A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/communist-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinese</a> spy balloon caused alarm after it flew across the United States two years ago, likely collecting data on millions of Americans, but a new report points to American technology in the device rather than Chinese surveillance tech.
According to a new <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/chinese-spy-balloon-new-report-american-technology-found-2027189" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> by Newsweek, the 200-foot craft contained satellite communication modules and sensors from multiple U.S. companies, potentially enabling significant data collection on American infrastructure.
Sources told Newsweek that “The technology &#8230; matches that in a patent awarded in 2022 to scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Aerospace Information Innovation Research Institute in Beijing, which has links to China&#8217;s military and to its industrial defense base.&#8221;
“The patent included a short burst messaging module called Iridium 9602 made by Iridium, a global satellite communications provider based in McLean, Virginia – and coincidentally less than five miles from CIA headquarters.”
The Iridium patent was titled, &#8220;A high-altitude balloon safety control and positioning recovery device and method.”
“The analysis of the materiel recovered from the balloon showed that it had incorporated an Iridium communications system as well as technology from four other U.S. companies and at least one Swiss company, the sources said,” per Newsweek.
&#8220;A Chinese company would not have given them full satcom coverage over the U.S.,&#8221; a former intelligence employee told Newsweek.
The balloon contained communications from American companies Texas Instruments, Omega Engineering, Amphenol All Sensors Corporation, and Onsemi.
In response, Iridium admitted to having partners in China, but declined to identify them, claiming that the tech could have been obtained on resale markets.
“We certainly don’t condone our radios or our modules ending up and being used in ways they shouldn’t be,” said Jordan Hassim, Iridium’s Executive Director for Communications.
Newsweek gained access to a 75-page technical review of the balloon conducted by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center in Ohio.
Investigators reportedly discovered hints of empty compartments that could hold deployable devices, such as specialized gliders intended to gather additional data. The analysis also indicated that some of the surveillance equipment, including hard drives for storing potentially crucial imagery, was kept in a simple foam cooler, surprising those who expected more sophisticated protective enclosures.
Beijing continues to assert the device was a meteorological balloon that drifted off course, with one embassy spokesperson telling Newsweek, “The straying of the Chinese civilian unmanned airship into the US airspace was an accident caused by force majeure.”
“The airship, used for meteorological research, unintentionally drifted into U.S. because of the westerlies and its limited self-steering capability,” the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, officials involved in the review noted that some of the recovered electronics, including satellite communications modules, matched items found in publicly available patents linked to Chinese research institutes.
Some experts point to this finding as evidence of the need for stricter export control laws that attempt to limit sensitive American-made items from reaching prohibited users and hostile foreign actors.

