The Official Chinese 🇨🇳 Espionage & Cold War Thread
Yahoo is now a part of Verizon Media
The CIA sent a team of 4 operators on a spy mission targeting China. None came back.
Jack Murphy
·Contributor
Sat, September 19, 2020, 5:00 AM EDT·11 mins read
As Tropical Storm Higos blew in from the Pacific, Stephen Stanek, a covert CIA operative, faced a decision. It was time to either cancel the operation he was running or go forward with it. The storm was barreling through the Philippines but was then projected to veer north and miss their area of operation.
Stanek’s partner for the operation, a younger man named Michael Perich, had recently graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy. A football player at the academy, Perich was now at the beginning of his career in paramilitary operations and had just recently been trained as a scuba diver.
Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images (5), AP
Two other men were aboard their 40-foot vessel, Jamie McCormick and Daniel Meeks, both in supporting roles. Stanek, a retired Navy ordnance disposal diver, was highly experienced but had only recently attained his license to be a ship captain, according to those who knew him.
The crew had spent the last several days sailing up the coast of the Philippines after departing Malaysia in what was to be the maiden voyage of their ship, which was secretly owned by the CIA’s Maritime Branch.
Their cover story for the 2008 mission was that a client in Japan had bought the vessel, and the crew had been hired to transport it there from Malaysia. They had paperwork and documentation to back up the story if questioned.
Their actual target was a small piece of land to the north of Luzon, the Philippines’ largest island. The CIA believed the Chinese military was occupying this small island in an area that has been hotly disputed. The U.S. in recent years has closely watched China’s military moves in the South China Sea, particularly as Beijing has built up artificial islands on reefs and atolls that were once barely visible at low tide in order to extend its territorial claims.
Image: Yahoo News
Stanek and Perich planned to dive on the island using commercial scuba gear that would be deniable in the event they were captured, whether by the Chinese or anyone else. There were to be no U.S. government fingerprints on any of their activities. Deployed from the small ship, the two divers would emplace a “pod” disguised as a rock and stuffed with classified technology just beneath the surface of the waves. It would then passively monitor electronic signals of Chinese naval ships.
Once they returned to their ship, the crew would head for Japan, where they would cool their heels for a few weeks before returning and retrieving the device.
Stanek would have closely examined the onboard weather radar system in those final moments before making his decision. According to his Navy service records as well as friends and teammates, Stanek was a patriot and a mentor, the kind of sailor admired by his peers for his hard work and can-do attitude.
But he was also under pressure to make it work. The mission wasn’t just about placing a device on one island, it was a proof of concept that would demonstrate the continued relevance of the CIA’s Maritime Branch.
Stephen Stanek and Michael Perich. (U.S. Navy Seabook, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy)
The mission came as Maritime Branch was struggling to prove its reason for existence. Several U.S. Navy programs also made use of “covered” maritime assets, meaning ships that hid behind commercial cover. The CIA’s Maritime Branch was essentially in competition with the Navy, and this mission would help prove its worth.
It’s impossible to know how much that played into Stanek’s decision, but gambling that the storm would change course as meteorologists predicted, he decided to go forward with the covert operation.
The maritime company that officially employed Stanek and the other crew members sits at the end of a quiet road in Panama City, Fla. It is surrounded by a barbed wire fence and plastic slats to prevent anyone from seeing inside. Incorporated in 1983, the company claims on paper to buy and sell boats, yet it never seems to have any in its marina.
Local residents say they have no idea what the company does, and phone calls to its office were not returned.
The company is, in fact, a commercial cover for the CIA’s Maritime Branch, according to a former CIA employee. “We build these companies from whole cloth, from the ground up,” the former CIA employee told Yahoo News, which is not identifying its name, since it is still used in ongoing covert operations.
The maritime company that officially employed Stanek and the other crew members in Panama City, Fla. (Yahoo News)
Maritime Branch is one of the CIA’s paramilitary components. Nestled within the agency’s organizational structure is the Special Activities Division, today known as the Special Activities Center, which includes Special Operations Group (SOG), which conducts paramilitary operations, and Covert Influence Group (CIG), which specializes in disinformation and propaganda operations.
SOG has three paramilitary branches. Air Branch covertly maintains fleets of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft all over the world, including the CIA-operated, Russian-made helicopters that ran logistics and delivered troops in Afghanistan during and after the 2001 invasion. Ground Branch functions as the CIA’s version of Special Forces but operates under the agency’s covert action authorities; it often works in tandem with operations officers (the agency’s spies) and, at times, the U.S. military. Once filled with former Marines, today Ground Branch is home to many former Delta Force operators.
Maritime Branch covertly operates sea vessels in South America, West Africa and a few other locations. They can be used to extract CIA officers or their assets if called upon. “Maritime Branch was trying to become relevant again in SOG and SAD,” a former CIA officer said, “because mostly it was just a place for former SEALs to hang out with between Ground Branch tours.”
