Tag: China

It is amazing to me that something so insecure was used to communicate with spies in Iran and China.  The US military gets non-stop information security training about using commercial websites and social media and here is American intelligence agencies operating an entire spy network on one:

Dozens of American spies were killed in Iran and China after a flawed communications service that allowed foreign foes to see what the agents were up to using Google, official sources have claimed.

Between 2009 and 2013 the US Central Intelligence Agency suffered a “catastrophic” secret communications failure in a website used by officers and their field agents around the world to speak to each other, according to a report in Yahoo News, which heard from 11 former intelligence and government officials about the previously unreported disaster.

“We’re still dealing with the fallout,” said one former national security official. “Dozens of people around the world were killed because of this.”

The internet-based communications platform was first used in the Middle East to communicate with soldiers in war zones and had not been intended for widespread use but due to its ease of use and efficacy, it was adopted by agents despite its lack of sophistication, the sources claimed.

Cracks only began to show when Iran, angered that the government under Barack Obama had discovered a secret Iranian nuclear weapon factory, went out with a fine tooth comb to find moles.

It discovered the existence of one of the websites used by US agents using Google. US officials believe that Iranian spies were able to use Google as a search tool to find secret CIA websites, unbeknown to those using them.

By 2011, Iran had infiltrated the CIA spy network and in May it announced that they had broken up a 30-strong ring of American spies.

Some informants were executed and others imprisoned as a result, the sources claimed.

This was corroborated by a report on ABC news at the time, which referred to a compromised communications system after a tip off from the CIA.

China violated Korea Air Defense ID zone (#KADIZ) w fighters in the article, but also reconnaissance aircraft. 2017: 10 times. 2018 thus far: 110 times.https://t.co/FaywAKFGB7

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) October 22, 2018

It is about time that something was being done about China’s economic espionage activities:

US agents have arrested a top Beijing intelligence official for allegedly attempting to steal trade secrets from GE Aviation and other US aerospace companies after luring the suspect to Belgium in what the US Justice Department called “an unprecedented extradition”.

Xu Yanjun, who also uses the names Qu Hui and Zhang Hui, was extradited to the US on Tuesday with assistance from Belgian authorities for seeking “to steal trade secrets and other sensitive information from an American company that leads the way in aerospace”, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in a Justice Department announcement on Wednesday.

Xu, a senior officer with China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), appeared in federal court in Cincinnati on Wednesday, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. He could be given a prison sentence of up to 25 years in addition to fines if charged and convicted, the Justice Department said.

“Beginning in at least December 2013 and continuing until his arrest, Xu targeted certain companies inside and outside the United States that are recognised as leaders in the aviation field,” the Justice Department said in its announcement of the arrest.

“He identified experts who worked for these companies and recruited them to travel to China, often initially under the guise of asking them to deliver a university presentation.”  [South China Morning Post]

You can read more at the link, but you would think that personnel working for defense contractors would understand that anyone approaching them from China and especially if they are inviting to them to China is likely an intelligence agent.  These companies need to do a better job protecting their intellectual property because this arrest is going to do nothing to slow down China’s economic espionage.

It looks like the Chinese are upping their reaction to the US Navy’s freedom of navigation patrols in the South China Sea:

Photos of an encounter between a Navy guided-missile destroyer and Chinese warship shed light on just how close the ships came to colliding Sunday in the South China Sea.

Naval website gCaptain.com published a series of photos Tuesday showing the USS Decatur and the People’s Republic of China destroyer Luyang passing each other during the confrontation. The Chinese ship appears to veer close to the Decatur before the U.S. ship pulls away to avoid a collision.

A Navy official confirmed to Stars and Stripes on Wednesday that the photos are legitimate, but said it is unknown how the website got access to the images, which were not publicly released.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but I hope the Navy has plenty of video cameras on board to record any possible collision.  This is because if a collision was to happen the Chinese would blame the US and then point to the Navy’s track record of two deadly collisions with civilian vessels in recent years.

With that said I doubt the Chinese would use one of their warships to collide with a US Navy ship.  I would suspect they would have one of their civilian vessels, like a fishing ship collide with a US Navy ship and then blame the US to anger public opinion within China against the US.

