Fred Fleitz, former chief of staff to the National Security Council, told Newsmax on Friday that the two Navy officers charged with espionage could be "the tip of the iceberg" when it comes to Chinese spying in the United States.
Two Navy officers were arrested this week, one being charged with espionage and one with conspiracy and receipt of a bribe by a public official. The officers were accused of passing national defense information to Chinese intelligence officials.
Fleitz said on National Report that if the allegations are true, then "this is definitely treason. The sellers gave enormously valuable intelligence to China," including "manuals of weapons, pictures of the insides of ships, pictures of computer screens."
Fleitz said the incident "goes to show how aggressive China's intelligence operation is, and they used two methods here. One, they recruited one of these sailors to be a Chinese intelligence asset, and they fool the other sailor into giving information to someone … who was posing as a marine researcher, who was really with Chinese intelligence.
"It's very complicated to set up these operations, to identify the person who they want to recruit, and to get them to betray their country. That's how good Chinese intelligence is."
Fleitz added that "my guess is that Chinese intelligence met these guys in bars, and somehow they got to know them, and recruited them, and co-opted them. But the problem here is, I think, this is more common than we realized. I think this is the tip of the iceberg.
"One problem the U.S. government has is it has not invested near enough time and money and counter-intelligence to find people who are betraying this country for money or for ideological reasons, not just in the military but also in our intelligence services."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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