On Sept. 28, 2008, Stanek made the call to push forward with the operation. The storm was predicted to take a sharp turn away from them, even though they were currently in its trajectory. It was a calculated risk.
The 40-foot ship seemed small in open waters, and it must have seemed even smaller when the unthinkable happened. Higos did not change its trajectory but instead barreled down on the four men. At that point it didn’t matter which direction they attempted to turn, they were going to get broadsided by the storm regardless.
The CIA had a beacon on the ship that tracked the boat right into the center of the storm until it disappeared, a former SAD member told Yahoo News.
U.S. military personnel in the region remained oblivious to the CIA’s failed covert operation and had no part in any recovery efforts. The CIA coordinated with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to have their ships make some sweeps to find the missing personnel. Nothing was ever found, “not even a floating life jacket,” a former CIA officer recalled.
Enhanced infrared imagery loop of Tropical Storm Higos over the Philippines beginning on Sept. 29, 2008. (NOAA/NESDIS/StAR/CoRP/RAMMB)
One of Stanek’s old dive buddies from the Navy was at a bar in Panama City with friends when they got a call about his death. “We all knew better than to ask questions,” the former Navy diver said.
Stateside, the families of the deceased, who didn’t even know their husbands and sons had been working for the CIA, had to be informed about what had happened. Internally, the CIA officers blamed the mission failure and deaths of four of their men on Bob Kandra, the SAD chief at the time.
“There was a lot of pressure to do ops,” a former CIA operations officer explained. “They just didn’t have to die. They did a mission that you didn’t have to do, and Bob was such a bad leader. A lot of officers blame Kandra for the shyt that happened in the Pacific.”
His blemishes and mistakes were glossed over because he was senior intelligence staff when he ran the Special Activities Division, according to the former operations officer.
Kandra had a reputation for poor leadership dating back to his days in Iraq, when he had T-shirts made that read, “I got laid in Baghdad.” That intensified after he was elevated to the CIA’s senior management ranks, known as special intelligence service, or SIS, according to two former agency employees. “He was protected by the SIS mafia,” said a former SAD officer.
“Kandra was a continuous screw-up, but once they make you a SIS they don’t flush you,” the former CIA officer agreed.
Kandra did not respond to messages sent through email and social media to accounts publicly linked to him, and Yahoo News was unable to reach him through a phone number listed under his name. The CIA declined to comment about the mission or allegations about Kandra’s performance.
However, the covert operation maintained its cover, even in the aftermath of a catastrophic failure. Death certificates were quietly issued with a lawyer hired by the CIA’s Panama City cover company filing the paperwork.
A few months after the men’s deaths, the CIA flew their families to the Washington, D.C., area and put them up in a hotel in Tyson’s Corner, Va. The CIA didn’t want them going around the city by themselves and potentially revealing why they were there. Once they were checked in, CIA employees met with them in a private room, and for the first time they were told that their loved ones had died during a secret CIA mission.
However, the explanations were less than satisfying for some of the relatives.
Perich’s grandmother was crying and desperate for hope that Michael could still be alive, according to a CIA officer who was present. She wanted to believe that maybe the Chinese government had kidnapped them, though it was clear they had died in the storm. “They had questions no one could answer,” the former CIA officer said of their desire to know what exactly had transpired in the middle of the storm.
The next day, the families visited CIA headquarters at Langley, Va., and met Director Michael Hayden and members of Maritime Branch. There was also a ceremony at the memorial wall, a slab of white marble with stars chiseled into it, each representing a CIA officer or proprietary contract employee who died in the line of duty since the agency’s inception. Of the 135 stars on the wall, many are now named in the display book beneath it. Others remain anonymous, the details of the CIA employees’ deaths classified to this day.
In 2008, six anonymous stars were added to the wall. Four of them belong to Stephen Stanek, Michael Perich, Jamie McCormick and Daniel Meeks. The surviving family members declined to speak to the press when contacted by Yahoo News. A spokeswoman for the CIA declined to comment, citing the classified nature of the agency’s operations.
CIA Memorial Wall in the lobby of CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., in 2014, with stars signifying the agents and contractors killed in the line of duty. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
More than a decade after the operation, many in the CIA felt that Kandra, who has since retired, was never held to account for the deaths. Eventually he was removed from SAD and sent to a low-pressure job in Vienna, Austria. But he was pulled from that station as well over what one former CIA operations officer described as Kandra’s “chaos as a leadership style.”
In the meantime, a new Cold War has continued to play out in the South China Sea. In 2016, the Chinese Navy plucked an American-made undersea drone out of the ocean that appeared to have been monitoring one of their ships 50 miles off the coast of the Philippines. This may indicate that, much like the CIA’s drone program over Pakistan, and elsewhere, the undersea espionage taking place in the South China Sea has been automated, conducted with robots that limit the risk to human life.
