Christopher Looms Named MI6 Agent in Croatia

15 February 2005. Thanks to Mario Profaca (http://mprofaca.cro.net/)

ICTY is the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

THE REAL CONTENT OF THE PRESENTATION

[Image]
Christopher Looms
Source
At the end of last week, Nacional came into possession of the famed POA 'presentation', which includes photo material, video recordings of meetings and audio recordings of conversations of British and American spies and their collaborator US espionage agent Christoper Looms, who was in frequent contact with Globus weekly journalist Gordan Malic

This was the topic of discussion in the TV show “Otvoreno” on HTV, numerous other media have written about this, claiming that the presentation proves that POA was wiretapping Marija Kavain, Ivanka Tom and Davor Butkovic, journalists for Jutarnji List.

Here Nacional releases those complete sections which deal with Croatia, as another section deals with the work of British agents in BiH. In the centre of the POA investigation was Christopher Looms, a member of the investigative team for the ICTY Prosecution, whom POA claimed to be delegated as a member of the British intelligence agency MI6, covering that post to disguise his true post: spying in Croatia for MI6.

Judging by the documents, Looms did not have a mandate for his activities in Croatia, and for that reason ended up the subject of a POA investigation. Well informed sources claims that there are 11 ICTY investigative teams in Croatia, with some 40 investigators, headed by Thomas Osorio, head of the Office for Hague Tribunal Affairs in Zagreb. All these investigators operate in Croatia based on the Constitutional law on cooperation of Croatia and the ICTY. Judging by this controversial presentation, Looms did not report a single one of his visits to Croatia to either the competent state bodies or the office of the ICTY Prosecution in Zagreb. For that reason, POA began monitoring his activities and wiretapping his phone, which then uncovered his ties to Globus reporter Gordan Maliæ and other agents who, judging by the documents, are also operating illegally in Croatia.

“Information on the intelligence-media manipulations aimed at discrediting the Republic of Croatia”

Summary

Through ongoing intelligence activities, POA has collected a great deal of information which suggests that activities are unfolding on the Croatian media scene and in the activities of certain international organizations (ICTY) and western states (Great Britain) which have the characteristics of an intelligence-media manipulation aimed at discrediting the Republic of Croatia.

Through continued and intensive intelligence activities within the framework of legal authority (within Croatia), POA has not received intelligence suggesting of the possible whereabouts of retired General Ante Gotovina in Croatia, and has confirmed that all initial information (including information received from foreign intelligence agencies or the ICTY) on the possible whereabouts of Gotovina are incorrect.

The focus of interest of the 'presentation' is a British MI 6 spy

At the end of last week, Nacional came into possession of the “Presentation on the intelligence-media manipulations aimed at discrediting the Republic of Croatia”, which includes photographic material, videotapes of meetings and audiotapes of telephone conversations between British and American spies and their collaborators in Croatia.

Globus released parts of this presentation on 4 February, claiming that the controversial document proves that POA was illegally wiretapping journalists and state officials. Due to the many years of illegal wiretapping of Croatian journalists over the past decade, as well as the recent abuses by POA agents against reporter Helena Puljiz, this case has received first class media treatment. The Parliamentary board for internal policy and national security has met and formed a working group which began its investigation of this case and visited POA at the end of last week.

The overall operations of POA and other state bodies responsible for finding Gotovina have been followed by a series of media articles and public appearances by ICTY officials, as well as the position of individual western European government which are trying to prove the inefficiency, passiveness and obstruction of the Croatian security system in finding General Gotovina. Through analysis and checking of the information published in the media and the results of regular counter-intelligence activities, POA has obtained intelligence on the existence of a correlation between certain claims released in the Croatian printed media, the activities of confirmed members of certain western intelligence agencies (primarily Britain and the US), and the statements by ICTY prosecution officials, and the formation of an official stance and politics of the governments of certain western countries (primarily Britain and Holland).

This correlation relates to the coincidence of activities of certain actors with political events on the international scene relating to the announced activities of the ICTY, and the repetition of this pattern several times over the past eighteen months.

