Tag: espionage

Chinese Agents Infiltrating US Institutions

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in the first three months of this year, 24,376 Chinese nationals were apprehended crossing the U.S. Southern Border, while about 1,000 have been crossing the northern border monthly. Under the National Intelligence Law of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), all Chinese citizens and entities are required to assist the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in intelligence gathering. The threat from China is real, pervasive, and growing, as Beijing exploits America’s open borders and freedoms to plant spies within the U.S. government, military, research labs, and institutions.

In September 2024, Linda Sun, a former aide to New York Governors Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul, was arrested for acting as an undisclosed agent for the Chinese government. She is accused of leveraging her position to further Chinese interests by influencing state policies and facilitating meetings between Chinese and U.S. officials. Sun’s case reflects a broader strategy by China to infiltrate U.S. political systems by targeting state and local officials. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) often exploits naturalized U.S. citizens with ties to China, using business opportunities and family connections to gain influence. Sun’s arrest underscores China’s efforts to influence rising political figures and manipulate policies, including those concerning Taiwan, through covert operations.

The Annual Threat Assessment from the U.S. Intelligence Community identifies China as the top espionage threat to the United States. The FBI’s China Threat Report highlights that counterintelligence and economic espionage activities by the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pose a significant danger to U.S. economic security and democratic values. China’s goals include influencing U.S. policy to benefit its interests while striving for global dominance through tactics such as intellectual property theft, cyber intrusions, and predatory business practices. These efforts span various sectors, including business, academia, and government, necessitating a coordinated response from both the U.S. government and private industry to effectively address the threat.

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Kathy Hochul aide charged with acting as agent for Chinese Communist Party

Federal prosecutors disclosed in a comprehensive indictment on Tuesday that a former deputy chief of staff to New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) had been allegedly acting as an undisclosed agent of the Chinese government, the United States Attorney’s Office of Eastern District New York said in a press release.

Linda Sun, 41, of Manhasset, New York, and her husband, Chris Hu, 40, were arrested Tuesday morning at their $3.5 million residence on Long Island. Sun held a variety of positions in the New York state government before rising to the position of Gov. Hochul’s deputy chief of staff.

Sun is alleged to have acted on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), per the Department of Justice (DOJ). She has been accused of blocking representatives of the Taiwanese government from having access to high-level officials in New York state, altering state governmental messaging on issues related to the Chinese government, and attempting to facilitate a trip to China for a high-level politician in New York, among others.

Sun has been charged with violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy. Her co-defendant husband, Christopher Hu, has been charged with money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and misuse of means of identification, according to federal prosecutors.

“As alleged, while appearing to serve the people of New York as Deputy Chief of Staff within the New York State Executive Chamber, the defendant and her husband actually worked to further the interests of the Chinese government and the CCP, said US Attorney Breon Peace. “The illicit scheme enriched the defendant’s family to the tune of millions of dollars. Our Office will act decisively to prosecute those who serve as undisclosed agents of a foreign government.”

FBI Acting Assistant Director Curtis said that while Sun had been acting as an agent for the PRC and CCP, Christopher Hu “facilitated the transfer of millions of dollars in kickbacks for personal gain.”

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Spies and Journalists: A Very Special Relationship

At the London bureau of Time Magazine, both the bureau chief, former military intelligence, and the deputy bureau chief filed to Langley and other organs of the National Security State. I know this because when my office was in use by a visiting grandee, I used their computers to file. The secret government has been embedded in media ever since Viscount Northcliffe, the owner of the Daily Mail figured out how to stampede Britain’s working class into the first World War.

At present I am running short – 1-3 minute reads – excerpts from a new book, Against the Corporate Media, 42 Ways the Media Hates You – a book of essays to which I contributed, along with forty-one others on just what happened. It will be published on September 10th. My purpose is that you come away from this somewhat enlightened as to what the hell happened, and how a once respectable profession became seedy and dishonest. The book provides a clear direction towards root and branch reform. And perhaps you will buy the book.

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US Army Soldier Pleads Guilty After Selling Military Secrets to China

A U.S. Army intelligence analyst has pleaded guilty to charges accusing him of selling military secrets to China for a total of $42,000, according to the Department of Justice.

Sgt. Korbein Schultz was an army intelligence analyst with the First Battalion of the 506th Infantry Regiment at Fort Campbell, an army installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. He was arrested at the military base in March following an indictment by a federal grand jury.

On Aug. 13, Schultz pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, exporting technical data related to defense articles without a license, conspiracy to export defense articles without a license, and bribery of a public official, the Justice Department said in a press release.

“The defendant abused his access to restricted government systems to sell sensitive military information to a person he knew to be a foreign national,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division in a statement.

