Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
https://theintercept.com/2020/08/26/cia-national-intelligence-official-suicide/
Anthony Schinella killed himself and Intercept broke it.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
Said guy has Russian ancestry and can speak Russian.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
Pronounced YAK-you-luss
Amazon was caught out recruiting intelligence analysts to spy on prospective trade unions.
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
The power of OSINT intelligence...
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
Who Am I?
The actual title of that article: "Leaked database indicates Chinese intelligence has probed senior Australian politicians", however, they were in fact relying on open source intelligence.
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
Even though OSINT is limited at all, it's still a gold mine if you know where to look.
This one broke out of Auckland couple of days ago. Has some data leaks from a company in China that has info on 800 New Zealanders, including Anne-Marie Brady, whose house was barged into by intruders for her stance against China.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
From an intelligence-gathering perspective, OSINT’s real value is providing a framework for understanding classified materials. By itself it rarely provides extraordinary insight, but it can be used to fill in gaps or draw connections with classified intelligence as well as provide the cultural understanding that’s often missing there.
Though, I think it’s important to draw a distinction between OSINT and journalism. There’s a lot of overlap but they’re definitely discreet fields with different goals. Journalism and reporting don’t apply the intelligence cycle, just disseminate the information.
Edited by archonspeaks on Sep 16th 2020 at 8:17:02 AM
They should have sent a poet.
Who Am I?
Places like Stratfor and Bellingcat are good for that sort of thing.
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
Indian journalist Rajeev Sharma is arrested for alledgly passing confidential information to China.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
In the name of being honest
N.Y.P.D. Officer Is Accused of Spying on Tibetans for China.
The officer, Baimadajie Angwang, 33, was taken into custody on Monday, officials said. He has served as a patrol officer and most recently worked as a community affairs officer in the 111th precinct in Queens.
A 25-page criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn accused Mr. Angwang of reporting on the activities of ethnic Tibetans in New York at the behest of Chinese government officials, who were seeking to recruit intelligence sources in the community. He also is accused of inviting a Chinese official to N.Y.P.D. events, offering potential access to senior police officials, prosecutors said.
The allegations raised serious questions about how much visibility Chinese government officials had inside the country’s largest police department and about the extent of Chinese efforts to conduct covert surveillance of Tibetan Americans.
Born in China, Mr. Angwang is a naturalized U.S. citizen who is ethnically Tibetan. In addition to being a police officer — he was once named “Cop of the Month” — he is a staff sergeant in the Army Reserve, where he had a “secret”-level security clearance, allowing him access to classified information, prosecutors said.
Since at least 2018, Mr. Angwang has communicated regularly with two consular officials in New York, including one whose department was responsible for “neutralizing sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority” of the Chinese government, according to prosecutors.
The criminal complaint mentioned several recorded phone calls between Mr. Angwang and the unnamed official, including one as recently as January.
In October 2018, Mr. Angwang suggested to the official in one call that they visit a new Tibetan community center in Queens, saying it could help with spotting potential “intelligence assets,” the complaint said.
“If it’s good or not, you need to know about this for your work’s sake,” Mr. Angwang said to the official, according to prosecutors. “They are the biggest venue for activities right now.”
That same month, Mr. Angwang received the “Cop of the Month” award from the New York Police Department, according to a Facebook post that has since been removed.
A lawyer for Mr. Angwang declined to comment. The Police Department said Mr. Angwang, who joined the force in 2016, had been suspended without pay.
Tibet, an autonomous region in China, has been a flash-point in U.S.-China relations for decades. Beijing considers Tibet to be part of its historical empire, but many Tibetans believe the region was illegally incorporated into China in 1951 and have pressed for independence. The Chinese government has long viewed the Tibetan independence movement as a threat to its stability.
A spokesman for International Campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group in Washington, said in a statement that the allegations showed the Chinese Communist Party was seeking to suppress dissent not only in Tibet, “but any place in the world where Tibetans are free to express themselves, starting with the United States of America.”
In addition to the charge of acting as an illegal agent, Mr. Angwang faces three other counts of wire fraud, making false statements and obstruction.
The recorded conversations cited in the complaint indicated that Tibetans who agreed to become intelligence sources would be compensated by the Chinese government for information they provided.
In one May 2019 telephone call, Mr. Angwang suggested to the consular official that one way to recruit Tibetan-Americans as intelligence assets would be to reward them with 10-year visas to visit China, prosecutors said.
Mr. Angwang also told the official that his position was valuable to China because he could provide sensitive information about the internal operations of the Police Department, the complaint said.
Mr. Angwang asked the official if he wanted to attend Police Department events “to raise our country’s soft power,” and invited the official to an annual banquet for Asian-American police officers, according to prosecutors.
When the official seemed reluctant, Mr. Angwang replied that the consulate should be happy because “you have extended your reach into the police department,” the complaint said.
Mr. Angwang first traveled from China to the United States on a cultural exchange visa, the complaint said. He later sought asylum, claiming that he had been arrested and tortured in mainland China because of his Tibetan ethnicity.
