French spy chief to step down
The head of France’s foreign intelligence agency is to step down in the coming days, an official said yesterday, following a shake-up in the upper reaches of the country’s spying networks. Pierre Brochand, the 68-year-old director of the DGSE, has led France’s overseas intelligence gathering since July 2002, and was notably involved in operations to win the freedom of French hostages in Iraq and Afghanistan. (more)
Local council hires former spy chief
Gloucestershire County Council has hired the former head of GCHQ to look into its overall performance and "challenge" the way the authority runs. Sir David Pepper, who ran the government's huge intelligence gathering base in Cheltenham from 2003 until earlier this year has been hired as a non-executive director of the council, working two days a month until April 2009. (more)
Spy chief dodged torture arrest
Discreet negotiations between Israel and the Netherlands allowed a former chief of Israel's security agency to avoid arrest on torture charges, sources say. Citing unnamed sources, the Israel newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Tuesday that Dutch authorities were considering a request from an alleged Palestinian torture victim that former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon be detained and taken to the International Court of Justice in The Hague during a May visit to the Netherlands. (more)
Israelis say spy chief killed Hezbollah commander Mughniyah
A panel of experts assembled by Israel's most powerful television channel honored Israeli Mossad chief Meir Dagan as the nation's "man of the year" for, among other things, killing Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyah in the Syrian capital in February, according to a recent report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. (more)
Pakistan’s New Spy Chief
The chief of the Pakistani Army on Tuesday appointed a new head of the nation's top spy organization in a move that consolidated his control over an agency that the United States contends has been helping the Taliban mount operations against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The new spy chief is Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, 56, director general of military operations, the nerve center for the Pakistani Army. (more)
Former Kazakh spy chief hurt in suspected kidnap bid
Kazakhstan's former spy chief Alnur Mussayev, who is living in exile in Austria, was seriously hurt in a suspected abduction bid, the Austrian prosecutors office said Friday, AFP reported. (more)
Former spy chief joins 42-day detention critics
The government's 42 days counterterrorism legislation came under fresh fire last night when a former director general of MI5 said the provision to hold suspects for six weeks without charge was excessive. Dame Stella Rimington became the second former MI5 chief in three months to come out against the controversial measures. (more)
Seoul Spy chief says North Korean leader's health has improved
South Korea's spy chief says North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's health appears to have improved. Legislators from South Korea's ruling party say National Intelligence Service chief Kim Sung-ho told them Tuesday that his agency believes Kim Jong Il's health "has improved a little." (more)
Israeli spy chief who masterminded bombing of Western targets in Egypt dies
Binyamin Gibli, who as director of Israeli military intelligence in the early 1950s was a key player in his country's most debilitating political scandal, the Lavon affair, has died, aged 89. Gibli initiated an illicit campaign of bombing and sabotage against Western targets in Egypt — and after being forced to resign, admitted having forged documents that falsely implicated his boss, the Israeli defence minister Pinhas Lavon, in the plot. (more)
Spy Chief Questioned
Grenada's former spy chief, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Anthony De Gale has finally been questioned in connection with reports of missing files from the department. The Spy Master was sent on his 120 days accumulated leave by newly installed Police Commissioner, James Clarkson after it was discovered that at the files at Special Branch were destroyed immediately after the July 8 General Elections which brought the then opposition National Democratic Congress of Tillman Thomas to power. (more)
Spy chief to speak on Haneef arrest
AUSTRALIA'S domestic spy chief will give evidence today on the arrest and investigation of Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef. ASIO director-general Paul O'Sullivan will be interviewed by the Clarke inquiry, which is investigating the bungled arrest and charging of Dr Haneef in July last year in connection with terror attacks in Britain. (more)
Indonesian court to proceed with murder trial of former spy chief
An Indonesian court on Tuesday rejected a motion by the defence to drop charges against a former senior intelligence official accused of ordering the killing of a prominent human rights activist. Purwoprandjono (who like many Indonesians uses only one name), 59, a former deputy chief of Indonesia's National Intelligence Agency, is accused of ordering the murder of Munir Said Thalib, an outspoken critic of the country's military. (more)
Former Italian Spy Chief Wants Rice
Italy's former spy chief, on trial for participating with the CIA in the abduction of a Muslim cleric, says he wants Condoleezza Rice to testify in the case. Prosecutors say Niccolo Pollari, former head of the Italian military intelligence service SISMI, and eight other Italians participated in the 2003 "rendition" of Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr. (more)
