German intelligence report points to Turkey’s covert espionage efforts

Source: Ahval

July 10 2020

Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) has selected Germany as one of the countries to focus its activities in, according an annual report from the German intelligence service BfV.

MİT focuses its efforts particularly on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated a terrorist organisation by both Turkey and the European Union, and the Gülen movement, which only Turkey recognises as such, Deutsche Welle said on Thursday, citing the 2019 report.

The findings show that the Turkish intelligence agency also concentrates on individuals and NGOs in Germany who oppose Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.

MİT has undergone a transformation, and was granted extensive authority as the “central element of the Turkish security architecture,” the report said.

BfV said that MİT sought to gather intelligence via publicly available sources and covert methods, both domestically and abroad, to influence Turkish and German politics, economy, and technology-related companies.

Dual German-Turkish citizens working as German diplomats have occasionally been turned away at the Turkish border or faced detention due to MİT scrutiny, BfV also found.

Absent from the report was Religious Affairs Turkish-Islamic Union (DİTİB), an organisation associated with Turkey’s top state religious institution, Diyanet, which is active in Europe, despite having a microscope on it in past years over its contribution to covert espionage operations.

The pro-AKP Union of International Democrats (UID) was also listed. The UID has chapters in 13 regions in Berlin and West Germany as an AKP lobbying organisation. The UID makes efforts to appear “moderate”, and not directly tied to Turkey, according to the report, however Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has met the group during his visits to Germany.

Germany’s 1.4-million-strong Turkish community is significant for both countries, it said, citing some 600,000 Turks who voted remotely on Turkey’s general and presidential elections in 2018.

The German intelligence service also cited the Grey Wolves – a paramilitary youth organisation under AKP’s silent coalition partner the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) as right-wing extremists that “aim for radical change in Turkey to the political order via frequent use of violence and terrorism.”

The report pointed to several Kurdish and umbrella organisations as affiliated with the PKK, which is outlawed in Germany. It said the PKK used different names to divert the bans against the organisation, adding that the European Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress (NAV-DEM) had taken a backseat while Confederation of Kurdistan Communities in Germany (KON-MED) stepped onto the stage.

PKK activities in Germany had drawn fewer participants in 2019, while donations to the organisation increased, BfV said. PKK gathered 16 million euros in Germany in 2019, and over 25 million euros across Europe.

An upward trend was seen in recruitment efforts for various armed Kurdish forces, especially after Turkey’s military incursions into Syria – where Kurdish groups have fought the Islamic State militant group for several years – took over part of the territory they controlled.

German official records show that at least 280 people left Germany to join the PKK, in Turkey, northern Iraq and northeast Syria. At least 23 of these people were killed abroad, while authorities have information on 135 people returning.

Four German citizens lost their lives in battle, “proving that persons from Germany really do receive military training and are utilised in combat,” the report said.

The German television channel ZDF released a documentary last month that presented new evidence about espionage in Germany carried out against opponents and critics of the AKP government and Erdoğan.

The documentary, entitled “How Erdoğan’s critics are exposed to espionage in Germany", revealed evidence that the espionage is still being done by DİTİB in Germany on behalf of Turkey’s MİT.

According to the documentary, the Turkish intelligence agency relies heavily on Turkish mosques operating under DİTİB’s umbrella. DİTİB is Germany’s largest Islamic organisation, and it operates more than 900 mosques located in Germany’s 16 states.

In its documentary, the German channel interviewed Turkish citizens who fled to Germany after the failed coup attempt against Erdoğan in 2016. Exiled Turks living in Germany said that they have been subjected to direct threats from imams of DİTİB mosques due to their criticism of Erdoğan and his government.

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Top US intelligence official visits Turkey

US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. (Photo: AP)

Πηγή: Todays Zaman
Sep. 19 2011


US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has arrived in Ankara for a surprise visit, a news report said on Monday.

Clapper arrived in Ankara on Sunday evening and began talks with Turkish officials on Monday morning, private NTV television reported. There was no official statement on Clapper's visit from Turkish or US authorities.

