Espionage Files: Portuguese Spy Caught Passing ‘NATO Secrets’ To Russian Handler In Rome

The Kremlin’s espionage offensive in Europe came to the surface on Tuesday after a Portuguese spy was arrested in Rome for allegedly passing NATO secrets to a Russian intelligence officer.

The supposed double agent, identified by the local media as Frederico Carvalhão, is a member of the Potugal’s SIS intelligence service, the country’s equivalent of MI5, responsible for internal security and counter-terrorism.

Mr Carvalhão is accused of selling sensitive information relating to Nato and the European Union, both of which are key targets for Russian intelligence.

In line with the tradecraft of espionage, Mr Carvalhão had allegedly been leaving Portugal and travelling to different European capitals to meet his Russian handler since 2014. But he was secretly tracked by the SIS counter-espionage unit.

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Ancient History: Were The Vikings First To Discover North America? The Evidence Sais Yes

The Vikings’ claim to be the first Europeans to reach North America will receive a huge boost, with the announcement of the discovery of a new site that marks the farthest known westerly point of the Norse exploration across the Atlantic.

Scientists working with the BBC will today reveal that they believe they have discovered only the second known Viking site in North America, on the Canadian island of Newfoundland, 400 miles south-west of a settlement discovered in the 1960s – the farthest known point of all the Viking voyages.

The remains of metal and turf, dating to sometime between 800AD and 1300AD, were excavated after sophisticated new satellite searches, and give further credence to the claim that it was the Vikings, not Columbus, who were the first European explorers to discover the Americas.

 The discovery also brings the Norse explorers hundreds of miles closer to the United States, raising hopes among some that evidence may yet emerge that the Vikings once walked upon the shores of New England.

The 90-minute BBC documentary will document how Sarah Parcak, a “space archaeologist” at the University of Alabama, used high-resolution imagery from satellites orbiting nearly 500 miles above the globe, to spot disturbances under the earth in an area of Southern Newfoundland known as Point Rosee.

Infra-red imagery captured the outlines of a building of a similar size to longhouses discovered at L’Anse aux Meadows, the only previously known Viking site in North America, which was discovered in 1960 and is thought to date to just before 1000AD.

Experts have been searching for five decades for further evidence to back-up stories in the Viking Sagas that the Nordic invaders spread from settlements in Greenland, into North America, but have been hampered by the sheer scale of Canada’s massive eastern seaboard.

Dr Parcak said: “Typically in archaeology, you only ever get to write a footnote in the history books, but what we seem to have at Point Rosee may be the beginning of an entirely new chapter.

This new site could unravel more secrets about the Vikings, whether they were the first Europeans to ‘occupy’ briefly in North America and reveal that the Vikings dared to explore much further into the New World than we ever thought.”

Professor Judith Jesch, director of Nottingham University’s Centre for the Study of the Viking Age, who was not involved in the programme, described the discovery as “quite exciting”. She said: “In a way it confirms what we think about L’Anse aux Meadows.

That site may have been a way-centre, this new site might be another place where you could gather resources, and make some money.” Remains of butternuts and other artefacts discovered at the L’Anse aux Meadows site suggest that the Vikings may have ventured much further south, but Professor Jesch said she did not believe they reached the modern-day United States.

She said: “Finding Vikings in the United States is the Holy Grail for many people, not least because there are many Americans of Scandinavian descent who would like to think that they were following in the footsteps of their ancestors. But I don’t think they made significant progress past New Brunswick, in Canada.”

Dan Snow, who presents the programme, said: “Were the Vikings really the first Europeans to settle North America?

“We know of one Viking site on the very northern tip of Newfoundland but was this part of a wider Viking territory?

“It felt like Sarah’s team were making history, both in the high tech labs and on the ground in windswept Newfoundland.”

All you Viking Fans Be Sure to Set your DVR’s for The Vikings Uncovered which will air on BBC One at 8.30pm, on Monday April 4th.

Read the Original Article at Telegraph

Espionage Files: Syrian Rebel Spy Chief Claims CIA Ignored Intelligence On Rise of ISIS

Free Syrian Army agent says his agents have been providing the US agency with GPS positions of its leaders and headquarters but the US has failed to act

The “spymaster” of a key moderate Syrian rebel group has accused the CIA of failing to act on reams of detailed intelligence his network has been supplying the US on Isil since 2013 – including GPS coordinates of its leaders and headquarters.

The Free Syrian Army’s spy chief insisted proper use of the intelligence his agents provided from within Isil’s ranks, and often at grave risk to their life, could have critically damaged the jihadist group on several occasions.

Speaking to Le Monde in Turkey, “M”, as the French newspaper dubbed the man for security reasons, said: “From the moment Daesh (the Arab acronym for Isil) had 20 members to when it had 20,000, we have shown everything to the Americans. When we asked them what they did with this information, they always gave evasive answers, saying it was up to their decision-makers”.

The Free Syrian Army, or FSA, was founded by a group of defected Syrian Armed Forces officers and soldiers in July 2011, and received backing from Britain and the US for its moderate line.

Le Monde was shown photographs of a training camp in the northern province of Latakia frequented by foreign Isil fighters. “Naturally I transmitted this to my Western contacts with the GPS coordinates but had not response,” he is cited as saying. “Agents of mine also managed to get hold of phone numbers of Isil officials, serial numbers of satellite equipment and IP addresses. But once again, zero response.”

