Do You remember the sailor who took photos inside his sub? Where is the justice? Feinstein must be pretty stupid or is she a traitor?
Imagine if it emerged that the
Republican chairman of the House or Senate intelligence committee had a Russian
spy working on their staff. Think it would cause a political firestorm? Well,
this month we learned that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) had a Chinese
spy on her staff who worked for her for about 20 years,
was listed as an “office director” on
payroll records and served as her driver when she was in San Francisco, all
while reporting to China’s Ministry of State Security through China’s San
Francisco Consulate. The
reaction of the mainstream media? Barely a peep.
Feinstein acknowledged the
infiltration but played down its significance. “Five years ago the FBI informed me it had concerns
that an administrative member of my California staff was potentially being
sought out by the Chinese government to provide information,” Feinstein said in a statement —
which means the breach
took place while Feinstein was heading the Intelligence Committee. But,
Feinstein insisted, “he never had access to classified or sensitive information
or legislative matters” and was immediately fired. In other words: junior
staffer, no policy role, no access to secrets, quickly fired — no big deal.
But it is a
big deal. I asked several former senior intelligence and law enforcement
officials how serious this breach might have been. “It’s plenty serious,” one
former top Justice Department official told me. “Focusing on his driver function
alone, in Mafia families, the boss’s driver was among the most trusted men in
the crew, because among other things he heard everything that was discussed in
the car.”
A former top
CIA clandestine officer explained to me what the agency would do if it had
recruited the driver of a senior official such as Feinstein. “We would have the
driver record on his phone all conversations that Feinstein would have with
passengers and phone calls in her car. If she left her phone, iPad or laptop in
the car while she went to meetings, social events, dinners, etc., we would have
the driver download all her devices. If the driver drove for her for 20 years,
he would probably would have had access to her office and homes. We would have
had the source put down an audio device in her office or homes if the
opportunity presented itself. Depending on the take from all of what the source
reported, we would use the info to target others that were close to her and
exhibited some type of vulnerability.”
“In short,”
this officer said, “we would have had a field day.”
It seems improbable that
Feinstein never once discussed anything sensitive in her car over a period of
years. But let’s assume that Feinstein was extraordinarily careful and never
discussed any classified information in front of her driver or on any devices
to which he had access. Even so, one former top intelligence official told me,
“someone in that position could give an adversary a whole bunch on atmospherics
and trends and attitudes which are from time to time far more important than
the things we call secrets.” He added, “It’s like [having access to her]
unclassified emails.” (And we all know no one ever exposes classified information on unclassified
emails).
Washington
is understandably focused on the threat from Russia. But according to FBI
Director Christopher A. Wray, “China from a counterintelligence perspective
represents the broadest, most pervasive, most threatening challenge we face as
a country.” It was China, after all, that hacked the Office of Personnel
Management in 2015, stealing the
SF-86 security clearance forms of many thousands of executive-branch employees
in the most devastating cyberattack in the history of our country. Beijing has
successfully recruited FBI agents and State Department employees as spies, and
has used information from U.S. informants to kill more than a dozen CIA
sources inside the regime. And
now, we know China recruited a high-value Senate staffer who worked in
immediate proximity to the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Feinstein owes the country a detailed explanation of how she let a
Chinese spy into her inner sanctum. And the media should give this security
breach the same attention they would if it involved Russia and the Republicans.
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