The Pentagon asked for the drone back, claiming it was an unclassified system used to gather oceanographic data. The Chinese obliged and turned it over to the U.S. Navy in international waters four days later. Even if that particular mission ended in capture by the Chinese, no one died.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified Tropical Storm Higos as a hurricane.
hindustantimes.com
Journalist spying case: Delhi Police makes 2 more arrests, including Chinese woman
HT Correspondent
14-18 minutes
Home / Delhi News / Journalist spying case: Delhi Police makes 2 more arrests, including Chinese woman
Police have registered a case under the Official Secrets Act against Rajeev Sharma and the Chinese and Nepalese nationals have been arrested under the same charges
delhi Updated: Sep 19, 2020 17:40 IST
(From left) Qing Shi; Rajeev Sharma; Sher Singh aka Raj Bohra.(Photos: Delhi police)
The Delhi police on Saturday said that journalist Rajeev Sharma, who was arrested on charges of spying two days ago, was allegedly passing on sensitive information to Chinese intelligence agencies. They added a Chinese woman, Qing Shi, and a Nepalese man, Sher Singh alias Raj Bohra, have been booked along with Sharma under the Official Secrets Act after classified documents were recovered from their possession.
Also read: NIA arrests key accused in Naval spy ring case
Sanjeev Yadav, the deputy commissioner of police (special cell), said Sharma was allegedly in contact with a Chinese intelligence official named Michael and passed on to him classified information related to Indian army deployments in the China-Bhutan-India tri-junction including Doklam. Yadav said Sharma had also allegedly given him information related to India-Myanmar military cooperation and other details about the border between India and China.
Police said Sharma was allegedly paid around $500 for each assignment and claimed that he had received around Rs 3 million since 2019. They did not specify how much he was allegedly paid before 2019. The payments, police said, were made through hawala, shell companies, and Western Union money transfers.
ALSO WATCH | Amid border tension, China spy gang busted in Delhi, scribe held, say police
Police said that between 2010-2014, Sharma wrote for the Global Times (China). “Observing his columns, one Chinese intelligence agent named Michael from Kunming city of China contacted Sharma through his LinkedIn account and invited him to Kunming, China, for an interview in a Chinese Media Company. The entire trip was funded by Michael. During the meeting, Michael and his junior Xou asked Rajeev Sharma to provide inputs on various aspects of India-China relations. Between 2016 to 2018, Rajeev Sharma was in contact with Michael and Xou,” Yadav said.
The officer said Sharma had meetings with Michael and Xou in Laos and the Maldives once and briefed them. Besides these visits, Sharma was also allegedly in contact with Michael and Xou through e-mail and social media, police said.
Detailing Sharma’s alleged role after 2018, the special cell officer said, “In January 2019, Sharma came in contact with another Kunming-based Chinese entity named George. He visited Kunming via Kathmandu and met George. George was introduced as a general manager of a Chinese Media Company. During the meeting, George asked Rajeev Sharma to write and inform about issues related to the Dalai Lama. For this, he was offered $500 per article. George told Sharma that they would send him money through his company’s sister concern based in Mahipalpur, South Delhi, being operated by Qing.”
Yadav said Sharma was paid through shell companies. “Shell companies were operated by foreign intelligence to transfer funds to him. Two Chinese nationals -- Jhang Chang and his wife Chang-li-lia -- were running the companies MZ Pharmacy and MZ Malls, under fake names Suraj and Usha. They are both presently in China and on their behalf, Qing Shi and Bhora, a Nepali National (both directors of MZ Pharmacy) are presently operating the business from Mahipalpur.”
WATCH | Amid border tension, China spy gang busted in Delhi, say police
Sharma was arrested on September 14. Police said he was found in possession of confidential defence documents. He was produced before a court on September 15 and sent in police custody for six days. Sharma has filed a bail application, which will be heard on September 22.
Yahoo is now a part of Verizon Media
The CIA sent a team of 4 operators on a spy mission targeting China. None came back.
Jack Murphy
·Contributor
Sat, September 19, 2020, 5:00 AM EDT·11 mins read
As Tropical Storm Higos blew in from the Pacific, Stephen Stanek, a covert CIA operative, faced a decision. It was time to either cancel the operation he was running or go forward with it. The storm was barreling through the Philippines but was then projected to veer north and miss their area of operation.
Stanek’s partner for the operation, a younger man named Michael Perich, had recently graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy. A football player at the academy, Perich was now at the beginning of his career in paramilitary operations and had just recently been trained as a scuba diver.
Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images (5), AP
Two other men were aboard their 40-foot vessel, Jamie McCormick and Daniel Meeks, both in supporting roles. Stanek, a retired Navy ordnance disposal diver, was highly experienced but had only recently attained his license to be a ship captain, according to those who knew him.
