Ex-CIA Officer Suspected Of Helping China Assassinate US Informants Arrested At JFK

A former CIA officer suspected of helping China identify the US spy agency's informants was arrested at JFK International Airport on Monday on charges of unlawful retention of national defense information, according to the Department of Justice.

 

sdf

Many of the agency's informants were killed in a "systematic dismantling of the C.I.A.'s spy network in China starting in 2010," according to the New York Times, which notes it was one of the American government's "worst intelligence failures in recent years." 

The arrest of the former agent, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 53, capped an intense F.B.I. investigation that began around 2012 after the C.I.A. began losing its informants in China. Mr. Lee was at the center of a mole hunt in which some intelligence officials believed that he had betrayed the United States but others thought that the Chinese government had hacked the C.I.A.’s covert communications used to talk to foreign sources of information. -NYT

"Jerry Chun Shing Lee, aka “Zhen Cheng Li”, 53 - a U.S. Citizen currently living in Hong Kong, began working for the CIA as a case officer in 1994, where he would spend the next 13 years with a Top Secret clearance and signing "numerous non-disclosure agreements," according to a DOJ press release

According to court documents, in August 2012, Lee and his family left Hong Kong to return to the United States to live in northern Virginia. While traveling back to the United States, Lee and his family had hotel stays in Hawaii and Virginia. During each of the hotel stays, FBI agents conducted court-authorized searches of Lee’s room and luggage, and found that Lee was in unauthorized possession of materials relating to the national defense.

Specifically, agents found 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 appeared in an New York courtroom Tuesday afternoon where he was ordered held without bail. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. 

Lee, 53, served in the U.S. Army from 1982 through 1986 and worked for the CIA between 1994 and 2007 according to an affidavit filed by an FBI agent. 

The FBI agent wrote that Lee and his family left Hong Kong in August 2012 to travel to northern Virginia. Along the way, they stayed in hotels where the FBI found the books.

The small books were discovered inside Lee’s luggage, sealed in a small clear plastic travel pack.

The handwritten information inside ranged in terms of classification, but the agent said at least one page contained top secret information, “the disclosure of which could cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.” -Reuters

The FBI agent's affidavit also noted that classified cables written by Lee while he was a case officer describing his interactions with CIA informants corroborated what was found in the two books. 

Lee was interviewed five times by the FBI according to Reuters, never disclosing that he had the books. He also met with former CIA colleagues around that time without returning the classified materials, said the Justice Department.

 

asd

Over a dozen CIA informants were imprisoned or killed by the Chinese government, a serious setback for the agency, as discussed here first last May: 

The Chinese government systematically dismantled C.I.A. spying operations in the country starting in 2010, killing or imprisoning more than a dozen sources over two years and crippling intelligence gathering there for years afterward.

Current and former American officials described the intelligence breach as one of the worst in decades. It set off a scramble in Washington’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies to contain the fallout, but investigators were bitterly divided over the cause. Some were convinced that a mole within the C.I.A. had betrayed the United States. Others believed that the Chinese had hacked the covert system the C.I.A. used to communicate with its foreign sources. Years later, that debate remains unresolved.

But there was no disagreement about the damage. 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. -NYT

By the end of 2011, senior CIA officials realized they had a problem; their assets in China were disappearing. The FBI and CIA opened a joint investigation in response, run by top counterintelligence officials out of an office in Northern Virginia - code named "Honey Badger." 

As more and more sources vanished, the operation took on increased urgency. Nearly every employee at the American Embassy was scrutinized, no matter how high ranking. Some investigators believed the Chinese had cracked the encrypted method that the C.I.A. used to communicate with its assets. Others suspected a traitor in the C.I.A., a theory that agency officials were at first reluctant to embrace — and that some in both agencies still do not believe. -NYT

Read more about the case here

 

Comments

Troll Magnet Cognitive Dissonance Jan 16, 2018 11:45 PM Permalink

I told y’all bitches that CHINESE ARE NEVER TO BE TRUSTED!!!

 

They are, after certain “chosen” parasites from the Middle East, our enemy, NOT our allies/friends.  

 

Do you motherfuckers even know how many of these cockroaches have been “elected” (with dirty Chinese money) to “serve” in our government?  

 

Don’t fall asleep again, bitches!  

 

In reply to by Cognitive Dissonance

The Chief Lost in translation Jan 17, 2018 5:54 AM Permalink

There is no proof that he in fact was a double agent or was turned. ...at least not according to this article. He may be guilty of only possessing this classified info. He probably kept it as an insurance policy to prevent himself from being killed by his CIA handlers/bosses; a real fear, dont you think? He may have had this material planted on him. Again, this is the FBI we are talking about. Can they be trusted at all?

As this article reads, he is only guilty of the same thing that Huma Abedin or Anthony Wiener or Chelsea Clinton is.....or anyone that had access to Hillary's server is.

Oh...

