Posted on 08/16/2018 8:52:56 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
It was considered one of the CIA’s worst failures in decades: Over a two-year period starting in late 2010, Chinese authorities systematically dismantled the agency’s network of agents across the country, executing dozens of suspected U.S. spies. But since then, a question has loomed over the entire debacle.
How were the Chinese able to roll up the network?
Now, nearly eight years later, it appears that the agency botched the communication system it used to interact with its sources, according to five current and former intelligence officials. The CIA had imported the system from its Middle East operations, where the online environment was considerably less hazardous, and apparently underestimated China’s ability to penetrate it.
“The attitude was that we’ve got this, we’re untouchable,” said one of the officials who, like the others, declined to be named discussing sensitive information. The former official described the attitude of those in the agency who worked on China at the time as “invincible.”
Other factors played a role as well, including China’s alleged recruitment of former CIA officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee around the same time. Federal prosecutors indicted Lee earlier this year in connection with the affair.
But the penetration of the communication system seems to account for the speed and accuracy with which Chinese authorities moved against the CIA’s China-based assets.
“You could tell the Chinese weren’t guessing. The Ministry of State Security [which handles both foreign intelligence and domestic security] were always pulling in the right people,” one of the officials said.
“When things started going bad, they went bad fast.”
The former officials also said the real number of CIA assets and those in their orbit executed by China during the two-year period was around 30, though some sources spoke of higher figures. The New York Times, which first reported
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignpolicy.com ...
China hss a much higher average IQ than Arabia.
Better work ethic too.
I'm sure it had nothing at all to do with Feinstein's driver.
But I thought Feinstein wiped her driver with a cloth.
Wait a minute, Brennan has to find a scape goat for this.
I feel certain the Awan broz (got off scott-free) having total access to MOST of the freakin Congress for YEARS had nothing to do with this...
Nice cover story. Someone talked.
“Other factors played a role as well...”
Such as Hillary Clinton’s criminal disregard of email security protocols and Diane Feinstein basically being a Chinese agent herself.
Isn’t “Foreign Policy” the magazine of the CFR?
Anyway, I think it the names were in Hillary’s ‘private’ emails that the Chinese hacked.
“Anyway, I think it the names were in Hillary’s ‘private’ emails that the Chinese hacked”.
I agree. High likelihood. At least 4 foreign intelligence services hacked the unsecured, completely unapproved, server and China was likely one of them.
Lisa Page in her testimony last week (or the week before) admitted that the Chinese hacked Clinton’s emails:
You left off a significant figure. You should have said “At least 44.....”
Including the Obungler himself.
Yup.
Pull the other one Leon. It has bells on it.
CIA = Incompetence.
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