The crew had spent the last several days sailing up the coast of the Philippines after departing Malaysia in what was to be the maiden voyage of their ship, which was secretly owned by the CIA’s Maritime Branch.
Their cover story for the 2008 mission was that a client in Japan had bought the vessel, and the crew had been hired to transport it there from Malaysia. They had paperwork and documentation to back up the story if questioned.
Their actual target was a small piece of land to the north of Luzon, the Philippines’ largest island. The CIA believed the Chinese military was occupying this small island in an area that has been hotly disputed. The U.S. in recent years has closely watched China’s military moves in the South China Sea, particularly as Beijing has built up artificial islands on reefs and atolls that were once barely visible at low tide in order to extend its territorial claims.
Image: Yahoo News
Stanek and Perich planned to dive on the island using commercial scuba gear that would be deniable in the event they were captured, whether by the Chinese or anyone else. There were to be no U.S. government fingerprints on any of their activities. Deployed from the small ship, the two divers would emplace a “pod” disguised as a rock and stuffed with classified technology just beneath the surface of the waves. It would then passively monitor electronic signals of Chinese naval ships.
Once they returned to their ship, the crew would head for Japan, where they would cool their heels for a few weeks before returning and retrieving the device.
Stanek would have closely examined the onboard weather radar system in those final moments before making his decision. According to his Navy service records as well as friends and teammates, Stanek was a patriot and a mentor, the kind of sailor admired by his peers for his hard work and can-do attitude.
But he was also under pressure to make it work. The mission wasn’t just about placing a device on one island, it was a proof of concept that would demonstrate the continued relevance of the CIA’s Maritime Branch.
Stephen Stanek and Michael Perich. (U.S. Navy Seabook, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy)
The mission came as Maritime Branch was struggling to prove its reason for existence. Several U.S. Navy programs also made use of “covered” maritime assets, meaning ships that hid behind commercial cover. The CIA’s Maritime Branch was essentially in competition with the Navy, and this mission would help prove its worth.
It’s impossible to know how much that played into Stanek’s decision, but gambling that the storm would change course as meteorologists predicted, he decided to go forward with the covert operation.
The maritime company that officially employed Stanek and the other crew members sits at the end of a quiet road in Panama City, Fla. It is surrounded by a barbed wire fence and plastic slats to prevent anyone from seeing inside. Incorporated in 1983, the company claims on paper to buy and sell boats, yet it never seems to have any in its marina.
Local residents say they have no idea what the company does, and phone calls to its office were not returned.
The company is, in fact, a commercial cover for the CIA’s Maritime Branch, according to a former CIA employee. “We build these companies from whole cloth, from the ground up,” the former CIA employee told Yahoo News, which is not identifying its name, since it is still used in ongoing covert operations.
The maritime company that officially employed Stanek and the other crew members in Panama City, Fla. (Yahoo News)
Maritime Branch is one of the CIA’s paramilitary components. Nestled within the agency’s organizational structure is the Special Activities Division, today known as the Special Activities Center, which includes Special Operations Group (SOG), which conducts paramilitary operations, and Covert Influence Group (CIG), which specializes in disinformation and propaganda operations.
SOG has three paramilitary branches. Air Branch covertly maintains fleets of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft all over the world, including the CIA-operated, Russian-made helicopters that ran logistics and delivered troops in Afghanistan during and after the 2001 invasion. Ground Branch functions as the CIA’s version of Special Forces but operates under the agency’s covert action authorities; it often works in tandem with operations officers (the agency’s spies) and, at times, the U.S. military. Once filled with former Marines, today Ground Branch is home to many former Delta Force operators.
Maritime Branch covertly operates sea vessels in South America, West Africa and a few other locations. They can be used to extract CIA officers or their assets if called upon. “Maritime Branch was trying to become relevant again in SOG and SAD,” a former CIA officer said, “because mostly it was just a place for former SEALs to hang out with between Ground Branch tours.”
On Sept. 28, 2008, Stanek made the call to push forward with the operation. The storm was predicted to take a sharp turn away from them, even though they were currently in its trajectory. It was a calculated risk.
The 40-foot ship seemed small in open waters, and it must have seemed even smaller when the unthinkable happened. Higos did not change its trajectory but instead barreled down on the four men. At that point it didn’t matter which direction they attempted to turn, they were going to get broadsided by the storm regardless.
The CIA had a beacon on the ship that tracked the boat right into the center of the storm until it disappeared, a former SAD member told Yahoo News.
U.S. military personnel in the region remained oblivious to the CIA’s failed covert operation and had no part in any recovery efforts. The CIA coordinated with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to have their ships make some sweeps to find the missing personnel. Nothing was ever found, “not even a floating life jacket,” a former CIA officer recalled.
Enhanced infrared imagery loop of Tropical Storm Higos over the Philippines beginning on Sept. 29, 2008. (NOAA/NESDIS/StAR/CoRP/RAMMB)
One of Stanek’s old dive buddies from the Navy was at a bar in Panama City with friends when they got a call about his death. “We all knew better than to ask questions,” the former Navy diver said.