“By conspiring to transmit national defense information to a person living outside the United States, this defendant callously put our national security at risk to cash in on the trust our military placed in him.”

Schultz held a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance in the Army.

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Newly Released Footage Proves That Gershkovich & Whelan Were Indeed American Spies

This debunks the fake news alleging that they were “innocent Americans taken hostage by Russia”.

The US Government (USG) insisted throughout the entire time of Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan’s imprisonment in Russia on espionage charges that these two were “wrongfully detained”, but newly released footage from the FSB proves that they were indeed American spies. Folks can view the footage of Gershkovich here and Whelan here, both of which have a brief video analysis from RT’s Murad Gazdiev embedded at the bottom that’s also worth watching to place everything into context.

Gershkovich’s includes audio which proves that he knew that he was soliciting classified defense secrets on behalf of the Wall Street Journal and then planned to mislead their readers by claiming that they only spoke to an “anonymous source” without mentioning that they also obtained documents about this. He also tried hiding the flash drive that he obtained during his meeting with his source in a Yekaterinburg restaurant when he was arrested, which the video specifically highlights to draw attention to.

As for Whelan, there’s no audio in his video but it shows him receiving a flash drive in a hotel bathroom from a friend who he claimed during his interrogation was allegedly giving him pictures of churches. RT’s brief analytical video amusingly mocks his story as absurd. After all, Gazdiev reminded everyone that friends share pictures over email or text, not via flash drives in hotel bathrooms. Just like Gershkovich, he also obviously knew that he was illegally soliciting classified secrets, in this case about FSB officers.

Nevertheless, CNN promptly spun this newly released footage as alleged evidence of “entrapment”, completely ignoring the fact that both men knowingly accepted flash drives from their Russian sources that they were told contained classified information about their host country’s national security. It’s altogether a very shoddy information product that reeks of desperation to distract from the visual evidence that those two were literally caught red-handed receiving Russian state secrets.

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WSJ Reporter Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison, Employer Calls It a ‘Disgraceful, Sham Conviction’

An American reporter for the Wall Street Journal was sentenced Friday to 16 years in prison after being convicted of espionage in what his employer called “a hurried, secret trial that the U.S. government has condemned as a sham.”

Evan Gershkovich was ordered to serve the sentence at a high-security penal colony, the Journal reported.

“The court’s Friday verdict — after three days of hearings — was widely viewed as a foregone conclusion, since acquittals in Russian espionage trials are exceedingly rare,” according to the report.

“This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,” Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker and Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour said in a statement.

Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 by Russian authorities while on assignment for the Wall Street Journal in Yekaterinburg.

Russian officials “have produced no public evidence to support their allegations,” the Journal reported.

“Authorities claimed, without offering any evidence, that he was gathering secret information for the U.S.,” the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. State Department said Gershkovich was “wrongfully detained” and said it is working to secure his release.

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US Air Force Veteran Charged With Disclosing Classified Military Information

A U.S. Air Force veteran was arrested on June 27 for allegedly disclosing classified information on military aircraft and weapons to unauthorized people, according to an unsealed indictment.

Paul J. Freeman, of Niceville, Florida, was indicted by a federal grand jury for unauthorized possession and transmission of classified national defense information following his initial appearance in federal court, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a release.

The 68-year-old allegedly disclosed sensitive information on U.S. Air Force aircraft and weapons to unauthorized people between November 2020 and March 2021, the DOJ said.

According to the indictment, the information that Mr. Freeman possessed and disclosed pertained to the “vulnerabilities” of military aircraft and weapons systems.

Prosecutors argued that Mr. Freeman “had reason to believe [the information] could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.”

The indictment states that in February 2021 Mr. Freeman allegedly “willfully communicated, delivered, and transmitted” the information to “persons not entitled to receive it.”

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Suspected Chinese Spy Bases in Cuba Have Undergone Expansion: Report

Cuba has upgraded and expanded four electronic surveillance facilities, including one near the Guantanamo Bay naval base, amid growing concern about China’s spying efforts in the United States’ backyard, according to a new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

“While China’s activities on the island remain shrouded in secrecy, satellite imagery analyzed by CSIS provides the latest and most comprehensive assessment of where China is most likely operating,” the report reads.

The report pointed to four active sites at Bejucal, El Salao, Wajay, and Calabazar. It added that the four locations are “strategically located” and are “among the most likely locations supporting China’s efforts to spy on the United States.”

In June 2023, the White House confirmed that China has been operating a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019. In the same month, the State Department warned that the Chinese regime will “keep trying to enhance its presence in Cuba,” and the United States “will keep working to disrupt it.”

China’s surveillance activities in Cuba are a grave national security concern for the United States, given that Florida is home to numerous U.S. military bases, including the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command and the U.S. Southern Command, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and Eglin Air Force Base.

