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China and Russia Spying on U.S. at Cold War Levels

 Spy Chief: China, Russia Spying on U.S.
By PAMELA HESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — China and Russia are spying on the United States nearly as much as they did during the Cold War, according to the top U.S. intelligence official.

Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, says in testimony prepared for a Tuesday congressional hearing that a law passed last month expanding the U.S. government’s eavesdropping power is needed to protect not just against terrorists but also against more traditional potential adversaries, such as those two Cold War foes.

“China and Russia’s foreign intelligence services are among the most aggressive in collecting against sensitive and protected U.S. systems, facilities and development projects, and their efforts are approaching Cold War levels,” McConnell says in his testimony. “Foreign intelligence information concerning the plans, activities and intentions of foreign powers and their agents is critical to protect the nation and preserve our security.”

The new law will also enable the intelligence agencies to identify “sleeper cells” of terrorists in the United States, according to McConnell’s statement to the House Judiciary Committee.

Russian forces kill Islamist rebel

September 18, 2007
TheAge.com.AU
Russian forces have killed a senior Islamist rebel blamed for a series of attacks in the southern region of Dagestan including a 2002 bomb blast in which more than 40 people died, officials said.

A Dagestani Interior Ministry spokesman said the body of Rappani Khalilov and his lieutenant were found after troops, backed by tanks, stormed a home in the town of Kizilyurt where they were hiding.

Khalilov, a former baker who joined a radical Muslim sect, took part with his forces in a high-profile 1999 raid on Dagestan from neighbouring Chechnya where Russian forces and rebels have fought two wars since 1994.

The raid triggered Russia’s second military onslaught on Chechnya, which ended the region’s short-lived effective independence from Moscow won in the first war of 1994-96.

Russia accuses Khalilov’s fighters of being behind at least 13 attacks in Dagestan, including a bomb blast in the town of Kaspiisk in 2002 which killed at least 42 civilians.