Information security

What's Next For Intelligence Gathering In China After Leak Of CIA Confidential Information

In Honolulu, Hawaii, in August of 2012, a team of FBI agents searched a hotel room. Inside a piece of luggage, they found a small, clear plastic travel pack and, inside that pack, a datebook and an address book. The books belonged to former CIA officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee. They contained handwritten notes and classified information, meeting places and the true names and phone numbers of CIA sources in China.

Lee was arrested this week at JFK Airport in New York. As The New York Times first reported, this comes as the CIA is trying to bounce back from one of the worst intelligence breaches in decades, a breach that has seen more than a dozen CIA sources in China killed or imprisoned.

Dennis Wilder retired from the CIA in 2016. He was deputy assistant director for East Asia and the Pacific. And I asked him how Lee's case fits into a pattern of China targeting former CIA officers.