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Ex-CIA officer arrested for retaining classified information
A former Central Intelligence Agency officer was arrested at a U.S. airport on Monday night in connection with charges that he illegally retained highly classified information, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.
Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a U.S. citizen who now lives in Hong Kong, used to maintain a top secret clearance and began working for the CIA in 1994.
The Justice Department said that in 2012, FBI agents searched his hotel rooms during trips to Virginia and Hawaii. They discovered he had two small books containing handwritten information on details such as the true names and numbers of spy recruits and covert CIA employees.
Ex-C.I.A. Officer Suspected of Compromising Chinese Informants Is Arrested
A former C.I.A. officer suspected by investigators of helping China dismantle United States spying operations and identify informants has been arrested, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. The collapse of the spy network was one of the American government's worst intelligence failures in recent years.
You may remember this story: CIA Informants Imprisoned and Killed in China From 2010 to 2012
Also at BBC, SCMP, and Washington Post (archive).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 18 2018, @06:37AM (4 children)
Thus to me CIA informants getting killed is about the same as rats getting killed. Just hope they got quick clean deaths and that's about it.
The NSA and FBI do help their country a bit, but the CIA too often serve themselves at the expense of the USA's interests. The USA might do better if most of the CIA were imprisoned or executed for their crimes and the entire organization shut down.
I suspect even the Yakuza have done more net good for their country than the CIA has done for theirs.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday January 18 2018, @08:47AM
Thinking hard... concentrating... deep... mmm.... you know, I could discover only one item on that list: it inspired Party in the CIA [youtube.com]
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Thursday January 18 2018, @01:38PM (1 child)
It's hard for me to list significant amount
Because they strive to keep operations secret, you'd hear about the instances when something goes wrong. Appearing to be screw ups makes their job easier against anyone who believe it, so apparent incompetence could be intentional.
Of course, all of this provides cover if they're actually screw ups or if they're abusing their power. :/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 19 2018, @03:16PM
It's like sampling secret brown stuff that leaks out from a container and most of it is shit. What makes you think that the secret stuff inside is not mostly shit? But good chocolate instead?
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-covert-actions-119012884/174608.html [voanews.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 18 2018, @05:40PM
I'm shocked, shocked I say, to hear that you haven't heard about the good things a *clandestine spy agency* are doing. It's almost like clandestine organizations don't want people to know what they are doing...
Seriously, though, they can do good things and you'd never hear about it. I am literally making stuff up, but the foiled assassination attempt on President Smith, or the uncovering of the nuclear weapons program of Countrystan, or the knowledge that whichever country is or is not abiding by international treaties. All of those are good things the CIA would do.
If you really want to know, get elected to Congress and join the Intelligence Committee (or better, become President). It's rather silly to think you would know the full story of any of the Intelligence organizations around the world as a random layman.
(This does not preclude you from criticizing them... just know you don't know all the good stuff and all the bad stuff they have and still do.)