But prosecutors suggested in a court filing that Mr. Angwang secured his American citizenship under false pretenses, noting that he had traveled back to China after being granted asylum. “These are not the actions of an individual who fears torture or persecution,” prosecutors wrote, arguing against bail.
Mr. Angwang’s parents and brother still live in mainland China. His parents are members of the Communist Party, and his father is a retired member of the Chinese military, the complaint said.
In the name of being honest
So a Taiwanese-born friend of mine whose family follows Tibetan Buddhism and is tight with the local Tibetan diaspora has been doing some digging on the above case and pointed out some interesting facts:
- It's mentioned in the above article, but the officer, Baimadajie Angwang (Chinese transliteration of "Pema Dorje Ngawang"?) is from a family of CCP cadres, and his father and brother were in the PLA. So it's probably safe to say that his political orientation somewhat differs from the wider Tibetan diaspora community, who, how do we put this... aren't quite as partial towards the CCP.
- Here's a photo of him next to AOC at a Losar event held by the New York Tibetan community.◊
- He's from the Gyalrong region, which is geographically part of the Sichuan province (Eastern Kham if you're Tibetan) rather than the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Unlike the TAR (Ü-Tsang), Eastern Kham never became independent and remained under Chinese rule throughout the 20th century; even today, it very rarely sees any form of protests. Which might further explain the guy's pro-CCP background.
- The FBI court filing is available here. It mentions that the guy had sought asylum in the US on the basis that he'd allegedly been physically abused in China over his Tibetan ethnicity... though apparently he's also visited China a few times since then, which means that his case doesn't exactly hold water.
- For those unfamiliar, China doesn't recognise dual citizenships, so Angwang had to apply for a visa each time as a US citizen. It's mentioned in the filing that he'd tried to apply for a special ten-year visa but got turned down over his Tibetan ethnicity, and that his handler from the PRC consulate had told him to get around it by filing his ethnicity as Han Chinese instead.
- The rest of the case is pretty underwhelming, honestly. Most of the stuff he allegedly told his handlers are really basic, publicly-available items, like the presence of a Tibetan community centre in New York. On occasions, he's recommended his handlers to make show-of-force visits to intimidate the local community, as well as cultivating Muslim and Catholic Tibetans as intelligence sources (how many of those are there in NYC, exactly?). All in all, doesn't exactly scream "superspy"; more like a minor Party princeling who'd tried to ingratiate himself with the establishment with junk intel that his handlers didn't even deem valuable enough to reward him with a ten-year visa for. Apparently the larger Tibetan diaspora is doubting that the guy spoke Tibetan at all, since he barely seemed to be in touch with the local community.
- Probably the most interesting tidbit is that Angwang holds a "secret"-level security clearance as a member of the US Army Reserve. The document doesn't mention whether they dug anything up on that count (other than the obvious issue of lying on a security clearance form), so we'll see whether that leads to anything.
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
Putting this vid that compiled all the info so far.
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
Update on the Dickson Yeo case. It's on record that he admits Chinese sympathies.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
In the name of being honest
I just would like to extend a most solemn F to our adversaries over at NUS Social Sciences for their newly-famous ex-colleague.
Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)
A Russian Spy’s Manual: Send a Secret Message to the Strela-3 Satellite and Betray NATO Allies
Who Am I?
I read the article, and what impressed me was how old fashioned the GRU's techniques were.
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
The Mystery of the Immaculate Concussion
Who Am I?
He wants to buy the weapon.
Anyway, relative to the GRU and tradecraft is concerned, I remember reading ''Inside Soviet Military Intelligence''. It was written in the 1980's, but the point is that intelligence agencies still use these techniques. It's very readable and informative.
Going analog is sometimes a more reliable method, although it is somewhat amusing when people get caught while doing them.
As far as GRU is concerned, today we saw the indictment of the GRU cyber team. There's been massive security breaches with them the last few years.
Who Am I?
They don't even seem to be trying that hard to cover up their tracks. They must feel almost invulnerable.
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
A procrastination in of itself
Until someone is willing to engage in unconventional warfare back at them, they basically are.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Mark Galeotti's podcast goes into the culture of GRU which very much is a "kill everyone, break everything" world. Apparently, it's a result of the military Spetsnaz (most of which GRU controls) infecting every level up to analysts with a hypermasculine "at all costs" mentality.
It's an old sin, and the KGB always hated the GRU for being sloppy. Although from the Finnish perspective their scientific intelligence (X line) was an exception.
Edited by TerminusEst on Oct 21st 2020 at 2:49:11 AM
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
From Bellingcat:
Russia’s Clandestine Chemical Weapons Programme and the GRU’s Unit 29155
https://globalnews.ca/video/7298304/inside-the-chinese-military-cyberattack-on-canadas-nortel/
Interesting video that suggests the downfall of Nortel may have been caused thanks to Chinese-backed hackers that coincided with the slow rise of Huawei.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"