Dutch Nab a Couple of Old-School Russian Spies, Providing Evidence that China's Xi Ha

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Dutch Nab a Couple of Old-School Russian Spies, Providing Evidence that China's Xi Has Surpassed Putin's Spy Game
By: Bryan Preston - PJ Media News & WDRB Mike Corder Associated Press - 12-10-20
Re: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politic...-game-n1202439

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch intelligence agency said Thursday that it has uncovered two Russian spies who were targeting the Netherlands’ science and technology sector, a move likely to further strain tense relations between the two countries.

The General Intelligence and Security Service, known by its Dutch acronym AIVD, said the agents worked at the Russian embassy and had diplomatic accreditation. Both have been declared “persona non grata” by the foreign ministry meaning they can no longer work as diplomats and will have to leave the country.

“We protect our country’s strategic interests by gathering intelligence and using that information to expose espionage," said AIVD Director General Erik Akerboom. “That way we can disrupt these espionage attempts, as we have done here.”

The senior spy was seeking information on artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and nanotechnology, the AIVD said. “This technology has civil as well as military applications, including in weapons systems,” it added.

The agency said that the officers both worked for Russia’s civil intelligence agency known as SVR. One of them built a network of sources who work or used to work in the high-tech sector in the Netherlands, the AIVD said, the second agent “played a supporting role.”

“Some of these individuals received payment from the intelligence officer in exchange for information,” the agency said.

The Russian embassy in The Hague did not immediately respond to a phone call and text message seeking comment on Thursday’s announcement.

Dutch-Russian relations have been under severe strain for years. The two countries have long been at odds over the investigation into the downing in 2014 of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over conflict-ravaged eastern Ukraine.

The Netherlands has said it holds Russia legally responsible for the downing, which killed all 298 passengers and crew on the Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur flight. Prosecutors say the passenger jet was shot down with a Buk missile that was transported into Ukraine from a Russian military base. Moscow has always denied involvement.

In 2018, the Dutch government also accused Russia’s military intelligence unit of attempted cybercrimes targeting the international chemical weapons watchdog and the investigation into the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane.

The Dutch announcement came just a day after Danish prosecutors said a Russian citizen living in Denmark had been charged with espionage for allegedly having provided information about Danish energy technology, among other things, to an unnamed Russian intelligence service.

Another report: This story reads like a time capsule from the Cold War.

The General Intelligence and Security Service said the agents worked at the Russian embassy and had diplomatic accreditation.

“Both intelligence officers have been declared persona non grata by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” the Dutch agency said. “Consequently they are no longer allowed to work as diplomats in the Netherlands, and they will have to leave the country forthwith.”

The Dutch agency known as the AIVD said that the officers both worked for Russia’s civil intelligence agency known as SVR. One of them built a network of sources who work or used to work in the high-tech sector in the Netherlands, the AIVD said, the second agent “played a supporting role.”

Did they use hollowed-out rocks and holes in tree stumps to drop off their microfilm? This sounds like old-school espionage, and it is. It’s probably not the most sophisticated spycraft the Russians have at their disposal, but the fact that they even still engage in such actions suggests Putin, for all his KGB wiles, may have lost some edge on his fastball.

Meanwhile, the Chinese have gotten much smarter in their industrial and political espionage.

Earlier this week, Rep. Eric Swalwell was exposed for his relationship with an accused Chinese spy whose activities were so widespread and disturbing that the FBI got involved and she fled the country. As Stacey Lennox pointed out, we have no idea what compromising and even incriminating photos and documents she may have spirited away when she headed back to Beijing.

Has a single Democrat risen up to denounce Swalwell, or even question his role on the House Intelligence Committee? The man got thoroughly infiltrated. The spy, Christine Fang, reportedly helped him fundraise and even inserted an intern on his staff. No word yet on whether Swalwell inserted his staff into the spy, which did happen with at least a pair of mayors she was cultivating for higher office. Swalwell is mum on that point, which is highly suggestive.

Spoiler: No, no Democrat has said boo about Swalwell and the spy.

The media likewise don’t seem to care. The online conservative media, NewsmaxTV, and Fox News have covered it. Fox called out everyone else for their decisions thus far to keep silent about the spy who infiltrated Eric Swalwell.

This is not a game. Swalwell ran for president of the United States. He is not only implicated, he actually implicated the entire Democrat House leadership, under the apparent impression that “because Nancy knew” this somehow gives him cover. What that does is require answers from Swalwell and from the speaker of the House, who is only a few heartbeats away from the presidency, and her whole leadership team. What did they know about Swalwell’s relationship with the spy, and when did they know it? Did they know (or care) about the spy when they allowed Swalwell onto the House Intelligence Committee, which has access to some of our nation’s most sensitive programs and information?

What does Joe Biden think about all this? The media will get around to asking him about it precisely never.