POA has confirmed that members of western intelligence agencies (US and Britain) are collecting information from certain individuals from the Croatian executive government who are given half-truths or subjective information for their own self-promotion, which the intelligence agents are then presenting as fact to their agencies or organizations. These western agents are then passing on this same information to other competent international institutions which deal with this issue in the territories of Croatia and BiH. In comparison to these activities, information is also being placed via certain journalists in the Croatian media. This thereby creates a synergistic effect on decision makers such that they receive virtually identical information from several agencies, which should be operating independently, i.e. compiling intelligence independently of one another, and this status is confirmed by the information in the Croatian press. All these campaigns intensify directly prior to political events important for cooperation between Croatia and the ICTY.

As such, initial theses, commonly founded on political positions and not on realistic situations, are confirmed several times over and therefore become the foundation for defining the official positions towards Croatia, i.e. the main arguments for the thesis of Croatia’s incorrectness towards the ICTY in the Gotovina case and the foundation for international political pressure upon Croatia.

These activities by identified members of international organizations (ICTY, SFOR) are primarily executed outside of the formal mandate, both in terms of content and territory (a portion of these individuals are not accredited to formally carry out duties related to Croatia). They are consciously and actively attempting to cover their contacts in Croatia, which confirms the intelligence nature of their activities, which is contrary to the provisions of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic and consular relations.

An overview of the intelligence-media campaign against Croatia

Through analysis of these parameters, POA has confirmed interesting contacts between Christopher Looms (born 19 June 1960), a formal member of the ICTY investigative team for the prosecutor, where he was delegated as a members of the British SIS agency (MI 8), and Oscar Vera (born 25 August 1949), member of the US military intelligence service DIA, declared as a member of the Pentagon (US Department of Justice). According to POA information, he has been in BiH since 2000 when he participated in the investigation of the murder of Jozo Leutar, after which point he was appointed advisor to the commander of SFOR. An experienced agent who has operated for 25 years in the world’s greatest crisis points, Gareth Lungley (born 8 January 1971), is a member of the British SIS agency and first secretary of the British Embassy in Croatia. In 2003, he was in intensive contact with the remaining intelligence agents in the region and the Slovenian intelligence agency. His name is also on the list of MI 8 agents released in 1999 on the staff intranet of the British Embassy in Croatia, Ranko Ostojiæ, former Police Chief and Gordan Maliæ, reporter for the weekly news magazine Globus. Within this group there are direct and indirect connects by which information and disinformation was placed and official documents of the ICTY and the Croatian state bodies (POA is in possession of a large number of data which proves the intensity and nature of the telephone contacts, as well as audio and video documentation on the personal contacts of these persons) in the Croatian media, as well as towards the ICTY and governments of western nations.

As an ICTY investigator, Looms frequently visited Croatia (he registered his stay 26 times in accommodation facilities in Croatia), but then, even as a member of the ICTY, he did not contact the Office of the Prosecutor in Zagreb nor did he report his presence to the competent bodies in Croatia.

POA detected his contacts with advisor to the SFOR commander Oscar Vera and Globus reporter Gordan Maliæ. These contact are interesting for security reasons as in terms of time and contact, they correspond to the official statements made by ICTY prosecution officials and the positions of individual western European states which have obviously been based on the tendentious claims compiled by individuals of the executive government of Croatia.

The contacts between Vera and Looms with Maliæ occasionally coincided with Maliæ’s publication of exclusive information in Globus, and their contact greatly coincide with the later negative stance expressed by the ICTY on Croatia. According to confidential information, Maliæ and Looms communicate via various telephone numbers (frequently including telephone booths), and they set up their personal contacts in a way such that they attempt to cover them, which suggests some form of agent relationship.

The contacts between Looms and Vera also suggest the coordinated activity contrary to the interests of Croatia. Through analysis of the activities of Oscar Vera in the territory of Croatia, we confirmed that he is frequently present in Croatian territory (though he is formally a member of SFOR, authorized in the territory of BiH), such that from the end of 1999 to February 2004, he reported his stay in accommodation facilities in Croatia 119 times. It is interesting that Vera has shown interest for the activities of the Croatian security system in cooperation with the ICTY and that through private contacts with representatives of the Croatian executive government, he has attempted to compile confidential information. To that effect, Vera has used a large number of telephone numbers, as well as mediators in communications with individual persons.

