BEIJING, Sept 22, 2007 (AFP) - China is worse hit by computer hackers than any Western nation, a Chinese military expert was quoted as saying Saturday in an apparent response to claims it was the source of attacks on US systems.

Unlike other countries, however, China does not point the finger of blame, Wang Xinjun, a researcher at the Academy of Military Sciences, said in remarks carried by the Xinhua news agency.

WASHINGTON, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - Israel warned the United States that North Korea might be sharing nuclear know-how with Damascus before it carried out an air strike deep inside Syria, the Washington Post reported Friday.

Washington was 'deeply troubled' by the Israeli intelligence showing North Korean nuclear personnel were in Syria, but US President George W. Bush decided against an immediate response out of concern it could derail delicate talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its own nuclear program, the Post said, citing unnamed US officials.

WASHINGTON, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - Israel warned the United States that North Korea might be sharing nuclear know-how with Damascus before it carried out an air strike deep inside Syria, the Washington Post reported Friday.

Washington was 'deeply troubled' by the Israeli intelligence showing North Korean nuclear personnel were in Syria, but US President George W. Bush decided against an immediate response out of concern it could derail delicate talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its own nuclear program, the Post said, citing unnamed US officials.

WASHINGTON, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - Israel told the United States its intelligence suggested North Korea was aiding Syria's nuclear program before it carried out an air strike deep inside Syria, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

ISLAMABAD, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - President Pervez Musharraf appointed a new head of Pakistan's main spy agency on Friday, in a move seen as setting up the likely succession should Musharraf quit as army chief as promised next month.

Musharraf, a key US ally, appointed Nadeem Taj as the chief of the Inter Services Intelligence, or ISI, which is engaged in the hunt for Al-Al Qaeda militants as well as providing internal security, a military statement said.

LANGLEY, Virginia, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - A sleek piece of Cold War history was put on display at the CIA Wednesday -- the once supersecret A-12 spy plane, which flew higher and faster than any other manned aircraft to spy on North Vietnam and North Korea.

'It was a beautiful airplane,' said Ken Collins, a retired air force colonel and one of only six pilots to fly the A-12s.

Collins and other veterans gathered at CIA headquarters to reminisce about aircraft which shattered records for speed and altitude in the secrecy of a 1960s CIA program codenamed Oxcart.

WASHINGTON, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - The CIA Friday named as head of its espionage service a former senior official who quit three years ago amid a staff rebellion against the agency's former director.

CIA director Michael Hayden announced the appointment of Michael Sulick as head of the National Clandestine Service, hailing him as a 'proven leader who understands our agency and the intelligence community.'

COPENHAGEN, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - International and Danish rights groups condemned Friday plans by the Danish police intelligence (PET) to cooperate with North African and Middle Eastern countries on anti-terrorism projects.

'The fight against terrorism must not be at the expense of human rights. We cannot accept that they will cooperate with countries known for their methods of torture, such as Syria, Egypt or Algeria for example,' said Amnesty International's Danish head Lars Norman Joergensen.

PARIS, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) - France announced Thursday the creation of a new intelligence agency, merging two long-standing services in a bid to improve the response to security threats.

The new DRI agency will be made up of the RG police intelligence unit and the DST counter-intelligence service in a shakeup long advocated by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who served as interior minister under the previous government.

Interior Minister Marie Alliot-Marie made the announcement during a visit to the headquarters of the new agency in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret.

LONDON, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - A Briton who claims he was tortured while he was held at the US naval detention camp at Guantanamo Bay is set to sue Britain's intelligence services over the tactics they used to question him, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

Citing court documents it had seen, the newspaper said that Tarek Dergoul was seeking a High Court ruling to ensure that MI5 and MI6, the domestic and foreign intelligence services respectively, do not benefit from torture of prisoners held outside Britain.

WASHINGTON, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - Al-Al Qaeda's 'intellectual leader' is not Osama bin Laden, who has been credited as the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, but his Egyptian deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the US intelligence chief said Tuesday.

Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence, downplayed the bin Laden's significance in an interview with ABC television, calling him 'more a figurehead than anything else.'

BEIJING, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - China on Tuesday said it also was a 'frequent victim' of cyber-attacks, amid accusations from several Western governments that its military had been linked to hackings of their websites.

'Cyber-hacking is a global issue and China is a frequent victim of hacking,' Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular press conference, but stopped short of giving specifics.

'China's government has all along been opposed to to cyber-crimes and we have strict laws and regulations.'

BEIJING, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - China's foreign ministry refused to comment on Monday about comments from a top French security official that government computer systems in France had fallen prey to Chinese cyber-attacks.

