Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Monday May 22 2017, @05:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the send-the-kingsmen dept.

The New York Times reports that the Central Intelligence Agency faced one of its worst intelligence gathering setbacks in decades when many of its informants in China were killed or imprisoned between 2010 and 2012. To this day, it is unknown how the identities of the informants were compromised:

From the final weeks of 2010 through the end of 2012, according to former American officials, the Chinese killed at least a dozen of the C.I.A.'s sources. According to three of the officials, one was shot in front of his colleagues in the courtyard of a government building — a message to others who might have been working for the C.I.A.

Still others were put in jail. All told, the Chinese killed or imprisoned 18 to 20 of the C.I.A.'s sources in China, according to two former senior American officials, effectively unraveling a network that had taken years to build.

Assessing the fallout from an exposed spy operation can be difficult, but the episode was considered particularly damaging. The number of American assets lost in China, officials said, rivaled those lost in the Soviet Union and Russia during the betrayals of both Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, formerly of the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., who divulged intelligence operations to Moscow for years.

The previously unreported episode shows how successful the Chinese were in disrupting American spying efforts and stealing secrets years before a well-publicized breach in 2015 gave Beijing access to thousands of government personnel records, including intelligence contractors. The C.I.A. considers spying in China one of its top priorities, but the country's extensive security apparatus makes it exceptionally hard for Western spy services to develop sources there.

Also at BBC, which notes:

Last year, China warned government officials to watch out for spies - and not fall in love with them

This CIA story really helps put that "Don't date a foreigner!" campaign in perspective. You don't want to see your significant other bleeding out in the street, do you? DO YOU?!

Update: Chinese paper applauds anti-spy efforts after report CIA sources killed


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @07:41AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @07:41AM (#513378)

    -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
    Hash: SHA256

    I disagree with an assertion that the Chinese brand of censorship "has the intended effect", if the intended effect is: less free speech than before. The effect is, at best, the slowing-down of the public discourse that can only happen in a free society. Free to discuss, free to think, but obviously not to act at the moment. As we speak, words such as "democracy" are known to every Chinese person, and not only they know what these "forbidden" words mean, they also know WHY these words are forbidden. This is an UNACCEPTABLE level of understanding of the political process, according to 5000-plus year old dogmas, but it's happening now, and there's absolutely no way to stop it.

    For someone who grew up in US, it is hard to comprehend how a society can function when people who criticize the government are summarily executed, but that's how Chinese got to where they are now. And the rules are about to change. They have already in the heads of the people, but not in the heads of their rulers, and not in the letter of the law. But think about something like Tienanmen Square happening today: would the Emperor be able to stop the sharing of cell-phone photos of tanks running over peaceful, unarmed protesters? And what would the public opinon be? And what would it do in the regions which don't speak Mandarin? Or even the regions which do speak Mandarin?

    Chinese may just do OK, but more probably and more tragically, the Empire will start coming apart, and it will be a series of very jerky moves, and no one will see them coming.

    ~Anonymous 0x9932FE2729B1D963
    -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
    Version: GnuPG v2

    iQIcBAEBCAAGBQJZIpWtAAoJEJky/icpsdlj4X4QAKsFrYnqW4MDxwRsc08GgKwq
    E58lgioihJzJLqRPm6kZMh3gTZExm/gY14KKOKxH5hiPtpYe1PIKtLNGetxQFhRh
    g+wpBmpJOkSr4i8FpM8k1r7bojx4Oe/kgbiDw/gXAfL2YgaEoIurRSw4ChcJX6K7
    23ETwNF70XEk+HK2Gc9h0fZDxn9suVHtcJGTUGDDlm5t/BGN9KIYjObGUuP5kcgt
    bbYj1RLr6SYwviLTpNOH64Fp2y9pfsi4Lm5PzhPNGfF4d9kJYbqPxtPizv68eHIQ
    4CHJBNYHh4qesBMvLoOpeyImxhTFuYIyh4ASWahzIPxcqEY7kcsUiInH+TyPcoaE
    3KqPjAQ3rnOzj21kzzG6OeY6euIuGFLXgkALu8flKhGevEFY0fvSxgosNwzDluR3
    wJCooEKAg/Y7Rx6X2pqOvruNdFeiwcRPo8VDcFUu7VXD8cJxRgmh/HSXoNpgttQX
    cO5Ad9KqKeLX0fpZsEgByoAApmc/f97y8OkwCi5/lFOnQO3bmbe5ZJCzpGiErx3v
    YUOGAIguBBhOTqksk4IkcRXI6qHdUaQyJigaEz9E3wOhLRxtA3tfmaQV2wBp6gC/
    W4j8Sv7TccAVxUCQhpX/JNkg37dn4xJxlzSidH2f9q0pIo2tM4SQv3/SbZYg1h6X
    IfAgKltXCHVk9GiPI3Be
    =J3xQ
    -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @03:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @03:03PM (#513522)

    You certainly swallowed the anti-China propaganda hook line and sinker.

    You will recall the most memorable part of the "massacre of unarmed civilians" was the fact that the tank didn't run him over...