Intelligence Oversight? Dianne Feinstein Employed A Chinese Spy For Several Years

from the all-about-that-transparency,-eh dept

Wed, Aug 8th 2018 3:34am — Tim Cushing

Former intelligence officials told me that Chinese intelligence once recruited a staff member at a California office of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, and the source reported back to China about local politics. (A spokesperson for Feinstein said the office doesn’t comment on personnel matters or investigations, but noted that no Feinstein staffer in California has ever had a security clearance.)

This detail, located in the middle of Zach Dorfman's report on foreign spying in the Silicon Valley, doesn't tell the whole story. The grand dame of intelligence oversight, the queen of surveillance, somehow managed to let a foreign spy tag along with her for several years -- one employed by her for nearly two decades. Phil Matier and Andy Ross of the San Francisco Chronicle managed to get more details about this spying from a local source.

A local source who knew about the incident confirmed to us that the FBI showed up at Feinstein’s office in Washington, D.C., about five years ago to alert the then-chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee that her driver was being investigated for possible Chinese spying.

“Dianne was mortified,” said our source, who spoke to us only on condition he not be named.

The unnamed staffer was Feinstein's driver and gofer when she was in the Bay Area and served as a liaison with the Chinese-American community. Apparently, he was recruited by someone in China during a visit to Asia.

That someone was connected with the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of State Security.

The FBI interviewed the spy and determined he hadn't passed on anything of value. I guess that's a relief, but it also may indicate just palling around with Feinstein doesn't result in much actionable intelligence. Of course, it may be the spy didn't even know he was a spy. The SF Chronicle source says the suspected spy just considered his State Security a friend who liked to chat about US politics.

What should be concerning is how quietly this was handled. When intelligence oversight members can't keep from being spied on by staffers, there's a problem. It may be impossible to prevent every attempt, but having a long-time employee turn out to be a foreign intelligence source is more than embarrassing, it's potentially dangerous. This was simply swept under the rug by Feinstein and never discussed publicly.

Trust isn't a one-way street. Our surveillance oversight should be accountable to the public just as surely as the intelligence community should be accountable to its oversight. This should have been acknowledged and discussed publicly, not left to anonymous sources and/or FOIA warriors with the tenacity and funding to force the government to hand over documents dealing with its hidden screw-ups.

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Filed Under: china, dianne feinstein, intelligence, oversight

22 Comments

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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 8 Aug 2018 @ 4:05am

Dear Government,
How about you get your own shit in order before demanding anything from anyone else.
Perhaps then you will learn that all of your ideas from movies don't work in the real world, and its stupid to keep demanding it.
Persistent ongoing threat... don't tell me there was only 1, you just haven't bothered to look for the others because you spend to much effort chasing boogeymen who have to wear black hats rather than do your job of securing yourselves.

Y'all suck.
No Love...
TAC
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Bruce C., 8 Aug 2018 @ 5:02am

The only problem I have with your POV on this story...
is that I can't think of a way where it could be "unquietly" handled without other side effects that might possibly outweigh the public's right to know. Once you go public with an item like this, it turns into both a political and diplomatic football. We also don't have a lot of background on a) why it was handled this way -- it could have been for an ongoing investigation rather than to keep Feinstein from suffering embarassment or b) how often this level of spying is identified among Senate and campaign staffers in general or intelligence committee members' staff in particular. The second item isn't a justification for keeping quiet as a general policy, but it can be a justification for not singling out Feinstein if this is a frequent occurrence.
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David (profile), 8 Aug 2018 @ 5:11am

Re:
You expect too much from the government.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2018 @ 5:39am

Re: The only problem I have with your POV on this story...
It's typical to handle this stuff quietly to avoid giving away intelligence sources. And any intelligence agency is going to try to infiltrate the intel committee staff, and the staffers without clearances are easy avenues because they don't have to pass thorough background checks or report foreign contacts. If he didn't get access to classified information this is a "dog bites man" story in which foreign intelligence managed an easy but low-value infilitration for a while, then got caught.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2018 @ 6:08am

I am sure the GOP will take this with maturity & w/o hypocrisy
Seriously - I expect the GOP led senate committees to go overboard in the months leading up to the election and waste millions of dollars reinvestigating this issue over and over again. Expect dozens of hours of committee hearings. Expect nearly every GOP Senate member to hit the airwaves denouncing this as a direct attack on democracy and proof of how the Dems are all foreign agents out to destroy America. Basically, flood the media with this story in the hopes that nobody will talk about Trump again or notice that the GOP has done everything they can to protect their own skeletons from ever having accountability.