US shoots down suspected Chinese spy balloon

Chinese Spy Balloon Used American-Made Tech To Gather Intel, Analysis Finds

Biden Administration

Communist China

Espionage

Global Politics

World

At a recent meeting of the House Committee on Homeland Security, evidence was presented of how China is posing a grave cybersecurity threat to the United States.
“Over the last year, the U.S. government has discovered a number of PRC [People&#8217;s Republic of China] state-sponsored threat actors deeply embedded in and across the nation’s critical networks: Volt Typhoon, Salt Typhoon, Flax Typhoon, and most recently Silk Typhoon, have compromised our critical infrastructure, hacked sensitive communications, breached federal workstations &#8230;” Chairman Mark E. Green (R-TN) stated.
“The U.S. authoring agencies have confirmed that Volt Typhoon has compromised the IT environments of multiple critical infrastructure organizations—primarily in <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/topics/critical-infrastructure-security-and-resilience/critical-infrastructure-sectors/communications-sector">Communications</a>, <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/topics/critical-infrastructure-security-and-resilience/critical-infrastructure-sectors/energy-sector">Energy</a>, <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/topics/critical-infrastructure-security-and-resilience/critical-infrastructure-sectors/transportation-systems-sector">Transportation Systems</a>, and <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/topics/critical-infrastructure-security-and-resilience/critical-infrastructure-sectors/water-and-wastewater-sector">Water and Wastewater Systems</a> Sectors—in the continental and non-continental United States and its territories, including Guam,” the Cybersecurity &amp; Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa24-038a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in February 2024.
“Microsoft has identified a nation-state activity group tracked as Flax Typhoon, based in China, that is targeting dozens of organizations in Taiwan with the likely intention of performing espionage,” Microsoft <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2023/08/24/flax-typhoon-using-legitimate-software-to-quietly-access-taiwanese-organizations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> in August 2023.
“Salt Typhoon refers to a sophisticated cyber espionage operation orchestrated by a Chinese Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group, commonly known as Earth Estries, Ghost Emperor, or UNC2286,” <a href="https://www.armis.com/blog/breaking-down-salt-typhoon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Armis</a> <a href="https://www.armis.com/blog/breaking-down-salt-typhoon/">reported</a>. “This state-sponsored actor has been linked to high-profile breaches targeting critical U.S. infrastructure, including major telecommunications providers such as Verizon, AT&amp;T, T-Mobile, and Lumen Technologies.”
“China has engaged in &#8230; maturation in how they conduct these operations,” Adam Meyers, senior vice president of Counter Adversary Operations at CrowdStrike, testified at the House committee hearing. “Today, they&#8217;re using exploits that target external facing devices that are connected directly to the internet that effectively bridge enterprises to the internet. These devices are often unmanaged. In many cases, they may be legacy or have proprietary capabilities &#8211; that means that they don&#8217;t run modern security tools &#8230; like a router or a VPN concentrator. Things that are meant to connect the enterprise to the network or allow remote users to authenticate in.”
“The nodes, so to speak, between silos,” Green suggested.
“Yes, sir, and these are highly prioritized and highly valuable targets with these threat actors,” Meyers replied. “They&#8217;ve nationalized their vulnerability research program in 2018. For example, they changed the national security law in China, and all vulnerability research has to be submitted through the Chinese government. Whereas, here in the United States, we follow something we call responsible disclosure, where if I find a vulnerability in a product, I notify that product vendor in order to try to get it fixed. They&#8217;re effectively nationalizing that resource so they can use that for exploits against American technology and American companies. Once they gain that access, they attempt to remain stealthy and either conduct espionage in order to inform political and military decision-making, or in the case of ‘Vanguard Panda,’ also known as ‘Volt Typhoon,’ the prepositioning that we’ve discussed here, which would be potentially useful to bring down some of these networks that Mr. Montgomery mentioned in time of conflict.”
Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, pointed out, “This operational preparation of the battlefield, it is a war-making action, and we have to take it much more seriously. I think the idea that they&#8217;ve pre-positioned malware or that they have capabilities that lie in wait that can come out at the right time, as we&#8217;re making a decision to respond to a crisis in Taiwan or crisis in the Baltic States. TRANSCOM operates on these unclassified networks with civilian systems. This is why I think former Representative [Now National Security Advisor] Waltz is right, in the sense that we have to go on the offensive. We now have to actually publicly execute operations against Chinese cyber infrastructure to say: ‘We know you did this; we know you use this infrastructure to do this, and we&#8217;re going to remove that infrastructure from your capability.’ &#8230; Otherwise, the Chinese are going to keep doing what they&#8217;re doing.”
“These incidents are not over,” Meyers continued. “‘Salt Typhoon’ is an ongoing activity by an adversary, as is ‘Volt Typhoon,’ or what we call ‘Vanguard Panda.’ So this is something we need to continuously engage; we need to continuously identify, root them out, and put a stop to them––cut off their access.”
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USA and China flag

House Committee On Homeland Security Warns Of Chinese Espionage Threat

China

Cybersecurity

Politics

Technology

U.S. officials are urging Americans to use encrypted apps to protect their communications after telecommunications companies were compromised during a recent hack from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/communist-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">communist China</a> that is the largest breach in history.
A senior FBI official, who asked not be identified, said during a call with reporters that &#8220;people looking to further protect their mobile device communications would benefit from considering using a cellphone that automatically receives timely operating system updates, responsibly managed encryption, and phishing resistant MFA (multi-factor authentication) for email, social media, and collaboration tool accounts.&#8221;
Jeff Greene, an official with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), added: “Encryption is your friend, whether it is on text messaging or you have the capacity to use encrypted voice communication.”
He added that the breach was so large in scale that it was &#8220;impossible&#8221; to know when officials would have a &#8220;full eviction&#8221; of Chinese hackers from U.S. systems.
The warning from U.S. law enforcement comes after Microsoft cybersecurity experts dubbed the cyberattack from the Chinese government “Salt Typhoon” with “Typhoon” denoting that the operation is Chinese and “Salt” indicating that it is a counterintelligence operation.
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The New York Times reported that the Chinese are believed to have hacked systems used by the companies to comply with court-authorized surveillance wiretaps, including Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act collection, one of the secretive measures the U.S. has to uncover networks of terrorists and spies.
The Chinese hackers compromised the phones of numerous prominent individuals in politics and national security, including top elected leaders.
NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/us-officials-urge-americans-use-encrypted-apps-cyberattack-rcna182694" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the Chinese stole call records and were able to target specific individuals and listen in to live phone calls.
One of the concerns that officials had about the Chinese discovering who U.S. officials were communicating with was that it would give them a list of people to target in influence operations aimed at manipulating decision makers.
Chinese hackers outnumber all of the FBI’s cyber personnel by at least 50 to 1. They are estimated to have up to 600,000 people involved in their espionage operations.
“China’s hacking program is larger than that of every other major nation, combined,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who was nominated to serve as President-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s Secretary of State, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rubio-chinas-hack-of-u-s-telecom-companies-most-serious-breach-ever" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> last month that the hack was the largest breach he’s ever seen.

