Free Republic

**SNIP** The Secret Service “knowingly allowed Chinese generals, disguised in civilian clothing, to meet administration personnel at the White House and logged them as ‘business guests’ at the administration’s request so as to avoid transparency,” Byrne wrote. The agency also didn’t check the contents of the paper bags that were brought into those meetings. In his previous book, “Crisis of Character,” Byrne claimed that the former Secretary of State was so demanding that many agents turned to drugs and alcohol.

Twitter has joined Facebook and YouTube in restricting social media accounts of popular dissident Chinese businessman Guo Wengui, in the face of intense Chinese pressure. Guo, a New York-based billionaire and critic of corruption among senior Chinese leaders, said several Twitter accounts he used to reach more than 700,000 followers had been suspended. A Twitter spokeswoman declined to comment citing a policy of not commenting on individual accounts. Earlier, YouTube restricted Guo's live streaming from his widely-watched channel used to post hour-long videos revealing tantalizing details of high-level corruption among Chinese leaders. Guo spent 28 years as an entrepreneur in...

Xi Jinping is poised to become the most potent Chinese leader since Mao Zedong — and to guide his country’s continued emergence as a fascist global superpower for at least the next decade. The 19th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is scheduled to start on October 18, when it will appoint leaders and establish the country’s course for the next five years. Xi undoubtedly will be re-appointed head of the CCP, followed by re-selection as China’s president and head of state early next year. But he appears also to have overturned the collegial, limited term system of leadership...

A Cambridge Public Schools librarian has explained why her class won't be keeping a donation of books donated by First Lady Melania Trump. In an open letter on the book review site, Horn Book, elementary school librarian Liz Phipps Soeiro explained that her school already has thousands of books and postured that there were schools in greater need of the donation. She also took the opportunity to criticize the policies of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Soeiro criticized the choice of donated books as well. "So, my school doesn’t have a NEED for these books. And then there’s the matter...

In an online post, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) blamed overconsumption of fizzy drinks, excessive computer gaming and even masturbation for the poor health of young people. It said physical test failure rates had reached an "alarming high", with at least half of the candidates failing in one city. The military has been struggling to find recruits in recent years, despite its heavy promotion of patriotic "heroes" and military TV and film dramas.

The second launch of China’s most powerful rocket, the Long March 5, ended in failure July 2, the second incident involving a Chinese launch vehicle in as many weeks. The Long March 5 lifted off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the island of Hainan at 7:23 a.m. Eastern. The launch, broadcast live by Chinese media, appeared to go as planned, but those broadcasts ended prior to any announcement of separation of the rocket’s payload, the Shijian-18 communications satellite. China’s state-run Xinhua news service announced about 45 minutes after liftoff that the launch had failed. Xinhua only said that...

Crews searching through the rubble left by a landslide that buried a mountain village under tons of soil and rocks in south-western China have found 15 bodies, but about 100 more people remain missing. Key points: 1,000 rescuers and dogs are looking for signs of lifeThis was the biggest landslide in the area since the Wenchuan earthquake, an official saidLandslide blocked two-kilometre section of river Xinhua, the official news agency, reported that about 1,000 rescuers were using detection devices and dogs to look for signs of life in an area that once held 62 homes and a hotel."We won't give...

A former State Department employee was arrested Thursday and charged with espionage for allegedly transmitting Top Secret and Secret documents to a Chinese government agent, according to an affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA.Kevin Mallory, 60, of Leesburg is a self-employed consultant who speaks fluent Chinese. Court filings show that Mallory was an Army veteran who worked as a special agent for U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service from 1987 to 1990. Since then, Mallory has worked for various government agencies and defense contractors, maintaining a Top Secret security clearance. The Washington Post reports that Mallory...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Chinese government "systematically dismantled" CIA spying operations in China starting in late 2010 and killed or imprisoned at least a dozen CIA sources over the next two years, The New York Times reported Saturday. The newspaper cited 10 current and former U.S. officials, who described the intelligence breach as one of the worst in decades. They spoke on condition of anonymity. The report said U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies scrambled to stem the damage, but were bitterly divided over the cause of the breach. Some investigators were convinced there was a mole within the CIA,...

WASHINGTON — The Chinese government “systematically dismantled” CIA spying operations in China starting in late 2010 and killed or imprisoned at least a dozen CIA sources over the next two years, The New York Times reported Saturday. The newspaper cited 10 current and former U.S. officials, who described the intelligence breach as one of the worst in decades. They spoke on condition of anonymity. The report said U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies scrambled to stem the damage, but were bitterly divided over the cause of the breach. Some investigators were convinced there was a mole within the CIA, while...

