Spies

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October 2008
- 'Ashley Wilkes' Was a Spy
  
  Guardian (UK) | Oct 6, 08 11:31 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Best remembered as one of Scarlett O'Hara’s love interests in Gone with the Wind , actor Leslie Howard was also a British secret agent who died returning from a clandestine war mission on behalf of Winston Churchill, the Guardian reports. The Luftwaffe shot down Howard's plane in 1943 after the actor delivered a secret message to Francisco Franco. More »
September 2008
- Tzipi Livni Was a Spy in Paris
  
  Times (UK) | Sep 20, 08 6:43 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The woman set to be Israel's next prime minister started her career as an elite Mossad agent in Paris, the Times of London reports. Tzipi Livni was part of a covert cell in the city during the early '80s, when it was a hotspot in the spy agency's battle with Palestinian militants and with those helping Saddam Hussein get nuclear technology. More »
- Ethel Was Innocent: Witness
  
  New York Times | Sep 12, 08 3:16 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A co-defendant of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg has admitted for the first time that he was a Soviet spy—and that she was innocent. Morton Sobell, 91, passed military secrets to the Communists in World War II when the nations were still allies, he told the New York Times . Sobell, who served 18 years for espionage, said Julius did pass secrets but Ethel, executed with her husband in 1953, was guilty of nothing more than being Mrs. Rosenberg. More »
- US 'Spied on Iraqi Leaders'
  
  Washington Post | Sep 5, 08 4:21 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Bush administration conducted an extensive spying operation on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders even while seeking to win their trust, according to a new book from the Washington Post 's Bob Woodward. The book portrays an administration hamstrung by indecision as its Iraq strategy fell apart in 2006, and a detached president orchestrated "overconfident" briefings on the situation. More »
August 2008
- Court Tosses Lawsuit Over CIA Leak
  
  Reuters | Aug 12, 08 5:13 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A federal appeals court today threw out former CIA spy Valerie Plame's lawsuit against Dick Cheney and a group of former Bush White House officials for leaking her identity to the public. The court ruled that Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and former State Department official Richard Armitage were acting within their official duties when they conspired to reveal Plame's identity to the press, Reuters reports. More »
July 2008
- White House Order Ramps Up Spy Boss Powers
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jul 31, 08 5:36 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A sweeping overhaul of spy powers will give the director of national intelligence broad new authority, reports the Wall Street Journal . Mike McConnell will be able to command information-sharing between agencies, hire and fire agency heads, and make major purchase decisions under a new executive order signed yesterday by President Bush and to be announced today, say officials briefed on the changes. More »
- Judge Orders Rosenberg Evidence Kept Secret
  
  Reuters | Jul 23, 08 4:41 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Evidence that could clear the name of Ethel Rosenberg must stay under wraps to protect grand jury secrecy, a judge ruled yesterday. Ethel and husband Julius were executed in 1953 for passing atomic secrets to the Soviets. Her brother David Greenglass, who testified against her, has since said he lied about Ethel's role to protect his own wife from prosecution. But he has requested that his grand jury testimony not be made public. More »
- 'Creative' Bush Order Shields Cheney from Plame Probe
  
  Newsweek | Jul 17, 08 3:07 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - President Bush has invoked an unprecedented executive privilege claim to bar FBI interviews with Dick Cheney from a congressional committee probing the leak that exposed Valerie Plame as a CIA agent, Newsweek reports. The Bush order argues that turning over the records of Cheney's grilling concerning the scandal would violate the president's right to confidential communication with his advisers. More »
- Cuba Rebuilds Spy Network in Fla., Agent Says
  
  Miami Herald | Jul 5, 08 3:59 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Cuba has rebuilt its spy network in Florida to its highest level in 10 years, a US Army expert on Cuban agents tells the Miami Herald . The FBI rounded up more than a dozen spies in 1998, but they have all been replaced, bringing Florida’s spy population to around 210, Lt. Col. Chris Simmons said. His revelation is the first in recent years by a US official on Cuban spies. More »
- US Spies Getting Own Version of Second Life
  
  Wired | Jul 3, 08 7:41 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Call it 007 2.0, if you will. The US military is planning a Second Life -style virtual world just for spies, complete with a “time machine” feature. But some are skeptical. "They can't do plain old forensics right and they're going to develop a mechanism that rolls the clock backwards and forwards based on multiple inputs?" grouses one unnamed critic in Wired. More »
June 2008
- Chavez Takes Over Intelligence Agencies
  
