(CBS) “60 Minutes” has obtained an FBI videotape showing a Defense Department employee selling secrets to a Chinese spy for cash. The video, which has never been made public before, offers a rare glimpse into the secretive world of espionage and illustrates how China’s spying may now pose the biggest espionage threat to the U.S. China may be the number-one espionage threat now. “The Chinese are the biggest problem we have with respect to the level of effort that they’re devoting against us, versus the level of attention we are giving to them,” says Michelle Van Cleave, once America’s top counter-intelligence officer who coordinated the hunt for foreign spies from 2003 to 2006.
“Definitely, without a doubt,” the Chinese focus most of their espionage on the U.S., says Fengzhi Li, who once recruited spies for China’s Ministry of State Security and is now in the U.S. seeking asylum. In the videotape obtained by “60 Minutes”, Gregg Bergersen, a civilian Pentagon worker with a high-security clearance, is shown taking money, about $2,000, from the Chinese spy, Tai Shen Kuo.
I hope it was worth the 2,000 dollars, schmuck.
… thanks to insane conservative “borrow and spend” fiscal policy, the Chinese have us in a strangle hold by our debt-ridden throats.
>> sargasso said, on February 25th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
>> pretty much every mainland Chinese citizen living in the west is a potential, dormant or sourced.
Just like every rich white guy is a potential white collar criminal? Or every Tea Bagger is a potential suicide bombers? Or every pro-lifer is a potential homicidal doctor killer?
So none of you guys would collect information for or share information with the US government if you were in a foreign country? Most peculiar.
Are you guys nuts? Of course most citizens of Mainland China or any other nation would share anything they learned in the US with their own governments!
Anyone that wouldn’t do that should have their citizenship revoked!
There are times when I’m absolutely convinced that people who are PC are suffering from an advanced form of dementia.
>> deowll said, on February 25th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
>> So none of you guys would collect information for or share information with the US government if you were in a foreign country? Most peculiar.
No I wouldn’t.
Even though I’m a proud American, I’m not going to screw the country who allows me to work and live there. I can be loyal to more than one country.
I know people are not gonna like what i have to say, but dosent the usa also spy on pretty much all the other countries in the world including hers ?
@mojotaker
No, we do inteligence gathering – only the enemy does spying.
#14 I agree!!!
#16, #22 The Chinese intelligence model is that they try to recruit just about everybody moving to a western country. It isn’t paranoid, just how they operate.
We put up with it because China is in no way interested in military conflict with the US. They DO want to take our weapons designs and copy our products. Since they are selling down our debt now this might eventually become an international issue.
#26 Nobody said
No, we do inteligence gathering – only the enemy does spying.
Huh!!!??? whats the difference ?
>> deowll said, on February 25th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
>> So none of you guys would collect information for or share information with the US government if you were in a foreign country? Most peculiar.
Depends on the pay scale.
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deowll said, on February 25th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
>> So none of you guys would collect information for or share information with the US government if you were in a foreign country? Most peculiar.
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Depends on the pay scale.
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And depends on if i can get away with it.
#23 deowll
No I would not spy while on vacation or working in another nation for the US.
In fact when the opportunity presented itself to enlist and go through OTC in the 80s I turned it down.
I will not willingly support the US government as it has become since 1880. I only give due what I am legally obligated to do. (Taxes, rules, codes, etc.)
On the opposite side, I would never sell or give away information about the US that was not already public knowledge. As I owe no loyalty to any other nation on the planet.
I do not side with just anyone. They have to earn my loyalty. At present there is no nation on Earth that has earned my loyalty.
Cursor_
So it’s NOT Ok for lowly individuals to leak a few secrets to the Chinese, for cash. But it IS Ok for big corporations, like General Motors, to sell out US manufacturing to China. Or did the US Army stop buying Hummers? What’s hurting the US citizen more? The loss of some obscure military secrets? Or tens of thousands of jobs? If anything, the leaked secrets will only create more US jobs, to make up for what was lost. And I’ll bet the military wanted the secrets leaked. They’re so good at pretending to lose, what they planned to lose on purpose. And yet we still don’t know what goes on at Area 51. THAT, they can manage to keep a big secret. Maybe we should ask the Chinese.
Didn’t they also manage to “leak” high precision submarine propeller machining specs to the Chinese, under George W’s reign (sorry, I meant Dick C’s rule)? Something about outsourcing it to the Japanese. Who in turn, didn’t appreciate that it was a military secret. Now that’s rich.
#33
Glenn, what you’ve said is plain stupid and crazy talk. You don’t know the reasons behind any espionage except to gain an advantage. Short term wise, it may seem like losing jobs here is worst than losing a few secrets here and there but what about long term when those secrets turns against us in a big way, say we get nuked and become desolate.
And I’m sorry to say but we as citizens know little to nothing except what is fed to us by news and reports, which of course could be fake in itself. Therefore both you and I can’t really say what he the hell is going on except to assume.
Oh and selling to China or any country isn’t new. You sell to the highest bidder obviously! Ever had your own start up company be sold? And if we’re just selling manufacturing then there’s no worry because designs are still kept here, for the most part. They just manufacture and put parts together.
What happened to the Rosenberg when they were convicted for sharing secrets? These people are getting off light.
Think about all the technology we give to Communist China FOR FREE!
Every time a new consumer electronics device is manufactured in China, the chinese government gets first crack at the technology and can copy and use it without permission.
Ironically Ronald Reagan was the first sellout to the Communists, authorizing space launches in China using our technology.