China aspiration on Chip and digital Tech circutiry

U.S. Officials Urge Americans To Use Encrypted Apps After Chinese Hack

Communist China hacked several major American telecommunications companies as part of an espionage campaign targeting former President Donald Trump, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), and others.
Microsoft cybersecurity experts dubbed the group connected to the Chinese government &#8220;Salt Typhoon&#8221; with &#8220;Typhoon&#8221; denoting that the operation is Chinese and &#8220;Salt&#8221; indicating that it is a counterintelligence operation.
The Biden-Harris administration was caught flat-footed by the breach and the Cyber Safety Review Board, which is part of Homeland Security, indicated that it will initiate a review of the hack &#8220;at the appropriate time.&#8221;
The hack also reportedly targeted aides of Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Some of the companies hacked included Verizon, AT&amp;T, and Lumen, the reports said. Officials indicated that the known scale of the attack has grown dramatically as investigators continue to learn more.
The hackers are believed to have &#8220;compromised the phones of a number of prominent individuals in politics and national security, including some in the U.S. government,&#8221; The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/u-s-panel-to-probe-cyber-failures-in-massive-chinese-hack-of-telecoms-6bdc2f2e">reported</a>.
One of the concerns that officials had about the Chinese discovering who U.S. officials were calling was that it would give them a list of people to target in influence operations aimed at manipulating decision makers.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/26/us/politics/salt-typhoon-hack-what-we-know.html">reported</a> that the Chinese are believed to have hacked systems used by the companies to comply with court-authorized surveillance wiretaps, including Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act collection, one of the secretive measures the U.S. has to discover terrorists and spies.
The Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/scale-of-chinese-spying-overwhelms-western-governments-6ae644d2">reported</a> earlier this month that the scale of China&#8217;s espionage is &#8220;unprecedented&#8221; as it looks to become the world&#8217;s leading superpower by stealing technology.
Chinese hackers outnumber all of the FBI’s cyber personnel by at least 50 to 1, the report said. They are estimated to have up to 600,000 people involved in their espionage operations.
“China’s hacking program is larger than that of every other major nation, combined,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Chinese Embassy in Berlin

China Hacks U.S. Telecom Companies In ‘Major Espionage Coup’ Against U.S.

Hacked

On Friday, in a case that the United States government and his employer have denounced as a sham, a Russian court found Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, the first U.S. journalist to face such a charge since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986, guilty of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.
Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 in Yekaterinburg and later accused of being a CIA spy; Russian prosecutors alleged that “under instructions from the CIA” and “using painstaking conspiratorial methods,” Gershkovich “was collecting secret information” regarding a Russian defense contractor. The U.S. State Department called for his immediate release; no public evidence has been presented by Russia that supported its case. He was held in Moscow’s infamous Stalin-era Lefortovo Prison in a small cell and only <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/19/media/evan-gershkovich-espionage-trial-verdict-intl/index.html#:~:text=Evan%20Gershkovich%2C%20the%20first%20American,have%20denounced%20as%20a%20sham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">allowed</a> one hour of walking every day.
“This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,” Journal publisher Almar Latour and Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker <a href="//B6C39C40-81A7-4C4B-91B7-13445197898B/v" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>,  “We will continue to do everything possible to press for Evan’s release and to support his family. Journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he’s released. This must end now.”
Russia rebuffed a request from Gershkovich’s legal team that he be moved from the prison to house arrest or be granted bail.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has hinted that he would swap Gershkovich for Russians held in other countries, referencing Vadim Krasikov, an FSB operative. But on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to the idea of an exchange by asserting, “I’m leaving that question without an answer. There is a charge of espionage, so this is a very, very sensitive area.”
“Penal colonies are usually located in remote areas far from densely populated regions,” the Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/evan-gershkovich-penal-colony-transfer-69b5d482" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted.</a> “Due to their location and inaccessibility, colonies are less frequently inspected by human-rights groups. When they have visited, observers report poor conditions, including mold in the cells and problems with food and medical care, as well as ill treatment of inmates by prison staff.”

