Intelligence Services

A few years ago, the Pentagon's secretive Office on Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict quietly buried one of the most comprehensive reports ever commissioned on the changing patterns of global terrorism. The "Terror 2000" findings compiled by 41 experts--including former ranking CIA, FBI, State Department and Rand Corp. officials, as well as an ex-KGB general and Israeli intelligence agent--were deemed too alarmist and far-fetched. "Outrageous," commented one CIA official.

Intelligence reports indicate that for the past two years, China's military has used U.S.-made satellites, sold solely for civilian uses, to send messages to army posts across the vast nation, the New York Times reported today. The U.S. has barred American companies from selling any military equipment to the Chinese military since the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square.

The White House sought Saturday to shrug off the disclosure that China's military has been using American-made communications satellites to transmit messages among its army units, contending that the practice has provided no real military value to the Chinese. In Portland, Ore.

Previous incidents involving the Israeli spy agency: * Sept. 25, 1997: Mossad agents try but fail to assassinate Hamas official Khaled Meshaal in Amman, Jordan. Two agents are caught and released in a prisoner swap that forces Israel to release Sheik Ahmed Yassin, a key Hamas leader. * April 24, 1991: Four Mossad agents are arrested for attempting to install listening devices in the Iranian Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus. The agents are released shortly after standing trial.

The embarrassing arrest in Switzerland of an Israeli accused of spying escalated Thursday into an international diplomatic crisis after the Swiss demanded an apology and Israeli officials refused to give it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved to salvage the reputation and credibility of his nation's intelligence service, battered by widespread publicity surrounding the arrest, a failed assassination in Jordan and other scandals revealed in recent months.

A troubled former CIA officer from the agency's top secret "black bag" unit that breaks into foreign embassies to steal code books was charged with espionage Friday for tipping off two countries about the CIA's success in compromising their communications. Douglas F. Groat, 50, who after a 16-year career was fired in 1996 from the CIA's Science and Technology Directorate, was indicted Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington and could face the death penalty, prosecutors said.

A Pakistani scientist has fled to the United States and is cooperating with the FBI and U.S. intelligence officials on sensitive details of Pakistan's nuclear program, including his country's recent dealings with China and Iran, his lawyer said Wednesday. Iftikhar Chaudhry Khan, whose identity card describes him as an assistant research officer at Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission, has already held three meetings with the FBI, his attorney, Michael J. Wildes, said in an interview.

The U.S. government is spending $26.7 billion on intelligence activities this fiscal year, nearly the same as the $26.6 billion spent last year, CIA Director George J. Tenet said. It is only the second time since World War II that Washington has disclosed the cost of U.S. spying. The money is usually hidden in the Defense Department budget. The money finances the CIA and 12 other intelligence-gathering agencies.

Moving to rehabilitate Israel's troubled spy agency, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Wednesday gave the Mossad two new leaders--one a diplomat with friendly ties to estranged ally Jordan and the other a decorated military commander. The appointments were seen as an attempt to stabilize an agency reeling from failed missions that embarrassed the government and exposed a demoralized, sloppy Mossad.

Just as the case of Boston au pair Louise Woodward quickly boosted sales of "nannycams"--tiny video cameras concealed inside teddy bears or clocks--security industry experts are betting that Linda Tripp's clandestine taping of conversations with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky will be a big boon to the audio surveillance business. "Any time there's media play, it does play a part in sales," said Bob Crowley, owner of the Spy Outlet, a Buffalo, N.Y.