The DOJ has charged a 15-year veteran of the CIA with selling US secrets to China - after he accidentally revealed his spying to the FBI, according to NBC News - which notes that "The method prosecutors said they used to get him to reveal the nature of his espionage was worthy of a spy novel itself."

"Court documents said 67-year-old Alexander Yuk Ching Ma of Honolulu was charged with violating U.S. espionage laws. Prosecutors said he joined the CIA in 1967 then served as a CIA officer until he retired from the agency in 1989. For part of that time he was assigned to work overseas in the East-Asia and Pacific region.

Twelve years after he retired, prosecutors said Monday that Ma met with at least five officers of China's Ministry of State Security in a Hong Kong hotel room, where he "disclosed a substantial amount of highly classified national defense information," including facts about the CIA's internal organization, methods for communicating covertly, and the identities of CIA officers and human assets."

Following his departure from the agency, Ma became a Chinese linguist in the FBI's Honolulu field office, where he allegedly used his access to highly classified information to copy or photograph sensitive documents concerning the United States' guided missile and weapons systems, as well as other sensitive information he passed along to his Chinese handlers, according to the charging document.

Ma was caught after the FBI arranged a meeting with an undercover officer claiming to be from a CCP operative investigating "how Ma had been treated, including the amount he had been compensated" by the Chinese government.

The allegedly traitorous spook was captured on video counting $2,000 in cash given to him by the operative, who told Ma that it was to acknowledge his efforts for Beiing.

Ma, a Hong Kong native, said on tape that he "wanted 'the motherland' to succeed,' and admitted to providing classified information to China's Ministry of State Security."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ex-cia-officer-charged-spying-china-disclosed-substantial-amount-highly-classified