Raleigh Spy Conference, Day one

raleighspyconference.com

Thursday August 25

8:30 AM - 9:00 AM

Final registration at NC Museum of History.

9:00 AM - 10:15 AM

Opening address by Michael Sulick, former Director of CIA’s National Clandestine Service entitled “Illegals: An Historic Perspective”.

10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

British intelligence expert and author Nigel West on “Glimpses of Soviet Illegal Networks During the Cold War”.

LUNCH BREAK

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Dan Mulvenna, retired intelligence, officer Royal Canadian Mounted Police on “Russian Intelligence Services’ Illegals In Canada: Pipeline To The US, UK and Europe”.

3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Brian Kelley, former CIA officer, lecturer and close advisor to the Raleigh Spy Conference, on “The Spies Next Door”.

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

SPY GALA. This annual drinks party provides attendees the opportunity to meet socially with speakers and special guests. Gala to be held at Amra’s jazz club, 106 Glenwood Avenue in the Glenwood South district near downtown.

Tel: 919-828-8488

www.amrasraleigh.com

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Raleigh Spy Conference: The Spies Among Us...

raleighspyconference.com



Note: What are you waiting for? Stop by, It should be a blast! JDL

Wednesday August 24-26

5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

Pre-Registration Reception 18 Seaboard restaurant gallery space, 18 Seaboard Avenue off Peace Street near downtown Raleigh. Tel: 919-861-4318 www.18seaboard.com

The Raleigh Spy Conference is known nationally for providing the general public direct access to intelligence officers, operatives and scholars in an informal atmosphere. Attendees have the opportunity to speak with and mix socially with conference speakers during the event.



"In Washington, it's difficult for the public to comprehend important intelligence and terrorism issues since everything is partisan and politically charged. Outside Washington, there are few voices for the public to hear, and those heard are often wrong or media-driven. Few are able to explain to the public what really has happened, and is happening, in intelligence, counterterrorism and national security - important issues, which, throughout history, have spelled the survival or loss of this or other nations. The annual Raleigh Spy Conference is a rare opportunity to hear it straight, with an unusual 'insider's' perspective and knowledge. Each year this conference opens that door to share remarkable insights and stellar speakers with the public. If one claims a scintilla of world-affairs knowledge, it cannot be true unless the annual Raleigh Spy Conference is on your calendar."



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Tools of Tradecraft: More Spy Gear From the CIA, Others

wired
Every good spy story needs a sequel.

Last month, we published a gallery of CIA spy tools that was so popular, we decided to publish a follow-up with more gear.

We've expanded the rogue's gallery of ingenious spy gadgets with a raft of devious tricks from the former Soviet bloc and other countries, including a lipstick gun, shoe bug and a seriously savage rectal Houdini kit (you'll understand it when you see the pic). We hope you like these as much as you liked the others. All images are courtesy of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.

Kiss of Death

For the spy-op gone bad, or simply for any Natscha who found herself out to dinner with the date from hell, this Cold War-era KGB lipstick gun delivered the kiss of death with a single 4.5mm shot.

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‘My colleague was a Russian spy’

ft.com

For eight years I worked with one of the Russian spies arrested in the US last summer. I am an investigative journalist, and yet I had no clue.

I met Vicky Peláez in 2002 when, according to the FBI, she was already working for the Russian Federation. She had emigrated from Peru to the US in the mid-1980s with her husband, and got a job on El Diario La Prensa, New York’s largest Spanish-language newspaper. That’s where we met, after I started work there as a reporter. She was a columnist, well-known for her anti-American views and her support of radical movements in Latin America – some colleagues nicknamed her la Talibana.

But apart from her political activism, she just looked like a typical New York suburban mom in her fifties. When she wasn’t talking about politics, we chatted about her two sons, one of whom was a classical pianist; her two schnauzers; how expensive the city was or how to lose weight. She was a terrific cook who loved to make ceviche.

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Moscow raps British restrictions on Russian spy suspect

cnn.com

Moscow (CNN) -- Russia expressed concern Friday over restrictions by British authorities on Russian national Yekaterina Zatuliveter, who was arrested in Britain several weeks ago on suspicion of spying and faces possible deportation.

Zatuliveter, 25, a parliamentary assistant to Liberal Democrat Mike Hancock, has been questioned several times about her possible connections with Russian intelligence. She was detained in London early last month as a suspected "sleeper" agent spying in British Parliament.

