A Canadian documentary, Influence, profiles the late Tim Bell, a state of the art political consultant, in the United Kingdom. His firm, Bell Pottinger, had a long history of advocacy for authoritarian clients from Syria’s Bashar Assad to South Africa’s Jacob Zuma. He was, in a phrase, a disinformation artist. Like Frank FIgliuzzi, Kent Harrington,...
Category: Activities
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The Undercover Mission of the New International Spy Museum
The new International Spy Museum in Washington D.C. is, not surprisingly, an institution in disguise, an undercover operation executed in plain sight. The museum’s beveled glassy front is more stylish than its neighbors–the bland façade of the Post Office to the west, the neo-expressionist face of the General Services Administration to the north. Yet the...
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Inside R&AW’s Covert Operations
India’s secret intelligence service, known as the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) is less well-known than the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India’s premier investigative agency. But R&AW is gaining a great public profile. Like CIA and Mossad, it’s espionage exploits are depicted in a premium cable show. With Prime Minister Naendra Modi’s more aggressive stance toward...
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Is Kim Jong-un Building a Nuclear-Armed Submarine?
The South Korean intelligence agency thinks so, according to leading news site Dong-A Ilbo, The “new strategic weapon” mentioned by North Korea leader Kim Jong Un at the end of last year is likely to be a new 3,000-ton submarine equipped with multiple submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), the South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities said....
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Who Is Dmitry Badin, the GRU Hacker Indicted By Germany For Hacking the Bundestag?
From Bellingcat, a deep dive on a GRU hacker, involved in multiple hacking operations. The story underscores and illuminates the fact the GRU is involved in operations against the German parliament, the Bundestag, as well as international organizations such as The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the World Anti-Doping Agency. It is...