Stateside, the families of the deceased, who didn’t even know their husbands and sons had been working for the CIA, had to be informed about what had happened. Internally, the CIA officers blamed the mission failure and deaths of four of their men on Bob Kandra, the SAD chief at the time.
“There was a lot of pressure to do ops,” a former CIA operations officer explained. “They just didn’t have to die. They did a mission that you didn’t have to do, and Bob was such a bad leader. A lot of officers blame Kandra for the shyt that happened in the Pacific.”
His blemishes and mistakes were glossed over because he was senior intelligence staff when he ran the Special Activities Division, according to the former operations officer.
Kandra had a reputation for poor leadership dating back to his days in Iraq, when he had T-shirts made that read, “I got laid in Baghdad.” That intensified after he was elevated to the CIA’s senior management ranks, known as special intelligence service, or SIS, according to two former agency employees. “He was protected by the SIS mafia,” said a former SAD officer.
“Kandra was a continuous screw-up, but once they make you a SIS they don’t flush you,” the former CIA officer agreed.
Kandra did not respond to messages sent through email and social media to accounts publicly linked to him, and Yahoo News was unable to reach him through a phone number listed under his name. The CIA declined to comment about the mission or allegations about Kandra’s performance.
However, the covert operation maintained its cover, even in the aftermath of a catastrophic failure. Death certificates were quietly issued with a lawyer hired by the CIA’s Panama City cover company filing the paperwork.
A few months after the men’s deaths, the CIA flew their families to the Washington, D.C., area and put them up in a hotel in Tyson’s Corner, Va. The CIA didn’t want them going around the city by themselves and potentially revealing why they were there. Once they were checked in, CIA employees met with them in a private room, and for the first time they were told that their loved ones had died during a secret CIA mission.
However, the explanations were less than satisfying for some of the relatives.
Perich’s grandmother was crying and desperate for hope that Michael could still be alive, according to a CIA officer who was present. She wanted to believe that maybe the Chinese government had kidnapped them, though it was clear they had died in the storm. “They had questions no one could answer,” the former CIA officer said of their desire to know what exactly had transpired in the middle of the storm.
The next day, the families visited CIA headquarters at Langley, Va., and met Director Michael Hayden and members of Maritime Branch. There was also a ceremony at the memorial wall, a slab of white marble with stars chiseled into it, each representing a CIA officer or proprietary contract employee who died in the line of duty since the agency’s inception. Of the 135 stars on the wall, many are now named in the display book beneath it. Others remain anonymous, the details of the CIA employees’ deaths classified to this day.
In 2008, six anonymous stars were added to the wall. Four of them belong to Stephen Stanek, Michael Perich, Jamie McCormick and Daniel Meeks. The surviving family members declined to speak to the press when contacted by Yahoo News. A spokeswoman for the CIA declined to comment, citing the classified nature of the agency’s operations.
CIA Memorial Wall in the lobby of CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., in 2014, with stars signifying the agents and contractors killed in the line of duty. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
More than a decade after the operation, many in the CIA felt that Kandra, who has since retired, was never held to account for the deaths. Eventually he was removed from SAD and sent to a low-pressure job in Vienna, Austria. But he was pulled from that station as well over what one former CIA operations officer described as Kandra’s “chaos as a leadership style.”
In the meantime, a new Cold War has continued to play out in the South China Sea. In 2016, the Chinese Navy plucked an American-made undersea drone out of the ocean that appeared to have been monitoring one of their ships 50 miles off the coast of the Philippines. This may indicate that, much like the CIA’s drone program over Pakistan, and elsewhere, the undersea espionage taking place in the South China Sea has been automated, conducted with robots that limit the risk to human life.
The Pentagon asked for the drone back, claiming it was an unclassified system used to gather oceanographic data. The Chinese obliged and turned it over to the U.S. Navy in international waters four days later. Even if that particular mission ended in capture by the Chinese, no one died.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified Tropical Storm Higos as a hurricane.
How do yall find this stuff on twitter. I'm really new to reddit but how do I personalize reddit to where I'm getting articles related to espionage, or AI etc.
HOLY shyt!!!!!!!!!!
NYPD officer arrested for allegedly acting as agent of China
NYPD officer arrested for allegedly acting as agent of China
Updated 5 minutes ago
NEW YORK (WABC) -- NYPD officer Baimadajie Angwang, a community affairs officer in the 111 precinct in Queens and a US Army Reservist at Fort Dix, has been arrested for allegedly acting as an agent of China.
According to the criminal complaint, Angwang acted "at the direction and control" of Chinese government officials at the consulate in New York to report on the activities of ethnic Tibetans, assess potential ethnic Tibetan intelligence sources and use his official position at the police department to give consulate officials access to senior NYPD officials.