RUSSIA-US-JOURNALIST

Russia Sentences WSJ Reporter Evan Gershkovich To 16 Years In Penal Colony

Evan Gershkovich

Media

Russia

Vladimir Putin

Wall Street Journal

Sen. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ted-cruz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ted Cruz</a> (R-TX) said this week that the Chinese are buying up farmland near U.S. Military bases so that they can have launch areas for drones to spy on the bases.
Cruz made the remarks during the most recent episode of his &#8220;Verdict&#8221; podcast with co-host Ben Ferguson.
“There were multiple Chinese spy balloons, and the Biden administration didn&#8217;t bother to tell anyone about them,&#8221; Cruz said. &#8220;Until finally some ranchers in Montana spotted this one and they got outed on the internet. Were it not for that, we wouldn&#8217;t even know about this one. They kept it secret that the Chinese had been sending spy balloons over U.S. airspace, over U.S. military bases. They&#8217;re engaged in active espionage against us.”
&#8220;The Chinese are buying up land and they&#8217;re claiming they&#8217;re buying it up for farming or ranching, but it allows them to set up reconnaissance sites that allows them to install tracking technology, to use radar, to use infrared scanning, and to view the bases, and from there, to attempt to fly drones over the bases and engage in surveillance,&#8221; he later added. &#8220;And I gotta say, it is insane that we are allowing the Chinese to do this, this should be illegal, we should not allow the Chinese Communists to buy land anywhere near our bases.&#8221;
He said that Democrats have resisted countering China&#8217;s buying up of land around U.S. Military bases because &#8220;today&#8217;s Democrat Party is structurally pro-China.&#8221;
Cruz said that the party&#8217;s major stakeholders — big business, big tech, big Hollywood, big universities — are all in bed with China.
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WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
China Buying Farmland NEXT to U.S. Military Bases to Spy on us, plus Alvin Bragg RELEASED the anti-Israel Protestors who Took Over Columbia.
Don&#8217;t miss this special video episode of Verdict 👇 <a href="https://t.co/kGQwSAt3Za">pic.twitter.com/kGQwSAt3Za</a>
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1805349214173417902?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2024</a></blockquote>

Senator Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz: China Is Buying Farmland Near U.S. Bases To Set Up Drones For Surveillance

Ted Cruz

U.S.

The Department of Justice indicted two men who allegedly procured microelectronics for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that could be used in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks.
Iranian national Hossein Hatefi Ardakani and co-defendant Gary Lam (identified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Lin Jinghe), were charged with the crime. Lam reportedly worked for a Chinese company. The microelectronics were designated to be used by the IRGC Aerospace Force Self Sufficiency Jihad Organization’s (ASF SSJO) one-way attack UAV program, the DOJ <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/iranian-national-charged-unlawfully-procuring-microelectronics-used-unmanned-aerial-vehicles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated.</a> The microelectronics included high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifiers, and analog-to-digital converters.
“Today’s coordinated action with the Treasury Department demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to keeping military-grade equipment out of the hands of the Iranian regime,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “We will aggressively investigate, disrupt, and hold accountable criminal networks that supply sensitive technology to hostile and repressive governments in contravention of U.S. sanctions.”
The deadly and repressive IRGC serves as the military right arm of the despotic Iranian theocratic government; it was been labeled a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department in 2019. The IRGC was established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in May 1979 after the Islamic Revolution, and has brutally targeted Iran’s own citizens when they protest against the government. When the U.S. designated IRGC a terrorist group in 2019, it was the first time the U.S. had designated the military branch of a foreign country in this manner.
The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act stated, “The IRGC, not just the IRGC-QF [the Qods Force, the Guard’s extraterritorial branch], is responsible for implementing Iran’s international program of destabilizing activities, support for acts of international terrorism, and ballistic missile program.”
“U.S. technology has zero place in Iranian UAVs,” Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod of the Department of Commerce added. “As these allegations demonstrate, those who procure dual-use microelectronics for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will be held accountable.”
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“Ardakani and his co-conspirators crafted a sophisticated web of front companies to obscure the illicit acquisition of U.S. and foreign technology to procure components for deadly UAVs,” Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Krol of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New England explained. “These very components have been found in use by Iran’s allies in current conflicts, including in Ukraine. The disruption of these criminal networks by Homeland Security Investigations means that hundreds of thousands of critical UAV components will never again be used for malign purposes.”
Ardakani and Lam are charged with conspiracy to export U.S. goods to Iran and to defraud the United States, a possible five-year sentence; unlawfully exporting and attempting to export goods to Iran, a possible 20-year sentence, and conspiracy to engage in international money laundering, also a possible 20-year sentence.

