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Chinese Spy ‘Slept’ In U.S. For 2 Decades
From The Washington Post:
Prosecutors called Chi Mak the “perfect sleeper agent,” though he hardly looked the part. For two decades, the bespectacled Chinese-born engineer lived quietly with his wife in a Los Angeles suburb, buying a house and holding a steady job with a U.S. defense contractor, which rewarded him with promotions and a security clearance. Colleagues remembered him as a hard worker who often took paperwork home at night.Eventually, Mak’s job gave him access to sensitive plans for Navy ships, submarines and weapons. These he secretly copied and sent via courier to China — fulfilling a mission that U.S. officials say he had been planning since the 1970s.
Mak was sentenced last week to 24 1/2 years in prison by a federal judge who described the lengthy term as a warning to China not to “send agents here to steal America’s military secrets.” But it may already be too late: According to U.S. intelligence and Justice Department officials, the Mak case represents only a small facet of an intelligence-gathering operation that has long been in place and is growing in size and sophistication.
The Chinese government, in an enterprise that one senior official likened to an “intellectual vacuum cleaner,” has deployed a diverse network of professional spies, students, scientists and others to systematically collect U.S. know-how, the officials said. Some are trained in modern electronic techniques for snooping on wireless computer transactions. Others, such as Mak, are technical experts who have been in place for years and have blended into their communities.
“Chi Mak acknowledged that he had been placed in the United States more than 20 years earlier, in order to burrow into the defense-industrial establishment to steal secrets,” Joel Brenner, the head of counterintelligence for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said in an interview. “It speaks of deep patience,” he said, and is part of a pattern.
Spies like Chi Mak should get the death penalty for living here all these years and pretending to be a honorable American, but betraying his country all along.
At the same time, U.S. agents could probably learn a lot from these guys. You have to admire the dedication and patience it takes to pull off an intelligence operation that lasts 20 years.
This guy was sent here more than twenty years ago to be educated, employed, and then send back information to China. Imagine how many opportunities there was for Chi Mak to stop reporting back and just live a normal life. I’m sure China sends these kind of operatives to many countries around the world to the exact same kind of thing.
I’m not sure an American agent could pull off something like that. I don’t think you could find a CIA agent willing to move to a foreign country for the rest of his life and work as an undercover operative.
The whole thing is pretty amazing, and it really shows what a cunning adversary China truly is.
-Chris Jones
Pentagon Official Pleads Guilty To Giving Secrets To China
A Pentagon official pleaded guilty Monday to passing US military secrets to an agent working for China after being showered with gifts and gambling money, the Department of Justice said.
Gregg William Bergersen, 51, faces up to 10 years in jail after admitting to one count of conspiracy to disclose national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it, the department said in a statement.
It said Bergersen started handing secret information in March 2007 to Tai Shen Kuo, 58, a Taiwan-born US citizen with business interests in New Orleans.
Bergersen worked as a weapons systems policy analyst at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which implements the Pentagon’s foreign military sales program.
I can’t think of anything more disgraceful or repugnant than selling your own country out for a few gifts and some gambling money. Actually, I can’t imagine selling my country out for any amount of money or gifts.
Bergersen deserves a hell of a lot more time than 10 years in prison. In fact, the most appropriate punishment would be for him to hang.
-Chris Jones
Israeli Officer Suspected Of Trying To Spy For Iran
A psychiatrist who serves in the IDF reserves is suspected of offering classified information to foreign intelligence officials, including those from Iran, police announced Friday morning.
45-year-old David Shamir, ranked as major in the army, was indicted on severe charges of attempted espionage, contacts with a foreign agent and perverting the course of justice.
He was arrested by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) in cooperation with the Israel Police’s Serious and International Crimes Unit on November 14.
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