Clapper is having talks at the General Staff, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the Foreign Ministry, according to NTV. His talks focus on the planned deployment of a US radar system as part of a NATO-backed missile defense system in the eastern Turkish province of Malatya and the fight against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), as well as the developments in the Middle East.

Turkey announced earlier this month that it had agreed to the deployment of the X-Band radar as part of NATO's missile defense system, designed to protect the European allies of NATO from missile threats that could stem from Russia or Iran. Turkey had insisted during the course of negotiations over hosting the US radar that no country should be mentioned as a source of threat, a demand accepted by the US and other allies.
On Sunday, Turkish officials denied earlier reports that Clapper was to visit Turkey soon.

The US has been sharing intelligence with Turkey about the movements of the PKK in a joint effort to combat the terrorist group. Turkish and American officials have recently discussed the possibility of predator drones being stationed at bases in Turkey.

Given the fact that US withdrawal from Iraq is only weeks away, the American military may soon send its unmanned aerial vehicles home. Turkey, which has found half of its own unmanned aerial vehicles impounded by its formerly close ally Israel, has suggested instead that they be stationed in Turkey for intelligence gathering against the PKK.

Ankara restructuring intelligence service

Πηγή: Turkish Weekly
By Serkan Demirtaş

Sep. 19 2011

Turkey’s secret service is undergoing a silent but significant administrative and strategic transformation by focusing more on foreign intelligence under its new chief, Hakan Fidan, who hit the headlines over his controversial meetings with terrorists.

Formerly deputy undersecretary of the office of the Prime Ministry, Fidan was appointed as the chief of the National Intelligence Organization, or MİT, a year ago, with plans to sharply split domestic and foreign intelligence. Within this plan, MİT’s administrative body was amended last year to allow the intelligence organization to modify its structure.

The Hürriyet Daily News has learned that a senior on-duty ambassador has been appointed as the deputy undersecretary at MİT to deal with foreign intelligence and to provide coordination between the organization and the Foreign Ministry. Sources said the decision to appoint an ambassador was made before voice recordings were leaked of Fidan with senior members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. General directorates on strategic and open source intelligence will be subordinated to the diplomat-turned-intelligence officer. As part of the plan, MİT has begun to recruit new personnel able to speak regional languages. The plan also envisions intensified coordination between Turkey’s embassies and intelligence organization.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu confirmed the plan Sunday in an interview with the private channel CNNTürk. “We are living in a dynamic conjuncture. There are changes in our region. Why do we have to be dependent on other countries’ intelligence organizations on these issues? Our intelligence can do it better,” Davutoğlu said.

Praising Fidan’s year-long performance and decision to give more weight to foreign intelligence, Davutoğlu said he widened the scope of intelligence by improving the organization’s capabilities. The minister emphasized that he was backing Fidan in the change and giving it his full support. “Hereafter, Turkey’s intelligence will be able to have its finger on the pulse in every corner of the world,” he added.

According to Davutoğlu, the transformation at MİT is not different from other institutions like the General Staff and is the result of the growing influence of Turkey’s foreign policy on the global level. He said the leak of a top-secret recording is part of a smear campaign against Fidan, hinting at the involvement of Israel, which did not hide its unease at the appointment of Fidan to head MİT, once a good ally of its intelligence service Mossad.

Following Fidan’s appointment and Israel’s raid last year of the Gaza-bound aid ship Mavi Marmara, killing nine Turkish activists, Mossad cut intelligence-sharing with MİT out of concerns that information could be passed on Iran, Israel’s regional foe. That move was followed by intelligence organizations of some European countries that were mainly dependent on Mossad’s capabilities. Sources described this as a turning point in Turkey’s shift to improving its foreign intelligence capacity.

US scientist Stewart Nozette pleads guilty to attempted espionage

Stewart David Nozette will be sentenced to 13 years in jail for attempting to sell classified information. Photograph: AP

Πηγή: The Guardian
Wednesday 7 September 2011

A former US government space scientist has pleaded guilty to one count of attempted espionage for trying to sell classified information to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli spy.

