Posted on 09/23/2020 11:39:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
FOUR paramilitary CIA officers drowned while on a secret mission to plant an underwater pod intended to track the Chinese military in the South China Sea, it has emerged.
The men were reportedly caught in a tropical storm while attempting to place the device, which had been disguised to resemble a rock, off the Philippine island of Luzon.
The South China Sea is one of the world's most important shipping routs, and control over parts of it has long been contested between China, the US, and numerous other countries.
The 2008 mission came five years before China began constructing artifical islands in the region to serve as military outposts, the cause of a recent escalation in tensions with the US.
It was to be completed by two CIA agents, named as Stephen Stanek and Michael Perich, both practised scuba divers, Yahoo News reported.
Group leader Stanek was an operative with the CIA's paramilitary special activities centre, and had previously served as a navy ordnance disposal diver.
Perich was a recent graduate from the US Merchant Marine Academy and had been recruited to the agency as a paramilitary operative.
Supporting the mission from a 40-foot vessel were Jamie McCormick and Daniel Meeks.
The group were supposed to plant the pod and head to Japan before collecting it after a number of weeks.
The pod had been designed to detect and record signals from Chinese warships and other craft.
The mission had no officials link to the American government, and was planned so that it would be deniable in the event the group was found and detained.
The group were carrying false papers to back up a story that they had been hired by somebody to take their vessel from Malaysia to Japan.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesun.co.uk ...
Oh, thanks for sharing, left-wing news outlet of our so-called closest ally.
It’s still his fault.../s
Psyops. Now the Chicoms will spend their time looking under every rock in the ocean to see if their being watched...
Four more names for the Hall of Honor in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, VA.
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