170 kilometers of security wall built on the Van-Iran border completed

DOJ Indicts Two Men Who Allegedly Sold Microelectronics To IRGC, Iran’s Terror Organization

Department of Justice

Drones

Iran

U.S. prosecutors charged a former ambassador to Bolivia for secretly working for the Cuban government and supporting its clandestine intelligence-gathering mission against the United States for more than four decades, according to unsealed court documents released on Monday.
Victor Manuel Rocha, who served in various roles within the State Department, was arrested on Friday in Miami, Florida, on a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/media/1327021/dl?inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criminal complaint</a>. According to the Justice Department, federal prosecutors charged Rocha with committing multiple federal crimes, including acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and using a passport obtained by false statement.
&#8220;This action exposes one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent,&#8221; Attorney General Merrick B. Garland <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-us-ambassador-and-national-security-council-official-charged-secretly-acting-agent" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a news release.
Rocha, 73, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Colombia, allegedly spent 40 years secretly working as an agent on behalf of Havana while seeking out and obtaining positions within the U.S. government to gain access to classified information with the ability to affect its foreign policy.
The indictment does not specify details about the information Rocha allegedly shared with conspirators inside Cuba&#8217;s intelligence community.
Between 1981 and 2002, Rocha rose through the ranks of the State Department under both Democratic and Republican administrations. He worked in U.S. Embassies in Argentina, Bolivia, and Mexico City and served a short stint on the White House&#8217;s National Security Council as the director of inter-American affairs focused on Cuba from 1994 to 1995.
Rocha later became an advisor to the Commander of the U.S. military&#8217;s Southern Command — a joint command of the U.S. military whose area of responsibility includes Cuba —from around 2006 to around 2012, according to the Justice Department.
During a series of meetings beginning last year, Rocha admitted to his decades of work as a Cuban intelligence agent to an undercover FBI agent who posed as a covert Cuban General Directorate of Intelligence representative.
Rocha allegedly told the undercover agent his efforts to &#8220;infiltrate&#8221; the U.S. government were &#8220;meticulous,&#8221; &#8220;very disciplined,&#8221; and had &#8220;strengthened the revolution immensely.&#8221;
The accused spy told the undercover agent at their first meeting outside a Miami church that his &#8220;number one priority was …any action on the part of Washington that would – would endanger the life of — of the leadership…revolution itself.&#8221;
Prosecutors allege throughout the meetings, Rocha behaved as a Cuban agent and consistently referred to the U.S. as &#8220;the enemy,&#8221; praised Fidel Castro as the &#8220;Comandante,&#8221; referred to his contacts in Cuban intelligence as his &#8220;Compañeros&#8221; and the Cuban intelligence services as the &#8220;Dirección.&#8221;
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&#8220;I have to protect what we did because what we did…the cement that has strengthened the last 40 years,&#8221; Rocha allegedly told the undercover agent during their second meeting, &#8220;What we have done&#8230;it&#8217;s enormous&#8230;More than a grand slam.&#8221;
It was not immediately clear if Rocha&#8217;s legal representation issued a comment.
His wife, Karla Wittkop Rocha, declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t need to talk to you,&#8221; she reportedly <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fbi-cuba-bolivia-former-ambassador-arrested-af9d80a4f268099364dff249dd74b3ec" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the outlet before hanging up.
Rocha was expected to make an initial appearance before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Miami on December 4.
The arrest comes nearly a year after U.S. authorities released a high-ranking federal official from prison after serving more than two decades for leaking information and identities of some American spies to Cuba.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-releases-ex-pentagon-official-who-spied-for-cuba-spy-from-prison-after-two-decades" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ana Belen Montes</a>, 65, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, pled guilty in 2002 to conspiracy to commit espionage and using her status to leak classified information and four U.S. spy identities to Havana.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Holds News Conference At The Department Of Justice

