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 ...
And why is this being released to the public with all these details?
“drowned while on a secret mission”
—
I promise not to tell the secret.
That was my first thought. The only thing I could think of is it was released to showcase a 'Trump failure'.
No stars on the wall for THEM!
Am seriously {what’s worse than “appalled”, Bilbo?) at not so much the deaths, they happen, but the extent to which the details of this “CIA ‘mission’” has been publicly documented by Big Media.
Who is making sure we all know as much as possible about the W’s of the CIA and its workings?
And why is this being released to the public with all these details?
Fake news to bug the ChiComs.
2008. Never mind.
“And why is this being released to the public with all these details?”
Rabbit trail away from the fact our submarines have done this kind of work for decades?
If it occurred in 2008, Bush was president.
Exactly. Why? To give the Chinese details to look out for in present time.
“That was my first thought. The only thing I could think of is it was released to showcase a ‘Trump failure’.”
2008
“2008. Never mind.”
Disagree. Why is this being released now, to this extent, and by whom?
And why is this being released to the public with all these details?
And why at this time?
Since it happened in 2008 I’m guessing that we’ve since learned that China already knows about it anyway.
Hmm, seems like BushCo would have had to give all this info away, or at least know about and/or authorize it.
The story feels like a 'why are they telling me this'... There was an earlier version a few days ago - equally fuzzy but one person was portrayed as a 'hothead' who might have caused the other deaths.
Again? Why should we care?
The person who leaked the story to the press should have asked more questions before leaking.
“Exactly. Why? To give the Chinese details to look out for in present time.”
If the only details in the story had been that somebody had planted devices that looked like rocks, that might have been a good idea.
“Ok - I want 10,000 men on each of these 20 beaches and turn over every rock!”
Hmmm, a Trump failure? This happened in 2008 long befor Trump even announced. LOL
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