Chinese spies ‘very aggressive’ threat to US

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Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Chinese spies ‘very aggressive’ threat to US

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: China’s intelligence agencies are among the most aggressive at spying on the United States, followed by Cuban, Russian and Iranian spy agencies, The Washington Times quoted the US government’s top counterintelligence coordinator as saying.

“These services are eating our lunch,” Joel F Brenner, the new head of the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, told the newspaper.

Brenner, a former inspector general at the National Security Agency, said that the US remained the No 1 target of “virtually every significant espionage service on the face of the Earth”.

China’s intelligence activities have been “very aggressive” at acquiring US advanced technology, often before it is fully developed here. “The technology bleed to China, among others, is a very serious problem,” he said, noting that the FBI is improving its efforts to identify and protect sensitive technology.

Beijing also succeeded in penetrating, and thus frustrating, US intelligence against China through Katrina Leung, a Los Angeles businesswoman who was a long-time FBI informant secretly loyal to Beijing, Brenner said.

The newspaper says Brenner’s office, known as NCIX, is working on a new presidential strategy for counterintelligence. The goal of the office is to provide strategic direction aimed at bolstering counterintelligence agencies, including the FBI, CIA and Pentagon counterspy units.

Another key priority is using counterintelligence techniques, such as turning foreign agents or recruiting supporters, against terrorist groups.

“Hezbollah or Al Qaeda don’t do a terrorist operation without doing an intelligence operation first,” Mr. Brenner said. “They are very thorough and capable in the way they do their advance surveillance and reconnoitering. We’ve got to get better at that aspect of supporting counterterrorism, and that is one of our core missions here in this office.”

Additionally, the NCIX is pressing counterspies to do more to stop computer-based intelligence-gathering, something he called a growing threat.

Currently, the NCIX is conducting a damage assessment of the Leung spy case, examining how Leung secretly spied for China by sexually entrapping two of the FBI’s most senior counterspies, FBI agents James J. Smith and Bill Cleveland.

The Leung case was a “very serious espionage case”, Brenner said, a view that contrasts with that of FBI officials who have sought to play down the spy case, saying it was mainly about improper sexual relations between the FBI informant and her handlers. Leung, through her lawyers, has denied spying for China.

Brenner said China, however, was in fact running Leung as their agent. “That was an intelligence operation, and it was a very successful intelligence operation,” he said. “It was a classic honey trap” - spy jargon for sexual entrapment.

Leung was initially charged in 2003 with spying for China, but the charges were dropped and she eventually pleaded guilty in 2005 to minor charges: making false statements and filing a false tax return. Smith also pleaded guilty to lying to investigators.

In addition to China, Cuba’s intelligence services continue to pose a major intelligence threat, as do spies from Russia and Iran, Mr. Brenner said, noting that Cuban intelligence remains a “a very professional service.”

“They were trained by the KGB, and now they’re training the Venezuelans,” he said.

Russia’s intelligence service remains “very aggressive” against the United States, and “the Iranians also have a mature and capable service,” he said. All “are running significant operations against us.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\03\07\story_7-3-2007_pg4_15