Latest news with #spies
Asharq Al-Awsat
2 days ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Israel Tells Worried Members of Iran's Security Services to Contact Mossad
The Israeli military is urging members of the Iranian security services to contact Israel's Mossad intelligence service, claiming they had been receiving messages from officials worried about Iran's 'uncertain future.' There was no immediate way to independently verify the claim. In a post on the social platform X in Farsi, the Israeli military provided a website and urged users to employ a virtual private network before attempting contact. 'Even those who identify themselves as members of the regime's security institutions express their fear, despair, and anger at what is happening in Iran and ask us to contact Israeli authorities - so that Iran does not suffer the same fate as Lebanon and Gaza,' the message added. The message did not elaborate. However, it comes as Iran is in a frenzy over spies, prompting warnings to officials to abandon certain devices, apps and web services. The internet was down in Iran late Wednesday afternoon. Authorities offered no immediate explanation.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Iran ‘arrests dozens of Israeli spies'
Iran said it had arrested dozens of alleged spies and saboteurs linked to Israel since Benjamin Netanyahu ordered strikes on its nuclear and military facilities. Tehran, facing its worst security breach since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, reportedly detained 14 individuals in southern Iran on Saturday for their alleged ties to Israel and involvement in 'terror attacks'. Two alleged Mossad agents were also arrested in the Tehran province in separate operations, according to Iran's state media. They were allegedly found with 200kg of explosives and equipment for 32 drones and launchers. Iranian authorities said they were part of a wider plot by Israel's intelligence agency to create unrest within Iran. Iranian police said two more men, believed to be linked to Mossad, were also arrested in Alborz province to the west of Tehran. The suspects were allegedly operating from a safe house where they were building bombs and booby traps. Five people were also arrested for allegedly coordinating with Israeli entities in the Yazd province in central Iran over the weekend. The wave of arrests comes as Israel ordered an evacuation for parts of Tehran ahead of an expected escalation in its aerial campaign against the Iranian capital. Israeli leaders had warned that Tehran's residents would 'pay the price' for the third night of missile strikes on Israeli cities, which have so far killed at least 24 people and wounded more than 500. In Israel's strikes on nuclear sites and military personnel on Friday, Mossad agents launched drone attacks from within Iran, disabling anti-aircraft weapons and assassinating much of the top Iranian military command. The agents had sneaked into the country and set up a factory to build the explosive drones used to cripple Tehran's air defences ahead of Friday's strikes, intelligence officials said. The operation, in which vehicles carrying weapons systems were also smuggled into Iran, would have been years in the making, a security official told The Times of Israel. By destroying Iran's key air defences, the drones gave Israeli planes the freedom to carry out Friday's strikes, which killed several top generals and hit about 100 targets including nuclear and military facilities. Since then, alleged Israeli agents have been continuing to attempt 'acts of sabotage' around the country, using small drones carrying explosives, according to Iranian state media. Iran executed a man accused of spying for Mossad, state media said. Ten months ago, the notoriously sophisticated intelligence agency effectively crippled Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist organisation, in Lebanon with its use of explosive walkie-talkies. It comes as the Israeli military said that, after a wave of strikes on Monday, its forces had destroyed one third of Iran's surface-to-surface missile launchers. Israel said it had hit command centres belonging to the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in Tehran early on Monday. In response, Iran has been frantically signalling that it wants to end its escalating conflict with Israel and resume nuclear talks, according to officials.
Daily Mail
03-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE A bright yellow minibus, a force 9 gale in the Baltic and a gang of heavies with Kalashnikovs: how MI6 extracted a KGB colonel and double agent from under the Russians' noses - with his wife, son and senile mother-in-law in tow
Even with decades of experience between them, the two middle-aged spies were on edge. They were about to attempt something that had never been done before in the history of MI6. Instead of smuggling out one Russian spy to a new life in Britain – the more usual scenario – they were going to extract an entire family.
Washington Post
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Mission: Unaccountable
Chris Klimek is a film critic in Washington. You don't often see this in movies, but most spies have to be boring to be good at their jobs. In the 2006 J.J. Abrams-directed 'Mission: Impossible III,' Tom Cruise's alter ego, superspy Ethan Hunt, has retired from mask-pulls and gymnastic infiltrations. Yet his job remains so black bag that even his beautiful physician fiancée thinks he's a desk jockey for the Virginia Transportation Department. In an early party scene, he gives us a brief soliloquy, delivered with Cruise's patented help-me-help-you rectitude, about traffic patterns: 'It's amazing. It's like a living organism.'
Russia Today
29-05-2025
- General
- Russia Today
CIA running out of international informants and spies
The CIA is grappling with difficulties in recruiting foreign informants and 'needs more spies,' The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing current and former intelligence officials. Chief among the problems the sources listed is the global proliferation of public surveillance systems and advances in facial recognition, which make it harder for operatives to avoid detection. CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis acknowledged the issue in a recent public interview, saying that although 'some of the tools and techniques from the 1960s or '70s might still work today, a lot of them need to be updated and refreshed.' Other officials pointed to past setbacks, according to the WaPo, including the agency's aggressive recruitment of Chinese officials in the early 2000s. Beijing's security forces later dismantled that network, reportedly imprisoning and executing up to two dozen CIA assets. The COVID-19 pandemic also hindered operations, the report said, by disrupting face-to-face meetings with informants due to lockdowns and travel restrictions. US President Donald Trump's current plan to close 10 embassies and 17 consulates as part of budget cuts threatens to further reduce the CIA's footprint globally. In an effort to attract defectors, the CIA has produced what the reports described as 'Hollywood-quality' videos targeting Russian and Chinese audiences, which have been distributed via social media. While officials told the Post that some Russians have responded, they declined to provide specifics. The ads sparked incredulity in both countries and parodies that reversed the agency's message by highlighting American problems. Chinese netizens are having fun with the CIA's recruitment ad for Chinese spies!They've turned it around and made it even more convincing than the original! 🤣 Domestically, the CIA's recruitment of new agents has declined by double-digit percentages since 2019, a former official told the Post. The newspaper noted that a recent directive from the White House that led to the circulation of an unclassified list of new hires — including first names and initials — could impact morale and security. In 2021, the agency was ridiculed for a recruitment video featuring a 'cisgender Millennial who has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.' Ellis said the current leadership is focused on building 'the ultimate meritocracy at the CIA.'