“Collecting data on activities like military exercises, missile tests, rocket launches, and submarine maneuvers would allow China to develop a more sophisticated picture of U.S. military practices,” the report reads.

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Yemen dismantles extensive US, Israeli spy network

Yemeni security services have uncovered an extensive spy network operated by US and Israeli intelligence agencies and active within various institutions in Yemen since 2015, Al Mayadeen reported on 10 June.

The head of Yemen’s intelligence agency, the Security and Intelligence Service, Major General Abdul Hakim Hashem al-Khaiwani, said in a televised statement, “The exposed network collected important information in various fields and carried out direct espionage technical operations on behalf of the enemy’s intelligence services to obtain confidential, sovereign information.”

The agency added that the network gathered critical information across multiple sectors and relayed it to hostile intelligence services.

The information was used to influence decision-makers, infiltrate state agencies, sabotage Yemen’s economy and agricultural sector, and recruit officials within the Yemeni government.

Additionally, the espionage network provided military intelligence to US and Israeli intelligence agencies to weaken the Yemeni army and diminish its capabilities.

According to SABA News Agency, a security official said that the members caught over the past few days were recruited to work on collecting information and monitoring sites belonging to the Yemeni Armed Forces on the western coast of the Republic of Yemen.

The Al Mayadeen correspondent added that dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of members in various ministries, institutions, and organizations are part of the vast intelligence network seized by the Yemeni security services.

Yemeni forces are currently engaged in a conflict with the US, UK, and Israel. Yemeni forces began attacking Israeli-linked commercial ships in November in response to Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The US and UK responded by attacking Yemeni naval and land targets.

Earlier this month, Yemeni security forces detained more than a dozen aid workers, including UN staff, in an apparently coordinated sweep, according to a diplomatic source and a Yemeni NGO.

At least 18 Yemeni aid workers were detained, the Yemeni Mayyun Organization for Human Rights said, listing ten workers from UN agencies.

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Congo’s Polish Spy Scandal Is Worth Paying Attention To After The Recent Failed Coup Attempt

While all eyes are on Ukraine and Gaza, the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues deteriorating, and it’s quickly becoming a New Cold War battleground after the latest security deal with Russia in early March preceded mid-May’s failed coup attempt that involved three Americans.

The Associated Press reported that “Poland’s president seeks release of Polish traveler sentenced to life in Congo”, which drew attention to a spy scandal from February. 52-year-old traveler Mariusz Majewski was detained on charges that he “approached the front line with Mobondo militiamen, moved along the front line without authorization, and took photos of sensitive and strategic places and secretly observed military activities.” That preceded mid-May’s failed coup attempt that involved three Americans.

For background, Polish President Andrzej Duda was in neighboring Rwanda in mid-February, where he scandalously declared that “If Rwanda is ever in danger, we will also support it”, thus prompting furious protests from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that’s unofficially at war with Rwanda. This phase of the DRC’s three-decade-long conflict was explained here and here in November 2022, with the first presenting a general overview and the second delving into the roles of France and Rwanda.

To oversimplify this very complex conflict, the mineral-rich east has long been a focal point of global attention due to its resources being indispensable for the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” (4IR), namely electric vehicles, computers, and modern-day gadgets. French-backed Uganda conventionally intervened in the DRC with Kinshasa’s approval to fight against Rwandan-backed M23 rebels prior to withdrawing in December once the M23-DRC dimension of this country’s long-running conflict further intensified.

France demanded in late April that Rwanda dump the M23 and pull its troops out of the country, which was shortly thereafter followed by the US calling on Rwanda to punish those of its servicemen that it claims joined the rebels in an attack around that time in the east. For what it’s worth, Rwanda has always denied both accusations, but almost all non-Rwandan observers agree that they’re true. Interestingly, the EU inked a green energy deal with Rwanda in February, so ties between those two aren’t that bad.

Al Jazeera criticized their agreement though by drawing attention to how Rwanda exports more than it mines, which is proof that it’s extracting 4IR-relevant mineral resources from the DRC via its M23 proxies, who in early May took control of “the coltan capital of the world” in the eastern town of Rubaya. Just two weeks later, the DRC foiled the earlier mentioned coup attempt that involved three Americans. While the exact goals of that putsch were unclear, they certainly had something to do with the 4IR.

The DRC under incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi, who won re-election last December in a landslide, has been actively working to renegotiate mineral agreements with its key partners like China due to claims of the previous government reaching completely lopsided arrangements for corrupt reasons. Chinese companies, for example, recently pledged to invest $7 billion into a slew of infrastructure projects in order to resolve their dispute from last year.

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