Free Republic

new blockbuster book by WASHINGTON TIMES reporter Bill Gertz exposes how China recruited at least three CIA officers as spies, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. Gertz writes in 'ENEMIES: HOW AMERICA'S FOES STEAL OUR SECRETS, AND HOW WE LET IT HAPPEN,' that details about the spies were first discovered in 1999 by counterspies who were able to trace some of the money paid by Beijing. Chinese intelligence paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the spies, and one CIA officer alone got some $600,000 in Chinese money. Gertz discloses for the first time how spies were recruited by members of...

The recent murder of Allen Ngai Leung, a famous Chinese-American community leader in San Francisco's Chinatown, has exposed a political tension that has silenced many of Chinatown's leaders who favor Taiwan and are against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Leung was killed at the scene by a masked gunman disguised as a robber, who fired four shots into Leung after breaking into his business, Wonkow International Enterprises, located at the intersection of Jackson Street and Kearny Street on the afternoon of February 27. The police and the majority of the Chinese-American community leaders in Chinatown have largely been keeping silent...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The government ended its crippled spy case against a woman once accused of being a Chinese double agent, accepting her guilty pleas to lesser charges of making a false statement to the FBI and filing a false tax return. Katrina Leung, 51, admitted Friday she lied to the FBI about her intimate relationship with her FBI handler, James J. Smith, and that she failed to include all her income on her tax returns for the year 2000. The case against Leung virtually collapsed early this year when the judge rebuked prosecutors for "deliberate misconduct" and dismissed...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A former FBI informant once suspected of being a Chinese double agent has agreed to plead guilty to lying to federal agents and to a tax charge, U.S. law enforcement officials said Friday. Katrina Leung, a wealthy socialite from San Marino, Calif., was expected to enter a plea Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. She would serve no jail time under an agreement reached with federal prosecutors, one official told The Associated Press in Washington, D.C. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement had yet to be presented to a federal...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A retired FBI agent who pleaded guilty to lying about his affair with a suspected Chinese double agent was sentenced Monday to probation and fined $10,000 after apologizing for his behavior. "I have nobody but myself to blame for being here today," James J. Smith said. "I stand before you ashamed and humiliated by my actions, and all I can do is apologize." Standing before Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, Smith added, "I apologize to your honor, to the court and to the citizens of the United States." Smith, 61, at one time faced up to five years...

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge on Wednesday refused to reconsider her decision to toss out charges against Katrina Leung, a Chinese-American business woman accused of accessing and copying classified FBI documents. Prosecutors alleged Katrina Leung, 50, took classified documents from the briefcase of her longtime FBI handler James J. Smith, with whom she was having an affair. They accused her of secretly working for the Chinese government but never charged her with giving the documents to a foreign government. U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper dismissed the case in January, stating that prosecutors engaged in misconduct by keeping Smith -...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Attorneys for Katrina Leung, who was accused of using her romantic ties with a retired FBI agent to gain access to classified documents, asked a federal judge Wednesday to reject the government's bid to reinstate the case. U.S. District Judge Florence Marie Cooper dismissed all charges against Leung last month, saying prosecutors deliberately tried to keep defense attorneys from preparing properly for trial. A motion asking the judge to reconsider was filed this month. On Wednesday, Leung's attorneys submitted a 35-page response that called the motion "procedurally impermissible and substantively wrong." "The court's dismissal order was...

US judge hits Leung prosecution David Rosenzweig January 8, 2005 Charging prosecutors with willful and deliberate misconduct, a US federal judge has dismissed all criminal charges against a former FBI informant accused of serving as a double agent for the mainland. In a sharply worded ruling, United States District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper on Thursday blasted the US Attorney's office for ``conduct unbecoming a prosecutorial agency.'' Lawyers for Chinese-American businesswoman Katrina Leung had accused the government of illegally and unethically exacting a commitment from her former FBI handler that barred him talking to the defense. The pledge was contained in an...

China Reform Monitor No. 545, May 17, 2004American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DChttp://www.afpc.org Editor: Al SantoliAssociate Editors: Miki Scheidel, Lisa-Marie Shanks FBI COUNTER-INTEL OFFICIAL PLEADS GUILTY IN CHINESE SPY CASE; DEMOCRACY ADVOCATE YANG JIANLI SENTENCED IN BEIJING May 13: In a devastating spy case ultimately involving the theft of some of the most sensitive U.S. nuclear weapons secrets, former FBI counterintelligence supervisor, James J. Smith, pleaded guilty before a federal judge in Los Angeles to lying about a 20-year sexual affair with Chinese double-agent, Katrina Leung, reports the Washington Post. In the same period of time, Leung had an off-and-on...

