EGYPT: ALLEGED SPY PRAISES ISRAEL

INTERESTING DEFENSE TACTIC...

Alleged Egyptian spy praises Israel (JPost)
An Egyptian man charged with spying for Israel stunned the court Tuesday by praising Israel for its advanced technology and claiming the documents he passed on were so outdated they posed no threat to Egyptian security.

Mohammed Sayed Saber, 35, a nuclear engineer with Egypt's atomic agency, has been charged with stealing secret documents and giving them to Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, in exchange for $17,000 and with the aim to harm Egyptian national security, the prosecutor said.

An upbeat Saber appeared before the judge in a white prison jumpsuit at the start of his trial Tuesday, smiling and flashing a victory sign to media crammed into a dusty Cairo courtroom.

"I don't hide my admiration of Israel ... It has reached a very high technological and scientific level," Saber said in court. "To seek to benefit from Israel scientific expertise, is not shameful or wrong ... They are a very organized and pragmatic society with definite goals, unlike chaotic societies."

"I don't have animosity toward the Israeli people, why should I? The fact that we had wars against Israel doesn't mean that we remain enemies forever," added Saber, who has never visited the Jewish state.

Saber's pro-Israeli speech was so unusual that Judge Mohammed Reda Shwakat, presiding over the three-judge panel at south Cairo state security court, called him from the defendant's cage to the bench where he then questioned him for almost four hours in the presence of three defense lawyers.

The hearings were adjourned till June 9. Saber, who faces up to 25 years in jail on espionage charges, did not enter a plea Tuesday.

AMERICA'S EFFORTS TO SPY ON ISRAEL

America's Efforts to Spy on Israel - Gregory Levey (New Republic)
When I recently asked a former U.S. intelligence official who spent several years working on Middle East issues if America spied on Israel, he replied, "As an American, I would certainly hope so." He said that he had himself analyzed information from "classified sources in Israel." There is "definitely an inordinate amount of focus" on Israel in U.S. intelligence, he told me.

HEZBOLLAH'S IRANIAN FOUNDER DEFECTS TO WEST

Ex-Iranian official talks to Western intelligence (MSNBC)
Deputy defense minister instrumental in founding of Hezbollah, officials say

A former Iranian deputy defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guard has left his country and is cooperating with Western intelligence agencies, providing information on Hezbollah and Iran's ties to the organization, according to a senior U.S. official.

Ali Rez Asgari disappeared last month during a visit to Turkey. Iranian officials suggested yesterday that he may have been kidnapped by Israel or the United States. The U.S. official said Asgari is willingly cooperating. He did not divulge Asgari's whereabouts or specify who is questioning him, but made clear that the information Asgari is offering is fully available to U.S. intelligence.

Asgari served in the Iranian government until early 2005 under then-President Mohammad Khatami. Asgari's background suggests that he would have deep knowledge of Iran's national security infrastructure, conventional weapons arsenal and ties to Hezbollah in south Lebanon. Iranian officials said he was not involved in the country's nuclear program, and the senior U.S. official said Asgari is not being questioned about it. Former officers with Israel's Mossad spy agency said yesterday that Asgari had been instrumental in the founding of Hezbollah in the 1980s, around the time of the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut.

Iran's official news agency, IRNA, quoted the country's top police chief, Brig. Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam, as saying that Asgari was probably kidnapped by agents working for Western intelligence agencies. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Asgari was in the United States. Another U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, denied that report and suggested that Asgari's disappearance was voluntary and orchestrated by the Israelis. A spokesman for President Bush's National Security Council did not return a call for comment.

The Israeli government denied any connection to Asgari. "To my knowledge, Israel is not involved in any way in this disappearance," said Mark Regev, the spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry.

An Iranian official, who agreed to discuss Asgari on the condition of anonymity, said that Iranian intelligence is unsure of Asgari's whereabouts but that he may have been offered money, probably by Israel, to leave the country. The Iranian official said Asgari was thought to be in Europe. "He has been out of the loop for four or five years now," the official said.

Israeli and Turkish newspapers reported yesterday that Asgari disappeared in Istanbul shortly after he arrived there on Feb. 7. Iran sent a delegation to Turkey to investigate his disappearance and requested help from Interpol in locating him.

