Spies

(Newser) - Tech blogs are abuzz with reports of an NBC producer who attempted to infiltrate an annual hackers' conference and had the tables turned on her. Michelle Madigan of "Dateline"—the show that gave the world "To Catch a Predator"—arrived packing a hidden camera and fled after convention organizers lured her into a trap, ZDNet reports. More »

(Newser) - Hollywood’s top spy has a new name: Bourne, Jason Bourne. The Bourne Ultimatum shattered box office records this weekend by racking up the largest August opening ever, Variety reports. Domestically, the Matt Damon vehicle grossed $70.2 million, more than the two previous “Bourne” flicks or any James Bond movie. More »

(Newser) - Valerie Plame won't be allowed to disclose the dates she worked for the CIA in her upcoming memoir because it's classified information, a federal judge ruled today. The outed agent and publisher Simon & Schuster sued to keep the CIA from quashing info in her book, Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House. More »

(Newser) - The executive branch has had more authority to spy on citizens than yet reported, the Washington Post revealed today. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell explained yesterday that the controversial NSA warrantless wiretapping and data mining program was only one element in a broader series of secret surveillance activities issued under a single executive order by President Bush in 2001. More »

(Newser) - A judge today dismissed outed CIA operative Valerie Plame's civil suit against Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby, saying that the revelation of her identity "was incidental to the kind of conduct that defendants were employed to perform." Furthermore, the judge ruled, Plame and her husband, ex-ambassador Joseph Wilson, failed to show that the case belongs in federal court. More »

(Newser) - Two Iranian-American scholars arrested for espionage in Iran appear to have made videotaped confessions after months of interrogation, the Los Angeles Times reports. Iran's state-run television is airing excerpts of the statements  to promote the confessions to be broadcast tomorrow. On tape, Haleh Esfandiari 67, of  the Woodrow Wilson Center, appears pale and wears a black chador. More »

(Newser) - Britain has expelled four Russian diplomats from London in retaliation for Moscow's refusal to extradite a suspect in the sensational radiation poisoning of a former KGB spy on British soil. Russia immediately threatened Britain with "the most serious consequences for Russian-British relations," Reuters reports. More »

(Newser) - Scotland Yard is investigating the death of an Egyptian billionaire suspected of being a Mossad spy. Ashraf Marwan's body was found yesterday on the pavement beneath the balcony of his fourth-floor London flat. Friends said Marwan, who was 62, feared assassination since 2004 when it was first reported that he passed intelligence to Israelis before the 1973 Yom Kippur War. More »

(Newser) - The CIA is secretly working with the Sudanese government to send spies into Iraq, even as the US condemns the regime's role in the Darfur genocide, the LA Times reports. Sudan's position as a gateway for Islamic militants heading for Iraq and Pakistan makes it ideal for sending spies into Iraq. And Sudanese agents can penetrate where Americans cannot. More »

(Newser) - The former CIA agent whose cover was blown, leading to the perjury conviction of the vice president's former top aide, is suing the agency for interfering with the publication of her memoir. Valerie Plame Wilson and Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Fair Game, filed suit in federal court today, seeking clearance to disclose her dates of service. More »

(Newser) - Relations between Russia and the UK have dipped to a post-Cold War nadir, the Times is reporting. The Kremlin refused yesterday to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, whom Britain has accused of murdering a former Russian spy in London last year. Investigators suspect that Moscow ordered the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, an outspoken Yeltsin critic. More »

(Newser) - The poisoning death of spy-turned-dissident Alexander Litvinenko was the work of another ex-KGB operative, the British government says, and it wants the accused charged and extradited. But Moscow refuses to deliver him, the BBC reports, saying that would violate the Russian constitution. Litvinenko was a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin, whom he accused on his deathbed of ordering his murder. More »

(Newser) - The CIA, NSA, and other intelligence agencies face a crisis of human capital as they struggle to close the chasm between recently recruited agents and supervisors quickly approaching retirement, Government Executive magazine reports. The spy world is scrambling to keep up with the 21st century's touchy-feely corporate culture, creating more opportunities for collaboration and mentoring. More »