<p>A second former FBI agent who worked in counterintelligence has admitted having an affair with a suspected Chinese double agent arrested earlier this week with another ex-FBI agent in the passing of classified information to the People's Republic of China.</p>

By CURT ANDERSON THE Associated Press WASHINGTON - The world wants what America has, from cutting-edge computer software to scientific research and sensitive defense technology, and nations and overseas companies are increasingly using espionage to get it. In fact, the FBI believes more foreign spies than ever are operating in the United States. Even as it concentrates on preventing terrorism, the FBI is overhauling its counterintelligence efforts to blunt the threat. Agents are less focused on finding spies among diplomats and embassies - hallmarks of the long Cold War with the Soviet Union - and more interested in espionage directed...

Alleged Spy Free After Posting Bail Woman's Attorney Confirms Release POSTED: 9:59 p.m. PDT July 3, 2003 LOS ANGELES -- A woman accused of stealing classified information from her lover and FBI handler to pass on to China was freed from prison Thursday evening after posting $2 million bail. Katrina Leung was released from the downtown Metropolitan Detention Center at 5:45 p.m., said a prison employee who would only identify himself as Officer Foster. Leung's attorney, Janet Levine, confirmed that her client was released after posting bail. "She is pleased to be home with her family," Levine said. "She is...

The spy who was anything but coldBy John Berthelsen There are certain ironies, cognitive disconnects, floating up from the arrest in Los Angeles on spying charges on April 18 of Katrina Leung, a Chinese-born socialite and fundraiser for the Republican Party. Leung is being held without bail on charges that she had been a Chinese spy and double agent for more than 20 years and had slept with two of her Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) handlers - one of whom warned the other that she was a spy - while remaining faithfully married to her husband, Kam, a pharmaceutical...

<p>WASHINGTON -A politically connected Chinese-American woman accused of being a double agent had 2,100 contacts with Chinese officials during her time as an FBI informant, documents show.</p> <p>Law enforcement officials are examining whether those meetings compromised investigations into possible Chinese influence on U.S. elections through campaign contributions.</p>

<p>Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry has backed off a repeated claim that his first speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate highlighted his support for the Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion.</p> <p>"As he has campaigned for the presidency, the Massachusetts Democrat has on numerous occasions stated that his maiden speech as a senator was about abortion rights," the Boston Globe reports.</p>

Tale of sex and spies leaves FBI with a Chinese puzzle By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 30 April 2003 The tale is worthy of a new Cold War, featuring a glamorous Chinese-American businesswoman and FBI informer codenamed Parlour Maid who is suspected of being a double agent and may have supplied deliberate disinformation on the Chinese leadership to the desks of four American presidents. To put it mildly, Katrina Leung was a lady of many hats. Arriving from southern China at the age of 15, she became a successful entrepreneur and socialite, and later a donor and fund-raiser for political...

<p>WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Joe Lieberman is asking for a federal investigation into whether an alleged double agent illegally funneled Chinese money into U.S. political campaigns.</p> <p>Katrina Leung, a Southern California businesswoman who was paid $1.7 million as an FBI informant, also was a Republican activist and donor to candidates and the Republican Party. And she was arrested on April 9 as a suspected spy for China.</p>

Spy case to open can of FBI worms Probe into dealings of Los Angeles socialite could expose bureau tactics, lax operations Twelve years ago, a team of U.S. counterintelligence operatives flew into frigid southern Manchuria to assess Chinese spying on American diplomats. Instead, the U.S. agents came to believe their own team was tracked by China's Ministry of State Security every step of their mission, which is still classified today. The first clue was an odd elevator encounter in remote northeast China, an FBI agent bumping into a California nuclear-weapons scientist suspected of stealing neutron bomb secrets. Counterintelligence agents are...

<p>WASHINGTON -Democratic presidential candidate Joe Lieberman is asking for a federal investigation into whether alleged double agent Katrina Leung illegally funneled Chinese money into U.S. political campaigns.</p> <p>Leung, a Southern California businesswoman who was paid $1.7 million as an FBI informant, also was a Republican activist and donor to candidates and the Republican Party. And she was arrested on April 9 as a suspected spy for China.</p>

'Parlor Maid' tarnishes FBI Details of Leung-Smith spy case throw bureau's handling of investigation into question Details of Leung-Smith spy case throw bureau's handling By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER Twelve years ago, a team of U.S. counterintelligence operatives flew into frigid southern Manchuria to assess Chinese spying on American diplomats. Instead, the U.S. agents came to believe their own team was tracked by China's Ministry of State Security every step of their mission, which is still classified today. The first clue was an odd elevator encounter in remote northeast China, an FBI agent bumping into a California nuclear-weapons scientist suspected...