"None of these activities falls within the scope of Angwang's official duties and responsibilities with either the NYPD or the USAR," the complaint said.
Angwang, 33, is an ethnic Tibetan native of the People's Republic of China and a naturalized U.S. citizen who referred to himself as an "asset" of the People's Republic of China, according to the criminal complaint. Since June 2018, the FBI said Angwang has been "in frequent communication" with an unidentified Chinese consular official he referred to as "Boss."
In one phone call between Angwang and the consular official, the complaint said Angwang offered "to raise our country's soft power" by having the consular official attend NYPD events. He also allegedly offered to provide the consular official with nonpublic information about the internal workings of the police department.
"Angwang also discussed the utility of developing sources for the PRC government in the local Tibetan community and suggested that the primary qualification for a source as follows: 'If you're willing to recognize the motherland, the motherland is willing to assist you with its resources,'" the complaint said.
NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea also commented on the situation.
"As alleged in this federal complaint, Baimadajie Angwang violated every oath he took in this country," Shea said in a statement. "One to the United States, another to the U.S. Army, and a third to this Police Department. From the earliest stages of this investigation, the NYPD's Intelligence and Internal Affairs bureaus worked closely with the FBI's Counterintelligence Division to make sure this individual would be brought to justice."
In 2018, the NYPD awarded Angwang "Officer of the Month" for his initiative and public service.
@DonKnock @dza @88m3 @wire28 @smitty22 @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @BigMoneyGrip @.r. @Dameon Farrow @TheNig @VR Tripper @re'up @Blackfyre_Berserker @Cali_livin @NY's #1 Draft Pick
NYPD officer arrested for allegedly acting as agent of China
NYPD officer arrested for allegedly acting as agent of China
Updated 5 minutes ago
NEW YORK (WABC) -- NYPD officer Baimadajie Angwang, a community affairs officer in the 111 precinct in Queens and a US Army Reservist at Fort Dix, has been arrested for allegedly acting as an agent of China.
According to the criminal complaint, Angwang acted "at the direction and control" of Chinese government officials at the consulate in New York to report on the activities of ethnic Tibetans, assess potential ethnic Tibetan intelligence sources and use his official position at the police department to give consulate officials access to senior NYPD officials.
"None of these activities falls within the scope of Angwang's official duties and responsibilities with either the NYPD or the USAR," the complaint said.
Angwang, 33, is an ethnic Tibetan native of the People's Republic of China and a naturalized U.S. citizen who referred to himself as an "asset" of the People's Republic of China, according to the criminal complaint. Since June 2018, the FBI said Angwang has been "in frequent communication" with an unidentified Chinese consular official he referred to as "Boss."
In one phone call between Angwang and the consular official, the complaint said Angwang offered "to raise our country's soft power" by having the consular official attend NYPD events. He also allegedly offered to provide the consular official with nonpublic information about the internal workings of the police department.
"Angwang also discussed the utility of developing sources for the PRC government in the local Tibetan community and suggested that the primary qualification for a source as follows: 'If you're willing to recognize the motherland, the motherland is willing to assist you with its resources,'" the complaint said.
NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea also commented on the situation.
"As alleged in this federal complaint, Baimadajie Angwang violated every oath he took in this country," Shea said in a statement. "One to the United States, another to the U.S. Army, and a third to this Police Department. From the earliest stages of this investigation, the NYPD's Intelligence and Internal Affairs bureaus worked closely with the FBI's Counterintelligence Division to make sure this individual would be brought to justice."
In 2018, the NYPD awarded Angwang "Officer of the Month" for his initiative and public service.
@DonKnock @dza @88m3 @wire28 @smitty22 @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @BigMoneyGrip @.r. @Dameon Farrow @TheNig @VR Tripper @re'up @Blackfyre_Berserker @Cali_livin @NY's #1 Draft Pick
HOLY shyt!!!!!!!!!!
NYPD officer arrested for allegedly acting as agent of China
NYPD officer arrested for allegedly acting as agent of China
Updated 5 minutes ago
NEW YORK (WABC) -- NYPD officer Baimadajie Angwang, a community affairs officer in the 111 precinct in Queens and a US Army Reservist at Fort Dix, has been arrested for allegedly acting as an agent of China.
According to the criminal complaint, Angwang acted "at the direction and control" of Chinese government officials at the consulate in New York to report on the activities of ethnic Tibetans, assess potential ethnic Tibetan intelligence sources and use his official position at the police department to give consulate officials access to senior NYPD officials.
"None of these activities falls within the scope of Angwang's official duties and responsibilities with either the NYPD or the USAR," the complaint said.
Angwang, 33, is an ethnic Tibetan native of the People's Republic of China and a naturalized U.S. citizen who referred to himself as an "asset" of the People's Republic of China, according to the criminal complaint. Since June 2018, the FBI said Angwang has been "in frequent communication" with an unidentified Chinese consular official he referred to as "Boss."
