How China found CIA informants and executed them

The CIA Memorial Wall at
the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
Alex Wong / Getty Images

• The CIA reportedly used a “f—-d up” communication
  system between its spies and handlers in China, according to
  officials cited in a Foreign Policy report.
• The vulnerability led to the deaths of at least 30
  spies, the sources said.
• This internet-based system, imported from operations in
  the Middle East, was brought to China under the assumption that
  it could not be breached.
• But the, according to the report, the program actually
  had tell-tale links to the CIA which would have allowed China
  to work out what was going on, and take revenge.

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The CIA reportedly used a “f—-d up” firewall to communicate
with its spies in China, which compromised their identities and
resulted in their deaths at the hands of the Chinese government,
according to several current and former intelligence officials
cited in a report by Foreign Policy
magazine.

In a two-year period starting in 2010, Chinese officials began
accurately identifying spies working for the US.

China’s Ministry of State Security rounded up the suspected
spies, executing or imprisoning them before their handlers were
able to determine what was going on.

“You could tell the Chinese weren’t guessing,” one of the US
officials said in the report. “The Ministry of State Security
were always pulling in the right people.”

“When things started going bad, they went bad fast.”

US intelligence officials cited in the report are now placing the
lion’s share of the blame on a compromised communications system
used between spies and their handlers.

This internet-based system, brought over from operations in the
Middle East, was taken to China under the assumption that it
could not be breached and made the CIA “invincible,” Foreign
Policy reported.

Former
CIA directors David Petraeus, left, and Leon
Panetta.
Dan Kitwood/John
Javellana/Reuters

“It migrated to countries with sophisticated counterintelligence
operations, like China,” an official said.

“The attitude was that we’ve got this, we’re untouchable.”

Intelligence officers and their sources were able to communicate
with each other using ordinary laptops or desktop computers
connected to the internet, marking a stark departure from some of
the more traditional methods of covert communication.

This “throwaway” encrypted program, which was assumed to be
untraceable and separate from the CIA’s main communication line,
was reportedly used for new spies as a safety measure in case
they double-crossed them.

Unbeknownst to the CIA, however, this system could be used to
connect with mainstream CIA communications, used by fully-vetted
CIA sources.

According to the report, the vulnerability would have even
allowed Chinese intelligence agencies to deduce it was being used
by the US government.

A
police officer in Beijing.

Flickr/shawnclover

The Chinese set up a task force in order to break into the
throwaway system, Foreign Policy said, but it was unclear how
they ultimately identified people.

The consequences for this breach were grim.

Around 30 spies were reportedly executed, although some
intelligence officials told Foreign Policy that 30 was a low
estimate.

The US officials were “shell-shocked” by the speed and accuracy
of Chinese counterintelligence, and rescue operations were
organized to evacuate their sources.

The last CIA case officer to meet with their source reportedly
handed over large amounts of cash in hopes that it would help
them escape, Foreign Policy said.

The CIA has since been rebuilding its network in China, but the
process has been an expensive and long endeavor, according to
The New York Times, which
first reported on the suspected vulnerability in 2017.