CIA Officer (Ret.) Alexander Yuk Ching Ma
(Spied for China since
2001)
Startling story from NBC
News here with this headline:
“Former CIA officer charged with spying for China”
The method prosecutors said they used to
get now-retired CIA officer, Alexander
Yuk Ching Ma, to reveal the nature of his espionage was worthy of a spy
novel itself.
Intro and a few highlights:
A 15-year veteran of the CIA
was charged Monday with selling U.S. secrets to China then unwittingly
admitting his spying to the FBI.
Court documents said the 67-year-old
Ma, from Honolulu, was charged with violating U.S. espionage laws. Prosecutors
said he joined the CIA in 1967 then served as a CIA officer until he retired
from the agency in 1989. For part of that time he was assigned to work overseas
in the East-Asia and Pacific region.
Twelve years after he
retired, prosecutors said Ma met with at least five officers of China's
Ministry of State Security in a Hong Kong hotel room, where he “disclosed a
substantial amount of highly classified national defense information,”
including facts about the CIA's internal organization, methods for communicating
covertly, the identities of CIA officers, and human assets.
John Demers, Assistant AG for
national security said: “The trail of Chinese espionage is long and, sadly,
strewn with former American intelligence officers who betrayed their colleagues,
their country and its liberal democratic values to support an authoritarian
communist regime. To the Chinese intelligence services, these individuals are
expendable. To us, they are sad but urgent reminders of the need to stay
vigilant.”
After leaving the CIA, Ma got
a job as a Chinese linguist in the FBI's Honolulu field office. He used his new
job and security clearance to copy or photograph classified documents related
to guided missile and weapons systems and other U.S. secrets and passed the
information to his Chinese handlers (according to court documents).
When the FBI became aware of
Ma's activities, prosecutors said an undercover FBI employee arranged a meeting
posing as a representative of the Chinese government. The undercover operative
claimed to be conducting an investigation “into how Ma had been treated,
including the amount he had been compensated” (also from court documents).
An undercover FBI operative
running a sting operation got a video showing Ma counting $2,000 in cash
provided by the undercover agent, who told Ma it was to acknowledge his work on
behalf of China.
Investigators said Ma, who
was born in Hong Kong, explained that he “wanted the motherland to succeed” and
that he admitted that he provided classified information to the Chinese Ministry
of State Security and continued to work with some of its same representatives
who were at their original 2001 meeting.
My 2 cents: This is pretty
serious stuff to say the least. FYI: List of Americans who spied while in their
government jobs:
CIA:
NSA:
FBI:
The Armed Forces:
Federal Contractors:
DIA:
Thanks for stopping by.
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