyst.
 
But if the charges are true, it's Myer's wife, Gwendolyn, a computer specialist at now-defunct Riggs National Bank, who could well have been in far better position to supply Cuba with sensitive information than her husband.
Continue reading Cuba Spies: Riggs Bank Had More Secrets Than State Department .

Israeli Pilots Knew US Spy Ship Was American Before 1967 War Attack

By Jeff Stein | June 8, 2009 9:51 PM | | Comments (0)

Israeli air control twice told pilots during the 1967 Six Day War that a U.S. spy ship they were attacking was American, according to a new book on the USS Liberty affair.

Israel has always claimed that the June 8, 1967 attack on the spy ship Liberty, which killed 34 U.S. Navy sailors and wounded another 170, many seriously, was a case of mistaken identity, a "tragic accident."

But according to "The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship," by James Scott, Israeli pilots who radioed the Liberty's hull number to their air controller were told two times that the spy ship was "probably American." 
Continue reading Israeli Pilots Knew US Spy Ship Was American Before 1967 War Attack.

Exclusive: Mudd Withdraws as DHS Intelligence Chief (Updated)

By Jeff Stein | June 5, 2009 2:54 PM | | Comments (3)

The White House confirmed this afternoon it was withdrawing Phil Mudd from Senate consideration to be the Department of Homeland Security's intelligence chief.

Mudd, a career CIA employee who is currently the head of FBI counterterrorism, said the choice was his.

(For a fuller analysis of this case, see "Writing Was on the Wall Before DHS Intel Nominee Withdrew.")
Continue reading Exclusive: Mudd Withdraws as DHS Intelligence Chief (Updated).

What Nuclear Secret Was Kerry Aide Looking for in Switzerland?

By Jeff Stein | June 5, 2009 12:40 AM | | Comments (0)

Swiss police threatened to arrest an aide to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., for espionage last month if he entered the country in pursuit of a CIA connection to Pakistan's secret nuclear bomb smuggling.
Continue reading What Nuclear Secret Was Kerry Aide Looking for in Switzerland?.

Georgetown Lawyers to Urge New Geneva Convention for Terrorism

By Jeff Stein | June 3, 2009 11:13 PM | | Comments (2)

U.S. and European officials have been at war over the wording of the Geneva Convention ever since American forces invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 and began rounding up terrorist suspects and Taliban fighters.

Maybe it's time for a new Geneva Convention for the age of terrorism.
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Question for Cheney: How Come No Attacks After Torture Stopped?

By Jeff Stein | June 2, 2009 3:08 PM | | Comments (5)

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has taken to many stumps lately to proclaim that the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques" saved the United States from another terrorist attack.

That leaves the question of what prevented another terrorist attack after the torture, as some call it, of terrorist suspects stopped.
Continue reading Question for Cheney: How Come No Attacks After Torture Stopped?.

Ex-Saudi Spy Chief: Kill Bin Laden Then Leave Afghanistan

By Jeff Stein | June 1, 2009 4:21 PM | | Comments (0)

Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, an influential member of the Saudi royal family and former head of its intelligence service, says the U.S. should kill Osama Bin Laden and then " get the hell out" of Afghanistan.

Turki, who was also Saudi ambassador to the United States from 2005 to April 2009, likened al Qaeda to a "cult"  and its leader to a  "hydra head with venomous snakes."

To destroy the cult, he said, "you have to cut off the head."

"After that," he advised, "declare victory...then get the hell out of  Afghanistan."
Continue reading Ex-Saudi Spy Chief: Kill Bin Laden Then Leave Afghanistan.
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