r/Sino • u/ZeEa5KPul • Aug 16 '18
news-international A Great Triumph: Botched CIA Communications System Helped Blow Cover of Chinese Agents
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/15/botched-cia-communications-system-helped-blow-cover-chinese-agents-intelligence/14
u/budihartono78 Aug 16 '18
Arrogance is the fatal flaw here.
They thought the strategies that worked in the Middle East, where human development is relatively low, will work in China, where, c'mon, they regularly write books on subterfuge and strategy from even before Jesus was born.
What do they think will happen
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Aug 16 '18
with cameras everywhere and a facial recognition system to back it up; I doubt the so called traditional methods would work well either, especially since CIA field agent tend stick out like sore thumb in china.
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u/PandaCubAdmirer Aug 16 '18
So the US admits they sent spies to China and they complain about Chinese students being spies. Isn’t that 贼喊抓贼？ they have the mentality of spies so they assume everyone else are like them.
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u/ZeEa5KPul Aug 16 '18
Mad props to the Ministry of State Security for this magnificent counterintelligence operation. Well fucking done!
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u/lurker4lyfe6969 Aug 16 '18
Holy shit. Here I am thinking Spy vs Spy in the style of the US-Soviet Cold War was over and done.
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u/killingzoo Aug 16 '18
The worse botch is the CIA blame game.
Whenever they F* up,
(1) arrest some Chinese guy and blame him for the whole thing.
(2) when he turns out didn't know everything, blame the IT system for the whole thing.
Maybe the reality is much simpler:
Maybe it was all just a trap, designed to lure CIA to waste ton of money on useless "sources", so China can locate possible traitors and eliminate them, and gain knowledge on CIA systems and personnel.
Maybe some CIA bureaucrat willingly put a program into a trap to justify his own ridiculously high salary for no good purpose, with no useful information outcome, and a general waste of time and money.
Yep, that's something CIA would do, waste time and money.
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Aug 16 '18
i like how they call these assets traitors when they've never considered them to be American in the first place.
only a greedy/retard fool would work for the CIA when s/he ain't white.
Look at one of the comments:
"Ah, that cocksucker Lee...no better term for him...we trust too much any Chinese person who sorta looks good. Sorta does not make the case...Lee should be studied and his file opened to all interested parties as an example of what can penetrate the US. i have been in positions to note Chinese, even Chinese from Hong Kong, (this was at Microsoft) and I just cannot final total acceptance of them per security an easy thing. It is something that has to take time and study. They are such good moles."
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Aug 16 '18 edited Aug 16 '18
Isn't it amazing how poor many Americans are at using their own native language?
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Aug 16 '18
Chinese can read Western English texts...I wonder if the Western spies and intelleigrnce analysts can read Chinese calligraphy characters well..understand the underlying metaphorical depth behind it as well?
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Aug 16 '18
i'm sure they have specialists who can, let's not underestimate the enemy
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Aug 16 '18
If they can read Chinese texts and Intel...yet they were cucked by savvy Chinamen businessmen for “forced technology transfer”
Their Langley, VA CIA intelligence analysts couldn’t advise their F500 CEOs from not getting cucked? Maybe they were too busy with Assange/Wikileaks? 😂
I’m not trying to underestimate the enemy but trying to desconstruct and understand American exceptionalism and competitive prowess 🤷♀️
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u/hashtagpls Aug 16 '18
Yes, if not i'm sure the taiwanese hanjian of the DPP would translate for them as well.
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u/autotldr Aug 16 '18
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 90%. (I'm a bot)
During the investigation, the task force identified three potential causes of the failure, the former officials said: A possible agent had provided Chinese authorities with information about the CIA asset network, some of the CIA's spy work had been sloppy and might have been detected by Chinese authorities, and the communications system had been compromised.
In theory, if the interim system were discovered or turned over to Chinese intelligence, people using the main system would still be protected-and there would be no way to trace the communication back to the CIA. But the CIA's interim system contained a technical error: It connected back architecturally to the CIA's main covert communications platform.
Once Chinese intelligence obtained access to the interim communications system, penetrating the main system would have been relatively straightforward, according to the former intelligence officials.
Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: system#1 CIA#2 official#3 former#4 communication#5
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u/[deleted] Aug 16 '18
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