In 2014, FSA fighters under the banner Hazzm Movement were supplied anti-tank missiles in a covert CIA programme and received US military training in Qatar on their use.

In the summer of 2014, while Isil besieged Mossul in Iraq, “M” helped devise a secret plan presented to the Americans to rout Isil from northern Syria on the Azaz-Alep line. The plan was detailed street by street, hour by hour, and included the precise itinerary of fighters and their refuelling points. “In every village held by Daesh, knew the number of armed men, where their offices and hideouts were. We had located snipers and mines, we knew where the local emir slept, the colour of his car and even the brand. From a tactical and strategic point of view, we were ready,” he said.

However, the Americans failed to give the green light, he said.

“They were reluctant to provide us satellite images. They said their planes couldn’t help once the fighting with Isil started. All they offered us was to get rid of a few obstacles before the start of the offensive,” he said.

He then provided the US with details of the Isil command structure in Raqqa, from the emir to those in charge of checkpoints and pages of GPS coordinates. “That was a year and a half ago and Raqqa is still the capital of Daesh,” he said.

Read the Original Article at Telgraph

Brush-Up on Your History: How the Assassination of Julius Caesar Changed The World

Caesar’s death paved the way for the Roman empire after a bloody cycle of civil wars, and secured him the hallowed immortality he always craved

 

Spurinna was a haruspex. His calling was vital, if a little unusual, requiring him to see the future in the warm entrails of sacrificial animals.

At the great festival of Lupercalia on the 15th of February 44 B.C., he was a worried man. While priests were running around the Palatine Hill hitting women with thongs to make them fertile, Spurinna was chewing over a terrible omen.

The bull that Julius Caesar, Dictator of Rome, had sacrificed earlier that day had no heart. Spurinna knew it was a terrible sign: a sure portent of death.

The following day, the haruspex oversaw another sacrifice in the hope it would give cause for optimism, but it was just as bad: the animal had a malformed liver. There was nothing for it but to tell Caesar.

In grave tones, Spurinna warned the dictator that his life would be in danger for a period of 30 days, which would expire on the 15th of March. Caesar dismissed the concerns. Although in his scramble for political power he had been made the chief priest of Rome (Pontifex Maximus), he was a campaign soldier by trade, and not bothered by the divinatory handwringing of seers like Spurinna.

The Ides of March

As the 30 days passed, nothing whatsoever happened. Yet when the 15th of March dawned, Caesar’s wife awoke distressed after dreaming she held his bloodied body. Fearing for his life, she begged him not to leave the house. His dreams, too, had also been unsettling. He had been flying through the air, and shaken hands with Jupiter. But he pushed any concerns aside. The day was an important annual celebration in Rome’s religious calendar, and he had called a special meeting of the Senate.

His first appointment of the day was a quick sacrifice at a friend’s house. Spurinna the seer was also there. Caesar joked that his prophecies must be off as nothing had happened. Spurinna muttered that the day was not yet over.

The sacrifices proceeded, but the animals’ innards were blemished and the day was plainly inauspicious. Caesar knew when to call it a day, and agreed to postpone the meeting of the Senate and to go home.

Later that morning, his fellow military politician and protégé Decimus called round, urging him to come to the Senate in case his absence was seen as mocking or insulting. Persuaded by his friend, soldier to soldier, Caesar agreed to go in person to announce the meeting would be postponed.

Shortly after, a slave arrived at Caesar’s house to warn him of the plot against his life. But he was too late: Caesar had left. A short while later, a man named Artemidorus of Cnidus pushed through the jostling crowds and handed Caesar a roll setting out details of the plot. But the crowds were so thick he had no chance to read it.

The conspiracy and assassination

The main Senate House was being rebuilt on Caesar’s orders, so the meeting was instead at the Curia behind the porticoed gardens attached to the great Theatre of Pompey. Another round of animal sacrifices before the start of the session was unfavourable, and Caesar waited outside, troubled. Again Decimus spoke with him. Unaware of his friend’s treachery, Caesar allowed himself to be led towards the chamber by the hand. Decked out in his triumphant general’s reddish-purple toga embroidered in gold, Julius Caesar, Dictator of Rome, entered the Senate’s meeting room, and ascended his golden throne.

Read the Remainder at Telegraph

U.S. Navy Returns to Celestial Navigation Amid Fears of Computer Hack

Not being DEPENDENT on technology is a skill-set guys;  because with one EMP blast, the RESET button gets punched and we are back to the stone age. I will be posting more on this. -SF

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Albert Einstein

It was how Odysseus sailed the seas, how Columbus reached the Americas, and how Lawrence of Arabia found his way across the vast, featureless deserts of the Middle East.

For millennia, travellers used the stars to guide them on their journeys – a technique which, in recent decades, has been replaced by modern technology.

But now the US navy is reinstating classes on celestial navigation for all new recruits, teaching the use of sextants – instruments made of mirrors used to calculate angles and plot directions – because of rising concerns that computers used to chart courses could be hacked or malfunction.

“We went away from celestial navigation because computers are great,” said Lt. Cmdr. Ryan Rogers, the deputy chairman of the naval academy’s Department of Seamanship and Navigation. “The problem is there’s no backup.”

Read the Remainder at Telegraph