FAS | Intelligence | News | 2000 ||||

May 2000 Intelligence News

• I-N-S / CUBA SPY Voice of America 30 May 2000 -- In Miami, a high-ranking U-S Immigration and Naturalization Service (I-N-S) official has been convicted of passing sensitive information to a personal contact with ties to Cuba.
• RUSSIA / BERIA Voice of America 29 May 2000 -- Russia's Supreme Court has firmly rejected a request to pardon Lavrenty Beria, the police chief who oversaw Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's reign of terror.
• The 'top secret' at CIA: its own budget Justin Brown The Christian Science Monitor 26 May 2000 -- For Steven Aftergood, it has been a daunting struggle against one of the world's most enigmatic forces: the Central Intelligence Agency.
• RUSSIA / HACKERS Voice of America 26 May 2000 -- Much of this crime originates in Russia, where overeducated and underemployed young computer specialists strive to become world famous "hackers" capable of breaking into secret and lucrative databases.
• DoD News Briefing Thursday, May 25, 2000 -- We have taken several actions within the past several months or year or so to upgrade security at the Pentagon, many of which have been visible to all of us.
• CONGRESS/SECURITY Voice of America 25 May 2000 -- Congressional investigators have evidence of new security problems at key government offices and two busy American airports.
• Patterns Of Global Terrorism Report: 'Terrorism's Changing Map' Issue Focus 23 May 2000 -- The release of the 1999 Annual "Patterns Of Global Terrorism" Report this month drew a wide-ranging discussion in the press in Europe, Asia and Latin America. In mixed, but mostly negative reaction, some found the document "fairly comprehensive" while others disagreed with its "methodology," complaining that its conclusions "avoided differentiating between 'terrorism' and 'struggle'" and put "blackmailing terrorist gangs" on equal footing with "movements motivated by religious and nationalist incentives."
• Text: State Announces New Brochure on Corruption 23 May 2000 -- State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher May 22 announced the publication of "Fighting Global Corruption: Business Risk Management," a brochure designed to assist businesspeople in coping with corrupt practices in international business.
• Private help urged for big spy agency By KIM DIXON Bloomberg News Monday, May 22, 2000 -- "Conditions have been allowed to lapse" at intelligence agencies, and they "definitely need [an] upgrade," said Steven Aftergood, director of the project on government security for the Federation of American Scientists.
• NEW VIRUS Voice of America 19 May 2000 -- This rogue computer program is said to be more destructive than the recent "Love Bug" virus, but seems to be spreading more slowly.
• Byliner: CERT'S Cross on Internet Security By Stephen E. Cross (director of the Software Engineering Institute) 18 May 2000 -- Vulnerabilities associated with the Internet put government, the military, commerce, and individual users at risk.
• Text: GAO Official on Impact of "I Love You" Virus 18 May 2000 -- Most U.S. government agencies were affected to some degree by the "I Love You" computer virus that emerged from Asia on May 4th and spread to computers worldwide, according to testimony presented to a Senate Banking subcommittee May 18.
• Excerpts: U.S. Government Officials on "I Love You" Computer Virus 18 May 2000 -- Officials charged with regulation and oversight of the U.S. financial system say the "I Love You" computer virus that raced around the world starting May 4 did minimal damage, but serves as a warning about the need for government agencies and financial institutions to remain vigilant.
• CLINTON / TERROR Voice of America 17 May 2000 -- President Clinton is seeking an additional 300-million dollars to fight global terrorism.
• Text: Clinton Announces Counterterrorism Funding Request 17 May 2000 -- President Clinton announced a plan May 17 to invest an additional $300 million in critical programs to strengthen U.S. counterterrorism efforts.
• Transcript: Clinton Adds $300 Million to Anti-terrorism Funds Request 17 May 2000 -- In response to the increasingly sophisticated and globalized nature of terrorism, President Clinton May 17 announced that he is requesting an additional $300 million to fund programs to expand intelligence efforts; improve forensic abilities; track terrorists; and enhance coordination among federal, state, and local authorities in case of attack.
• Excerpts: Worldnet on Money Laundering with Moscow, St. Petersburg 16 May 2000 -- The U.S. Department of Justice's Scott Boylan and J. Kenneth Lowrie appeared May 16 on the Department of State's "Dialogue" television program to discuss money laundering .
• CLINTON-COLOMBIA Voice of America 16 May 2000 -- President Clinton is warning that U-S national-security interests in Latin America will suffer if Congress fails to give speedy approval to anti-drug aid to Colombia.
• CYBERCRIME MEETING Voice of America 15 May 2000 -- Computer security experts say the issue of cybercrime is so new that few countries have developed adequate measures to deal with it.
• LOVE BUG - PHILIPPINES Voice of America 14 May 2000 -- Across the Philippines, people are expressing surprise and dismay that a 23-year old college drop- out who lives in Manila may have launched the most potent virus in cyber history.
• FBI-STATE/ESPIONAGE Voice of America 12 May 2000 -- The U-S State Department says it has no information to support claims by an official of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F-B-I) that spies are roaming the headquarters of the nation's foreign policy establishment disguised as reporters.
• LOVE BUG PROBE Voice of America 12 May 2000 -- Investigators in the Philippines say they do not yet have enough evidence to arrest anyone in the "I Love You" global computer virus case.
• "LOVE BUG" & CYBER-WAR Voice of America 12 May 2000 -- Experts in cyber-war say the conflict in Kosovo and the recent "love bug" virus that affected computers worldwide mark the beginning of a new era of information warfare.
