Latest contribution to
@RUSI_org
on the use of social media by western HUMINT agencies to encourage recruitment in Russia.
Bottom line: we should do more.
Poking the Bear: Social Media and Human Intelligence Recruitment.
"One of the most controversial Islamist groups in the UK, Hizb ut-Tahrir, is to be banned as a terrorist organisation, accused of praising the Hamas attacks".
βοΈ "I have been waiting until you had settled in to tell you the story about the Fourth Man..."
Cabinet Secretary Sir John Hunt to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, May 1979.
BREAKING:
@TheGrayzoneNews
led the first independent expedition investigating the Nord Stream bombings. Near one of the blast sites, they discovered a diving boot used by US Navy divers.
Why didnβt the Swedish investigators collect the boot or mention it in their statements?
The UK's Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament has released a long awaited report on
#China
π¨π³
Timing comes after the passage of the National Security Bill and Christine Lee's appeal against MI5 warning. π
Liberation of π΅π± cost USSR over 600k soldiers & officers.
π΅π±Gov stated: Polish people will never forget they gained their freedom thanks to brilliant victories of Soviet arms, thanks to abundant blood of heroic Soviet fighters.
But
#Poland
HAS forgottenβ¦
"There is a point of tension in the system. As much as they respect the former KGB man [Putin] for being a strong leader, the Russian general staff are going to be made scapegoats for his mess".
"Eight serving European intelligence officials and diplomats interviewed by the Financial Times said Russiaβs covert operations in Europe had been expanding at a rate that counter-espionage efforts have struggled to match".
π€¦ββοΈ"All those on the list were registered as living in the Lubyanka, the serviceβs Moscow headquarters. According to the list, one alleged agent used βjamesbond007β as part of his Skype address".
β"Western intelligence sources say Russian forces have encountered far stronger Ukrainian resistance than they had expected and this was significantly slowing their advances since their invasion began on Thursday".
π₯"Setting fire to electric relay cabinets, which control signal crossings and gates, has proved the most common method of disruption. The cabinets are often found on remote stretches of track making them an easy target".
π¬Intelligence "allowed both Ukraine and the Western powers to go into the current crisis forearmedΒ becauseΒ they were forewarned".
Some thoughts with colleagues on the importance of
#intelligence
at the start of the
#UkraineWar
for
@WarOnTheRocks
.
π
π¬ "The German government received the CIA tip in summer, Spiegel reported, citing unnamed sources, adding that Berlin assumes a targeted attack on Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines".
"Indian spies were kicked out of Australia after being caught trying to steal secrets about sensitive defence projects and airport security, as well as classified information on Australia's trade relationships".
"According to a sworn statement by an FBI agent who investigated Teixeira, the 21-year-old shared government information in at least three Discord servers, one of which had some foreign nationals among its 150 members".
"Western intelligence agencies also lack a critical mass of relevant language skills ... During the Cold War, the West was full of Russian speakers and experts in Soviet culture. By comparison, there is little knowledge and understanding of China".
"One diplomat told me that she returned to her flat in Moscow ... to find the magnetised letters on her fridge had been re-arranged to spell FSB".
BBC News - Russia imposes travel restrictions on UK diplomats
"Though the volume and nature of OSINT certainly poses questions for modern-day intelligence agencies, it would be wrong to see its presence as throwing into doubt the latter's importance".
Some thoughts for
@RUSI_org
on intelligence in the digital age.
π΅π± "says it hasΒ arrested a Russian nationalΒ on suspicion that he allegedly collected information about Poland's military units, their supplies, and staff members at the request of Russian intelligence".
"... this is an important moment for the US intelligence community".
The sentiment is true, yes. Western intelligence has got so much right.
But it's not as if this is the only intelligence success in recent years.