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Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage is called an espionage agent or spy. Any individual or spy ring, in the service of a government, company, criminal organization, or independent operation, can commit espionage. The practice is clandestine, as it is by definition unwelcome. In some circumstances, it may be a legal tool of law enforcement and in others, it may be illegal and punishable by law.
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code but is now found under Title 18 : 18 U.S.C. ch. 37.
Larry Wu-tai Chin was a Chinese Communist spy who worked for the United States Government for 37 years (1944–1981), including positions at the U.S. Army and the CIA, while secretly being a mole for the Chinese Communist Party's intelligence apparatus from the very beginning. He kept passing classified documents and secret information to the People's Republic of China even after his retirement, until he was finally exposed in 1985.
As early as the 1920s, the Soviet Union, through its GRU, OGPU, NKVD, and KGB intelligence agencies, used Russian and foreign-born nationals, as well as Communists of American origin, to perform espionage activities in the United States, forming various spy rings. Particularly during the 1940s, some of these espionage networks had contact with various U.S. government agencies. These Soviet espionage networks illegally transmitted confidential information to Moscow, such as information on the development of the atomic bomb. Soviet spies also participated in propaganda and disinformation operations, known as active measures, and attempted to sabotage diplomatic relationships between the U.S. and its allies.
Samuel Loring Morison was a former American intelligence professional who was convicted of espionage and theft of government property in 1985 and pardoned in 2001. He was "the only [American] government official ever convicted for giving classified information to the press."
The Lawrence Franklin espionage scandal involved Lawrence Franklin, a former United States Department of Defense employee, passing classified documents regarding United States policy towards Iran to Israel. Franklin pleaded guilty to several espionage-related charges and was sentenced in January 2006 to nearly 13 years of prison, which was later reduced to ten months' house arrest. Franklin passed information to American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy director Steven Rosen and AIPAC senior Iran analyst Keith Weissman, who were fired by AIPAC. They were then indicted for illegally conspiring to gather and disclose classified national security information to Israel. However, prosecutors later dropped all charges against them without any plea bargain.
John Semer Farnsworth was a United States Navy officer who was convicted of spying for Japan during the 1930s. He was identified as Agent K in radio messages intercepted by the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI).
Leandro Aparente Aragoncillo is a Filipino-born American former FBI intelligence analyst and a retired United States Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant who was convicted of spying against the United States Government in 2007. A naturalized Filipino-American, he was charged with espionage and with leaking classified information to the regime of a former Filipino president.
Atomic spies or atom spies were people in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada who are known to have illicitly given information about nuclear weapons production or design to the Soviet Union during World War II and the early Cold War. Exactly what was given, and whether everyone on the list gave it, are still matters of some scholarly dispute. In some cases, some of the arrested suspects or government witnesses had given strong testimonies or confessions which they recanted later or said were fabricated. Their work constitutes the most publicly well-known and well-documented case of nuclear espionage in the history of nuclear weapons. At the same time, numerous nuclear scientists wanted to share the information with the world scientific community, but this proposal was firmly quashed by the United States government.
Thomas Selby Ellis III is an inactive senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, appointed by Ronald Reagan.
Nuclear espionage is the purposeful giving of state secrets regarding nuclear weapons to other states without authorization (espionage). There have been many cases of known nuclear espionage throughout the history of nuclear weapons and many cases of suspected or alleged espionage. Because nuclear weapons are generally considered one of the most important of state secrets, all nations with nuclear weapons have strict restrictions against the giving of information relating to nuclear weapon design, stockpiles, delivery systems, and deployment. States are also limited in their ability to make public the information regarding nuclear weapons by non-proliferation agreements.
Noshir Sheriarji Gowadia is a former design engineer and convicted spy for several countries. He was arrested in 2005 and later convicted on industrial espionage-related federal charges.
This page is a timeline of published security lapses in the United States government. These lapses are frequently referenced in congressional and non-governmental oversight. This article does not attempt to capture security vulnerabilities.
The Duquesne Spy Ring is the largest espionage case in the United States history that ended in convictions. A total of 33 members of a Nazi German espionage network, headed by Frederick "Fritz" Duquesne, were convicted after a lengthy investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Of those indicted, 19 pleaded guilty. The remaining 14 were brought to jury trial in Federal District Court, Brooklyn, New York, on September 3, 1941; all were found guilty on December 13, 1941. On January 2, 1942, the group members were sentenced to serve a total of over 300 years in prison.
This is a list of activities carried out by U.S. intelligence agencies in mainland China and Taiwan.
William Peter Kampiles is a former United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee during the Cold War known for selling a top secret KH-11 spy satellite manual in 1977.
The United States has often accused the People's Republic of China of attempting to unlawfully acquire U.S. military technology and classified information as well as trade secrets of U.S. companies in order to support China's long-term military and commercial development. Chinese government agencies and affiliated personnel have been accused of using a number of methods to obtain U.S. technology, including espionage, exploitation of commercial entities, and a network of scientific, academic and business contacts. Prominent espionage cases include Larry Wu-tai Chin, Katrina Leung, Gwo-Bao Min, Chi Mak, Peter Lee, and Shujun Wang. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) maintains a bureau dedicated to espionage against the United States, the United States Bureau.
Glenn Duffie Shriver is an American convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage for China. At the behest of Chinese intelligence, Shriver unsuccessfully applied for jobs with the US State Department and CIA, meeting with handlers from China more than 20 times. He was first approached while living in China by operatives of the Shanghai State Security Bureau, a subsidiary of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS), who hoped to develop a mole which would provide them information regarding American foreign policy. He was caught and arrested by the FBI soon after applying to a job with the CIA's National Clandestine Service. In a 2010 plea bargain, he pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit unlawful conveyance of national defense information, and served four years in prison at the Federal Correctional Institution in Elkton, Ohio. He was released in 2013, and was later depicted in the short film Game of Pawns, commissioned by the FBI.
The Intelligence Bureau of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission is a bureau of the Joint Staff Department. It is one of the People's Republic of China's primary intelligence organizations and the principal military intelligence organ of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
References
- ↑ "Defense Department Official Charged with Espionage Conspiracy". United States Department of Justice . 2009-05-13. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
- ↑ Lewis, Neil A. (2008-07-10). "U.S. analyst's case hints at breadth of Chinese espionage". The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-12-27.
- ↑ Lewis, Neil A. (2008-07-12). "Ex-Analyst Sentenced to Prison in Chinese Spy Case". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-05-28.
- ↑ Writer, ROBERT ZULLOStaff. "Spy gets nearly 16 years in jail". Houma Today. Retrieved 2019-05-28.[ permanent dead link ]