During an appearance in federal court, Stewart David Nozette admitted trying to provide Israel with top-secret information about satellites, early warning systems, ways of retaliating against large-scale attacks, communications intelligence information and major elements of defence strategy.

Both the justice department and Nozette's lawyers have agreed to a sentence of 13 years in prison, with credit for two years Nozette has already spent behind bars. US district judge Paul Friedman said he was prepared to accept the deal, pending Nozette's co-operation with prosecutors, a procedure expected to last into November.

Appearing in court in a prison jumpsuit, Nozette said he understood the charge to which he was pleading. He could have been sentenced to death had he been convicted of all four counts of attempted espionage that he faced.

Just before his arrest, Nozette told an undercover FBI agent in the October 2009 sting operation the secrets he was passing to Israel had cost the US government between $200m and almost $1bn, according to newly filed court papers in the case.

"So I tell you … theoretically I should charge you certainly, you know, at most 1%", the court papers quoted Nozette as telling the agent.

In the conversation at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington on 19 October, Nozette told the undercover agent: "I've crossed the Rubicon … I've made a career choice," and then, according to the papers, he laughed.

"The cost to the US government was $200m," Nozette is quoted as saying. "And then that's not including the launching of it … Integrating the satellites – that probably brings it to almost a billion dollars."

Nozette had high-level security clearances during decades of government work on science and space projects at Nasa, the energy department and the National Space Council in George Bush Sr's White House. He has a doctorate in planetary sciences from MIT, and was known primarily as a defence technologist who had worked on the Reagan-era missile defence shield effort formally called the Strategic Defence Initiative. He also helped discover evidence of water on the moon.

Because Nozette had access to such high-level information, including about the nation's nuclear missile programme, the attorney general, Eric Holder, ordered special communications restrictions placed on him in jail.

During a hearing after his arrest, the prosecutor played a video from the 2009 sting in which Nozette lounged on a hotel room couch, eating and laughing with the undercover agent. He discussed the possibility of having to flee the country if he came under scrutiny.

Internet Activist Charged in M.I.T. Data Theft

Πηγή: New York Times

July 19, 2011, 12:54 PM
By NICK BILTON

Aaron Swartz, a 24-year-old programmer and online political activist, has been indicted in Boston on charges that he stole more than four million documents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and JSTOR, an archive of scientific journals and academic papers. (Read the full indictment below.)

Mr. Swartz was indicted last Thursday by the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Carmen M. Ortiz, and the indictment was unsealed Tuesday. The charges could result in up to 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

In a press release, Ms. Ortiz’s office said that Mr. Swartz broke into a restricted area of M.I.T. and entered a computer wiring closet. Mr. Swartz apparently then accessed the M.I.T. computer network and took millions of documents from JSTOR.

Mr. Swartz, a well-known figure in Internet academic circles, created a site called Infogami that later merged with the social news site Reddit. He is also a founder and director of the nonprofit group Demand Progress, which calls itself a political action group hoping to change public policy that relates to the Internet.

In 2009 Mr. Swartz downloaded 19 million pages of federal court documents from a government database system, acting on the belief that they should be made available free.

Demand Progress said on its site that it appeared Mr. Swartz was “being charged with allegedly downloading too many scholarly journal articles from the Web.” It quoted the group’s executive director, David Segal, as saying, “It’s like trying to put someone in jail for allegedly checking too many books out of the library.”

The charges filed against Mr. Swartz include wire fraud, computer fraud, obtaining information from a protected computer and criminal forfeiture.

“Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars,” said Ms. Ortiz in the press release.

The United States Attorney’s office in Boston said Mr. Swartz “surrendered today, was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Boston this morning and pled not guilty to all counts. He was released on $100,000 unsecured bond. His next court date is September 9, 2011 for a status conference.”

Mr. Swartz could not immediately be reached for comment.