This is particular relates to Vera’s relations with former police chief Ranko Ostojiæ and mentioned Globus reporter Gordan Maliæ. POA confirmed that Vera was in personal contact with Ostojiæ through whom he obtained information on the functioning of the Croatian security system, and he also compiled Ostojiæ’s assessments on the alleged involvement of the Office of the President and POA in protecting General Gotovina. Other than direct contacts with Ostojiæ, contacts have been recorded with Vera and Željko Dolaèki (Željko Dolaèki is a former employee of the Office for combating organized crime, involved in media affairs. Dolaèki was involved in the criminal investigation against Hrvoje Petraè and the so-called criminal organization, and he has been connected to former State Prosecutor Radovan Ortynski and alleged HIS collaborator Veselin Marinov. Dolaèki is still a police employee and is not only professionally but also personally tied to former police chief Ostojiæ) and Mario Bertino (born 6 March 1955, member of the Crime Police unit), member of the police and members of the informal “special unit” which was founded and run by Ostojiæ.

In addition to personal contacts during his meetings in Zagreb or the use of many telephone numbers, Vera also had indirect contacts with these individuals through his girlfriend Karmen Kardum (born 5 January 1973, from Rijeka, US citizen, speaks Croatia and is a translator for SFOR), who is employed as a translator in the SFOR headquarters in Sarajevo.

These contacts took place through the many telephone numbers and by covering up the topic of conversation, which suggests to the unusual nature of their relations (i.e. existence of agreed agent relations).

Ostojiæ’s contact with the first secretary of the British Embassy in Croatia, Lungley, is also interesting. Ostojiæ also used Lungley as a source for the same information compiled by Vera and Looms. In this described manner, the identical information stemming from one source (Ostojiæ, Vera) was repeated many times, and Looms then presented this information as credible, as it was compiled from several sources. Similar information was also officially submitted to the representative of the British intelligence in Croatian Lungley through his Ambassador in Zagreb, such that the British diplomacy through a formal source (Lungley), as well as through a second intelligence officer (Looms) had received the same information.

The impression of credibility of intelligence collected in this manner arrived from Vera’s activities in BiH, where based on his high position in SFOR he is able to disseminate information via the official bodies of the international community in BiH (SFOR, OHR, ICTY in BiH) and the US Embassy in Sarajevo (POA has reliable information that Vera also delivered information to the US Embassy in Sarajevo), which served only as a confirmation of the information that Looms and Lungley had “independently” received from him.

The second part of the intelligence-media operation directed at discrediting the Republic of Croatia includes the manipulations of media reports, such that the content and timing of the information placed in the Croatian media corresponds to announced international activities concerning Croatia’s cooperation with the ICTY. This was accomplished through the mentioned activities of Looms, Vera and Ostojiæ with Maliæ. Maliæ received “exclusive” information or copies of official documents from Croatian state bodies or the ICTY. Such access enabled the specific placement of certain content, and the timing of their release, which only further confirmed the credibility of the compiled information for international institutions (particularly the ICTY and in the countries already mentioned), and compromised the state administration in Croatia. POA is in possession of information that a portion of the information that Maliæ could not place in his newspaper, he passed on to Ivica Djikiæ of Feral Tribune, who published them there.

Through detailed analysis, we confirmed that the alleged ties between these persons functioned at two levels:

1. activities which they intentionally carried out (compiling information for the needs of foreign policy of their home countries, ICTY, and placing specific information and disinformation in the media);
2. reactions to activities which cannot be controlled, concerning Croatia’s cooperation with the ICTY.

The case of the arrest of Ivica Rajiæ (intentionally placed thesis in the media) POA has irrefutably confirmed that the connection Ostojiæ Maliæ Vera Looms functioned at the time of the arrest of Ivica Rajiæ at the request of the ICTY (5 April 2003), whereby we have confirmed information that during the realization of the action, Ostojiæ contacted both Maliæ and Vera.

