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Tag: CIA

  • UPDATED: U.S court declines request to compel FBI, CIA, IRS, others to release documents on Tinubu

    UPDATED: U.S court declines request to compel FBI, CIA, IRS, others to release documents on Tinubu

    The United States District Court of the District of Columbia has refused a request by one Aaron Greenspan seeking to compel US security agencies to promptly release to him information, including documents relating to President Bola Tinubu.

    Judge Beryl A. Howell, in a ruling on Monday, declined Greenspan’s request on the grounds that he failed to satisfy the relevant conditions for the grant of such a prayer for temporary relief, as contained in the emergency hearing motion, which he filed last Friday.

    Greenspan had, in June this year. filed the civil suit, with number: 23 – 1816 under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), against the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA), Department of State (DOS), Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

    He alleged that the defendants – EOUSA, DOS, FBI, IRS, DEA and the CIA violated the FOIA by “failing to issue determinations within the statutory deadline,” “failing] to conduct reasonable searches for records,” and “failing to produce records responsive to” his FOIA requests.

    Greenspan had, in an FOIA request to the EOUSA, sought for “records from the Northern District of Illinois and/or Northern District of Indiana involving charging decisions for the following individuals – Bola Ahmed Tinubu (President of Nigeria as of 2/2023” and “Mueez Adegboyega Akande (deceased as of 11/16/2022.”

    He claimed that EOUSA, in a letter denying his request, invoked FOIA Exemptions 6 and 7, which protect from disclosure of information that would constitute unwarranted invasions of personal privacy and information compiled for law enforcement purposes that may constitute an unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of a third party.

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    A hearing was subsequently scheduled for October 31 for the defendants to present their responses.

    Greenspan however, returned to the court on Friday to file the emergency motion, upon learning that the Nigerian Supreme Court will hear on October 23 the appeals by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP, Atiku Abubakar and that of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi against the September 6 judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), which affirmed President Tinubu’s victory in the last presidential election and dismissed the petitions by Atiku and Obi.

    He told the court, among others, that his request for prompt release of the documents, even before the hearing scheduled for October 31 was because “the Nigerian Supreme Court will hear an appeal of a judicial tribunal’s decision confirming Mr. Tinubu as President of Nigeria on Monday, October 23, 2023.”

    Greenspan claimed that the Nigerian Supreme Court deliberately moved the hearing of the appeals by Atiku and Obi to yesterday to render his suit before the U.S court nugatory, contending that the documents he requested for “would likely be directly relevant to the foreign proceedings in Nigeria.”

    Judge Howell, in the ruling on Monday, held among others, that Greenspan failed to establish that he is likely to succeed on the merits; that he is likely to suffer irreparable harm if the preliminary relief he sought was not granted; that the balance of equities tips in his favour, and that the relief he seeks is in the public interest.

    The judge, who also noted that Greenspan has not established that the purported documents and information he wants the court to compel the defendants to produce actually exist, further held that “neither a preliminary injunction nor a temporary restraining order is appropriate in this case.

    “Given that the FOIA request is for records that, if any exist, may be of a highly sensitive and private nature, and that the subject of those documents – Bola A. Tinubu – has had no opportunity to protect his privacy interests in any such records, the balance of equities militates strongly in favour of denying this emergency motion.”

    He held that the position of the law is that, in such a case, the plaintiff bears the burden of proving that he/she is likely to succeed on the merits of the case.

    Judge Howell added: “In plaintiff’s underlying FOIA request and complaint, he seeks documents relating to purported federal investigations into the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    “As previously noted, EOUSA originally denied the plaintiff’s FOIA request, invoking FOIA Exemptions 6 and 7(c), which protect information that would constitute unwarranted invasions of personal privacy and information compiled for law enforcement purposes that may constitute an unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of a third party.

    “Plaintiff has failed even to attempt to argue how his request may overcome those exemptions and achieve a likelihood of success on the merits. This failure to address this important factor in his emergency motion weighs strongly in favour of denying his motion.”

    The judge also found that the plaintiff failed to demonstrate that he was going to suffer actual and real irreparable injury if the relief he sought was not granted, rather than a mere possibility or theoretical injury.

    He added that the “plaintiff falls far short of satisfying this standard. He (plaintiff) has not supplied the court with any indication of a concrete, actual threat that he will suffer in the absence of an injunction. While his emergency motion states that a Nigerian Supreme Court hearing is scheduled to occur in the coming days, the plaintiff cites no injury he will suffer that is in any way traceable to the relief requested in this motion.

    “Granting plaintiff’s emergency motion would essentially allow him to jump the line ahead of other requests deemed similarly time-sensitive under FOIA’s expedition standards. The inherent tradeoffs implicated in ordering an agency to produce records in a specific FOIA request ahead of others by granting a preliminary injunction thus, must be considered in evaluating the balance of the equities, and weigh heavily in favour of denying such injunctive relief.

