New in SpyWeek: Only the Intelligence News Worth Your Attention

Pam Am 103, Still: The trial of a former Libyan intelligence official charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland has been delayed because of “the discovery of new evidence that defense attorneys want to examine,” reported the A.P. Monday. “Jury selection was scheduled to begin Wednesday for the federal trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi in Washington, D.C. His trial will be the first in the U.S. for the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing.” U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich’s order “didn’t specify the nature of the newly discovered evidence…Al-Marimi’s lawyers say prosecutors disclosed the new evidence to them on Saturday.” Unsolved Mystery: The identity for the gunman (or gunmen) responsible for the Apr. 16, 2013 attack on PG&E’s Metcalf electrical substation,15 miles southeast of San Jose, remains a mystery—and foreshadows what could too easily happen should the U.S. face a well trained spec ops adversary, writes Christopher Cox in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. Chilling: “[I]n the past decade, dozens of facilities — in Arkansas and Oregon, Florida and Washington — have been targeted, often using the same tactic as the one seen in 2013: puncturing the cooling system and letting the oil drain out,” Cox reports. Security at most stations remains lame. If saboteurs knocked out “nine total substations among” the three main U.S. power grids, they could “black out the entire United States.” Gangs of New Russia: The Kremlin is “recruiting local gang members” to sabotage defence manufacturers across Europe “to test NATO’s resolve,” reports The Telegraph. “This week, Latvia detained three of its own nationals on suspicion of an arson attack against a drone manufacturer in neighbouring Estonia,” it said. “The attacks appear carefully calculated to fall just short of triggering Article 5, NATO’s mutual defence clause, intelligence officials believe.” Attacks have been reported in Poland. Russia has also been deploying so-called “hybrid warfare” to destabilize pro-E.U. Moldova.