"We are seriously concerned about the situation around Russian citizen Y. Zatuliveter, whose freedom has been restricted by the British authorities for six weeks now," the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday in a posting on its website.

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3 Famous Spy Cases That Shaped The United States

In one form or another, spying and espionage have been going on as long as there have been groups of people who have an interest in keeping an eye on each other. Historical cases of spying and espionage have shaped the way in which The United States handles domestic and international crime fighting and security. The following are three influential cases that marked very important eras in US history:

1. The Atom Spy Case- The Rosenburgs
(http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/famcases/atom/atom.htm)
Russian-Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenburg were responsible for Soviet Russia's acquisition of the atom bomb. In a complex web of intrigue, the couple recruited David Greenglass, Ethel's brother, to obtain atom bomb schematics. A communist since the age of 14 and a member of the military, Greenglass was able to obtain the schematics. These were then passed on to the Russian intelligence agency in Moscow.

2. The Pearl Harbor Spy
(http://www.fbi.gov/page2/feb05/kuehn022105.htm)
German national Otto Kuehn was responsible for coordinating the attack of the Japanese fleet on Pearl Harbor. With a complex serious of signals—bed sheets being hung to dry at certain hours, lights lit in certain windows of his house, etc.— Kuehn was able to reveal the movements of specific Navy vessels and to prevent troop deployments. Five days before the December 7th, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Kuehn sent a letter to the Japanese commander containing details concerning the US fleet.

In the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attacks, Kuehn was found guilty of being a spy. Initially, he was sentenced to die by firing squad. Instead, he was sentenced to life in prison and then deported.

3. 1985 The Year of the Spy
(http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/famcases/year_of_the_spy/spy.htm)
In 1985, a notable number of high-profile individuals were arrested for spying. While the Cold-War was winding down, spying activities continued with great intensity. The following spies were apprehended during this year of high intensity espionage.

John Anthony Walker Jr. - US Navy Warrant Officer and Communications Specialist

Jonathan Jay Pollard - Civilian intelligence analyst at the Navy's Anti-Terrorist Alert Center in Maryland

Sharon Marie Scranage - CIA clerk stationed in Ghana

Larry Wu-tai Chin - Chinese language translator/intelligence officer for CIA, 1952 to 1981

Ronald William Pelton - Communications specialist, National Security Agency


Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at onlinedegrees.org, researching areas of online college degrees. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

The 12th Russian Spy Worked at Microsoft

gizmodo.com
He may not have the femme fatale appeal of Anna Chapman, but recently deported Russian spy Alexey Karetnikov had something eve more intriguing: gainful employment at Microsoft. Which might explain a lot about Vista, amIright?

The twentysomething Karetnikov actually worked at Microsoft for a nine month period as a software tester, meaning he wasn't actually writing any code. He also, according to his Facebook page, worked for a Romanian software company called Neobit. And yes, Microsoft has confirmed that it's the same guy.

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Why The Russia Spy Story Really Matters

rferl.org
Invisible ink, instructions concealed in images posted on the Internet, a laptop in a Barnes & Noble flashing messages to a passing van: the high-tech spycraft used by the 10 now-confessed Russian intelligence agents arrested last month intrigue us because it rings of good old spy fiction -- and the exchange of the spies for four Russians convicted of spying for the West only adds to that feeling -- but it's less astounding than the farce.

A former KGB officer who handled the KGB's biggest-ever spies -- Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen -- in Washington during the 1980s calls it so absurd as to be unbelievable. "It's as if a kindergarten class decided to go into espionage," says Viktor Cherkashin, "not the intelligence service I knew."

But dismissing the latest spy scandal as indication the Russians are ineffectually still fighting the Cold War is to miss the big picture. In fact, Moscow is skillfully advancing its interests in the West, not through intelligence but business, often supported by crafty industrial espionage, influence-buying, and under-the-table deal-making.

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Past Russian spies have found post-swap life gets a bit sticky

washingtonpost.com

Russia's accused spies could be posing soon for stamp designers in Moscow instead of prison intake photographers here, if a swap deal comes through and the Kremlin follows its tradition of honoring its secret agents.

Ever since the depths of the Cold War, the Kremlin has used postage stamps to showcase operatives who managed to steal some of the West's most guarded secrets, from atomic bomb designs to diplomatic cables to sensitive technical information, before they were arrested.

Their stories are as well known in Russia as the legend of Revolutionary War spy Nathan Hale is here.

