(Correction: Edits have been made to this article. The relationship between Madsen and one of his sources, a former linguist who once worked for the NSA, was stated incorrectly. Neither Madsen nor the source knew of one another while employed by the NSA respectively. We sincerely apologize for this mischaracterization of said relationship.)
December 12, 2013
by Helen Tansey
The T-Room dot us
Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen is reporting on two different ‘kidnapping’ operations targeting Edward Snowden. The first operation is being led by Britain’s MI-6 out of there embassy in Moscow and the second by the US in partnership with Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service. One of Madsen’s primary sources is a former NSA Russian linguist and a former girlfriend. She now resides in Russia. She contacted him in early November providing him with information she learned firsthand about Britain’s MI-6 attempts to infiltrate Snowden’s ‘inner circle’ so as to learn his whereabouts –
In particular, Wayne Madsen said that his girlfriend, who previously worked for the National Security Agency as an expert on the Russian language, tried to contact Snowden’s acquaintances. Afterwards, she was invited to come to the British Embassy and undergo special training. She was also asked to report of FSB’s interest in her persons and communications.
The press quoted a former NSA expert, who said that the job to find Snowden was of the highest priority for the embassy. Moreover, it was said that the future operation to kidnap him involved number one MI-6 officer at the embassy, who worked under diplomatic cover as the director for regional security.
The Center for the Study of Globalization has previously reported that should the operation be successful, Snowden would be delivered to the UK or the U.S. For the time being, the flywheel of total wiretapping that Snowden launched was working against him to the utmost. “MI-6 intelligence agencies have begun to analyze the information they were able to obtain through intelligence,” the statement from the center said.
A senior officer of Russian counter-intelligence, whom Politonline.ru confidentially managed to talk to, said: “Although the Federal Security Bureau does not do anything about human rights activist Snowden, the service has been active in counterintelligence. I am pretty sure that kidnaping the former NSA employee will be dramatically challenging.” He also thanked “former NSA employees and journalists for publishing such information, but added that operational, technical and other measures to counter intelligence and other illegal activities of foreign secret services on the territory of Russia were constantly maintained.
Russia’s TV Vesti reported the following on 8 December –
RTR can report some sensational news: British intelligence MI-6 has been tasked to have Edward Snowden captured and delivered to the UK or the USA. If this is the plan, the operation should be entrusted to James Bond in its present format.
Snowden who is in Moscow is subject to open hunting,-according to Wayne Madsen, who himself, in the past, worked at the NSA, and is now a journalist investigating intelligence services. On November 1 he was contacted by his friend. Madsen keeps her name secret. She had been a Russian language specialist. She now lives in Moscow.
“My colleague sent a message on Facebook to Ray McGovern- who went to meet Snowden but he never responded to her. Shortly thereafter, however, she was approached by a British diplomat who invited her to come to a party at the British embassy, after which she was been asked: to report any contacts with officials of the Federal Security Service to the British Embassy immediately. And then she was asked to come to the training with representatives of MI-6 “, – said Madsen.
The location of the women had been tracked on Facebook and her mobile phone, said Madsen and this led to the recruitment effort.
There is a green dome on the roof at the British embassy in Moscow on the Smolensk waterfront contains an antenna that connects the embassy with those, installed at the large electronic reconnaissance center in Menwith Hill, 300 km from London.
“The job of searching for Snowden the highest priority of the embassy, overshadowing the closer liaison and “mellowing” of relations between British and Russian intelligence and security agencies.. It is known that in the operation involved an MI-6 who is the number one agent in the embassy, working under diplomatic cover as “the director of regional security”, – Wayne Madsen wrote in an article.
According to Madsen, MI-6 and NSA could already know Snowden’s schedule by grabbing personal data of four friends of Snowden.
Among those who came to see him in Moscow in October, was a former senior CIA official, human rights activist Ray McGovern. He prefers not to comment on the situation. The author’s investigation does not exclude that Snowden may be tracked at his job.
“Smuggling tactics across the border with Finland during the Cold War it was the only safe option. Today, it’s easier than ever – you see a lot more borders. There are he Baltic states – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, for example”, – noted Wayne Madsen.