    “Plaintiff has not made any representation to the court that the balance of equities tips in his favour or that the granting of his motion would further the public interest. For the foregoing reasons, it is hereby ordered that the plaintiff’s emergency motion for a hearing to compel immediate document production is denied.

    Meanwhile, President Tinubu’s lawyers have filed a motion before the court, seeking to be made a party to enable them to defend the President in the suit.

  • WikiLeaks releases documents on CIA projects targeting network protocols

    WikiLeaks releases documents on CIA projects targeting network protocols

    The WikiLeaks whistleblowing platform released on Thursday a new package of CIA documents from the so-called Vault VII project, in particular the documents on two separate CIA projects aimed at stealing users’ login details for remote access to a server of a website.

    “Today, July 6, WikiLeaks publishes documents from the BothanSpy and Gyrfalcon projects of the CIA.

    The implants described in both projects are designed to intercept and exfiltrate SSH credentials but work on different operating systems with different attack vectors,” WikiLeaks said in a statement.

    SSH is a cryptographic network protocol which gives the user a secure remote access to a website’s server.

    The SSH credentials are the login details, namely the server address, port number, the username and the password.

    According to WikiLeaks, the BothanSpy is an implant targeting the SSH client program for Microsoft Windows platform, stealing user credentials form active SSH sessions.

    The data is then either exfiltrated to a CIA-controlled server, or encrypted and saved for later exfiltration by other means.

    Gyrfalcon, in its turn, is an implant that targets Linux platforms and can steal the credentials, encrypting the information for later exfiltration.

    WikiLeaks released three documents that appear to be the CIA’s tool documentation and user manuals for both projects as evidence.

    The whistleblowing website released the first patch from the Vault VII project in March, with the first full part comprising 8,761 documents.

    The previous release, dedicated to the CIA spying geo-location malware for WiFi-enabled devices, dubbed “ELSA”, took place on June 28.

  • North Korea accuses U.S of planning to kill Kim Jong-un

    North Korea has accused United States and South Korean agents of plotting to kill its Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un.

    A North Korean referred to only as “Kim” was paid to carry out an attack with biochemical substances, the ministry of state security said.

    The plot was foiled, it said, but gave no details on the fate of “Kim.”

    The CIA declined to comment and South Korea has issued no statement so far, the BBC reports.

    The North’s claim comes amid continued high tension on the Korean peninsula.

    U.S President Donald Trump has promised to “solve” North Korea and stop it from developing nuclear weapons.

    The ministry of state security statement, carried by state news agency KCNA, said the CIA and South Korean intelligence services had “hatched a vicious plot to hurt the supreme leadership of the DPRK.”

    It did not mention Kim Jong-un by name, but he is widely referred to as the supreme leader.

  • North Korea accuses CIA of ‘bio-chemical’ plot against leadership

    North Korea on Friday accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and South Korea’s intelligence service of a plot to attack its “supreme leadership” with a bio-chemical weapon and said such a “pipe-dream” could never succeed.

    Tension on the Korean peninsula has been high for weeks, driven by concern that North Korea might conduct its sixth nuclear test or test-launch another ballistic missile in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

    Reclusive North Korea warned this week that U.S. hostility had brought the region to the brink of nuclear war.

    The North’s Ministry of State Security released a statement saying “the last-ditch effort” of U.S. “imperialists” and the South had gone “beyond the limits”.

    The North’s KCNA news agency in a statement said: “the CIA and the Intelligence Service (IS) of south Korea, hotbed of evils in the world, hatched a vicious plot to hurt the supreme leadership of the DPRK.

    “Those acts have been put into the extremely serious phase of implementation after crossing the threshold of the DPRK”, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

    “A hideous terrorists’ group, which the CIA and the IS infiltrated into the DPRK on the basis of covert and meticulous preparations to commit state-sponsored terrorism against the supreme leadership of the DPRK by use of bio-chemical substance, has been recently detected.”

    The U.S. Embassy in Seoul and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service were not immediately available for comment.

    The U.S. military has said CIA director Mike Pompeo visited South Korea this week and met the NIS chief for discussions.

    KCNA said the two intelligence services “ideologically corrupted” and bribed a North Korean surnamed Kim and turned him into “a terrorist full of repugnance and revenge against the supreme leadership of the DPRK”.

    “They hatched a plot of letting human scum Kim commit bomb terrorism targeting the supreme leadership during events at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun and at military parade and public procession after his return home,” KCNA said.

    “They told him that assassination by use of biochemical substances including radioactive substance and nano poisonous substance is the best method that does not require access to the target, their lethal results will appear after six or twelve months…

    “Then they handed him over 20,000 dollars on two occasions and a satellite transmitter-receiver and let him get versed in it.”