Followng this action, which only confirms the political cooperation of Croatia with the ICTY, Maliæ published an exclusive article on the arrest of Rajiæ (Globus 644 of 1 April 2003 entitled “Arrest of the suspect from Kiseljak MUP hid the arrest operation of Ivica Rajiæ from POA director Turek, fearing sabotage), in which the thesis was presented that the police independently had to carry out the operation of arresting the person wanted by the ICTY, due to the danger of “sabotage” on the part of POA in that operation.

This claim was later passed through the communications of representatives of the diplomatic core in Croatia and in other international organizations, and in September 2003, this was explicitly confirmed in the non-paper that Carla Del Ponte forwarded to the diplomats of the EU states and the US accredited in Croatia as preparation of her announced arrival in Croatia. Directly after this, Maliæ again repeated this thesis in his writing.

We must stress that the analysis of the telecommunications ties showed the intensive communication of Maliæ, Vera and Ostojiæ also existed directly before the release of the “non-paper” and the visit of Carla Del Ponte to Zagreb (6 October 2003).

Release of interview with Gotovina (reaction to independent event)

The joint and intentional activities are confirmed by situation that these mentioned persons did not create, but awoke with their content. Analysis of the communications following the release of the interview of Nacional editor-in-chief Ivo Pukaniæ with Gotovina (Nacional 395 of 10 August 2003 Exclusive interview “Ante Gotovina: I recognize the Hague Tribunal” note that Nacional is on newsstands in Zagreb one day prior to release date) showed that Ostojiæ, Maliæ and Vera intensively communicated concerning this event.

Case of Pukanic’s explanation of the circumstance of his interview with Gotovina (reaction to an independent event)

The second case which awoke exceptional interest of these persons was Ivo Pukaniæ’s writing on the circumstances of the interview with Gotovina, in which he makes claims contrary to the version which Ostojiæ passed on to Vera and which were also placed in the public, on the involvement of the Office of the President and POA in saving Gotovina.

After the release of this article, we saw unusually intensive communications between Ostojiæ, Maliæ, Vera and Looms.

All the activities and parameters included in the POA analysis suggest that this is organized and orchestrated activity which includes intelligence and media manipulations of information, aimed at realizing certain political goals towards Croatia and the region, in order to create the conditions for political pressures on Croatia.

The schematic diagram of the communications between these actors indicates the flow of the information, as well as its final destination, which in full corroborates the real events in the Croatian media, as well as the reactions of the international politics towards Croatia.

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All these noted facts were compiled by POA at the level of operative evidence based on:

1. analysis of information,
2. statements by citizens-informants and confidential collaborators, some of whom are prepared to testify at the highest political levels,
3. analysis of telecommunications (telephone statements) which prove the communications between the actors,
4. audio recordings which prove the character of these ties and
5. video recordings documenting the contacts.

From all the above mentioned, it is evident that these events relating to the ICTY and Croatia over the past eighteen months have been unfolding according to a single formula:

1. media campaign aimed at discrediting the efforts of the Croatian institutions
2. release of confidential materials in order to compromise state institutions
3. in statements by foreign officials they claim that General Gotovina is in Croatia, but not once has anyone given a precise location or area that he is hiding in
4. the time of release in the media coincides with the statements by ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte

This analysis has shown that all the necessary actors in this classic intelligence-media manipulation have been identified:

a) agents (position) of foreign intelligence agencies in Croatia,
b) member of foreign intelligence agencies,
c) representatives of domestic media and
d) disinformation and resources they originate from.

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AUDIO FILES:

Telephone conversation between Christopher Looms and Gordan Malic following the firing of Franjo Turek

http://www.nacional.hr/pictures/download/RazgovorMali.mp3 (2 minutes)

Telephone conversation between Christopher Looms and Gordan Malic about looking for "the thing"

http://www.nacional.hr/pictures/download/G1_00775_20040218102940.mp3 (2 minutes)

Telephone conversation between Christopher Looms and Gordan Malic about how "the thing" has been found

http://www.nacional.hr/pictures/download/G1_00775_20040219141625.mp3 (2 minutes)