CIA yanks spies from Beijing in wake of OPM breach
The Washington Post reports that the immediate effect of the breach of government employees’ personally identifiable information (PII) by Chinese hackers from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was the CIA pulling it’s intelligence agents from Beijing out of concern for their safety.
The counterintelligence risks of the OPM breach are significant, [Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr.] said. He noted that the intelligence agencies do not know specifically whose records were taken. But the scale of the compromise — more than 22 million individuals’ records breached — “has very serious implications .?.?. from the standpoint of the intelligence community and the potential for identifying people” who may be undercover.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “this is a gift that’s going to keep on giving for years.”
So, this administration has made their “shift” of our military focus to the Pacific Rim, specifically because of China, and because of the feckless morons of OPM who can’t accomplish the simple task of protecting our PII from our enemies, we have no intelligence officers on the ground in China.
Seems about right.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
Sure, satellites will fix this.
We don’t need human intel.
/:rolls:
Spies? We don’t need no steenking spies, man.
I just hope they’re using the latest version of Google Maps.
//Sarejvo, Chinese embassy, and all that.
In defense of my incorrect spelling of Sarajevo, I will only say SWEADEN!!! Pass the cheese please.
Why do you think that was a mistake?
MacNamara was a democrat…
🙄
I just don’t see that 6’2, 220 lb Texan blending. I suppose that we could have had Americans of Chinese heritage in there but, chances are, a good number Chinese businessmen won’t be home for rice tonight.
Once again proving the ineptitude of those for whom responsibility isn’t actually anything more than a word.
Janet Reno level responsibility on exhibit here, and from another democrat occupant of 1600 PA Ave…
Nicely done, assclowns.
Is there anyone with brains left in Washington?
The people with brains left Washington.
Are we REALLY sure it was a Chinese hack job, or did obamadinejad’s minions just give the info away?
Or by chance could this information have been on cankles’ super-seekrit, high speed, low drag, ultra-hardened email hard drive?
Has it been confirmed yet that nobody under Hussein can put their own pants on in the morning?
What a disaster.
Interesting article, but quite a few inaccuracies. CIA officers are not spies. Spies are the indigenous people case officers recruit and form relationships with to gather information that could be of interest to the government. Field SIGINT, HUMINT, OSINT and analyst personnel stationed overseas work under various cover jobs but still very much stick out like a sore thumb as Americans even if they “look” the part. The CIA’s National Clandestine Service (and DIA’s Defense Clandestine Service) is not going to risk one of its employees, who have access to extremely sensitive information and years of training, by having them personally infiltrate Al Qaeda cells and the like by “blending in.” That kind of nonsense is the stuff of Hollywood and frankly, it just doesn’t happen. Indigenous agents blend in with the population because they are actually a part of it.
Sorry for the rant. Just a pet peeve of mine. 🙂
Amen. It’s amazing how many people think they know about the collection of intelligence because they’ve been to the movies.
Pretty much. In real life, officers usually come in two flavors – normal looking people who work undercover at embassies with diplomatic immunity, or normal looking people who work undercover in an unofficial capacity (i.e., a journalist, businessman, etc).
For the most part though, the ones who are running around doing spy stuff are locals, not officers who are facilitating that activity.