(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.
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.