Tag: espionage

Over 20,000 Arrested In Iran On Suspicion Of Espionage During War With Israel

Iranian police arrested around 21,000 people on various charges during the 12-day war with Israel, Iran’s national police force reported on Tuesday. According to local media, more than 7,850 public tips were received during the fighting, leading to the arrests. 

The spokesperson of the Iranian police, Saed Montazer al-Mahdi, noted that the Iranian Cyber Police (FATA) handled 5,700 cybercrime cases, including internet fraud, unauthorized withdrawals, and a cyber attack on the Nobitex exchange.

He said 2,774 “illegal citizens” were detained, with 261 people arrested on suspicion of espionage and 172 detained for unauthorized filming – some for filming “sensitive centers” around the country. Examinations of the suspects’ mobile phones led to the opening of 30 special security cases.

Speaking on the Evin Prison incident, Mahdi stated that police arrested 127 “security and political” inmates during an escape attempt, including two of whom were dressed in firefighter uniforms.

Fars News Agency reported on July 25 that more than 700 people had been detained over the previous 12 days on charges of “security cooperation with Israel.”

Separately, judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said on 22 July that 75 prisoners escaped during an Israeli missile strike on Evin Prison.

According to Shargh Media Group, Iranian Minister of Intelligence Ismail Khatib said, “The intelligence and security organizations have the resources [personnel, assets, and operational capabilities] to mobilize them both internally and within the regime itself. During the imposed 12-day war, we witnessed seven million public reports.”

He added, “We hope that as this unity has been the axis of destroying all influence, hostility, conspiracy, and sedition, we will all be able to protect this unity and cohesion.”

During the June war, Israel launched coordinated attacks inside Iran, killing senior military and intelligence officials, nuclear scientists, and striking key military sites and administrative infrastructure.

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“I Defied My Government For Love” – State Department Official Dated Senior CCP Leader’s Daughter, Admits “She Could Have Been a Spy” – But Didn’t Report Her

The O’Keefe Media Group on Wednesday released undercover video of Daniel Choi, a US State Department Foreign Service Officer who admitted he dated a senior CCP leader’s daughter and refused to report her.

“I defied my government for love,” Daniel Choi said of his romantic relationship with 27-year-old Joi Zao.

Joi Zao entered the US on a work visa in September 2024.

“Her dad was either a provincial or a federal minister of education. So he’s, like, straight up Communist Party,” Choi said.

“Under federal regulations, Foreign Service Officers are required to report close and continuing contact with foreign nationals from adversarial nations, including China,” the O’Keefe Media Group reported.

Choi admitted he didn’t report her: “I was supposed to, whatever, sort of report what I knew about her, but I always thought that was kind of unfair.”

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Active Duty Soldier With Top Security Clearance Arrested Trying to Hand Classified Information and Technology to Russian Intelligence

An investigation FBI and the Army Counterintelligence Command has resulted in the arrest of active serviceman Taylor Adam Lee, 22, of El Paso, Texas, on charges of ‘attempted transmission of national defense information to a foreign adversary, and attempted export of controlled technical data without a license.

From the DOJ website:

“According to the criminal complaint, the defendant sought to transmit sensitive national defense information to Russia regarding the operation of the M1A2 Abrams, our Nation’s main battle tank,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “The National Security Division will continue to work with our law enforcement and military partners to ensure that such serious transgressions are met with serious consequences.”

U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas: “Our enemies, both foreign and domestic, should be aware that we diligently investigate and aggressively prosecute these cases. I appreciate the investigative work by our partners in the FBI and the Army Counterintelligence Command, and I look forward to continuing our work with them as we proceed with the prosecution of this important case.”

Lee is charged with attempting to provide classified military information on U.S. tank vulnerabilities to someone he mistakenly believed to be a Russian intelligence officer.

The soldier is alleged to have done this in exchange for what he believed was going to be ‘Russian citizenship’.

Lee was stationed at Fort Bliss, and held a Top Secret (TS) and Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) security clearance. Since May 2025, Lee had been allegedly transmitting ‘export-controlled technical information’ on the M1A2 Abrams Tank.

He also offered assistance to the Russian Federation, saying: ‘the USA is not happy with me for trying to expose their weaknesses’, and added, ‘At this point I’d even volunteer to assist the Russian federation when I’m there in any way’.

In July, Lee had an in-person meeting with a fake Russian agent, where the he allegedly passed an SD card to the individual.

The card contained ‘controlled technical data’ that Lee did not have the authorization to provide.

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Iran Deporting Millions Of Afghan Migrants After Capturing Alleged Israeli Spies

It would seem that mass deportations in the name of national security is not an issue limited to western countries.  Over the past few weeks Iran has drawn the attention of the UN and a number of humanitarian NGOs after initiated a nationwide program to remove all Afghan migrants without proper legal documentation from their borders, relocating them back to Afghanistan. 

Nearly 1 million migrants have been deported in the past month alone according to estimates by Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni.  That’s around half of the 2 million Afghans currently residing in the country.  Iran’s government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani stated at the beginning of the relocation effort:

“We’ve always striven to be good hosts, but national security is a priority.” 