Former Mossad director Danny Yatom, who is now a member of Israel's parliament, said he believes Asgari defected to the West. "He is very high-caliber," Yatom said. "He held a very, very senior position for many long years in Lebanon. He was in effect commander of the Revolutionary Guards" there.

Ram Igra, a former Mossad officer, said Asgari spent much of the 1980s and 1990s overseeing Iran's efforts to support, finance, arm and train Hezbollah. The State Department lists the Shiite Lebanese group as a terrorist organization.

"He lived in Lebanon and, in effect, was the man who built, promoted and founded Hezbollah in those years," Igra told Israeli state radio. "If he has something to give the West, it is in this context of terrorism and Hezbollah's network in Lebanon."

The organization, led by Hasan Nasrallah, is believed to have been behind several attacks against U.S., Jewish and Israeli interests worldwide, including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Americans, and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed more than 80 people

EGYPT STARTS TRIAL OF ALLEGED SPY FOR ISRAEL

Egyptian Charged with Spying for Israel Pleads "Not Guilty," Says He Confessed Under Torture (AP/USA Today)
Mohammed el-Attar, an Egyptian who also holds Canadian citizenship who is charged with spying for Israel, pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial on Saturday at the State Security Emergency Court in Cairo and claimed he had confessed under torture, a court official said.

IRAN ARRESTS "SPIES" WORKING FOR U.S., ISRAEL

Iran says 100 spies working for US, Israel identified (AFP)
Iran has said it had identified 100 spies working for the United States and Israel in border areas of the Islamic state. "One hundred people who were directly working for the US and Israeli intelligence ... who were intending to collect political and military information were identified and are now in our intelligence net," Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie was quoted as saying.

The minister added that a number of Iranians who wanted to take part in spying courses abroad had also been arrested, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Thursday.

"We were able to identify and arrest all those who wanted to take part in espionage course abroad under the guise of taking part in educational courses," Mohseni Ejeie said, without elaborating.

Early last month, Iranian MP Ahmad Tavakoli said that Iran had arrested a spy working in parliament's research centre who had been passing information on its nuclear programme to outlawed armed opposition group, People's Mujahedeen.

Iranian authorities claim that the United States supports armed groups in the country's border provinces, whose population includes Kurd, Arab or Baluch ethnic minorities.

IS IRAN PLANNING TO CONDUCT ANOTHER SHOW-TRIAL OF JEWS?

EGYPT CHARGES 4 WITH SPYING FOR ISRAEL

Egypt charges four with spying for Israel
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has charged an Egyptian who holds Canadian citizenship and three Israelis with spying for Israel, a state prosecutor said on Saturday.

High State Security Prosecutor Hisham Badawi said the Egyptian, Mohamed Essam Ghoneim el-Attar, 31, had been arrested and charged. The rest of the suspected spy ring, who are in Turkey and Canada, were charged in absentia.

Badawi said the Israelis recruited Attar while he was living in Turkey in August 2001 and that intelligence agents assisted him in obtaining a residency permit in Canada under a fake name and found him work in a bank.

Attar was paid to spy on Egyptians and Arabs during his time in Turkey and Canada and used his position in the bank to obtain information on specific accounts, Badawi added.

He was also expected to scout and approach potential recruits, according to Badawi, who said Attar was paid $56,000 between August 2001 and January 1, 2007, when he was arrested at Cairo airport as he entered Egypt for a family visit.

Badawi said Attar had been under investigation since January 2002 and would stand trial before a High State Security Emergency Court.

"We only know what we have heard in the media. I am not aware of anything other than what has been reported," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told Reuters in Jerusalem.

Bernard Nguyen, a spokesman for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, said the government was aware of the allegations against the Canadian citizen but declined to give further information, citing privacy concerns.

In 1996, Egypt detained Azzam Azzam, an Israeli Arab textile worker, and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for spying for Israel. Egypt said Azzam passed messages in women's underwear using invisible ink.

Both Azzam and Israel denied the charges. He was released after serving eight years, as part of a deal that included the release of six Egyptian students in Israel.