Former U.S. Ambassador Accused Of Spying For Cuba

Former U.S. Ambassador Charged With Spying For Cuba

Crime

Cuba

Merrick Garland

China and Cuba have reportedly teamed up to transport Chinese nationals across the Atlantic Ocean&#8217;s Straits of Florida and smuggle them into the United States, according to a top Florida Republican lawmaker.
U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, who represents the Florida Keys, warned about the alleged partnership between the two communist nations in an <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12676999/carlos-gimenez-warns-cuba-smuggling-chinese-nationals-us.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with the Daily Mail on Sunday — after 17 Chinese nationals were apprehended inside the congressman&#8217;s district last week.
&#8220;This is the first time I think we&#8217;ve caught [Chinese nationals] trying to cross getting into the Keys area &#8230; it&#8217;s concerning,&#8221; Gimenez told DailyMail.com during an exclusive interview. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know who they are, why they&#8217;re here, or what they were doing.&#8221;
U.S. Border Patrol agents and Florida Highway Patrol troopers responded to a vessel landing in Key Largo on October 23, which led to authorities capturing three Ecuadorians and another 17 Chinese immigrants — 11 men and six women, <a href="https://keysweekly.com/42/chinese-migrants-apprehended-following-illegal-keys-landing/#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to local media.
Gimenez, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, Homeland Security Committee, and the new Select Committee on China, immediately <a href="https://gimenez.house.gov/2023/10/rep-carlos-gimenez-raises-the-alarm-on-chinese-nationals-apprehended-in-the-florida-keys" target="_blank" rel="noopener">requested</a> additional information about the individuals.
&#8220;That really kind of concerns me that now they&#8217;re trying to make their way in through the Keys — my part of the country,&#8221; he told The Daily Mail. &#8220;I understand that the Chinese are having more and more influence. More and more infrastructure projects, more and more activity in our hemisphere, especially in Cuba.&#8221;
Such projects point to the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-to-build-spy-base-in-cuba-focused-on-intercepting-communications-within-u-s-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">secret deal China reached with Cuba </a>earlier this year to build an electronic eavesdropping base in the island territory — approximately 100 miles off the U.S. coast.
The latest incident followed a bombshell report from earlier this year that found <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/roughly-100-incidents-where-chinese-nationals-tried-to-access-u-s-military-sensitive-sites-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than 100 incidents</a> have occurred where Chinese nationals posed as tourists to test the security of military bases as well as other sensitive sites.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve seen many, many Chinese nationals, saying they&#8217;re tourists and stuff, and they&#8217;ve been photographing sensitive installations,&#8221; Giminez told the outlet, adding the individuals have targeted critical U.S. infrastructure to &#8220;see how that can be compromised.&#8221;
One case involved Chinese nationals who said they were tourists attempting to force their way past guards at the military base in Fort Wainwright, Alaska, the home to the Army&#8217;s 11th Airborne Division. Chinese nationals have reportedly repeatedly photographed the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the largest overland military test range in the U.S.
Chinese nationals were reportedly found swimming near a Key West, Florida, military facility. They claimed they were tourists. Other Chinese nationals seemed to be scuba diving near Cape Canaveral, where spy satellites are sent into space, according to the Journal.
Giminez blamed the potential national security threat on the Biden administration&#8217;s open border policies, which have led to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-authorities-warn-of-iranian-backed-terrorists-trying-to-enter-u-s-southern-border" target="_blank" rel="noopener">record-breaking illegal immigrant encounters</a> since President Joe Biden took office in 2021 — an estimated 6.5 million just in the three fiscal years alone.
He warned of an increased threat of spying and terrorist activity in the United States.
&#8220;And we need to get to the bottom of it, and it&#8217;s a failure of the Biden administration,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Their porous border policies are making America less and less safe.&#8221;
Chairman Mark Green of the House Homeland Security Committee previously told the Daily Mail over 17,800 Chinese nationals have been released into the U.S. in 2023.
Hank Berrien contributed to this report.