The deportations are a response to detrimental intelligence leaks and acts of sabotage within Iran during recent conflict with Israel.  Iranian authorities report the capture of a number of Afghan refugees involved in the transportation and piloting of drones, the gathering of sensitive intelligence and the planting of bombs.  They assert that migrants are easier for the Israelis to bribe.

In a well-publicized case, Iranian authorities in the city of Rey arrested an Afghan university student accusing him of links to the Mossad and alleging he was caught in possession of sensitive material on bomb-making, drone mechanics and surveillance operations. 

State television aired reports of arrested Afghan citizens “confessing” to being Israeli agents.  In one such report, broadcast on June 26, showed the questioning of several suspects, mostly Afghans, being accused of plotting to bomb a power station in southeast Tehran.

It is possible that the mass deportations represent nothing more than an effort to divert blame for Iranian intelligence failures onto a convenient scapegoat.  However, migrant groups have historically been easy targets for manipulation and conversion by foreign enemies and Iran’s caution is a logical response.  Open borders have long been used by intelligence agencies as a means to plant “sleeper agents” within nations they plan to go to war with.

For example, several Iranians have been recently apprehended trying to sneak across the US border, some of them with national security ties.  

The Taliban government has urged Iran to stop the exodus, calling for a gradual process instead.  Taliban officials say the dignity of the migrants must be respected, though, it is likely that the Afghan economy could be crippled by a surge of a million or more refugees in such a short span of time and the Taliban have limited means of humanitarian support.

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U.S.-China Dual Citizen Pleads Guilty to Stealing Missile-Tracking Tech from L.A. Firm

Chenguang Gong, a 59-year-old resident of San Jose, pled guilty on Monday to stealing missile-tracking technology from a research and development firm in the Los Angeles area.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) described Gong as a dual citizen of the United States and China. He came to the United States around 1993 and became a U.S. citizen in 2011. He earned a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Clemson and has done Ph.D. work at Stanford.

He was hired by the unnamed research and development firm in January 2023 as an “application-specific integrated circuit design manager responsible for the design, development and verification of its infrared sensors.”

Three months after he was hired, Gong allegedly began downloading thousands of files from his work computer to “personal storage devices.” Many of those files contained proprietary data and trade secrets, including details of a space-based system for detecting missile launches and tracking hypersonic weapons.

The company Gong took the files from was also involved with designing sensors that allow American military aircraft to detect and defeat heat-seeking missiles.

Gong was terminated by the “victim company” in April 2023. By that time, he had evidently accepted a job at a competing company, but he was still downloading sensitive files to his personal storage devices. DOJ said the data he downloaded was “worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Investigators digging into Gong’s background discovered he applied to Communist China’s “Talent Programs” on numerous occasions between 2014 and 2022, during which time he worked for “several major technology companies in the United States.”

China has several initiatives for aggressively recruiting foreign technology experts, the most infamous being the Thousand Talents Program (TTP). U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies say the talent programs have often been used to recruit espionage agents and steal valuable intellectual property for China.

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Microsoft ends use of China-based computer engineers for certain Defense Dept projects amid espionage fears

Microsoft said it will cease using China-based computer engineering teams for work on Pentagon cloud systems, after an investigation this week led to national security concerns at the highest levels over a program that Microsoft has used since 2016.

A ProPublica report released Tuesday accused Microsoft of allowing China-based engineers to assist with Pentagon cloud systems with inadequate guardrails in an effort to scale up its government contracting business. 

The report got the attention of GOP lawmakers and the Trump administration, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisting Friday that foreign engineers from “any country … should NEVER be allowed to maintain or access DOD systems.” He added that the Defense Department would be “looking into this ASAP.”

After Hegseth’s indication that the Pentagon would be looking into the matter, Fox News Digital reached out to Microsoft, which responded that it would be ceasing its use of China-based computer engineers providing assistance to sensitive Defense Department cloud “and related” services.

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Why is South Korea retrying a spy chief who assassinated a president?

Two gunshots.

That is how Yoo Seok-sul begins recounting the night of Friday, 26 October, 1979.

A former security guard in the Korea Central Intelligence Agency, or KCIA, as the South’s spy division was known, Yoo has many stories to tell. But this is perhaps the most infamous.

He remembers the time – nearly 19:40 – and where he had been sitting – in the break room. He was resting after his shift guarding the entrance to the low-rise compound where President Park Chung-hee entertained his most trusted lieutenants. They called it the “safe house”.

In his 70s now, wiry with sharp eyes, Yoo speaks hesitantly at first – but it comes back to him quickly. After the first shots, more gunfire followed, he says. The guards were on high alert but they waited outside for orders. The president’s security detail was inside, along with the KCIA’s top agents.

Then Yoo’s boss, a KCIA officer who oversaw security for the safe house, stepped outside. “He came over and asked me to bury something in the garden.” It was two guns, bullets and a pair of shoes. Flustered, Yoo followed orders, he says.

He did not know who had been shot, and he didn’t ask.

“I never imagined that it was the president.”