    North Korea conducted an annual military parade, featuring a display of missiles and overseen by top leader Kim Jong Un and his right-hand men on April 15 and then a large, live-fire artillery drill 10 days later.

    KCNA, which often carries shrill, bellicose threats against the United States, gave lengthy details about the alleged plot but said it could never be accomplished.

    “Criminals going hell-bent to realise such a pipe dream cannot survive on this land even a moment,” it said.

    U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday that Washington was working on more sanctions against North Korea if it takes steps that merit a new response.

    He also warned other countries their firms could face so-called secondary sanctions for doing illicit business with Pyongyang.

    Tillerson said the Trump administration had been “leaning hard into China … to test their willingness to use their influence, their engagement with the regime”.

    Two women accused of killing the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim with a chemical weapon appeared in court in Malaysia last month.

    They allegedly smeared the man’s face with the toxic VX nerve agent, a chemical described by the UN as a weapon of mass destruction, at Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13.

  • CIA, NIMN to trade membership

    With the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Chartered Institute of Administration (CIA) and the National Institute of Marketing (NIMN) last Thursday, becoming a member of both institutes has just become easier.

    President of the CIA, Goddy Idaminabo, said at the institute’s induction held at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Festac Town that the MoU would enable any member of the CIA who wants to join NIMN to only need to write the institute’s final examination or vice-versa.

    For instance, he explained that a NIMN member wishing to join CIA, would skip the Foundation, Intermediate, Part I and Part II stages and write only the Part Three examination.

    He said the decision to collaborate with NIMN was influenced by the world becoming a global village.

    “Today we had an epoch making ceremony where we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NIMN. The NIMN is an institute of repute and I think that this marriage will bring a lot of progress to Nigeria’s economy because the CIA is making the policy while the NIMN is selling the policy.

    The president called on everyone in administrative position to register with CIA to hone their administrative skills.

    “You cannot practice as a lawyer without the consent of the Nigeria Law School; you cannot practice medicine without the consent of the Nigeria Medical Association; and you cannot be an administrator without the factor of CIA. If those of them at top of medical administration pass through CIA, we will not see what we are seeing today in the country. Any government that neglects professional administration must live to regret,” he said.

    A member of the CIA, Dr Festus Oshoba told the new members what they should know to become successful professionals.

    “If you are found wanting, your certificate will be withdrawn from you,” he warned.

     

  • CIA report sparks prosecution calls

    The United Nations and human rights groups have called for the prosecution of United States officials involved in what a Senate report called the “brutal” CIA interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects.

    A top UN human rights envoy said there had been a “clear policy orchestrated at a high level.”

    The BBC reports that CIA has defended its actions in the years after the 9/11 attacks on the U.S, saying they saved lives.

    President Barack Obama said it was now time to move on.

    UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, Ben Emmerson, said that senior officials from the administration of George W. Bush who planned and sanctioned crimes must be prosecuted, as well as CIA and U.S government officials responsible for torture such as waterboarding.

    “As a matter of international law, the U.S is legally obliged to bring those responsible to justice,” Mr. Emmerson said in a statement made from Geneva.

    “The U.S attorney general is under a legal duty to bring criminal charges against those responsible.”

    Human Rights Watch executive director, Kenneth Roth, said the CIA’s actions were criminal “and can never be justified.”

    “Unless this important truth-telling process leads to prosecution of officials, torture will remain a ‘policy option’ for future presidents,” he said.

  • U.S. publishes CIA ‘torture’ report

    Details of the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques, considered by many to be torture, are set to be revealed in a long-awaited report.

    The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report is expected to find that such interrogations failed to yield life-saving information.

    The techniques were used on al-Qaeda terrorism suspects in the years following the 9/11 attacks on the US.

    Security was increased at US facilities around the world ahead of publication.

    Embassies and other sites were taking precautions amid “some indications” of “greater risk”, a White House spokesman said.

    The Senate committee’s report runs to more than 6,000 pages, drawing on huge quantities of evidence, but it remains classified and only a 480-page summary will be released.

    Zubaydah, al-Qaeda’s “travel agent”; Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, alleged mastermind of 2000 attack on USS Cole.

    Why is report released now? Head of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dianne Feinstein began investigation in 2009, but report’s publication was held up by negotiations with CIA over how much could be released.

    Last French hostage  freed in Mali

    The last French hostage to be held by Islamist militants has been freed after three years, French President Francois Hollande has announced.

    Serge Lazarevic was snatched in Mali in November 2011 along with fellow Frenchman Philippe Verdon.

    Militants from the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group killed Mr Verdon last year in retaliation for France’s intervention in Mali.

    Mr Hollande said there were no more French hostages waiting to be freed.

    Mr Lazarevic, he said, was in “relatively good health” despite the conditions of his captivity and was on his way to the neighbouring country of Niger from where he would return to France.