In reply to by Lost in translation

Koba the Dread zorba THE GREEK Jan 17, 2018 1:26 AM Permalink

So, Zorba the Geek, the FBI never breaks the law? Comey and Mueller, and all the other FBI criminals are jake with you? Did the FBI find these secret notebooks? Did the FBI rather place the secret notebooks? Why would this highly trained ex-CIA officer leave secret notebooks in a hotel room? He's trained to know that hotel rooms can easily be searched. Why did this highly-trained ex-CIA officer have secret notebooks with him in the first place. He should know better than that. It is especially true that a highly-trained ex-CIA officer who is also a spy would be freaking out 24/7 every minute of every day with paranoia. Yet he left his secret notebooks in a public room. That makes no sense at all.

And you want to hang him from the highest tree. How freaking brain-dead are you?

In reply to by zorba THE GREEK

roddy6667 Koba the Dread Jan 17, 2018 4:51 AM Permalink

I agree. When I read the article and saw PAPER notes concealed in a suitcase that would be searched for contraband, bells went off.  NOBODY DOES THAT ANY MORE. With encryption, the Cloud, free anonymous email accounts, IRC secret message sites and all that, paper notes seem as credible as the huge stone tablets in the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments.

In reply to by Koba the Dread

Lost in translation Lost in translation Jan 16, 2018 11:27 PM Permalink

It’s very bizarre that Chinese-Americans should look so favorably upon Mainland China, that they’d cheerfully sell out America and believe it's a righteous thing to do.

The Chinese look down upon traitors as the vilest sort of human garbage, since they’d betray their own country and friends for money/material gain.

This dumbass must have a very childlike view of the world.

And who knows, maybe his Chinese contact sold HIM out for a payoff, an intel exchange, a prisoner swap, or some such.

We’ll never know.

In reply to by Lost in translation

TheReplacement halcyon Jan 17, 2018 1:03 AM Permalink

Read it the opposite of intended.

Lee betrayed the country all by his lonesome starting in the mid 1990s.  All alone.  By himself.  No help.  No cover.  Solo.

Lee destroyed US intel in China.  Obliterated.  Goneski.  Nomoreski.  Nada.  Zilch. Zero.  Non-existent.  Kaput.

We can hope that the story being reported is not actually the truth, as per usual.  This would mean that, perhaps, there are some people on our side when it comes to real and formidable foreign rivals.  Do not compare this to what has happened in Syria or Ukraine or other places on that side of the planet.  Is just a glimmer of hope. 

Or the chinkaronis gots demseves evrathin.

 

In reply to by halcyon

ReturnOfDaMac snr-moment Jan 17, 2018 11:50 AM Permalink

Poppycock. Obviously, you have never been to China.  Chinese actually love their country, warts and all.  They have big problems for sure but they work together, collectively, to make their country better.  They are real patriots, no exceptionals there.  They tend to like science and west is into myths, magic and sky gawds.  Hence they have a space program while we hitch rides with Russians.  Any patriots in the USSA?  We are way too busy dividing ourselves, tearing our country apart instead of pulling ourselves together, while our oligarchs profit bigly. You would have no chance in hell in China.  Ha, ha, ha.

In reply to by snr-moment

Buck Johnson Oliver Klozoff Jan 17, 2018 10:29 AM Permalink

I keep saying and will keep saying and I don't care if you call me racists.  But having people of Chinese origin (even if they where born in America) in positions where they need classified clearance is a bad idea.  We will be at war with China in the future and we are helping them not only arm themselves but also cut the technology gap to the point that they may at worst be the victor against us or at best they take Australia and possibly most of Canada and we decide to allow them because it's not worth fighting for them.

Either way this is a people who see that the one country standing in their way is the US and most in the US don't think so.  So many spend their time watching the black man this or that thinking that he has more than they got or might do something.  When in reality we are allowing a future enemy to be a future superpower so strong that we will be subservient to them.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_espionage_in_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_spy_cases_in_the_United_States

In reply to by Oliver Klozoff

TheCentralScru… Buck Johnson Jan 17, 2018 1:34 PM Permalink

Gotta disagree..   There are only so many places a "Caucasian" agent can go and be effective.. 

You don't send a "whitey" to recruit in Africa, right?

A Chinese-American agent is very appropriate for spying in China..  However, this guy was naturalized, which likely means he likely had family in China, which made him vulnerable to blackmail.

But this is why case officers are supposed to have regular polygraphs for the purpose of continual vetting.. 

I once knew a Chinese American who worked for the FBI SSGs (Special Surveillance Group) and later as a CIA NOC conducting surveillance ops in Asia..   Very patriotic and I would never have consider him a security risk..   

He actually tried to recruit me for his team, but I had family obligations that prevented me from being gone for months at a time..   

I write this now, but this was back in the 90's and he's probably dead by now..  so I don't feel an issue with discussing it.

Scrutinizer

In reply to by Buck Johnson