But this is in theory. Russia to the Western intelligence agencies, say professionals, is “a country with severe operational mode.” This refers to the active work of the FSB counterintelligence service. To recall the recent case that exposed Third Secretary in the Political Division of the U.S. embassy in Moscow, Ryan Christopher Fogel, he was caught red-handed, in a steam bath, when he was recruiting one of the staff members of the Russian secret services.
“No case of the exfiltration oft foreigners past Soviet intelligence ever occurred. The traitor Gordievsky was believed brought out in the trunk of the car of a British diplomat through Finland. I ‘m Sure that Snowden is very firmly seated in some apartment or cottage somewhere near Moscow. Maybe with his guard. I’m certain that he is not in danger. his appearance is not the type that makes him immediately recognizable. Nevertheless, some preventive measures must be carried out,” said the deputy editor of the “Russian” newspaper,” special services historian Nikolai Dolgopolov.
Snowden, which Washington and London are targeting with all the technologies of surveillance, hardly rushed to buy his own smartphone in Moscow – he communicates with friends and family via encrypted channels.
“I have the opportunity to communicate with Edward through third persons. I’m going to have to go again to go to Moscow. I do not wish to disclose when that will be. I am just happy and grateful, that he is safe and secure”, – said his father Lon Snowden.
How much more information can be obtained quickly by an NSA agent, where it is stored, and why its quest by the British is so active nobody knows. Perhaps the secret agents of London will kill. Anyway, the British authorities have threatened The Guardian reporters with criminal cases under the Article of “aiding terrorism ” .
The American NSA chose another tactic – the secret service casually admits that what may soften the blow.
A new batch of revelations from Edward Snowden was published in the newspaper The Washington Post. The article says that the NSA not only collects data about calls, but monitors the movements of people, using data from cell towers and GPS chips. Simultaneously, it can in real time in the security services can monitor up to 5 billion subscribers worldwide. An anonymous source at the NSA, on condition of anonymity, confirmed this information.
It is curious that on December 3 chief editor of the British Guardian. Alan Rusbridger said in the local parliament, that the newspaper published only 1% of data from Snowden’s documents. Impressive. But no less impressive is the fact that even during the publication of this one percent, The Guardian, said Rusbridger, more than a hundred times consulted with government agencies, intelligence agencies, including the FBI, with the GCHQ, with the Cabinet Office, and even D-Notice Committee, which assesses the potential damage from press publications. That is, all of the articles in The Guardian on “Snowden dossier ” were carefully censored, and not only by the British authorities, but also Americans.
And today, Madsen is reporting on attempts made by the US to ‘rendition’ Snowden back to the US to face charges –
In addition to the plot by the MI6 station at the British embassy in Moscow to kidnap National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden there is also evidence that the U.S. planned to “snatch” Snowden from German authorities had he traveled to Berlin to testify before the Bundestag.
Although members of the Green Party in the Bundestag requested Germany to protect Snowden if he traveled from Moscow to testify in person before the German parliament and Russia said Snowden had the right to travel from Russia to Germany, it was decided that Germany could not protect Snowden on German soil.
WMR has obtained information that Snowden’s video appearance before the Bundestag was arranged after information was obtained by German parliamentarians that the German Federal Intelligence Service was working with the U.S. CIA and NSA to snatch Snowden from German hands. Snowden was to be returned to the United States for arraignment under Espionage Act criminal charges already brought against the whistleblower.
WMR’s editor’s report in Russia in November that was later carried by Russian TV News that the British embassy in Moscow had taken the lead in trying to lure Snowden into a trap for exfiltration to the West. The threat against Snowden was confirmed by an anonymous senior official of Russian counterintelligence. The official thanked
“former NSA employees and journalists for publishing such information, but added that operational, technical and other measures to counter intelligence and other illegal activities of foreign secret services on the territory of Russia were constantly maintained.”WMR can also confirm that the investigation of the British embassy operation by the Russian media and the Federal Security Bureau’s counterintelligence branch is ongoing and that further news reports on the operation are forthcoming.
Additional reading – “Desperately Seeking Snowden” by Wayne Madsen
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