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This discussion has been archived.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, @08:45AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @08:45AM (#513392)

    P.S. I like big bones.

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

    iQIcBAEBCAAGBQJZIn/NAAoJEJky/icpsdlj6QAP/3cwV7bIjiByvs3ppuV6+QnR
    aeAAION16DH3QOAVi2C53Eo23y7P889qhT/5lvJ/PPhWjjtjaqjn1jOr3OicvkpW
    mh13zJxBPWne7Kn0GerHIQ1QSV/tXOzN/nDEYNmG6NNmJW/wlB7SYlY5k037ltdK
    jF+aals6nF6CwaavmjdFE8sjtwEsZnUFYN2khSg/RsZ7yp4yxqd4oAK1KNzYQ+0H
    OoeT3qbFnJfPEkIMh0iW4nXk9oHgygzbDNWMX9ej8TyGUE+Vy2Qkdjke66CqH2yr
    19u+pWfKr49wyCRPbZ+8l57G0/XCJPR17zD3J2lzcSUH2v0KVRXQlG0IA76OWSTx
    eCXoid7KFZlot2HMvf1nx5uXwS60VJVKM4ZuCX3FA+Sq+sa0onSuUYc3OKXyoCj6
    CTycAycG9bVLFXhNQGdCLd27lnuE03ubVELI9D691S+VaLesMN/3INtQ6GnpsSpS
    kMnOHhEUTYiVseVzy6Flv4RBeKjzXSNxzynjZZNRepXTuz0wiHz0RTYJjDeyIAuC
    h4qSQf6KZfu5a5/vOcQvKARkN3bTEAJ6sLNW6stlNiVQDbjFG934ls/AzKU3psEC
    yPeVb09VeslpAJD8NVDKk4afFyi+USz1pkf0zKazcqg5jtHkH6vOvcNCVJ7MUcsR
    ZYi45bzLiq6yBOrR2WAS
    =fUuS
    -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----