House Lawmakers Work Towards Electing New Speaker On Capitol Hill

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Border Crisis

Robert Malley, President Joe Biden&#8217;s now-suspended special envoy to Iran, has reportedly been linked to an &#8220;Iranian spy ring&#8221; operating to shift U.S. policy to favor the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The news comes as Iranian-backed terrorists launched an unprecedented wave of attacks against Israel over the weekend, killing hundreds of people and wounding thousands more.
Tablet Magazine highlighted recent reports from Semafor and Iran International on emails stolen from the Iranian government allegedly outlining the operation.
Malley — who is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-biden-official-under-fbi-investigation-over-handling-of-classified-material-report">currently</a> under criminal investigation by the FBI over his handling of classified material — is accused in the reports of advancing several operatives in the spy ring, including helping an alleged Iranian asset named Ariane Tabatabai infiltrate her way into &#8220;some of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. government,&#8221; including at the State Department and Pentagon.
The operation began in 2014 when Iran created the Iran Experts Initiative (IEI), a propaganda and influence operation that recruited top talent from Iranians living abroad to help Iran obtain a favorable nuclear deal. The group reported to an official from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which is a terrorist organization, and Iran’s then-Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was also reportedly involved.
The Table Magazine <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/iran-spy-ring-robert-malley-lee-smith" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a>, headlined &#8220;High-Level Iranian Spy Ring Busted In Washington,&#8221; states:
<blockquote>The contents of the emails are damning, showing a group of Iranian American academics being recruited by the Iranian regime, meeting together in foreign countries to receive instructions from top regime officials, and pledging their personal loyalty to the regime. They also show how these operatives used their Iranian heritage and Western academic positions to influence U.S. policy toward Iran, first as outside “experts” and then from high-level U.S. government posts. Both inside and outside of government, the efforts of members of this circle were repeatedly supported and advanced by Malley, who served as the U.S. government’s chief interlocutor with Iran under both the Obama and the Biden administrations. Malley is also the former head of the International Crisis Group (ICG), which directly paid and credentialed several key members of the regime’s influence operation.</blockquote>
Retired CIA analyst Peter Theroux, who was with the agency for 25 years, responded to the report by saying, “I know what a spy network looks like.”
&#8220;This is how recruited assets speak to their handling officers,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There’s lots of the mood music around that correspondence saying, let me know what you need me to collect. It seems clear who’s the subordinate here — what you’d call responsive to tasking.&#8221;
Theroux noted that for someone like Tabatabai to receive even the most basic security clearance from the U.S. government, she would be so thoroughly examined that it would be impossible that the Biden administration did not know about her connections to Iran.
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&#8220;The hoops you have to jump through to get a bare-bones top secret clearance even without compartments or special access programs are enormous,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They grill you on your foreign contacts. Contacts with any foreign government raise more red flags than Bernie Sanders’ honeymoon. Contacts with senior officials from enemy governments, classified as non-frat governments like Russia, China, Cuba, as well as Iran, are in a different category altogether — what would normally be totally disqualifying.&#8221;
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-house-republican-suggests-biden-official-could-have-committed-treason" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggested</a> in July that Malley could have committed treason.
“Malley and others created an incredibly permissive environment for Hamas, for Iran, to do all these things,” <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/10/09/suspended-iran-special-envoy-rob-malley-under-scrutiny-for-hamas-remarks-following-israel-terror-attack/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Gabriel Noronha, a former special adviser on Iran at the State Department.
Last January, three U.S. officials working on the team negotiating with Iran <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-iran-envoy-terrorist-groups-hamas-hezbollah-are-misunderstood-have-their-own-rationality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">left the group</a> because Malley would not take a harder negotiating position regarding sanctions.
Noronha said Malley and his negotiating team “purposefully funneled billions of dollars to [Iran] through lack of sanctions enforcement and provision of sanctions relief that has given them somewhere between $50 [billion] and $80 billion over the last two and a half years.”

Mediterranean Dialogue Forum in Rome

Top Biden Official Under Criminal Investigation Is Linked To ‘Iranian Spy Ring’ In D.C.: Report

Executive

Scandals

A staffer in the British Parliament was arrested earlier this year on suspicions he was spying for China, a <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/british-national-arrested-suspicion-china-spy-parliamentary-researcher-xrtbrw86m#:~:text=Counterterrorism%20police%20arrested%20the%20researcher,espionage%2Drelated%20offences%20in%20March.&amp;text=The%20researcher%20is%20a%20Briton,with%20Beijing%2C%20for%20several%20years." target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from The Sunday Times revealed. 
The suspect, a man in his late 20s who was a Parliamentary researcher, was reportedly “linked” with several Members of Parliament from the Conservative Party who had access to highly sensitive information, according to the report. The man was arrested in mid-March along with an additional suspect who is in his 30s.
“The mask has truly slipped,” Paddy McGuinness, the U.K.’s former deputy national security adviser told, the outlet.&#8221;This isn’t about China objecting to interference in their internal affairs as they so often claim. Rather they are messing in ours, with a casual disregard for our democracy and our sovereignty.”
Both suspects were charged with violating Section One of Britain’s Official Secrets Act 1911, which prohibits sharing information or communications that may be “prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state” and “calculated to be or …  intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy,” respectively, the Times notes. 
Some Conservative MPs that were reportedly linked to the researcher include the U.K.’s minister of state for security, Tom Tugendhat, and the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Alicia Kearns. However, it’s believed the alleged spy only worked with Tugendhat prior to his role as security minister, POLITICO Europe <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/rishi-sunak-raises-significant-concerns-on-china-spy-in-parliament/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a>. 
“It is inevitable the Chinese Communist party (CCP) would target and seek to undermine parliament’s leading voices who have demonstrated the ability to constrain the CCP’s ambitions,” a source close to Kearns said, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/09/parliamentary-researcher-who-spied-for-china-arrested" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to The Guardian. 
The researcher had a parliamentary pass and reportedly worked on international relations policies with various MPs – including China-centered policies. According to the Times, prior to his work as a researcher at the Palace of Westminster, the suspect spent time working and living in China. During that period, officials say he may have been recruited by the Chinese government as a sleeper agent with the goal of working his way into political groups critical of Beijing. 
According to a government source, the suspect may have even changed the minds of some legislators. “I’m pretty sure he [the researcher] turned some backbenchers from China hawks into being apathetic about Beijing,&#8221; the source told the Times.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak brought up the revelation with the prime minister of China, Li Qang, at the G20 summit in India, telling reporters that he conveyed “very strong concerns about any interference in our parliamentary democracy, which is obviously unacceptable,” POLITICO Europe <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/rishi-sunak-raises-significant-concerns-on-china-spy-in-parliament/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. 
“We discussed a range of things and I raised areas where there are disagreements,” the British PM said. “And this is just part of our strategy to protect ourselves, protect our values and our interests, to align our approach to China with that of our allies like America, Australia, Canada, Japan and others, but also to engage where it makes sense,” he added.
A government source told the Times that the news represents a “major escalation by China,” and that the U.K. has “never seen anything like this before.” 
A <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/chinese-gate-crashers-at-u-s-bases-spark-espionage-concerns-cdef8187" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from The Wall Street Journal last week outlined over 100 instances of alleged Chinese tourists attempting to gain access to U.S. military bases and installations. According to officials cited by the outlet, the “tourists” were actually performing espionage and attempting to take photographs and get information about security practices at the locations. 
“The advantage the Chinese have is they are willing to throw people at collection in large numbers,” Emily Harding, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Journal. “If a few of them get caught, it will be very difficult for the U.S. government to prove anything beyond trespassing, and those who don’t get caught are likely to collect something useful.”

