Runaway 'Spy Whale' Fled Russian Military Training

The mystery as to why a beluga whale appeared off the coast of Norway wearing a harness may finally have been solved.

The tame white whale, which locals named Hvaldimir, made headlines five years ago amidst widespread speculation that it was a Russian spy.

Now an expert in the species says she believes the whale did indeed belong to the military and escaped from a naval base in the Arctic Circle.

But Dr Olga Shpak does not believe it was a spy. She believes the beluga was being trained to guard the base and fled because it was a "hooligan". more

Hvaldimir, a Celebrated ‘Spy’ Whale, Is Found Dead in Norway

The beluga whale, who was first spotted in 2019 wearing what looked like a camera harness, was seen floating in Norwegian waters on Saturday. 

Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.

Sebastian Strand, the founder of the nonprofit, Marine Mind, said that he saw the dead whale floating near Risavika in southwestern Norway on Saturday afternoon. Its cause of death was not immediately clear, he said. more Previous posts.

Fishy Spy News, or Flipper Flips Sides

Russia's navy is using trained dolphins to step up security at its Sevastopol Black Sea fleet base, according to UK intelligence. The mammals are intended to "detect and counter" enemy divers, British intelligence reported.

Last month, the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries advised beachgoers to "avoid contact" with a well-known beluga whale that's suspected of being used for Russian espionage. The warning came in response to the whale's travels to a densely populated area, putting him at far greater risk of injury or death. The whale, nicknamed Hvaldimir, became famous in 2019 after it was spotted wearing a specially made harness with mounts for a camera, leading to the "Russian spy" allegations. more

Alleged Russian 'Spy' Whale Spotted in Sweden

An alleged former Russian spy whale has been spotted off the coast of Sweden... 

Having spent years travelling slowly southwards from Norway's far north, the whale has sped up his movements out of Norwegian waters in recent months. 

OneWhale said the reason behind his sudden hastiness was unclear... 

He was discovered wearing a harness fitted with a GoPro camera mount and clips bearing the inscription "Equipment of St Petersburg". more

Hvaldimir: Seeking Sanctuary for Whale Dubbed a Russian Spy

A mysterious beluga whale was dubbed a spy when he appeared off Norway's coast wearing a Russian harness... The whale seemed to be seeking help... The fisherman put on a survival suit and jumped into the icy water, freed the whale and retrieved the harness. To his surprise it had a camera mount and clips bearing the inscription "Equipment St. Petersburg"... 

Norwegians were captivated by the whale's dramatic rescue. Because of the whale's apparent spy status, he was given a tongue-in-cheek name. In a nod to hval, Norwegian for whale, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the beluga was christened Hvaldimir. more

This Week's Spy Headlines

• Your smart TV is spying on you. Here's how to stop it. more
• Your Smart Home Devices Are Spying on You – Now, You Can Spy on Them more
• Your cellphone is spying on you but you can make it stop. more
• Ex-CIA officer Jerry Lee expected to plead guilty to spying for China. more
• Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar's forces have detained two Turkish citizens on charges of spying. more
• Amnesty urges Yemen’s Houthis to free 10 journalists held for spying. more
• Whale found off Norway's coast believed to be spying for Russia. more
• Police Search For Man Caught Spying In Bathroom Stall more
• Family of Palestinian ‘Emirati spy’ disputes Turkish suicide claims. more 
• Despite U.S. spying warnings, Huawei 5G reportedly gets U.K. approval. more
• British Embassy refuses to comment on U.K. spying on Trump campaign. more
• Julian Assange has filed a criminal complaint accusing Ecuadorian embassy of spying on him. more

Without Spies There May Have Been No 'Fourth of July'

By Nina Strochlic, for National Geographic magazine.

In 1777, the American colonies were badly losing their fight for independence from Great Britain. The British Army had captured New York City’s crucial port. Expecting further advances, the Continental Congress was evacuated from Philadelphia. It seemed that the war was lost.