  New York Times | Jun 3, 08 10:24 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Hugo Chavez has ordered a draconian restructuring of Venezuela’s intelligence agencies, bringing them under his personal control, increasing domestic spying powers, and levying prison sentences on citizens who decline to cooperate, the New York Times reports. One justice on Venezuela’s top court expressed outrage, calling it “a step toward the creation of a society of informers.” More »
May 2008
- Spy Scandal at German Phone Giant Grows
  
  Der Spiegel | May 30, 08 3:44 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Deutsche Telekom apparently didn’t stop at looking through the phone records of board members and journalists in its bid to end leaks. The German phone giant also tracked their movements and may have snooped into personal bank records, Der Spiegel reports. Top executives also worked with a detective agency run by members of the former East German secret police. More »
April 2008
- Engineer, 84, Busted in Israeli Spy Case
  
  Reuters | Apr 23, 08 4:50 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - An 84-year-old engineer has been arrested in New Jersey on charges he passed military secrets to Israel in the '80s, Reuters reports. Ben-Ami Kadish, who holds both US and Israeli citizenship, is accused of giving classified information—including details on fighter jets, missiles, and nuclear weapons—to an Israeli consul when he worked at an Army weapons center in New Jersey. More »
- Army Engineer Accused of Spying for Israel
  
  Reuters | Apr 22, 08 2:36 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - An 84-year old American engineer was arrested today on charges of providing information on US military technology to Israel, Reuters reports. Ben-Ami Kadish, 83, has already admitted in FBI interviews to giving an unnamed Israeli source around 100 documents on nuclear weapons, the F-15 jet and the Patriot missile defense system in 1979-85. He will be arraigned this afternoon in Manhattan. More »
- Berlin Journos Say They Were Stasi Spies
  
  Guardian (UK) | Apr 3, 08 3:07 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Two top journalists for a Berlin paper have admitted they worked as informants for the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police, prompting an investigation of the paper’s editorial staff, the Guardian reports. Berliner Zeitung ’s top editor ordered an inquiry after a senior stafffer was identified as a 1970s informant; two days later, another editor told colleagues he’d spied for a decade. More »
- US Throws Book at Chinese 'Sleeper' Spy
  
  Washington Post | Apr 3, 08 11:05 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Chi Mak, a Chinese-born engineer, lived quietly with his wife in the LA suburbs for more than two decades, slowly working his way up the ladder at a US defense contractor. Eventually, he gained a security clearance—and access to plans for Navy ships, submarines and weapons, which he secretly copied and sent to Beijing. Mak, it turns out, was one China's extraordinarily patient "sleeper" agents, writes the Washington Post . Last week a federal judge sentenced him to 24 1/2 years. More »
March 2008
- Litvinenko Wife Defies Brits, Demands Inquiry
  
  Times (UK) | Mar 27, 08 10:04 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Alexander Litvinenko's widow calls for a public inquiry into the poisoning of the Russian spy in an op-ed for today's Times of London. Both the British foreign secretary and Scotland Yard have sought to dissuade her from petitioning for an inquest, saying it would prejudge a criminal trial against chief suspect Andrei Lugovoy. But after 15 months, writes Marina Litvinenko, it is clear that he will never be extradited. More »
- Engineer Gets 24 Years in China Spy Case
  
  Los Angeles Times | Mar 24, 08 8:10 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A judge sentenced Chinese-born engineer Chi Mak to 24 years in prison today for conspiring to send US military data to China, the Los Angeles Times reports. A US assistant attorney argued that Mak, 67, had violated US law even though the data on Navy submarines was not classified. Mak, a naturalized US citizen, proclaimed his love for America and vowed to appeal, Bloomberg reports. More »
- Industrial Spying Charges Deepen Russia-UK Flap
  
  BBC | Mar 20, 08 4:43 PM CDT

News Sections

Newser Specials

Stories

'Ashley Wilkes' Was a Spy

Tzipi Livni Was a Spy in Paris

Ethel Was Innocent: Witness

US 'Spied on Iraqi Leaders'

Court Tosses Lawsuit Over CIA Leak

White House Order Ramps Up Spy Boss Powers

Judge Orders Rosenberg Evidence Kept Secret

'Creative' Bush Order Shields Cheney from Plame Probe

Cuba Rebuilds Spy Network in Fla., Agent Says

US Spies Getting Own Version of Second Life

Chavez Takes Over Intelligence Agencies

Spy Scandal at German Phone Giant Grows

Engineer, 84, Busted in Israeli Spy Case

Army Engineer Accused of Spying for Israel

Berlin Journos Say They Were Stasi Spies

US Throws Book at Chinese 'Sleeper' Spy

Litvinenko Wife Defies Brits, Demands Inquiry

Engineer Gets 24 Years in China Spy Case

Industrial Spying Charges Deepen Russia-UK Flap