What should happen? They should treat this as a serious breach. They should investigate in a non-partisan method with independent investigators. Then take appropriate actions. But this should not be some Benghazi situation where the GOP makes mountains out of a single grain of sand. Treat is seriously, but don't go overboard.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2018 @ 6:23am

oversight? i doubt that. either because he was cheap labor or because she wasn't interested in what else he 'might have been'. however, you can bet your little cotton socks that had it been someone, anyone else who had a similar employee, she would have gone fucking ape shit! this is the trouble with having people like her in such powerful positions, positions that can and do affect so many others who she is supposed to represent! her mind set is one that is much to be desired considering everything has to be as she wants it and nothing else will do! he may or may not have been a 'security threat' but he still should NOT have been in the employ of a person in her position!!
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Wesley Bidsnipes, 8 Aug 2018 @ 7:31am

The idea that he passed on nothing of value is laughable. If we've learned anything these past few years, even just metadata alone often gives surveillers enough of the picture that they don't need more.

This man, at the very least, helped them rule out the possibility that Feinstein/Congress had found out about something they wanted to keep secret. When shit was going down, he could tell them "no, no one's panicking".
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John Snape (profile), 8 Aug 2018 @ 8:35am

The FBI interviewed the spy and determined he hadn't passed on anything of value.

Whew! I'm so glad this spy was totally honest and made sure they knew he never, not even once, passed anything of value to the Chinese government! Heck, he didn't even know he was a spy!
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2018 @ 8:36am

The most likely explanation
"Of course, it may be the spy didn't even know he was a spy."

The Chinese use this tactic all day, every day -- they've mastered it. Among its other features, it makes spies much harder to catch, because they behave completely normally and show no signs of guilt: of course not, they have no reason to think they're guilty of anything. They also use layers of indirection: the handlers have handlers have handlers.

The downside of this is that they've can't task these agents with specific items; the upside is that they can quietly use them for years or decades without being noticed.

And if you think this is the only one with access (of some degree) to Congress members, then you're dreaming.
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Jessie (profile), 8 Aug 2018 @ 8:42am

If only..
If only we had backdoors into the encryption on people's phones, we could have overheard him talking to his friend face to face or over the internet and prevented this from becoming an embarrassing moment for Dianne Feinstein. Dang it Apple. (Please note it has not been confirmed he had an Apple device, but it's Apple's fault either way.)
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Matthew A. Sawtell, 8 Aug 2018 @ 8:47am

So... Diane could be considered a "Chinese pawn"...
... on par with the accusations that Trump is a "Russian pawn"? Meh... going to be interesting how Mike is going to comment on the whole InfoWars Debacle - in light of incidents like this.
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ralph_the_bus_driver (profile), 8 Aug 2018 @ 8:52am

Re: Re: The only problem I have with your POV on this story...
All staff of the Chairman and Ranking Member of the intelligence Committees are vetted by the FBI. They may not have security clearance but they are not free from being investigated.

It appears the driver was in the process of being recruited and was warned by the FBI.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2018 @ 9:27am

Intelligence?
When it comes to Feinstein, there's pretty much zero intelligence involved, so they wasted their time.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2018 @ 10:29am

Re: Re: The only problem I have with your POV on this story...
It's typical to handle this stuff quietly to avoid any responsibilities. Don't need any more scrutiny when there are already too many cover ups for one administration to maintain.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2018 @ 10:36am

Re: So... Diane could be considered a "Chinese pawn"...
There are differences between accusation and fact, in some cases the differences make it silly to even attempt comparisons.

The infowars thing is a non starter - why do you think it is?
Did Obummer censor poor poor infowars? LOL. Did a private corporation violate the 1st amendment rights of Alex? LMAO. Does not float dude as your dingy has a huge hole it it.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2018 @ 12:37pm

Re: Intelligence?
I also had a laugh at

"...palling around with Feinstein doesn't result in much actionable intelligence"

- but it quickly changed to dread knowing these people are running the county .
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2018 @ 1:11pm

Re: So... Diane could be considered a "Chinese pawn"...
There’s a difference between unknowingly employing a spy and actively being a Russian asset. But you knew that didn’t you?
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2018 @ 4:15pm

Re: Intelligence?
This would be funnier if these politicians whose competence and intelligence get routinely mocked weren't voted into place by a majority.
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Thad (profile), 8 Aug 2018 @ 4:34pm

Re: tl;dr
It's a special kind of post that's only two sentences long and still manages to change the subject twice.
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John Snape (profile), 8 Aug 2018 @ 9:17pm

Re: Re: So... Diane could be considered a "Chinese pawn"...

Did a private corporation violate the 1st amendment rights of Alex?

With huge swaths of the internet being controlled by just a few companies, they have the ability to effectively silence anyone they dislike.

Imagine you are told you have the right to travel freely across the United States, but you can't use the freeway, airlines or rails and you can't travel faster than 35 mph. Can you enjoy that right just as everyone else does?
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Matthew A. Sawtell, 9 Aug 2018 @ 12:55pm

Re: Re: tl;dr
Do elaborate, I am curious.
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Sayonara Felicia-San (profile), 10 Aug 2018 @ 1:42pm

Unless it's Russia or a country bordering Russia...
...We Don't Care!!!

Russia! Russia! Russia!

There is no such thing as a 'Chinese Spy'

Zero Proof.

Tibet, Taiwan, and the South China Sea are ALL part of China!
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