This report makes me wonder if there is a arms for petroleum agreement going on between North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China?:

North Korea has reportedly sold arms and military equipment to Middle East countries in violation of the United Nations sanctions.

The Wall Street Journal issued the report on Saturday citing a secret report by experts monitoring UN sanctions against the regime.

The UN experts said in the report that they found new evidence of the North’s arms smuggling and illegal financial transactions.

The panel said that the evidence showed North Korea sold tanks, ballistic missiles and rocket-propelled grenades to Yemen’s Houthi insurgents and other entities via a Syrian arms smuggler.

The UN report said that North Korean arms experts had visited a munitions factory in Syria multiple times. It added that the North’s imports of petroleum products surged on the routes involving Russian and Chinese vessels.  [KBS World Radio]

While the Moon administration continues to play nice with North Korea, the Trump administration continues to add new sanctions over the Kim regime’s nuclear program:

The United States on Thursday sanctioned two companies in China and Russia for allegedly facilitating North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

The Department of the Treasury also sanctioned a North Korean individual in the latest set of sanctions aimed at denuclearizing the regime.

Thursday’s action particularly targets the revenue earned for the Pyongyang government by North Korean IT workers overseas.

The Treasury said it is sanctioning China Silver Star, which is “nominally a Chinese IT company, but in reality … managed and controlled by North Koreans.”

Also being sanctioned is the firm’s CEO, Jong Song-hwa, and its Russia-based front company, Volasys Silver Star.

“These actions are intended to stop the flow of illicit revenue to North Korea from overseas information technology workers disguising their true identities and hiding behind front companies, aliases, and third-party nationals,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but it appears that the Trump administration is not ready to sign up for “pretend denuclearization“.

Sankei reports China conducted its own "decapitation exercise" targeting KJU's vacation homes, key nuke facilities and NK command centers. The training was conducted in April near NK border, after the 1st KJU visit but before the inter-Korean summit (4.27) https://t.co/5qV419tYHF

— Noon in Korea (@NoonInKorea) September 1, 2018

Central Asian countries—tied to the umbilical cord of Chinese money—have to bite their tongue and not speak out in the face of human rights abuses China is committing in Xinjiang. https://t.co/cVECfvWVUO

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) August 31, 2018

After flying aircraft though the ROK ADIZ now the Chinese military is conducting naval drills off of the Korean peninsula.  I think it is pretty clear that the Chinese government is sending a message to the ROK government to continue to play nice with North Korea and don’t give into demands from the Trump administration:

China’s People’s Liberation Army naval forces have conducted two drills and plan another this week near the Korean Peninsula in a possible show of force, ahead of a planned inter-Korea summit in Pyongyang in September.

According to China’s maritime authorities on Thursday, the Chinese navy is to again conduct drills in its northeastern waters from Friday to Sept. 7, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

President Trump is now saying he still supports a suspension of joint military drills and blames China for the recent gridlock on denuclearization:

The White House said Wednesday the U.S. decision to suspend major combined military exercises with South Korea holds true despite a stalemate in efforts to denuclearize North Korea.

President Donald Trump believes “there is no reason at this time to be spending large amounts of money on joint U.S.-South Korea war games,” his office said in a statement posted on his Twitter account.

It cited Trump’s “good and warm” relationship with the North’s leader Kim Jong-un stemming from their historic Singapore summit on June 12.

Trump thinks China is to blame, at least partially, for the recent gridlock highlighted by the cancellation of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s trip to Pyongyang this week.

He “feels strongly that North Korea is under tremendous pressure from China because of our major trade disputes with the Chinese Government,” the statement read.

Furthermore, it added, China is providing North Korea with “considerable aid, including money, fuel, fertilizer and various other commodities. This is not helpful!”  [Yonhap]

You can read much more at the link, but I am sure the Chinese are not being helpful on the nuclear issue, however I have never believed the Kim regime has wanted to denuclearize anyway.  Their strategy has long been getting concessions for pretend denuclearization.