Stuck in a Bangkok jail with a deportation order against her, Chen Guiqiu waited with dread over what seemed certain to come next. A Thai immigration official showed her surveillance video of the jail entrance, where more than a dozen Chinese security agents were waiting. Within minutes, Chen feared, she and her two daughters would be escorted back to China, where her husband, prominent rights lawyer Xie Yang, was held on a charge of inciting subversion - and where punishment for attempting to flee surely awaited her. After weeks on the run, Chen was exhausted, and so was her luck....

A federal complaint was unsealed today charging Candace Marie Claiborne, 60, of Washington, D.C., and an employee of the U.S. Department of State, with obstructing an official proceeding and making false statements to the FBI, both felony offenses, for allegedly concealing numerous contacts that she had over a period of years with foreign intelligence agents. The charges were announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary B. McCord for National Security, U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips of the District of Columbia and Assistant Director in Charge Andrew W. Vale of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. “Candace Marie Claiborne is a U.S....

North Korea is so isolated that rather than bring the Internet to its hackers, it brings them to it—in a swank hotel in China. The luxury hotel that has been called a command post for North Korean hackers would make for a unique holiday getaway and give you lots to talk about back home. “Surprisingly Great Hotel - Clean, Tasteful.... and North Korean!” says a trip advisor review for the Chilbosan Hotel in Shenyang, China. For just $53, you get “a deluxe twin room,” including a North Korean breakfast considerably more substantial than those enjoyed by the vast majority of...

Candace Marie Claiborne, a 60-year-old employee of the U.S. Department of State, was charged Wednesday with obstructing an official proceeding and making false statements to the FBI -- both felony offenses -- for allegedly concealing numerous contacts that she had over a period of years with Chinese intelligence agents, the Justice Department said Wednesday. The veteran State Department employee, who appeared before a judge Wednesday, is also accused of failing to report gifts she received from Chinese contacts. Claiborne allegedly failed to report repeated contacts with two intelligence agents of the People’s Republic of China, and the agents provided tens...

A State Department employee pleaded not guilty in court on Wednesday after being charged in an FBI investigation, the Department of Justice announced. Candace Claiborne, who worked in the Caucasus Affairs office of the State Department, is being charged for two felony offenses. Claiborne is being charged with “obstructing an official proceeding and making false statements to the FBI, both felony offenses, for allegedly concealing numerous contacts that she had over a period of years with foreign intelligence agents,” a Department of Justice release said. Claiborne, who has a Top Secret security clearance, failed to disclose her foreign contacts abroad...

Hackers have breached a database containing a wealth of sensitive information from federal employees’ security background checks, the Obama administration said Friday — news that experts say could deal a devastating blow to U.S. intelligence gathering. The revelations came just a week after officials disclosed a previous massive cyber intrusion into the same federal personnel office, compromising records of more than 4 million current and past employees in a breach that administration officials have privately blamed on Chinese hackers. The stolen records in the hack disclosed Friday included data on intelligence and military personnel, The Associated Press reported. A senior...

The United Nations “human rights” apparatus is being accused of, among other abuses, handing to the Communist Chinese dictatorship the names of activists who were set to expose the regime's crimes at a UN review of China's record. One of the dissidents in question ultimately died in detention. At least several other Chinese dissidents whose identities were reportedly provided to the regime by UN officials were also detained ahead of their trips to Geneva, according to reports. And then, making matters worse, the UN “human rights” leadership appears to have retaliated against the UN whistleblower who finally exposed and stopped...

A billionaire with links to the family of Xi Jinping was reportedly taken from his apartment in the Four Seasons in Hong Kong by Chinese police and taken to the mainland. Xiao Jianhua, one of China’s richest men, is currently in police custody on the mainland, the Financial Times and New York Times reported. He may be assisting with a graft investigation, part of the Chinese president’s sweeping campaign that critics say is more about consolidating power than tackling corruption. If Chinese police were involved in Xiao’s abduction from Hong Kong, it would appear to violate the former British colony’s...

An unnamed “senior aide” to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left classified information unsecured and unattended in a hotel room during a 2010 trip to China, one of several overseas lapses by Clinton’s inner circle, Fox News has learned. Confirmation of the alarming violation comes as Clinton herself is under a renewed FBI probe for mishandling sensitive information on a private server and her longtime senior aide, Huma Abedin, also faces scrutiny as part of the investigation. It was not known which of Clinton’s aides left the information exposed.