U.S. Counter-Intelligence Is A Joke

A U.S. flag is seen during a welcoming ceremony in Beijing, China, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Daily Caller: Foreign-Born Researchers At US Agencies Were Secretly Working For China And Recruiting Others, Senate Report Finds

* Foreign-born researchers working for U.S. agencies were secretly on China’s payroll, signing side agreements to send sensitive research to that country as part of a recruitment operation called the Thousand Talents Plan, a Senate report found.
* 10,000 Chinese nationals in 2018 conducted research in the Department of Energy’s National Labs, and one even had colleagues write him letters of recommendation to the Communist Party-run recruitment program, the bipartisan report stated.
* Agencies like NIH do not even track attempted foreign influence, the Department of State denies only 5% of suspicious visas, and the FBI shut down a key program, according to the report.

Foreign-born researchers working at U.S. agencies secretly joined China’s payroll, sending sensitive U.S.-funded research to the country while U.S. government agencies took almost no defensive measures against a major recruitment operation, a Senate investigation found.

Researchers linked to the Chinese government formed a Chinese cell within the Department of Energy, attained access to American genomic data, and recruited other U.S. researchers to join, the bipartisan report stated.

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WNU Editor: I am just shaking my head after reading this.

Is China A Bigger Counterintelligence Threat Than Russia?

Mairead McArdle, National Review: FBI Director: China Is Bigger Counterintelligence Threat Than Russia

FBI director Christopher Wray said Wednesday that China trumps Russia as a counterintelligence threat to the U.S.

“China in many ways represents the broadest, most complicated, most long-term counterintelligence threat we face,” Wray told the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “Russia is in many ways fighting to stay relevant after the fall of the Soviet Union. They’re fighting today’s fight. China’s is fighting tomorrow’s fight.”

Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told the Committee that China is trying to sway political affections in the U.S. but has not actually hacked into election systems.

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WNU Editor: Both Russia and China are a counterintelligence threat today, but I will not be surprised that with time we will be reading and hearing more stories like this one .... U.S. And Belgium Nab Chinese Spy Accused Of Stealing GE Jet Engine Tech And More (Warzone/The Drive).

How Did Top U.S. Counterintelligence Agents Know That One Of President Trump’s Closest Advisers Was Receiving Emails From Russian Officials?

Hope Hicks at a state banquet in Tokyo last month. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

New York Times: F.B.I. Warned Hope Hicks About Emails From Russian Operatives

WASHINGTON — F.B.I. officials warned one of President Trump’s top advisers, Hope Hicks, earlier this year about repeated attempts by Russian operatives to make contact with her during the presidential transition, according to people familiar with the events.

The Russian outreach efforts show that, even after American intelligence agencies publicly accused Moscow of trying to influence the outcome of last year’s presidential election, Russian operatives were undaunted in their efforts to establish contacts with Mr. Trump’s advisers.

There is no evidence that Ms. Hicks did anything improper. According to former officials, American intelligence and law enforcement agencies became alarmed by introductory emails that Ms. Hicks received from Russian government addresses in the weeks after Mr. Trump’s election.

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WNU Editor: The big story is not that Russian officials were trying to contact Trump aide Hope Hicks .... the big story is that U.S. counter-intelligence officials knew what was inside Ms. Hicks email account.

Is There A Russian Mole Inside The NSA/CIA?

Kevin Poulsen, Daily Beast: Is There a Russian Mole Inside the NSA? The CIA? Both?

The latest leak by the Shadow Brokers hackers exposed classified information that could only have come from within the NSA, setting the stage for a Cold War ritual—the mole hunt.

A message from Vladimir Putin can take many forms.

It can be as heavy-handed as a pair of Russian bombers buzzing the Alaska coast, or as lethal as the public assassination of a defector on the streets of Kiev. Now Putin may be sending a message to the American government through a more subtle channel: an escalating series of U.S. intelligence leaks that last week exposed a National Security Agency operation in the Middle East and the identity of an agency official who participated.

The leaks by self-described hackers calling themselves “the Shadow Brokers” began in the final months of the Obama administration and increased in frequency and impact after the U.S. bombing of a Syrian airfield this month—a move that angered Russia. The group has not been tied to the Kremlin with anything close to the forensic certitude of last year’s election-related hacks, but security experts say the Shadow Brokers’ attacks fit the pattern established by Russia’s GRU during its election hacking. In that operation, according to U.S. intelligence findings, Russia created fictitious Internet personas to launder some of their stolen emails, including the fake whistleblowing site called DCLeaks and a notional Romanian hacker named “Guccifer 2.0.”

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WNU Editor: Russian moles are not the only moles that the U.S. intelligence community is worried about .... Why the CIA Is Increasingly Worried About China's Moles (Jeff Stein, Newsweek)

It Has Been A Hard Year For America's Top Spy Catcher

Photo: William Evanina, the head of U.S. counterintelligence, estimates that more than 100 Russian spies are currently operating on U.S. soil. Courtesy of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence

NPR: For America's Top Spy Catcher, A World Of Problems To Fix — And Prevent

William Evanina holds two official job titles: national counterintelligence executive and director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.

Eyes glazing over? Here's a simpler way to think of him: as the nation's spy catcher in chief.

As the head of U.S. counterintelligence, Evanina is in charge of keeping America's secrets out of enemy hands. 2016 has proved an exceptionally challenging year, between Russian hacks and another massive data breach at the National Security Agency.

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WNU Editor: He retires in 6 months.

Ex-CIA Officer: More Spies In U.S. Than Ever

Hank Crumpton, a former CIA covert officer, says there are more foreign spies in the U.S. now than at the Cold War's peak. Watch Lara Logan's report on Sunday, May 13 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

More Spies In U.S. Than Ever, Says Ex-CIA Officer -- 60 Minutes/CBS

A former top CIA covert officer who ran one of the spy agency's secret domestic networks says there are now more foreign spies on U.S. soil than at the peak of the Cold War. The former officer, Hank Crumpton, who also served as deputy director of the CIA's Counter-Terrorism Center and led the U.S. response to 9/11, speaks candidly to Lara Logan about his life as a spy on 60Minutes, Sunday, May 13at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

As the chief of the CIA's National Resources Division, the highly-sensitive, secret domestic operation, he conducted counter-intelligence within the U.S. "If you look at the threat that is imposed upon our nation every day, some of the major nation states -- China in particular -- [have] very sophisticated intelligence operations, very aggressive operations against the U.S.," says Crumpton. "I would hazard to guess there are more foreign intelligence officers inside the U.S. working against U.S. interests now than even at the height of the Cold War," he tells Logan. "It's a critical issue."

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My Comment: His comment that there are .... more foreign spies in the U.S. now than at the Cold War's peak .... should make us all pause.

NSA Is Looking For A Russian Mole

NSA Headquarters, Fort Meade, Maryland

NSA Mole Hunt -- Washington Times

The National Security Agency (NSA) is conducting a counterintelligence probe at its Fort Meade, Md., headquarters in a top-secret hunt for a Russian agent, according to a former intelligence official close to the agency.

The former official said the probe grew out of the case of 10 Russian "illegals," or deep-cover spies, who were uncovered last summer and sent back to Moscow after the defection of Col. Alexander Poteyev, a former SVR foreign intelligence officer who reportedly fled to the U.S. shortly before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited here in June.

Col. Poteyev is believed to be the source who disclosed the U.S.-based agent network.

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My Comment: Reading about Russian spies in the U.S. intelligence community is not a surprise for me .... but this posting is rather informative, and gives a small insight into U.S. counter intelligence operations.