Ex-U.S. intelligence officer pleads guilty to attempted espionage for China

[rooster59]

Ex-U.S. intelligence officer pleads guilty to attempted espionage for China

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. and Chinese flags are placed for a joint news conference by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China June 14, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency officer pleaded guilty to attempted espionage for China, the Justice Department said on Friday.

 

The officer, Ron Rockwell Hansen, was accused of trying to transmit classified U.S. national defence information to China and receiving "hundreds of thousands of dollars" while illegally acting as an agent for the Chinese government.

 

Hansen started working at the DIA, which specializes in military intelligence, in 2006 after his retirement from the U.S. Army, and held a top-secret security clearance for many years, according to the Justice Department.

 

In 2014, a Chinese intelligence service recruited Hansen, the Justice Department said.

 

FBI agents took Hansen into custody in June, when he was travelling to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to take a connecting flight to China.

 

He faces up to 15 years in prison. His sentencing will take place on Sept. 24. It was not immediately clear who was representing Hansen in his case.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-03-16

[keith101]

All countries do this to each other just same shit different day .

[Nyezhov]

15 years. Attempt. They knew about this guy right after he started and they followed him, arrested him, squeezed him and then turned him.

[farcanell]

4 hours ago, keith101 said:

All countries do this to each other just same shit different day .

Indeed.... but the motivation should be scrutinized. Greed is easy enough to understand, but underlying societal issues (if any) need addressing differentally, and nationally, as long sentences don’t seem to disincentivise others sufficiently.

[oldrunner]

There is a certain pride in members of the Intelligence Corp and this man should find his way into a long term solitary cell in someplace nice, say Northern China.

[car720]

Nobody knows just what they have got on this guy.

[Tug]

Well now that wasent a good career move now was it scum bag 

[Basil B]

14 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

15 years. Attempt. They knew about this guy right after he started and they followed him, arrested him, squeezed him and then turned him.

By the looks of things the did not turn him.

 

Remember the story when a company employee of a an Asian company making electrolytic capacitors was leaving to take up employment with a rival company somewhere else in Asia, he copied the formula for the electrolyte used in the capacitors, his employers were wise to this and he ended copying a doctored formula, his new employers used it, these capacitors had a short life but that was not noticed until these capacitors had been used in the production of hundreds of thousands if not millions of computer mother boards, the rest is history.

[Chomper Higgot]

16 hours ago, keith101 said:

All countries do this to each other just same shit different day .

Yes they do.

 

But not all people do this to their own country.

[SheungWan]

17 hours ago, keith101 said:

All countries do this to each other just same shit different day .

Whataboutism.