Scanner : CIA

Man Buys Camera On Ebay, Finds Treasure Trove Of MI6 Secret Documents

Brian Fairbanks — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:44:00 GMT

It's a situation we've all fantasized or feared: we buy a camera for a mere thirty bills on Ebay and it turns out the camera is formerly the property of a secret agent... is he going to come kill you or ask politely for his memory card back?

- An anonymous bidder ended up with a still SLR camera for a mere 17 English quid, then checked to see what the previous owner had left behind...
- A document marked "top secret" that detailed an MI6 encrypted computer system
- Pictures of rocket launchers and missiles
- A hand-drawn graphic revealing links between active al-Qaeda cells, including names and occupations of suspected terrorists
- Information about Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, one of al-Qaeda’s highest-ranking lieutenants, who was captured by the CIA in 2007 and is currently being held at Gitmo. [Tech-Ex]

If we had found this, we would have immediately sent it back to the guy saying that we couldn't figure out how to turn it on, then promptly change our address and move all our relatives out of the country. Luckily, this story has a happy ending... so far...

Turns out, the police didn't believe our hero, turning him away...

Yet within days Special Branch, the team of specialist anti-terror officers based in every county force, descended on his humble terraced home.
They took away the camera and the family’s PC and spent £1,000 replacing them.
Officers banned the shocked family from talking to the media.

Guess the one-grand wasn't enough to cover those expenses (only a thousand?) Apparently, the Sun in the UK pays a whole lot better for info than MI6 pays for desktop computers...

Via the Sun.

Related:

New Gemma Arterton Sex Scene Steams Us Up For Bond 22

While You Were Sleeping: Don't Drink The Drinking Water, People

James Bond Isn't the Only Gay British Special Agent

Newly Released Files Reveal: Julia Child Was A Spy!

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:35:00 GMT

The National Archives has just released contents of this country's WWII-era OSS files. The OSS, you may remember, started as the Office of Strategic Services and eventually morphed into that Alias show. Several celebrity names were mentioned in the documents, the most interesting being your favorite kook in the kitchen...

Walter Mess, who handled covert OSS operations in Poland and North Africa, said he kept quiet for more than 50 years, only recently telling his wife of 62 years about his OSS activity.

"I was told to keep my mouth shut," said Mess, now 93 and living in Falls Church, Va.

The files provide new information even for those most familiar with the agency. Charles Pinck, president of the OSS Society created by former OSS agents and their relatives, said the nearly 24,000 employees included in the archives far exceed previous estimates of 13,000.

The newly released documents will clarify these and other issues, Cunliffe said.

"We're saying the OSS was a lot bigger than they were saying," he said.

Besides our man in North Africa, we have to thank Julia Child, movie star Sterling Hayden, historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and thousands more:

Child's file shows that in her OSS application, she included a note expressing regret she left an earlier department store job hastily because she did not get along with her boss, said William Cunliffe, an archivist who has worked extensively with the OSS records at the National Archives.

The OSS files offer details about other agents, including Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, major league catcher Moe Berg... John Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway; Kermit Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt; and Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the band The Police. [AP/Yahoo]

Unfortunately, the news stories don't relate exactly what Julia (and the others) did for the OSS? We'd love it if she turned out to have been a badass assassin like the Daniel Craig James Bond or a kickass cleaner/sweeper or whatever it's called-- you know, like the Julia Stiles character in the Bourne movies. Any ideas?

Related:

I Love Myself For Hating You: The Bourne Movies

Crush of the Week: Gemma Arterton, James Bond's Rebound Girl

Sloppy Seconds: Hillary Clinton's Latest Theory

Hey, George Bush: This Is The Definition of "Appeaser," You Jackass

Brian Fairbanks — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:50:00 GMT

George W. Bush is learning the hard way what the definition of "appeaser" is with all the controversey surrounding a new memoir by his former Press Secretary.

Among the many "startling" "revelations" (i.e. confirmation of the worst fears of anyone who has been paying attention for the last seven years):

Scott McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war and that the [braindead] press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war. [See what we mean by putting "revelations" in mocking quotes?]

He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be "badly misguided." [Ain't that the understatement of the new century.]

Two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.

Somebody call Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and get this boy on the witness stand! Let's take down the whole administration while there's still time left to further ruin Bush's legacy.

More from Yahoo! News on the book, which is sure to be forgotten within days by the truth-seekers in the press corps.

On Our To-Do List: Fidel Castro

Katie Halper — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:32:00 GMT

Fidel Castro may be stepping down, but he's still standing erect. Whether you love him or hate him, we can all agree on one thing about Castro: El Jefe Has Got STAMINA. His speeches go on for hours and hours. His long, thick cigar is always lit. His revolution is constant and anything but predictable. And he ruled Cuba hard and firm for half a century, only stopping to come up for air and let his kid brother have his way with her.

On top of that, the insatiable, unbeatable, unstoppable Castro keeps going and going and going, in spite of his age and at least eight confirmed assassination attempts on his life. And let's be honest, when multiple U.S. presidents and CIA and FBI officials obsess over ways to eliminate the leader of an island the size of Pennsylvania, and aim many of their covert operations at said leader's cigar, it can only mean one thing: penis envy. Which is why Fidel Castro may be out of office. But he is On Our To-Do List.

[Previously on Scanner: Who Would You Rather Deluxe Edition: Fidel Castro or George W. Bush Then and Now?]

[Previously on Scanner: Your Talking Points: Fidel Castro Retires]

BYU Sticking to its Moral Guns

Emily Farris — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:01:00 GMT

You've gotta love Brigham Young University for sticking to its Mormon moral guns. In an article in BYU's NewsNet today promoting their International Relations major, they managed to squeeze in this tidbit from the "CIA, FBI and National Security":

The CIA, FBI and National Security like to recruit from BYU because of its honor code and the lifestyle of most of its students, according to Kinjo. They said that if a person drinks, does drugs, has explicit sex or gambles, it can put them in a compromising position. Generally, BYU students don't get involved with those things.

[BYU NewsNet: International Relations Open for Study]