Carlos Garcia
TheBlazeTue, 16 Jan 2018 07:50 UTC
© Den of Geek'to catch a mole'
According to a Department of Justice
release Tuesday, the FBI has captured a mole that they believe had been revealing top secret identities of CIA informants to the Chinese.
"A systematic dismantling"The New York Times reports that
China began killing informants to the CIA in 2012 in what is considered one of the intelligence community's greatest failures. After a "mole hunt" to capture who might have been spilling secrets, the FBI arrested a former CIA employee who was caught with top secret information.
Jerry Chun Shing Lee was a naturalized American citizen and had been living in Hong Kong. According
to the release by the DOJ, Lee's hotel room and luggage were searched by the FBI when he visited the United States with his family in 2012. They discovered "two small books containing handwritten notes that contained classified information, including but not limited to,
true names and phone numbers of assets and covert CIA employees, operational notes from asset meetings, operational meeting locations and locations of covert facilities."Lee had been employed at the CIA from 1994 to 2007 and had maintained a top secret clearance.
Some believe that the Chinese had also gained information by hacking into the CIA's lines of communication.
What kind of punishment does he face?Lee was charged with unlawful retention of national defense information and appeared in a courtroom of the Eastern District of New York. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Comment: According to
NoisyRoom.net:
Lee was at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport when he was taken down. But his stomping grounds are in Hong Kong.
According to FBI Special Agent Kellie R. O'Brien, he was trained in "methods of covert communications, surveillance detection, recruitment of assets, handling of assets, payment of assets, operational security, and documenting, handling and securing classified information."
Lee held a top-secret clearance. He is said to have had access to sensitive compartmented information. That info was utilized to protect intelligence programs.
There are no specifics in the criminal complaint stating that Lee was spying for China, but it's a good bet he was. The CIA is not commenting on that and neither is the Department of Justice. That pretty much speaks for itself. The arrest appears linked to the ongoing US counterintelligence probe into how the Chinese government systematically crippled CIA agent networks inside China. The Chinese have been killing off CIA informants and that is probably linked to Lee's activities.
In May, the New York Times reported the Chinese government had unraveled all CIA spying operations in China beginning in 2010. The report, quoting intelligence officials, suggested the loss of the agents was the result of a retired Chinese-American CIA officer who spied for China.
Because of the betrayal, China eliminated between 18 and 20 CIA sources in China.
"Some investigators believed he had become disgruntled and had begun spying for China," the Times reported. "One official said the man had access to the identities of CIA informants and fit all the indicators on a matrix used to identify espionage threats." Lee was in court this week in New York City and was charged with unlawful retention of national defense information. If convicted, he can get up to ten years in prison.
Officials familiar with the case say it is unlikely that Lee will be charged with espionage, which can carry the death penalty. It may be that the government doesn't have the proof required for such a charge, or that it doesn't want to air secrets in an open courtroom.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Neil Hammerstrom of the Eastern District of Virginia.
Comment: According to NoisyRoom.net: