Tag Archives: intelligence

Hong Kong, spy hub of the Far East

WASHINGTON – My mother and I came to Hong Kong – then a British colony – in 1991, and when I was little, sometimes she would tell me about my first and only personal encounter with an intelligence agency.

When we first entered Hong Kong, my mother and I were led into a room near the border checkpoint by an operative of the Special Branch of the Royal Hong Kong Police, then a front office for MI5, the feared British police and intelligence agency.

“What is your business in Hong Kong?” the agent asked.

It turns out my grandfather was an intelligence officer of the Chinese Communist Party posted as a school principal in Hong Kong in the 1940s, and the Special Branch had been watching him the whole time.

Luckily my mother and I walked out of the room that day, and I continued to be a normal kid growing up in Hong Kong.

But it was after I became a journalist in Hong Kong that I realized how this Asian financial hub is also the spy hub of the Far East. And despite the fact that Hong Kong has been under Chinese rule since 1997, its law enforcement agencies still have close contact with U.S. and British law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

“What is your business in Hong Kong?” the agent asked.

It turns out my grandfather was an intelligence officer of the Chinese Communist Party posted as a school principal in Hong Kong in the 1940s, and the Special Branch had been watching him the whole time.

Luckily my mother and I walked out of the room that day, and I continued to be a normal kid growing up in Hong Kong.

But it was after I became a journalist in Hong Kong that I realized how this Asian financial hub is also the “spy hub of the Far East.” And despite the fact that Hong Kong has been under Chinese rule since 1997, its law enforcement agencies still have close contact with U.S. and British law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

According to the Guardian and the South China Morning Post, in 2004 Sami al-Saadi, a vocal opponent of late Libya dictator Muammar Gaddafi also known as Abu Munthir, was detained in the Hong Kong International Airport for a week before forced onto a flight to Tripoli. After the fall of Gaddafi’s regime, Human Rights Watch obtained fax correspondence between CIA and Tripoli, which revealed Hong Kong government’s role in al-Saadi’s rendition to Libya.

faxpart1

This CIA fax to Libya authority shows the Hong Kong Government offering advices to ensure the rendition of al-Saadi. (Screenshot of documents released by The Guardian via DocumentCloud at http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2011/sep/09/libya#document/p6)

The fax shows that the Hong Kong government offered suggestions to Libyan authority on how to assume control of al-Saadi.

faxpart2

The segment of the fax shows the Hong Kong Government requesting the details about the purposed rendition of al-Saadi. (Screenshot of documents released by The Guardian via DocumentCloud at http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2011/sep/09/libya#document/p6)

It also shows Stanley Ying, the then Principle Secretary for Security, is listed as a key contact in the Hong Kong government.

But that does not mean the Hong Kong government is always an ally for Western governments. In the case of Edward Snowden, we saw the opposite.

Edward Snowden came to Hong Kong on May 20, 2013 from Hawaii, and he seemed to have faith in Hong Kong’s judicial system.

“Hong Kong has a strong tradition of free speech. People think China, Great Firewall … but the people of Hong Kong have a long tradition of protesting on the streets, making their views known … and I believe the Hong Kong government is actually independent in relation to a lot of other leading Western governments.”

— Edward Snowden

Despite numerous protests from the U.S. government, the Hong Kong government allowed Snowden to fly to Moscow.

From Snowden’s case, we can see that the decision of whether to hand over a valuable person to Western intelligence really depends on what kind of information that particular person possesses.

Ben Lam, a local news editor who was assigned to cover Snowden’s case and has numerous encounters with Chinese intelligence in Mainland China, said Hong Kong becomes a hub for intelligence activities because of historical and geographical reasons.

“Back in the days of British rule, it was the West’s window to Mainland China and vice versa for the Chinese,” he said.

“I would say the major players in Hong Kong right now are the MI6, CIA and also Chinese intelligence agencies,” he said. “The Japanese government also has an extensive intelligence network in Hong Kong, and their operatives often use journalists as their covers.”

Hong Kong is a city known for its financial activities, tourism and political tension between locals and the Chinese government. But it is also a place where an invisible war on national interests happen everyday.

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Whistleblowing in the FBI: problems lie deeper than confusing legal boundaries

WASHINGTON — Former FBI agent Michael German thought the agency had the information it needed to see the 9/11 terrorist attacks coming. In the aftermath of the attack, German reported a cover-up of a failed counterterrorism investigation that infringed upon people’s civil liberties in unprecedented ways.

Yet when German raised these concerns, the Department of Justice inspector general failed to investigate, he said. He also said the IG Office failed to protect him from official retaliation within the FBI, including possible surveillance, resulting in the 16-year veteran resigning in 2004.

“I tried to challenge the system from within, but they don’t like that,” German said in an interview with the American Civil Liberties Union. “They made it very uncomfortable so I finally realized it was time to work on the outside.”

German’s case became one of the most visible examples of the challenges facing whistleblowers in the intelligence community. In addition to a legal framework that makes it incredibly difficult for whistleblowers to come forward, a more subtle influence lurks beneath the surface: a culture that views whistleblowers as traitors, not reformers.

A new report by the Government Accountability Office released last Thursday found that, despite recent efforts to extend whistleblower protections to FBI employees, they remain exposed to retaliation for reporting wrongdoing.

Under the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, federal employees are generally protected from retaliation for reporting wrongdoing, entitling them to pursue legal recourse should they face retribution. However, FBI employees were excluded from these protections, and in 1998 the Department of Justice established separate guidelines that were meant to protect whistleblowers within the agency.

Yet the guidelines permitting FBI agents to disclose wrongdoing are unclear, according to the GAO report. For example, FBI employees must report wrongdoing only to a handful of designated officials. As a result, more than half of the 62 cases reviewed by the GAO were dismissed without review.

According Steven L. Katz, formerly counsel to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and an expert on federal whistleblowing law, those in the FBI face much deeper issues than simply unclear legal guidelines. Instead, intelligence agents are a part of a culture that targets whistleblowers and punishes their behavior.

“When someone raises concerns, do you throw them overboard, or do you sit down with them and thank them?” he said. “The FBI throws them overboard.”

Katz argued that the GAO report fails to reflect the human aspect of the FBI in making it difficult for whistleblowers to come forward, focusing instead solely on the regulations that govern whistleblowing activities.

“The agencies are full of people, not just processes,” Katz said. “It’s the people who screw up because the laws look perfect on the books.”

According to Katz, other government agencies have faced similar problems with whistleblower culture. Last year, a series of attempted break-ins at the White House prompted Secret Service Director Julia Pierson to resign. A report released after the incident found that the Secret Service was “too insular,” ignoring the warning signs made plain by the attacks.

“In the agencies where you have a law enforcement culture, where power is might, people tend to transfer that culture of enforcement that’s outward facing inwards,” he said.

In 2012, President Barack Obama released Presidential Policy Directive 19, which established whistleblowing protection for those in the intelligence community. Elements of the directive were codified under the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY2014, but the guidelines of the directive aren’t permanent and can be easily reversed by a different president.

The result adds up to a climate that, while improving in some key ways, remains hostile to the act of whistleblowing. In an organization that possesses some of the nation’s most important classified information, the threat to the success of the FBI is intimately tied to the future of the country itself, as the 9/11 attacks demonstrated.

“You want the FBI to be effective, and so to help them be more effective you’d expect them to have better protection against retaliation from reporting problems,” said David Maurer, director for GAO’s homeland security and justice department. “It’s ironic that they have less whistleblower protection than the rest of the government.”

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Clapper nominated for Director of National Intelligence

President Obama in the Rose Garden Saturday nominated Lt. General James R. Clapper Jr. (Ret.) for the post of director of national intelligence. Clapper would replace retired Adm. Dennis Blair, who resigned from the position last month.

The President lauded Clapper as “one of our nation’s most experienced and most respected intelligence professionals” during his address, and hopes the former Air Force general’s extensive military and intelligence community background will yield a successful confirmation process.

Clapper is currently the under secretary of defense for intelligence and previously headed up both the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Clapper thanked Obama for the nomination and noted that he was “honored, and daunted by the magnitude of the responsibilities of the position of DNI,” according to the White House Web site.

Previous directors have also been daunted, and confounded by the DNI role. Since its inception via the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, three different people have occupied the post. If confirmed, Clapper would be the fourth in five years, and beyond his normal duties would be burdened with proving that the role is even worthwhile.

The director of national intelligence is responsible for briefing and advising the President, National Security Council and Homeland Security Council on pivotal matters relating to intelligence and national security. The DNI is also the head of the 16-member intelligence community, a role previously carried out by the director of central intelligence.

But former DNI’s, like Blair, struggled to maintain authority over the labyrinthine network of agencies that comprise the intelligence community. Dr. Jay Williams, a professor of political science at Loyola University and retired Captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve, believes that organizational shortfalls may undermine the DNI’s ability to operate effectively.

“The problem is organizational,” Williams said. “The DNI doesn’t have authority over the others no matter what it says in the legislation. Unless he controls the budget, unless he can force decisions at the human level, at the organizational level, it just isn’t that effective.”

The director position was created after the September 11 terrorist attacks in response to perceived intelligence lapses, and was recommended in a report issued by the 9/11 Commission.

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