'We don't have any information on that,' a ministry spokesman said when asked for a response to the statements from Secretary General of National Defence, Francis Delon.

PARIS, Sept 8, 2007 (AFP) - French information systems fell prey to cyber attacks 'involving China', similar to those reported by the US, British and German governments, a top French security offical told AFP on Saturday.

'We have indications that our information systems were the object of attacks, like in the other countries,' the Secretary-General of National Defence (SGDN) Francis Delon said, confirming a report published in French newspaper Le Monde.

LONDON, Sept 8, 2007 (AFP) - Chinese military hackers have drawn up a plan to disable the United States' battle carrier fleet through a cyber attack, British newspaper The Times said Saturday, citing a Pentagon report.

The blueprint is part of a plan by Beijing to establish 'electronic dominance' over its global rivals by 2050, particularly the United States, Britain, Russia and South Korea, said the daily.

The newspaper said two hackers working for China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) came up with the plan.

NEW YORK, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - CIA director Michael Hayden warned Friday that Al-Al Qaeda was plotting fresh attacks on the United States as he justified the intelligence agency's detention and rendition of terrorist suspects.

His comments came just days ahead of the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and as the US government said it was analyzing a copy of the latest video message said to have been made by elusive Al-Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

NEW YORK, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - CIA director Michael Hayden on Friday defended the US government's controversial rendition and detention of terrorist suspects, saying the program was highly targeted and smaller than many thought.

The Central Intelligence Agency's rendition, detention and interrogation programs were carefully conducted and key to the 'war on terror,' he said.

WASHINGTON, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - Poring over the latest video said to be by Al-Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, US authorities will home in on any clues to its date and the location of the world's most wanted man, officials said Friday.

The US government said it was analyzing a copy of the video, a day after notices a surfaced on the Internet announcing the imminent release of the video which appears aimed to mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

NEW YORK, Sept 6, 2007 (AFP) - A US judge on Thursday struck down a law allowing federal anti-terrorism agents to access financial, telephone and Internet records without a warrant.

Judge Victor Marrero ruled that Congress overstepped its authority when it allowed the Federal Bureau of Investigation to keep the requests secret as part of the USA Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism measure made law in the days after the September 11, 2001.

BEIJING, Sept 6, 2007 (AFP) - China on Thursday denied that its military had hacked into the the websites of any foreign government, after press reports said Britain was the latest nation to fall victim to Chinese cyber attacks.

'Saying that the Chinese military has made cyber attacks on the networks of foreign governments is groundless and irresponsible and are a result of ulterior motives,' foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told journalists.

LONDON, Sept 6, 2007 (AFP) - Chinese computer hackers are infiltrating British government networks, giving them access to secret information, according to media reports on Thursday.

The reports in The Times and The Independent newspapers come a day after US President George W. Bush said he may bring up the issue of suspected Chinese cyber-attacks on the US defence department in a meeting with China's President Hu Jintao.

SOFIA, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - A Bulgarian committee probing collaboration with the country's notorious communist secret services named Tuesday over 140 former and current lawmakers, including President Georgy Parvanov.

The committee charged with opening the Darzhavna Sigurnost's archives listed on its website the names of 141 MPs from all parliaments since the fall of the communist regime in 1989, including 19 deputies from the current parliament.

WASHINGTON, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) - US intelligence eavesdrops on thousands of foreign telephone calls on lines that cross through US territory but monitors the calls of fewer than a hundred people in the United States, intelligence chief Mike McConnell has disclosed.

McConnell's comments followed passage by the US Congress this month of a law allowing the intelligence agencies to conduct warrantless intercepts of calls between two foreign points.

WASHINGTON, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - A two-year-old CIA inquiry urged holding former CIA director George Tenet and other top agency officials to account for leadership failures before the September 11, 2001 attacks, a summary released Tuesday said.

The CIA's inspector general recommended in June 2005 that CIA set up 'accountability boards' to consider disciplinary action against Tenet and other top officials for the failures, but was turned down by then CIA director Porter Goss.

WASHINGTON, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - The Pentagon said Tuesday it is shutting down a counter-intelligence reporting system and database called TALON that came under fire for monitoring the activities of hundreds of anti-war activists.

The system will be shut down September 17 and reporting on threats to US military installations in the United States will be shifted to the FBI, said Colonel Gary Keck, a Pentagon spokesman.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 15, 2007 (AFP) - Attorneys for the George W. Bush administration urged an appeals court to toss out a domestic spying lawsuit against Telecommunication giant AT&T, arguing that the litigation could disclose vital anti-terrorism secrets.