It’s also important in assessing the last four years of Swalwell’s activities against the president of the United States. Swalwell spent four years saying idiotic things like this:

Swalwell declared on MSNBC in January 2019: “Stated plainly, the President’s son met with a Russian spy. We now have the best evidence of that in our minority report the Democrats put out that Ms. Veselnitskaya was going all over the world and bumping into Dana Rohrabacher, which is a sign of a spy, someone who tries to create a coincidence encounter, and now we know that she was working at the behest of the Russian government.”

But even supposing any of that is true (the Mueller report found no collusion whatsoever), Swalwell had already had a relationship with a Chinese spy when he smeared the Trumps. The FBI had already intervened with regard to Swalwell’s favorite spy.

It wasn’t a cursory relationship. Any politician who allows someone to fundraise for them, and also accepts a staff intern suggested by that same person, has taken the relationship to a fairly exclusive level. That’s not quite to the inner circle but it’s not too many layers removed from it. There would presumably be some texts, emails, phone calls, lunches, and after-hours interactions between the two — even if things never progressed to dancing in the dark.

But the Democrats and the media don’t care.

What’s all this got to do with the Russian spies booted from the Netherlands? It points out how China operates on a far more sophisticated level than the Russians now and are a much greater threat. From the offices and bedrooms of politicians to university research campuses, even to NASA, China’s “grains of sand” approach to espionage is a full-spectrum run at the sovereignty of the United States. While Russia bumbles around like the old Spy vs. Spy cartoon, China has thousands of spies on its payroll all over the United States and is penetrating congressional staff. China has also been paying many American media outlets millions of dollars to print its propaganda. Is that buying the media’s silence?

Meanwhile, the Democrats and the media collude to make Russia — but never China — out to be a grave threat. Russia would certainly like to be. But we have states with larger and more advanced economies than Russia’s whole national economy. Elon Musk could probably buy Russia and have enough left to buy up several of its neighbors like Monopoly squares. Moving to Texas and getting to Mars are simply better investments. China has ambitions to overtake and replace the United States and it has the economic might and military power to at least make a go of it. Rather than mess around with a couple of embassy spies, it appears the Chinese Communist Party just went ahead and bought the U.S. media and one of its two political parties.

But sure, Russia is the greater threat.
Note: Let's not overlook China's abilities to spy on each and everyone else - in this high tech spy game!

The media’s and the Democrats’ aggressive silence on Swalwell suggests not.

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Photo link: https://media.townhall.com/townhall/...5b-730x487.jpg

The Swalwell Saga keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. The Wall Street Journal tried to put the events down on paper but it’s still not adding up.

Forget the juicy details of Swalwell’s possible romantic involvement with a pretty young Communist spy. The real questions that need to be asked have more to do with national security than anything that might have happened in the bedroom between a United States congressman and Christine Fang, a Chinese national that the FBI says was spying for the Chinese Communist Party.

Swalwell says he met Ms. Fang in 2012. She worked as a fundraiser on his 2014 re-election campaign. And that’s when the fun begins.

Fang apparently had enough sway with Swalwell to name an intern to his Washington office. But the vital issue is when? The FBI says they briefed Swalwell on Fang’s possible ties to Chinese intelligence sometime around 2015. Swalwell was appointed to the intelligence committee in early January of that year. Speaker Pelosi says she and other congressional leaders were briefed on Fang in the spring of 2015.

Apparently, for a few months, Swalwell knew he may have been compromised but neglected to inform the Speaker of the House.

The first question we should be asking is how a backbench Democrat not only managed to wrangle a plum assignment to the intelligence committee but what possessed Speaker Pelosi to name him the ranking Democrat on the CIA oversight subcommittee.

At the time he was appointed to those prestigious posts, Swalwell had been in Congress for one term. It must have raised some eyebrows in the Democratic caucus at the time when this rookie got such choice postings.

Who whispered in Pelosi’s ear to appoint someone with no experience in oversight much less with the CIA?

Just a few weeks or months after being told by the FBI that he’d been duped into conducting some sort of relationship with a communist spy, a young backbencher in Congress was given a significant role overseeing the CIA?

Both Mr. Swalwell and the speaker need to explain who knew what and when about the Chinese infiltration of his political network and why many intelligence committee colleagues were not told, among other issues.

They must also address the process that led to Rep. Swalwell’s lead role among Democrats in overseeing the CIA. Who were the people who weighed in on the young congressman’s behalf when Mrs. Pelosi was preparing to hand out committee assignments? And don’t tell us it’s classified.

When several people are lying about the same thing, it’s nearly impossible to keep their stories straight. Both Swalwell and Pelosi need to come clean and lay out exactly what they knew, and when they knew it. They need to stop playing political games with national security and tell the American people what we need to know.

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Post response: By: Eric Swalwell Implicates Democrat Leadership, Blames Trump for Revelation of Chinese Spy Who Infiltrated Him
Re: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politic...d-him-n1199716

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Personal note: Sounds a little like a Deep Throat awakening? Who in there right mind would want to be in politics?

Boats