Palace of Westminster

British Parliament Worker Arrested Amid Allegations Of Spying For China

United Kingdom

Two U.S. Navy sailors were arrested on national security-related charges related to allegedly sending sensitive military information to the Chinese Communist Party, federal officials said on Thursday.
“These individuals stand accused of violating the commitments they made to protect the United States and betraying the public trust, to the benefit of the [People’s Republic of China] government,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-us-navy-servicemembers-arrested-transmitting-military-information-peoples-republic-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">news release</a>.
U.S. Navy Sailor Jinchao Wei, an active-duty machinist’s mate on the amphibious U.S.S. Essex assault ship stationed at Naval Base San Diego, was arrested on Wednesday for espionage-related charges upon arriving for work at the homeport of the Navy&#8217;s Pacific Fleet in California.
Wei, 22, was indicted for conspiracy to send national defense information to a Chinese intelligence officer who allegedly communicated with Wei using encrypted messages to provide photos, videos and documents about the U.S.S. Essex and other Navy ships as early as February 2022, according to U.S. officials. Wei allegedly disclosed the locations of various Navy ships, defensive weapons, technical and mechanical manuals to the intelligence officer in exchange for thousands of dollars over the course of the conspiracy. The sailor also allegedly passed along information about the number of U.S. Marines training during previously scheduled international maritime warfare exercises.
&#8220;When a soldier or sailor chooses cash over country, and hands over national defense information in an ultimate act of betrayal, the United States will aggressively investigate and prosecute,&#8221; U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California, said.
Authorities also arrested  U.S. Navy Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, a sailor at Naval Base Ventura County in California, on a charge of conspiracy and receipt of a bribe, for allegedly transmitting sensitive military information to a Chinese official posing as a maritime economic researcher.
Zhao, 26, allegedly communicated with an unnamed Chinese intelligence officer from August 2021 through May 2023 by &#8220;surreptitiously recording&#8221; photographs and videos of classified military information and then transmitting to the foreign officer, authorities said.
According to a news release, the Chinese intelligence officer paid Zhao approximately $14,866 in exchange for classified controlled operational plans for a large-scale U.S. military exercise involving Naval force movements, amphibious landings, and maritime operations and logistics in the Indo-Pacific Region. An indictment against Zhao further alleges the Petty Officer exchanged photographs of electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system stationed on a U.S. military base in Okinawa, Japan.
“By sending this sensitive military information to an intelligence officer employed by a hostile foreign state, the defendant betrayed his sacred oath to protect our country and uphold the Constitution,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California. “Unlike the vast majority of U.S. Navy personnel who serve the nation with honor, distinction and courage, Mr. Zhao chose to corruptly sell out his colleagues and his country.”
Zhao faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison if convicted.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said during a Thursday press briefing reported by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/2-us-sailors-national-security-china-bribe-charges" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News</a> that the threat from China &#8220;stands apart&#8221; on the world stage to the national security of the U.S.
&#8220;China is unrivaled in the audacity and the range of its malign efforts to subvert our laws,&#8221; Olsen said Thursday.

President Biden Delivers Remarks At Naval Base Point Loma

Two U.S. Navy Sailors Arrested On Espionage Charges Involving Alleged Ties To China

Two U.S. Navy Sailors Arrested On Charges Involving Alleged Ties To China

National Security

U.S. Navy

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