Classified CIA documents leaked on internet By Thomas Catan in New York
A man claiming to be a former Japanese agent yesterday said he was the source of several secret documents about US and Japanese intelligence services posted on the internet at the weekend.
Hironari Noda said he had leaked the embarrassing documents, including a classified CIA overview of the US intelligence services prepared for visiting Japanese officials in 1998 and directories of top officials at Japan's spy agency, the Public Security Investigation Agency (PSIA).
Among the documents featured on the site is a certificate of training, apparently presented to Mr Noda by CIA director George Tenet. There were also calling cards, one containing the home telephone number of Charles Allen, "assistant director of central intelligence for collection", who is listed as having given the June 1998 secret briefing to visiting Japanese agents.
The CIA briefing also contained some highly sensitive information about budgets and personnel, and stated that executive boards had been set up to review penetration of five "hard targets" - Iran, China, North Korea, Cuba and Russia.
John Young, the New York City architect who maintains the website in his spare time, said he had been contacted by FBI officials who had passed on a request from the Japanese government to remove the documents from the site. Mr Young said he had refused to take them down unless he received a court order. FBI officials could not be reached for comment.
However, the site could not be accessed yesterday, raising suspicions that it had been attacked. "Every time it's happened before it's been a technical glitch, rather than someone attacking it. But this time could be different," Mr Young said. "We're always looking for something like this to happen."
The site has been the subject of controversy in the past. Last year it posted a secret list containing the names of MI6 officers and other highly classified information after the British government managed to shut down the site that had originally published the information. It also posted an MI6 report detailing British plans to assassinate the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammer Gadaffi.
In both cases Mr Young said he had refused British requests to take the documents down.
Mr Young's internet service provider, Digital Nation, has so far refused to become involved in the disputes. Digital Nation's owner, Verio, is the subject of a takeover attempt by NTT, the Japanese telecoms company. However, the deal has been held up by FBI concerns over the implications for national security.
In an e-mail Mr Noda claimed the documents would cause a stir in Japan and give the opposition ammunition against the government. "In my opinion this matter might lead to a diplomatic problem," he wrote in a message posted on the website. "One of the reasons is that legal basis is not so clear about the liaison contact between PSIA and CIA."
Mr Young said he would continue to post documents from Mr Noda on his internet site as he received them.