Then George Washington, then Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, wrote a letter that changed the course of the war.

Washington was desperate to discover what was happening inside New York, but military scouts couldn’t get close enough. The general needed someone to penetrate enemy lines, but when he asked for volunteers, few of his troops raised their hands.

“Spying wasn’t seen as gentlemanly,” says Vince Houghton, resident historian at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.

Finally, a young army captain named Nathan Hale volunteered for the dangerous assignment. He was caught a week later and hanged, the first known American spy to be executed on the job. (He’s memorialized with a statue outside CIA headquarters.)

Washington realized that the mission was too big for untrained volunteers, so he set about building an espionage organization.

John Jay, later the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, had been running counterintelligence as head of the New York State Committee and Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies. One of Jay’s operatives, a merchant named Nathaniel Sackett, had experience in secret writing and codes. 

In February 1777, Washington wrote a letter to Sackett in which he offered him $50 a month—out of his own pocket—to establish the first formal apparatus for the “advantage of obtaining the earliest and best Intelligence of the designs of the Enemy.” “Without the organization that Sackett set up, it would have been very difficult for us to win the war,” says Houghton. “We had a ragtag army and [the British] had the greatest army, greatest navy, and greatest economy in the world. We had no real business winning this war.”

But America’s spy service got off to an inglorious start. Most of Sackett’s agents failed at their jobs—including Sackett himself, who was fired after just six months.

Fortunately for the infant nation, Sackett’s replacement, 26-year-old Benjamin Tallmadge, created what is considered one of America’s greatest espionage operations: the Culper Spy Ring. Comprised of childhood friends from Long Island, the group included a shop owner inside New York City who gathered information, a traveling trader who smuggled it out of the city, and a whale boat captain who delivered it to Washington’s camp.

Employing the tools and tricks of the 18^th-century spy trade—hiding secret messages in hollow feather quills, using “dead drops” to transport letters—the Culper operatives unmasked enemy spies, busted a money counterfeiting plan, and stopped the British from sabotaging a French aid mission to the colonies.

After important letters were lost during an enemy raid, Tallmadge invented a “numerical dictionary” code that matched 763 cities, names, and words to numbers. (Washington’s code name was Agent 711.) Washington also asked physician James Jay (brother to John) to invent an invisible ink that could be revealed only with another chemical and would “relieve the fears of such persons as may be entrusted in its conveyance.”

Washington’s espionage experiment paid off. In 1781 the British surrendered, thanks in part to the intelligence gathered by the Culper Ring and their networks. “Washington didn’t really out-fight the British. He simply out-spied us,” a British intelligence officer allegedly said after the war.

None of the Culper spies were ever caught, and even Washington himself never learned exactly who was in the group. The ring’s very existence wasn’t discovered until the 1900s, and to this day no one knows for certain how many members it had.

After the war Washington asked Congress to reimburse him $17,000—nearly half a million dollars today—for his espionage expenses. The lawmakers obliged.

Corporate Espionage Alert - Whale Phishing in 2018

Phishing scams are becoming ever more sophisticated...

“We need to focus on people patching and the human firewall,” said Anthony Dagostino, global head of cyber risk at Willis Towers Watson. “This requires more effective training and awareness campaigns to make sure people aren’t clicking on things...

“We will see more whale phishing in 2018, where cyber criminals will target individuals based on things like their LinkedIn or Facebook profiles,” Dagostino told Insurance Business. “General counsel, chief financial officers and even board members are being very specifically targeted just for hackers to get certain information they have.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be for a data breach – it’s really corporate espionage driven. They either want to get information on an up-coming acquisition, or future business plans that they can use for insider trading.” more

Without Spies There May Have Been No 'Fourth of July'

By Nina Strochlic, for National Geographic magazine.

In 1777, the American colonies were badly losing their fight for independence from Great Britain. The British Army had captured New York City’s crucial port. Expecting further advances, the Continental Congress was evacuated from Philadelphia. It seemed that the war was lost.

Then George Washington, then Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, wrote a letter that changed the course of the war.

Washington was desperate to discover what was happening inside New York, but military scouts couldn’t get close enough. The general needed someone to penetrate enemy lines, but when he asked for volunteers, few of his troops raised their hands.

“Spying wasn’t seen as gentlemanly,” says Vince Houghton, resident historian at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.

Finally, a young army captain named Nathan Hale volunteered for the dangerous assignment. He was caught a week later and hanged, the first known American spy to be executed on the job. (He’s memorialized with a statue outside CIA headquarters.)

Washington realized that the mission was too big for untrained volunteers, so he set about building an espionage organization.

John Jay, later the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, had been running counterintelligence as head of the New York State Committee and Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies. One of Jay’s operatives, a merchant named Nathaniel Sackett, had experience in secret writing and codes. 

In February 1777, Washington wrote a letter to Sackett in which he offered him $50 a month—out of his own pocket—to establish the first formal apparatus for the “advantage of obtaining the earliest and best Intelligence of the designs of the Enemy.” “Without the organization that Sackett set up, it would have been very difficult for us to win the war,” says Houghton. “We had a ragtag army and [the British] had the greatest army, greatest navy, and greatest economy in the world. We had no real business winning this war.”

But America’s spy service got off to an inglorious start. Most of Sackett’s agents failed at their jobs—including Sackett himself, who was fired after just six months.

Fortunately for the infant nation, Sackett’s replacement, 26-year-old Benjamin Tallmadge, created what is considered one of America’s greatest espionage operations: the Culper Spy Ring. Comprised of childhood friends from Long Island, the group included a shop owner inside New York City who gathered information, a traveling trader who smuggled it out of the city, and a whale boat captain who delivered it to Washington’s camp.

Employing the tools and tricks of the 18^th-century spy trade—hiding secret messages in hollow feather quills, using “dead drops” to transport letters—the Culper operatives unmasked enemy spies, busted a money counterfeiting plan, and stopped the British from sabotaging a French aid mission to the colonies.

After important letters were lost during an enemy raid, Tallmadge invented a “numerical dictionary” code that matched 763 cities, names, and words to numbers. (Washington’s code name was Agent 711.) Washington also asked physician James Jay (brother to John) to invent an invisible ink that could be revealed only with another chemical and would “relieve the fears of such persons as may be entrusted in its conveyance.”

Washington’s espionage experiment paid off. In 1781 the British surrendered, thanks in part to the intelligence gathered by the Culper Ring and their networks. “Washington didn’t really out-fight the British. He simply out-spied us,” a British intelligence officer allegedly said after the war.

None of the Culper spies were ever caught, and even Washington himself never learned exactly who was in the group. The ring’s very existence wasn’t discovered until the 1900s, and to this day no one knows for certain how many members it had.

After the war Washington asked Congress to reimburse him $17,000—nearly half a million dollars today—for his espionage expenses. The lawmakers obliged.

The Cove - a covert op to tell the story.

To reveal a gruesome dolphin slaughter to the world, the makers of the documentary The Cove used spy drones, cameras disguised as rocks and a lot of daring... Military-grade heat-sensing cameras were used to track the movements of guards.

The cameras were so cutting-edge that manufacturer Sony hadn’t yet released the software necessary to pull data off the hard drives and edit it. The team hid the drives in a hotel air conditioning duct, and within a day of retrieving each one had runners take them to Tokyo or Osaka and send them out of the country.

The movie depicts a hunt in the waters off Taiji, Japan, where at least 2,000 dolphins are killed every year, with a few caught and sold to aquariums. The meat, containing toxic levels of mercury is sold to people, often passed off as whale meat...

The next dolphin hunting season will begin in Japan in September. (more)

"The Cove" tells the amazing true story of how an elite team of activists, filmmakers and freedivers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate a hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret. The shocking discoveries they uncovered were only the tip of the iceberg...