In one phone call between Angwang and the consular official, the complaint said Angwang offered "to raise our country's soft power" by having the consular official attend NYPD events. He also allegedly offered to provide the consular official with nonpublic information about the internal workings of the police department.
"Angwang also discussed the utility of developing sources for the PRC government in the local Tibetan community and suggested that the primary qualification for a source as follows: 'If you're willing to recognize the motherland, the motherland is willing to assist you with its resources,'" the complaint said.
NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea also commented on the situation.
"As alleged in this federal complaint, Baimadajie Angwang violated every oath he took in this country," Shea said in a statement. "One to the United States, another to the U.S. Army, and a third to this Police Department. From the earliest stages of this investigation, the NYPD's Intelligence and Internal Affairs bureaus worked closely with the FBI's Counterintelligence Division to make sure this individual would be brought to justice."
In 2018, the NYPD awarded Angwang "Officer of the Month" for his initiative and public service.
@DonKnock @dza @88m3 @wire28 @smitty22 @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @BigMoneyGrip @.r. @Dameon Farrow @TheNig @VR Tripper @re'up @Blackfyre_Berserker @Cali_livin @NY's #1 Draft Pick
ExodusNirvana
Change is inevitable...
I've warned you guys for a long time that there needs to be greater vetting for LEO in this country but 
Hood Critic
The Power Circle
I'm not shocked, I'm willing to be that our adversaries have people in every level of LE and day-to-day governement.
Exactly.
Y'all talking scary about street-level LEO but you know they trying to get guys on military bases, secret service detail, within the Pentagon, etc. etc.
And that's before you even start talking about who is working in the tech companies and engineering firms.
And like the Indian article above shows, you're naive if you think it's gonna be all ethnic Chinese doing it.
HOLY shyt!!!!!!!!!!
NYPD officer arrested for allegedly acting as agent of China
NYPD officer arrested for allegedly acting as agent of China
Updated 5 minutes ago
NEW YORK (WABC) -- NYPD officer Baimadajie Angwang, a community affairs officer in the 111 precinct in Queens and a US Army Reservist at Fort Dix, has been arrested for allegedly acting as an agent of China.
According to the criminal complaint, Angwang acted "at the direction and control" of Chinese government officials at the consulate in New York to report on the activities of ethnic Tibetans, assess potential ethnic Tibetan intelligence sources and use his official position at the police department to give consulate officials access to senior NYPD officials.
"None of these activities falls within the scope of Angwang's official duties and responsibilities with either the NYPD or the USAR," the complaint said.
Angwang, 33, is an ethnic Tibetan native of the People's Republic of China and a naturalized U.S. citizen who referred to himself as an "asset" of the People's Republic of China, according to the criminal complaint. Since June 2018, the FBI said Angwang has been "in frequent communication" with an unidentified Chinese consular official he referred to as "Boss."
In one phone call between Angwang and the consular official, the complaint said Angwang offered "to raise our country's soft power" by having the consular official attend NYPD events. He also allegedly offered to provide the consular official with nonpublic information about the internal workings of the police department.
"Angwang also discussed the utility of developing sources for the PRC government in the local Tibetan community and suggested that the primary qualification for a source as follows: 'If you're willing to recognize the motherland, the motherland is willing to assist you with its resources,'" the complaint said.
NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea also commented on the situation.
"As alleged in this federal complaint, Baimadajie Angwang violated every oath he took in this country," Shea said in a statement. "One to the United States, another to the U.S. Army, and a third to this Police Department. From the earliest stages of this investigation, the NYPD's Intelligence and Internal Affairs bureaus worked closely with the FBI's Counterintelligence Division to make sure this individual would be brought to justice."
In 2018, the NYPD awarded Angwang "Officer of the Month" for his initiative and public service.
@DonKnock @dza @88m3 @wire28 @smitty22 @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @BigMoneyGrip @.r. @Dameon Farrow @TheNig @VR Tripper @re'up @Blackfyre_Berserker @Cali_livin @NY's #1 Draft Pick
Makes me think of Russia and North Korea doing targeted assassinations in other countries and when Trump just let Erdogan's henchmen beat protesters on US soil.
In theory, the USA is supposed to be a shining light for the persecuted across the world. It's our responsibility to 100% protect them from this bullshyt and carry out firm responses to nations that fail to respect their rights.
What you meant to say was "everyone does this shyt".
I'd assume that Russia and Israel are the two doing it the most effectively.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Did Canadian politicians know the victims of a targeted shooting at a trendy Richmond restaurant?
Did Canadian politicians know the victims of a targeted shooting at a trendy Richmond restaurant?
By Sam Cooper Global News
Posted October 5, 2020 6:00 am
Updated October 5, 2020 2:28 pm
Sources have identified Paul King Jin as a victim of a recent shooting in Richmond, B.C. Facebook/World Champion Gym
It was shortly after 7:30 p.m. on a Friday night when shots rang through a trendy restaurant in Richmond, B.C.