    AQIM kidnapped a number of Western hostages before the French military deployed its forces against the group in January 2013.

  • Lessons from America

    Lessons from America

    Tragedy. That seven-letter word knows no boundary. It strikes anywhere. And everywhere. In this age of suicide bombing, stopping tragedy outright seems impossible. What matters is how leaders handle it.

    President Barack Obama can dance. He has shown on a number of occasions that he knows how to move his body to good music. But he knows the right time to dance. You will not likely find him dancing at a political rally a day after a major tragedy.

    Like Nigeria, the United States has had its fair share of tragedies. The one that easily comes to mind is the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in 2001. The twin attacks are now known as the 9/11 attacks because it happened on September 11.

    The magnitude of the attacks was such that the whole world was shocked. But America rose above the shock and ensured almost everyone who died in the attacks were accounted for. Not only that, adequate arrangements were made for their dependants. Also, Osama bin Laden, who masterminded it, was fished out and killed. For years, America went after bin Laden. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) determined the location of bin Laden in a large compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a suburban area near Islamabad. First the CIA planned to bomb the compound,but Obama rejected this and authorised a “surgical raid” to be conducted by United States Navy SEALs. The operation took place on May 1, 2011, and bin Laden became history. There were spontaneous celebrations around the country. People gathered outside the White House, the Ground Zero and Times Square.

    Up till now, America has not closed the books on the disaster, as it is still looking out for those who played one role or the other in it.

    From time to time, there are shootings in American schools. One of such was the one on January 16, last year at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. That incident alone made President Obama sign 23 executive orders and outline a series of sweeping proposals regarding gun control. A month after the incident, Obama urged the Congress to reintroduce an expired ban on military-style assault weapons, such as those used in several recent mass shootings. He also urged them to impose limits on ammunition magazines to 10 rounds, introduce background checks on all gun sales, pass a ban on possession and sale of armour-piercing bullets, and introduce harsher penalties for gun-traffickers.

    The Boston Marathon’s bombing, whose first anniversary, was marked some days ago, is another example of excellent disaster management and resolution. In less than a week or so, America was able to fish out those behind it and they have answered for their crime against humanity.

    Here almost every crime goes undetected. Leaders also go about their normal activities, including attending parties, at times of tragedies. Not American leaders, who will rather engage in one strategy session or the other to resolve the puzzle around the disaster and also bring the perpetrators to book.

  • How to tackle insecurity, by Ihejirika

    How to tackle insecurity, by Ihejirika

    •Administrators meet in Lagos

    Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika has called for improved community policing, saying it would help reduce insecurity in the land.

    He spoke at a dinner and lecture of the Chartered Institute of Administration (CIA) in Lagos, which focused on security challenges in Nigeria.

    Represented by General Officer Commanding, 81 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maj Gen. Obi Abel Umahi, the army chief spoke on the topic: “Security Challenges in Nigeria: The Way Forward, Using Administrative Tools.”

    Ihejirika said kidnapping, proliferation of small arms, cyber crime, pipeline vandalisation, ethno-religious conflicts and terrorism are among Nigeria’s security challenges.

    He said intensifying community policing, public enlightenment, dialogue, intelligence gathering and database collection will help address insecurity.

    Umahi told reporters after the lecture that administrators have a role to play in security, adding that it takes good governance to end the root causes of insecurity.

    The Institute’s President/Chairman of Council, Goddy Idaminabo said a nation without good administrators is bound to fail, and that insecurity can only thrive where there is leadership failure.

    Managing Director of Federal Mortgage Bank, Gimba Ya’u Kumo was elected chairman of the institute’s Board of Fellows at the event.

    Among guests was President, Nigeria-America Chamber of Commerce (NACC) Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, who chaired the event.

  • CIA ‘tracked Boston bomb suspect’

    One of the Boston bomb suspects was added to a terrorism database 18 months ago at the request of the CIA, officials have told United States media.

    The FBI has already said it investigated Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, but had found no evidence of a threat.

    Tsarnaev was killed during a police chase last week. His brother Dzhokhar, 19, is in custody over the bombs, BBC reports.

    Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded when two devices exploded at the Boston Marathon on April 15.

    A U.S politician earlier confirmed the bombs were set off by remote control.

    But the devices were not sophisticated and apparently had to be triggered from a few streets away.

    Officials said Tsarnaev had been added to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) on the request of the CIA.

    The database contains as many as 745,000 entries, and individuals on that list are not necessarily on the so-called terrorist watch list.

    The Russian authorities had alerted U.S counterparts to the activities of Tsarnaev, whose family has its origins in the war-torn Russian republic of Chechnya.

    About six months before the CIA requested his name be added to TIDE, the FBI asked the Russians for more information about Tsarnaev but received none, and closed its investigation.