And while life in Moscow may be duller than New York, Boston, New Jersey, Seattle and Washington, D.C., where the 11 Russians charged last week allegedly lived as long-term, deep-penetration agents, it won't be too bad, either, if their predecessors' experience is any guide.

Their main worry will be keeping their minds.

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It's not just the Russians who are spying on the U.S.

vancouversun.com

The arrest of 11 people on charges of espionage for the Russian government was a case of old-fashioned spy craft straight from the annals of the Cold War: dead drops, moles and communicating in code, known as steganography. Yet Russia is not alone in trying to crack U.S. secrets. China is engaged in a massive espionage effort against the United States that exceeds Russian efforts on a crucial front: Cyber espionage.

The Chinese military — namely the People's Liberation Army — is behind many of the cyber intrusions into U.S. government and corporate computer networks as part of a broad effort to steal technological, military and political secrets. This form of espionage costs the United States hundreds of billions of dollars per year and represents a dangerous threat to U.S. national security. In early 2010, news reports from Washington indicated that Google, along with other U.S.-based corporations, was being hacked by unnamed parties in China. A progressive political organization, Patriot Majority, asked me and a team of journalists and researchers to investigate the likeliest source of the attacks. After combing through government documents, military land technical literature we concluded the Chinese military was likely behind many cyber intrusions against the United States.

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High-Tech Espionage Helped Alleged Russian Spies

foxnews.com

High-tech espionage is alive and well.

According to documents released Monday in the case of 11 Russians accused of spying in the U.S., cold-war era spying is dead. The modern spy is a Jason-Bourne style stealth agent who relies on tech to uncover secrets.

According to a story on CNET, the court papers made public by the Justice Department (PDF and PDF) show that the group used private wireless networks to transmit files, passed data on USB memory sticks and sent text messages -- all protected and encrypted with custom-written "steganographic" software

, which let them hide secret messages in otherwise innocent-looking files.

Defendant Anna Chapman reportedly brought her laptop to a Manhattan coffee shop and transferred data with a Russian government official -- who drove by in a minivan but never entered the store. Chapman also allegedly opened her laptop while in a bookstore in lower Manhattan and used a private Wi-Fi network to communicate with the same Russian official.

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FBI: 10 Russian Spies Arrested in U.S.

cbsnews.com
Ten alleged Russian spies have been arrested in the United States, the result of a multi-year investigation in four states, the FBI said Monday.

Eight of the 10 arrested were "carrying out long-term, 'deep-cover' assignments" the FBI said, while two had lesser roles in the Russian intelligence program. The arrests took place Sunday in Montclair, N.J., Yonkers, N.Y., Manhattan, Boston and Arlington, Va.

The New York and New Jersey defendants were expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan Monday. The Virginia defendants were to make court appearances in Alexandria.

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USB Flash Drive Spy Cufflinks

cg

All Spies must have their data with them at all times! We want absolutely everything to be mobile and with us at all times. Which makes these flash drive cufflinks only the obvious next step. This pair of USB drives will let you keep all of your documents directly on your wrist. Plus you can keep two different sets, since you’ll have a drive on each wrist.

It will give you a total of 4GB worth of space to fill up, there’s 2GB on each of the drives. You can even have the shiny drive engraved. Should you not like the shiny look you can also pick up gunmetal and gold finishes. They are small enough that it’s unlikely that another spy will notice them.

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You Too Can Have An iPad Spy Suit !

cg

"Q" meets Armani?

So you decided to jump on the bandwagon and buy an iPad. Now what? You can’t just slip it into your pocket like the rest of your electronics, but it just seems odd to carry it in a laptop bag. The iPad just doesn’t have a category so it’s trying to attempt to find the proper way to carry it around. Thankfully one suit maker is more than happy to create a custom suit that has a giant pocket on the inside just for your precious iPad.

Rush out and get yours Here

Ukraine breaks up alleged Russian spy ring

washingtonpost.com

KIEV, Ukraine -- A spying scandal between Ukraine and Russia threatens to heighten tensions between the countries as Ukraine's holds a presidential runoff election Sunday between a Russian-leaning candidate and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Ukraine's security service said Wednesday five Russians were detained last month after being caught trying to obtain confidential military information from a Ukrainian citizen.

"We have broken up an FSB spying operation," Ukrainian security services spokeswoman Marina Ostapenko said.

Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, confirmed its agents had been detained, but accused Ukraine of sensationalizing the issue.

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