WASHINGTON, Aug 15, 2007 (AFP) - The United States is expanding the use of spy satellites for domestic surveillance, turning its 'eyes in sky' inward to counter terrorism and eventually for law enforcement, US officials said Wednesday.

Authorized by US intelligence chief Michael McConnell in May and managed by the Department of Homeland Security, the change will allow more federal and local agencies to tap into satellite imagery and related intelligence products, they said.

WASHINGTON, Aug 15, 2007 (AFP) - The United States is moving to expand the use of spy satellites for domestic surveillance, turning its 'eyes in sky' inward to counter terrorism and eventually for law enforcement, a US official said Wednesday.

The director of national intelligence, Michael McConnell, expanded the range of federal and local agencies that can tap into imagery from spy satellites in a memo in May to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

LONDON, Aug 12, 2007 (AFP) - About a fifth of Britain's military intelligence officers have resigned over the past three years, The Daily Telegraph reported in an early edition of its Monday paper.

Citing unnamed defence sources, the newspaper said that many of the officers leaving were choosing well-paid private security jobs instead, forcing the ministry to hand jobs to people who do not have relevant training or experience.

'To sustain what the Intelligence Corps is doing, losing 20 percent of officers is pretty hard,' a source was quoted as saying.

WASHINGTON, Aug 8, 2007 (AFP) - The CIA's top spymaster was publicly identified Wednesday for the first time as Jose Rodriguez, who was brought out of the shadows with an annnouncement that he is retiring.

CIA director Michael Hayden praised Rodriguez for a three decade career 'that took him to the top of his profession as director of the National Clandestine Service.'

He said the Puerto Rico-born Rodriguez 'guided some of the agency's greatest counter-terror victories.'

WASHINGTON, Aug 5, 2007 (AFP) - The US Congress late Saturday gave final approval to a White House-backed plan to extend the power of US intelligence agents to eavesdrop on terror suspects, giving a long-sought victory to President George W. Bush.

The House of Representatives voted for the bill 227-183, one day after it won approval by the US Senate.

The measure allows US intelligence agencies to listen in on telephone and e-mail conversations mainly outside the United States, but routed through US-based communications firms.

WASHINGTON, Aug 4, 2007 (AFP) - The US House of Representatives late Saturday voted to extend the power of US intelligence agents to eavesdrop on terror suspects, giving a long-sought victory to the White House.

The measure allows US intelligence agencies to listen in on telephone and email conversations mainly outside the United States, but routed through US-based communications firms.

Under the bill, which was approved by the Senate on Friday, intelligence officers will be able to listen in to such conversations without obtaining prior approval from a special court.

WASHINGTON, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - The US Senate Friday voted to extend the power of US intelligence agents to eavesdrop on terror suspects, in a victory for the White House after a tense showdown with congressional Democrats.

Democratic leaders balked at White House terms for a deal, but the Senate went ahead and passed a Republican bill which reflected President George W. Bush's requests.

The controversy centered on a program designed to listen in on telephone and email conversations mainly outside the United States, but routed through US-based communications firms.

WASHINGTON, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - America's top spy and Congress's Democratic leaders squared off Friday after President George W. Bush warned lawmakers not to break up for the summer without updating an electronic anti-terror law.

Lawmakers were racing the clock to overhaul legislation which requires intelligence officers to secure warrants from a special court before wiretapping conversations of terror suspects.

WASHINGTON, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - US congressional leaders held tense talks with intelligence chiefs Friday, after President George W. Bush warned they must not start their summer break without updating an electronic spying law.

Republicans warned failure to revise the law governing surveillance of terror targets would leave US intelligence services 'deaf' through August, amid growing fears of new terror strikes on the US mainland.

WASHINGTON, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - A US federal judge earlier this year secretly ruled that a key element of an electronic spying program was illegal, providing the impetus for a White House push for new legislation to enable government eavesdropping, a US newspaper reported on Friday.

The ruling in January held President George W. Bush's administration had overstepped its authority in trying to eavesdrop on communications between two locations abroad that are passed through routing stations in US territory, the Washington Post reported, citing two unnamed government sources.

MOSCOW, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree ratifying the creation of a new intelligence service, according to news agency reports.

The service, connected to the prosecutor's office, will comprise a chief and 12 deputies, including one who will direct a department for military investigations, the Kremlin's press service said, cited by Russian news agencies.

It will include a staff of more than 16,000, not including military members and civilians who will work for bodies conducting military probes, the Kremlin said.