Sources with knowledge of the crime scene say bullets came from outside the building — blasting shards of glass into a private party of 12 diners — and leaving one man dead from a bullet wound and another man with relatively minor face wounds. There were also families with children dining in other sections of the restaurant.
Investigators have officially described the Sept. 18 shooting as a targeted attack.
“It’s amazing not more people got hit,” a source said.
It was also the latest in a series of shootings in a region that is home to 10 of 14 organized crime groups listed by RCMP intelligence as high-level national threats.
The two victims are allegedly elite suspects in an international gang involved in money laundering at B.C. casinos. The attack was also on the eve of upcoming hearings, slated to run from October 2020 to April 2021, as part of the Cullen Commission, a provincial inquiry into money laundering.
While it’s not clear where that inquiry will lead, criminal intelligence sources say the nature of the shooting should serve as a warning about threats to national security and risks for Canadian politicians who have been observed meeting with dangerous people.
Intelligence sources say one of the victims, Paul King Jin, attended meetings organized in Canada by the Chinese Communist Party to allegedly interfere in Canadian politics and disrupt the country’s institutions.
According to sources, Jin survived the attack, while Jian Jun Zhu was killed.
A homicide detective walks past Paul Jin’s van at the scene of the shooting in Richmond. Ina Mitchell
Zhu was the corporate director of Silver International, a Richmond money services business. Canadian and international financial intelligence records allege this firm has been laundering at least $1 billion annually for drug gangs based in China, the Middle East and Latin America. The RCMP executed search warrants on the company in October 2015 as part of a major money-laundering investigation into Silver International and a network of high-stakes gamblers in B.C. casinos.
The gamblers were known to individually bet as much as $1 million per night in B.C. casinos, using bags of cash supplied by Jin and Silver International, RCMP said.
Jin and Zhu were both charged, but those charges were stayed and Jin has denied allegations of wrongdoing.
A number of Canadian politicians, including a British Columbia NDP minister, a city councillor in the Vancouver region, a former Richmond MP and a former Richmond federal minister known to be a key player in Liberal Party of Canada fundraising have all attended events and appeared in private and published photos with Jin. These events took place after the first media reports about the police investigation against Silver International in September 2017. Police confirmed the charges against Jin and Zhu a month after those media reports.
There is no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the elected Canadian politicians who have attended meetings where Jin or others identified as suspects in RCMP documents are present, and it isn’t clear whether they were aware of the risks. The politicians say part of their jobs requires them to meet with constituents.
In this WeChat photo, Paul King Jin, standing in the back left corner (bald man) attends a meeting with Burnaby Coun. James Wang (in the front row seated with a light gray jacket and black shirt). The photo is dated from 2019 but the exact date could not be confirmed. WeChat
But Calvin Chrustie, a former RCMP superintendent in charge of targeting transnational organized crime networks, says he is concerned that Canadian politicians at all levels of government are putting themselves in danger by meeting with alleged criminals.
“I don’t think Canadian politicians should think they are immune from the violence from these networks,” Chrustie said. “Their capacity and capabilities should be a concern to all that directly or indirectly engage in nefarious business activity, from property development and real estate to finance, legal and other related business activities. If there is a risk to these transnational organizations, an option to mitigate risks is always murder.”
Foreign intelligence sources interviewed by Global News also warn of a larger threat of corruption to democratic systems in Western governments. For example, they allege that Chinese officials protect and take payments from gangsters and they fear that this type of activity could spread to countries like Canada.
Both academic and media reports have documented this alleged form of corruption.
Chrustie, who now works as a consultant on transnational organized crime threats with InterVentis Global and the Critical Risk Team, said that he believes that Canada’s intelligence allies — including Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom — are increasingly assessing transnational organized crime as a national security threat, but Canada is lagging behind.
Threats could also include political interference by the so-called “United Front” group.
Western intelligence analysts believe the United Front is a network used by the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate other countries using agents in organized crime, business, media and politics.
Chinese government officials in Canada did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
China has denied the United Front is used for espionage, and leaders in Beijing say the United Front promotes the Chinese Communist Party’s interests.
But a collection of records reviewed by Global News, including published online material in Mandarin and private messages sent on the WeChat social networking app, show how Canadian politicians have been mingling in circles that include persons believed to be United Front members, representatives of the Chinese government and people with alleged ties to organized crime.
NDP Minister Lisa Beare poses with Paul King Jin (bald man second from right) and others at Warrior Fighting Dream gym, in 2019. Ina Mitchell
Paul King Jin, the man wounded in the restaurant shooting, has also appeared in some private and published photographs that show him with VIP gamblers, Canadian politicians, Chinese consular officials and business leaders at so-called United Front meetings.
Last edited: