I beg your pardon, how about in your rose garden?

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is dropping his appeal in the CIA leak case, his attorney said Monday. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury and obstruction for lying about his conversations with reporters about outed CIA operative Valerie Plame. (more)

Profile: Dr. David Southall

He is viewed as an expert in Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, a condition which means parents deliberately induce or fabricate illnesses in their children to get attention for themselves.

He pioneered the use of covert video surveillance in the late eighties and early nineties, which led to a number of parents and step parents being prosecuted for abuse.

More recently...
He was banned from child protection work for three years. (more)

Pugnacious Prez Gets Wish

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is under pressure in a new wiretapping scandal after he was recorded threatening to punch a disgraced former advisor in the face for his role in a corruption scandal.

The conversation was taped last year on a line in Uribe's office, where he discusses matters of state and the operations of a government that receives billions of dollars in U.S. military and economic aid.

"I am furious with you and I hope someone is recording this call!" Uribe shouted at Luis Fernando Herrera, a one-time aide accused by a suspected drug lord of asking for $15 million in exchange for pulling strings to help him avoid extradition.

"If I see you I am going to punch you in the face!" Uribe yelled. (more)

...and then John McClane told me to say..."

"Lie Die Hard" director John McTiernan was granted bail and released on a $50,000 bond Monday, pending an appeal of his guilty plea for allegedly lying to the FBI about his knowledge of celebrity PI Anthony Pellicano's alleged illegal wiretapping operation.

Tiernan, 56, pleaded guilty in April 2006 to making a false statement to federal investigators. He later recanted his guilty plea, claiming he was jet-lagged and under the influence of alcohol and prescription medications when he made the statements to the FBI.

He also said he was given bad advice by his then-attorney. (more)

Mata Hari - Ten More Years to the Truth

The exotic and, some say, quixotic Mata Hari has spawned considerable cultural speculation since her mysterious World War I execution. Greta Garbo shot this fame further by playing her in a 1931 film. Kurt Vonnegut had Mother Night's protagonist dedicate his memoirs to her. Even the sexually diffident George Lucas permitted Indiana Jones to lose his virginity to her.

We won't know until 2017 -- the year when the case documents will be unsealed and revealed to the public -- if Mata Hari was a spy or not. But in the meantime, Yannick Murphy's third novel considers the circumstances that galvanized her legend, while ruing upon larger issues of womanhood, the burdens of perception and societal abuse. (more)

Russia successfully launches spy satellite

Moscow - To enhance its military capabilities, Russia on Sunday successfully launched a Kosmos series spy satellite from a cosmodrome leased from Kazakhstan. (more)

Renault guilty of spying (?)

Former world champions Renault escaped punishment yesterday, despite being found guilty in the second major spying controversy to hit Formula One this year.

The French team's representatives had been summoned to appear before the governing body in Monaco to answer charges of unauthorized possession of McLaren technical information between September 2006 and last October.

"They were found to be in breach of article 151c but there is no penalty," a spokesman for the International Automobile Federation said after a World Motor Sport Council hearing lasting several hours. (more)

SpyCam Story #415 - Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

MA - A Newton activist who concealed a camera to videotape a Boston University police sergeant was convicted of violating state wiretapping laws. An associate is charged with witness intimidation.

Peter Lowney, 36, was sentenced last week to six months probation and fined $500. A Brighton District Court judge ordered him to stay away from the sergeant and remove footage from the Internet. (more)

The Continuing Saga of the Rayney Wiretap

Australia - The husband of murdered Supreme Court Registrar Corryn Rayney appeared in Perth Magistrate’s Court today to face a charge of bugging his wife’s phone prior to her death.

In a brief court appearance, Lloyd Rayney did not address the court and the matter was put forward to late February on the request of the prosecutor Matthew Phillips.

Mr Rayney is charged with intercepting communications passing over a telecommunications system under the Commonwealth Interception and Access Act 1979, the crime for which the penalty can be up to two years in jail. (more)

SpyCam Story #414 - The PI PP

CA - A bumbling private eye was caught with his pants down - literally - when he broke into Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell's Beverly Hills pad and used his bathroom.

The gumshoe had been hired by Cornell's bitter ex-wife, Susan Silver, to serve the rocker with papers stating that she was suing her ex over the ownership of 15 guitars. But when P.I. Matthew Turner showed up at the house, Cornell wasn't home and he let himself in. Too bad it was all caught on camera.

Now Turner, who works for the Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based investigative firm Thomas Dale and Associates, is being charged with aggravated trespassing by the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office and faces a pre-trial hearing on Dec. 12.

"He broke into their home. He even used the Cornells' bathroom," a source told Page Six. "Chris and his wife, Vicky, had gotten death threats in the past, so they have a state-of-the-art surveillance system which captured all of this on tape." (more)

Taliban 'hanged boy, 12, for spying for UK'

Afghanistan - Taliban fighters hanged a 12-year-old boy from a mulberry tree, claiming he was passing information on Taliban roadside bomb attacks to police and British forces, Afghan police have said. (more)

It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your secrets are?

"...in the fashionable neighbourhood of Friedrichshain, a German hairdresser was astonished to find a plastic bag containing classified plans for the Bundesbank's new safe in garbage cans in his very own backyard.

The plans detailed "floor thickness, movement detector placements, doors, passageways and barred gates" reported mass circulation daily Bild.

"These plans are secret," was written at the top of the page in bold capitals. (more)

Program Discovers At-Risk Wireless Keyboards

Rapid7 announced today NeXpose will include a check for a zero-day vulnerability found in many wireless keyboards. The impact of this vulnerability is that an attacker with a directional antenna and a laptop can eavesdrop on keyboard communications, capturing every keystroke from a distance of over 30 feet away. (more)

SpyCam Story #413 - Emergency Management

TN - The assistant director for Rutherford County Emergency Management has been fired after a camera was found in an EMA restroom.

Reed is accused of hiding a camera in a restroom (within a stack of boxes) at the EMA office. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating the allegation.

A female employee found the camera. ... It is unclear how long the video camera was in the bathroom and if tapes were made. (more)

"Did too." "Did not!" "Did too!!" "Did NOT!!!" "Did."

China on Wednesday rejected as "baseless" allegations that it was carrying out state-sponsored espionage against British businesses. ...China has rejected similar allegations from other Western nations this year. It has been accused of cyber attacks on U.S. and German government computers and a British security source said there had been frequent Chinese attempts to penetrate British government systems. (more)