The guns Yoo buried were used to assassinate Park Chung-hee, who had ruled South Korea for the previous 18 years, longer than any president before or since. The man who shot him was his long-time friend Kim Jae-gyu, who ran the much-feared KCIA, a pillar of Park’s dictatorship.

That Friday shook South Korea, ending Park Chung-hee’s stifling rule and ushering in another decade under the military. Kim was executed for insurrection, along with five others.

Now, 46 years later, that night is back in the spotlight as a court retries Kim Jae-gyu to determine if his actions amounted to treason. He has remained a deeply polarising figure – some see him as a killer blinded by power and ambition, others as a patriot who sacrificed himself to set South Korea on the path to democracy. The president he killed is no less divisive, lauded for his country’s economic rise and reviled for his authoritarian rule.

Kim’s family fought for the retrial, arguing that he cannot be remembered as a traitor. They will now have their day in the Seoul High Court – hearings began on Wednesday – just as impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol goes on trial for the same charge that sent Kim to the gallows.

Yoon’s martial law order last December was short-lived but it threw up questions about South Korean democracy – and that may influence how the country sees a man who shot dead a dictator he claimed was on the brink of unleashing carnage.

Was Kim trying to seize power for himself or to spark a revolution, as he claimed in court?

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Fighting against Chinese cyber-espionage, FBI hunts down members of Chinese hacking networks

When Chinese national Xu Zewei stepped off a plane at Milan’s Malpensa airport for a vacation with his wife, Italian authorities arrested him. The Italians executed an American warrant issued by investigators for his alleged role in the most prolific Beijing-backed cyber-espionage campaign in recent years.

Before Xu’s July 3 arrest, the Justice Department often charged alleged Chinese hackers in absentia. But now, the Trump administration has detained for the first time one of Beijing’s suspected cyber operators as part of its wider effort to combat Chinese espionage against the United States.

The Justice Department announced Xu’s arrest earlier this week and outlined the charges against him as part of a nine-count indictment along with one codefendant. The pair are accused of involvement in computer intrusions that compromised personal data, intellectual property, COVID-19 research at U.S. universities, and law firm materials, the Justice Department said. 

The arrest of Xu Zewei in Italy marks one of the first recorded cases of the FBI apprehending a suspected Chinese hacker. The FBI’s Houston Field Office, which led the case, said in a social media post shortly after the announcement that Xu Zewei was “one of the first hackers linked to Chinese intelligence services to be captured by the FBI.” 

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Two Chinese Nationals Arrested, Accused of Espionage Targeting U.S. Navy Personnel

Two individuals believed to be working on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party’s intelligence agency have been arrested by U.S. authorities for allegedly spying on U.S. Navy service members and recruiting military personnel to assist their efforts.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Yuance Chen, residing in Happy Valley, Oregon, and Liren Lai, who entered the country on a tourist visa and was apprehended in Houston, Texas, were taken into custody last Friday. 

Both men face serious charges for acting as agents of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS)—the country’s primary foreign intelligence service—conducting covert operations across the United States.

According to the DOJ, the pair engaged in a range of clandestine activities, including gathering sensitive information on Navy bases and personnel, facilitating cash payments through “dead drop” techniques and attempting to recruit U.S. Navy members to cooperate with the MSS.

FBI Director Kash Patel emphasized the importance of these arrests in protecting national security.

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Britain’s Long History of Spying on Iran

As bombs fell on Iran last month, the U.K. government claimed it had “not participated” in the military action led by Israel and the U.S. 

But British spy agencies have a long history of meddling in Iran, with everything from covert influence operations, to secretly selling chemical weapons materials to the regime.

In one case, the U.K. spy agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) even created a network of fake Twitter accounts to secretly monitor Iranian opposition activists – the very people working to remove supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from power.

Coup

British spies have targeted Iran for decades, driven by commercial profit and regional control.

In 1951, when the country’s secular prime minister, Mohammed Mosaddeq, nationalised the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later known as BP), the British ambassador wrote: “It is so important to prevent the Persians from destroying their main source of revenue … by trying to run it themselves.”

Two years later, the U.K. and U.S. secretly backed a coup to oust Mosaddeq and centralise power under a repressive “pro-Western” regime. 

Declassified files have since revealed the central role played by MI6, which recruited agents and bribed members of Iran’s Parliament. In doing so, one former spy claimed they spent “well over a million and a half pounds”. 

The U.K. and U.S. then supported Iran’s dictator, the shah, for the next 25 years. 

By 1979, the Iranian Revolution saw the establishment of the Islamic Republic led by another dictator, Ayatollah Khomeini. But this did not stop British spies from collaborating with the regime when it was in their interests.

For instance, in 1983, British intelligence provided Khomeini with a list of Iranians allegedly working for the Soviet Union. The intelligence was used to round up over 1,000 communists, as many as 200 of whom were executed. Meanwhile Iran’s communist party, the Tudeh, was banned and forced underground. 

Secret relations were again exploited in the early 1990s, when MI6 helped supply Iran with materials to make chemical weapons — despite its own ban on such sales. 

Britain’s aim was supposedly to use the deals as a way to insert operatives into the Iranian government and gather intelligence about its weapons programmes.

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