Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, Hamas operatives applied for CIA jobs

...The CIA found that among a subset of job seekers whose backgrounds raised questions, roughly one out of every five had "significant terrorist and/or hostile intelligence connections," according to the document, which was provided to the Washington Post by former National Security Agency contractorEdward Snowden.

The groups cited most often were Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda and its affiliates, but the nature of the connections was not described in the document.

More HERE 

Glenn Greenwald’s Partner Detained By British Security; Was Transporting Top Secret Documents

Early Sunday morning, Glenn Greenwald learned that his Brazilian partner, David Miranda, was detained and interrogated for nine hours by security officials at London’s Heathrow airport. The officials also seized Miranda’s electronic devices: his phone, laptop and so forth. At first glance, if he was indeed held because of his association with Greenwald, this was a horribly tone-deaf and heavy-handed move by British officials, especially knowing that Miranda was apparently detained under the U.K.’s Terrorism Act of 2000, Schedule 7.

But then, as the day wore on, more details came to light indicating that Miranda wasn’t detained simply because of a “despotic” worse-than-the-Mafia attack on an innocent spouse.

h/t Terry Glavin

Spy Wars on the Discovery Channel

Michael Ross, author, columnist and former Mossad spy, will appear on Spy Wars on The Discovery Channel.

It's on Thursday at 9 PM Eastern and repeated at 1 AM and 4 PM on Friday.

"Former Israeli and American spies explore the technology and tactics behind one of the greatest murder mysteries: the assassination of Saddam Hussein's top weapons scientist Gerald Bull in March 1990."

Michael is an old friend of this blog as well as the author of The Volunteer: A Canadian's Secret Life in the Mossad. His insight promises to make Spy Wars a must see.

Israeli spymaster Dr. Dolittle strikes again in Iran!

First it was the Shark that Egyptians claimed was a Mossad agent eating people in the Red Sea.

Then came the Mossad Vulture. The Saudis arrested a vulture with a tracking collar as part of an avian migration study. The collar read "Tel Aviv University." Because as we all know, good spies wear collars identifying their country of origin.

Iran, never to be outdone in stupidity and paranoia by anyone, has just arrested 14 squirrels. Yup. You heard right. Squirrels.

"In recent weeks, intelligence operatives have arrested 14 squirrels within Iran's borders," state-sponsored news agency IRNA reported. "The squirrels were carrying spy gear of foreign agencies, and were stopped before they could act, thanks to the alertness of our intelligence services."

And these people are about to put a nuclear reactor online? News like this makes me wish John McCain had won the 2008 election.

Iran's Chernobyl on the way

The Stuxnet computer worm that attacked computer systems in Iranian nuclear facilities last November has destroyed about 20% of Iran's nuclear centrifuges, according to The New York Times.

The Times speculates that the worm was devised by a joint US-Israeli intelligence program and, if reports are true, was one of the most advanced, ingenious spy devices ever used.

The worm itself now appears to have included two major components. One was designed to send Iran’s nuclear centrifuges spinning wildly out of control. Another seems right out of the movies: The computer program also secretly recorded what normal operations at the nuclear plant looked like, then played those readings back to plant operators, like a pre-recorded security tape in a bank heist, so that it would appear that everything was operating normally while the centrifuges were actually tearing themselves apart.

In addition to delaying Iran's nuclear program, the worm may have created the seeds of a disaster that could devestate Iran if its mullah-controlled government continues to ferverently persue nuclear technology as a point of hubris.

Britain's The Telegraph reports that Russian scientists working in Iran's nuclear program have alerted the Kremlin that, in the wake of the damage, an "Iranian Chernobyl" will happen if they are forced to comply with Iran's deadline for completing the project.

The Telegraph's story stated:

Russian scientists working at the plant have become so concerned by Iran's apparent disregard for nuclear safety issues that they have lobbied the Kremlin directly to postpone activation until at least the end of the year, so that a proper assessment can be made of the damage caused to its computer operations by Stuxnet.

The Iranian government is bitterly opposed to any further delay, which it would regard as another blow to national pride on a project that is more than a decade behind schedule. While Western intelligence officials believe Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, Iran insists the project's goals are peaceful.

The Russian scientists' report to the Kremlin, a copy of which has been seen by The Daily Telegraph, concludes that, despite "performing simple, basic tests" on the Bushehr reactor, the Russian team "cannot guarantee safe activation of the reactor".

It also accuses the Iranian management team, which is under intense political pressure to stick to the deadline, of "not exhibiting the professional and moral responsibility" that is normally required. They accuse the Iranians of having "disregard for human life" and warn that Russia could find itself blamed for "another Chernobyl" if it allows Bushehr to go ahead.

"The worm itself now appears to have included two major components. One was designed to send Iran’s nuclear centrifuges spinning wildly out of control. Another seems right out of the movies: The computer program also secretly recorded what normal operations at the nuclear plant looked like, then played those readings back to plant operators, like a pre-recorded security tape in a bank heist, so that it would appear that everything was operating normally while the centrifuges were actually tearing themselves apart."

How not to be a Russian Spy

The Washington Post has found pictures of accused Russian spy Anna Chapman that she posted to a Russian social networking site called, "Odnoklassniki." One has the caption, "Russia, Moscow. My favorite place on earth, my native capital!"

If she is what authorities allege, Russian spies have gotten a lot dumber since John Le Carre wrote about them.