• CONGRESS/STATE DEPARTMENT SECURITY Voice of America 11 May 2000 -- U-S law enforcement officials says foreign intelligence agents posing as journalists are being granted unescorted access to the U-S State Department.
• INDONESIA / AUSTRALIA Voice of America 11 May 2000 -- Australia denies allegations it has flown spy planes through Indonesian airspace to monitor military communications.
• PHILIPPINES - COMPUTER VIRUS Voice of America 11 May 2000 -- Filipino computer student drop-out Onel de Guzman says he could have accidentally started the so- called I LOVE YOU computer virus.
• U-S / TORTURE Voice of America 10 May 2000 -- The top U-S human rights official says the United States is committed to eliminating torture from the American criminal justice system.
• U-S/COLOMBIA Voice of America 10 May 2000 -- The Clinton Administration is criticizing the failure of Congress to approve its full request of nearly two billion dollars to train and equip Colombia's army to help it better fight the flow of illegal drugs.
• AFGHAN / BIN LADEN Voice of America 10 May 2000 -- Afghanistan's Taleban movement has again denied charges by the United States that it is harboring terrorists in Afghanistan.
• PHILIPPINES / COMPUTER VIRUS Voice of America 10 May 2000 -- A computer college in the Philippines (on Wednesday) has identified a student who wrote a software program very similar to the "I love you" computer virus.
• LOVE BUG COMPUTER VIRUS Voice of America 10 May 2000 -- Computer security experts warn that computer viruses like the so-called "Love Bug" from the Philippines are spreading faster and becoming more damaging each year.
• Transcript: U.S. Officials Brief on Trip to Colombia 10 May 2000 -- The May 11-12 trip to Colombia by two senior State Department officials "underscores our concern about the situation" in that Andean nation, says Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering.
• Text: U.S. Indicts Suspects in East Africa Embassy Bombings 09 May 2000 -- The United States May 8 indicted two Egyptians being held in London for the deadly bombing of United States embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in August 1998, which resulted in more than 200 deaths and more than 4,000 injuries.
• COMPUTER VIRUS/PHILIPPINES Voice of America 06 May 2000 -- Two Manila-based internet service providers are cooperating with police in an investigation of the so-called "Love Bug" computer virus.
• COMPUTER VIRUS IMPACT Voice of America 05 May 2000 -- The spread of computer viruses this week has forced many of the world's largest corporations and governments to shut down their computer systems temporarily.
• Text: State Department Corrects Error on Colombian Terrorist Report 05 May 2000 -- In the Department of State's "Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1999" report, it states that the Colombian terrorist group the National Liberation Army, or ELN, was "formed in 1965 by Jesuit priests inspired by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara." This is absolutely false. It was a misstatement that was not corrected in the editorial process.
• LOCKERBIE TRIAL Voice of America 05 May 2000 -- The defense lawyers for the two Libyans on trial -- Abdel-Basset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima -- are trying to show that others may have committed the 1988 bombing of the airliner.
• LOVE VIRUS Voice of America 04 May 2000 -- Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon says the virus also affected computer networks at the military headquarters, but he insists no weapons or secrets were affected.
• 'Love Bug' Snarls E-mail Worldwide By Jim Krane and David Noack APB Online May 4, 2000 - In Washington, where government bureaucracy is heavily dependent on e-mail and computers, many agencies unplugged their systems in order to stop the worm's spread. "I'd assume there are a lot of places in town where people are just sitting around reading old magazines," said John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists.
• LOCKERBIE TRIAL Voice of America 04 May 2000 -- The second day of testimony at the trial of two Libyans accused of bombing of a Pam Am airliner in December 1988 was devoted to the memories of the people of Lockerbie, Scotland
• FBI/WORLD TERRORISM Voice of America 04 May 2000 -- The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F-B-I) says fighting global terrorism has become a lot easier thanks to widespread cooperation among governments around the world.
• LOCKERBIE TRIAL Voice of America 03 May 2000 -- The accused Libyan intelligence officers entered the court dressed in red caps and wearing white robes.
• LOCKERBIE TRIAL Voice of America 02 May 2000 -- The trial of two Libyan suspects accused of bombing Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988 opens today (Wednesday) in the Netherlands before a Scottish Court.
• CLINTON-COLOMBIA Voice of America 02 May 2000 -- President Clinton - urging support for increased U-S aid to Colombia -- has warned that other democracies in Latin America could be toppled if the Colombian government loses its struggle with drug traffickers.
• 7 `USUAL SUSPECTS' IN TERRORISM LINEUP By John Diamond Chicago Tribune May 2, 2000 -- "It is evidently the case that the list is more than a little arbitrary," said John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington-based group that follows national security issues.
• Briefing on the 1999 Annual "Patterns of Global Terrorism" Report Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright And Michael Sheehan, Counter-Terrorism Coordinator May 1, 2000 -- The story it tells this year is largely heartening, one of terrorists caught, plots thwarted and lives saved, which means that worldwide casualties fell sharply; and the number of Americans killed, while still entirely unacceptable, was the lowest in seven years.
• TERRORISM REPORT Voice of America 01 May 2000 -- A new U-S government report says the sources of terrorism are shifting from the Middle East to countries in South Asia, and from politically motivated acts to those inspired by religion and ideology.
• Transcript: Sheehan Cites Efforts to Thwart Terrorism in the Middle East 01 May 2000 -- The State Department's Coordinator for Counterterrorism says there was "improved cooperation" in the Middle East "in disrupting terrorist cells and extraditing terrorists back for trial" in calendar year 1999.