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.
Wen Ho Lee or Li Wenho is a Taiwanese-American nuclear scientist and a mechanical engineer who worked for the University of California at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He created computerized simulations of nuclear explosions for the purposes of scientific inquiry,as well as for improving the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
The Ministry of State Security is the principal civilian intelligence,security and secret police agency of the People's Republic of China,responsible for foreign intelligence,counterintelligence,and the political security of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). One of the largest and most secretive intelligence organizations in the world,it is headquartered in the Haidian District of Beijing,with powerful semi-autonomous branches at the provincial,city,municipality and township levels throughout China.
Elizabeth Terrill Bentley was an American NKVD spymaster,who was recruited from within the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). She served the Soviet Union as the primary handler of multiple highly placed moles within both the United States Federal Government and the Office of Strategic Services from 1938 to 1945. She defected by contacting the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and debriefing about her espionage activities.
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.
Richard W. Miller was an American FBI agent who was the first FBI agent indicted for and convicted of espionage. In 1991,he was sentenced to 20 years in prison but was freed after serving fewer than three years.
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.
Brian Patrick Regan is a former master sergeant in the United States Air Force who was convicted of offering to sell secret information to foreign governments.
The American media referred to 1985 as the Year of the Spy because law enforcement arrested many foreign spies operating on American soil. However,the preceding year,1984,actually had more arrests for espionage in the United States.
Stewart David Nozette is an American planetary scientist,technologist,and consultant who worked for the United States Department of Energy,the United States Department of Defense,DARPA,the United States Naval Research Laboratory,and NASA. He is also a convicted felon for attempted espionage and fraud against the United States. The FBI arrested him on October 19,2009,charging him with attempted espionage after a sting operation which Nozette's lawyer claims amounted to entrapment. At trial,Nozette admitted attempting to sell U.S. classified information to someone he believed was an Israeli Mossad operative,but was in reality an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation employee. He pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted espionage and was sentenced,under the terms of a plea bargain,to thirteen years in prison. After serving time at the Federal Correctional Institution,Terre Haute,Nozette was released on November 13,2020.
The United States has often accused the government 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 and Peter Lee. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) maintains a bureau dedicated to espionage against the United States,the United States Bureau.
The Sarah Palin email hack occurred on September 16,2008,during the 2008 United States presidential election campaign when vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal Yahoo! email account was subjected to unauthorized access. The hacker,David Kernell,obtained access to Palin's account by looking up biographical details,such as her high school and birthdate,and using Yahoo!'s account recovery for forgotten passwords. Kernell then posted several pages of Palin's email on 4chan's /b/ board. Kernell,who at the time of the offense was a 20-year-old college student,was the son of longtime Democratic state representative Mike Kernell of Memphis.
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.
Samuel Scott Alden was an American special assistant to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director J. Edgar Hoover,FBI special agent,director of the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission,lawyer,college professor,and a college sports coach. He was also a direct descendant of John Alden,a pilgrim who came to the United States on the Mayflower. Alden studied at the University of Tennessee where he played for coach Robert Neyland on their 1927 football team,but did not graduate from there. He instead enrolled in and graduated from Peabody College,then chose to pursue a law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School.
Feng "Franklin" Tao is a Chinese-born American chemical engineer who was a Miller Associate Professor at the University of Kansas. His research areas of specialization are heterogeneous catalysis,energy chemistry,nanoscience and surface science. He has published over 180 papers in international journals.
Sirous Asgari is an Iranian materials scientist and academic known for his research in lithium ion batteries,phase transformation and diffusion in solid materials. He is currently a full professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Sharif University of Technology,Iran.
Alexander Yuk Ching Ma is an American former CIA clandestine officer accused of acting as a double agent on behalf of the People's Republic of China,gaining employment with the FBI in order to act as a mole. He was arrested in August 2020,charged under the Espionage Act with conspiring along with his brother,also a former CIA officer,to pass classified information to officials of the Chinese Ministry of State Security. His trial is scheduled for 2024.
The China Initiative was an effort by the United States Department of Justice to prosecute perceived Chinese spies in American research and industry,in order to combat economic espionage. Launched in November 2018,it has been criticized as racially biased and ineffective. Some of the cases under the China Initiative were based on false evidence provided by the FBI. The Department of Justice announced the end of the program on February 23,2022,mostly as a result of accusations that the China Initiative was racially profiling Chinese American citizens and other residents of Chinese origin or ancestry.
Casey Thomas Arrowood is an American lawyer serving as an assistant United States attorney since 2016. He was nominated to serve as the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
