Ex-DIA Official Charged as Beijing Spy Used Chinese Cell Phones

Former case officer colluded with MSS for years and sought work as a Chinese mole in DIA, FBI

A former Defense Intelligence Agency officer charged with spying for Beijing’s intelligence service used Chinese cell phones to communicate with his spy handlers, according to an FBI document.

This is the third former U.S. intelligence charged with spying for China in recent months and reflects stepped up counterintelligence operations against China

Disclosure of the use of Chinese telecommunications gear for spy communications comes as the Trump administration is debating whether to lift sanctions against the Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE as part of trade negotiations

A former Defense Intelligence Agency officer charged with spying for Beijing's intelligence service used Chinese cell phones to communicate with his spy handlers, according to an FBI document.

Ron Rockwell Hansen, was arrested by the FBI on Saturday and charged with attempted transfer of defense secrets to China and other crimes.

Hansen, an intelligence contractor for many years after leaving DIA in 2006, was arrested at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as he planned to travel to China.

A current DIA official working with the FBI helped identify Hansen's alleged spying activities.

The arrest marked the end of a lengthy counterspy investigation that began in 2014 and included attempts by Hansen to become a false double agent for the DIA—in spy parlance a deceptive triple agent who pretends to be a recruited Chinese spy and who then shifted loyalty to American intelligence but in reality supplies secrets to Beijing.

Hansen is the third former U.S. intelligence charged with spying for China in recent months and reflects stepped up counterintelligence operations against China.

Last week, the espionage trial of former CIA officer Kevin Mallory began in Alexandria, Va. Mallory is charged with using a special mobile device to send classified documents via secure messages to Chinese intelligence.

Another former CIA officer, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, was arrested in January on spy charges and government officials believe he may have compromised the CIA's recruited agent network in China in 2010.

Salt Lake City FBI Special Agent in Charge Eric Barnhart said in a statement: "The allegations in this complaint are grave as it appears Mr. Hansen engaged in behavior that betrayed his oath and his country."

"This case drives home the troubling reality of insider threats and that current and former clearance holders will be targeted by our adversaries," Barnhart said.

The 41-page FBI complaint outlines Hansen's career as a Mandarin-speaking former Army warrant officer who worked for DIA from 2000 to 2006 with experience in both electronic intelligence and human spying operations. He held a top-secret security clearance.

Covert searches of his luggage by Customs officials during several trips to China revealed that he carried two Chinese cell phones made by Xanda and Huawei—Chinese telecommunications companies. The phones were used to communicate with Chinese intelligence services including Ministry of State Security (MSS) officers. The MSS is China's civilian spy agency.

One of the Chinese phones was configured to communicate with a Ministry of State Security spy handler identified in court papers as an MSS officer named Max Tong.

The FBI said Hansen first met Tong in March 2011 and communicated by email and cell phone with him for years.

In July 2012, Hansen wrote Tong telling him that he was seeking to rejoin DIA to gain access to defense secrets, but in April 2013 was rejected by the agency.

During a meeting with FBI agents, Hansen said the Chinese gave him a Xanda cell phone to communicate directly with a Chinese MSS officer named Martin Chen.

Searches of his luggage revealed a Xanda phone in July 2014 and December 2015 had been used to call a Chinese intelligence officer, and in 2014, a Nokia "PRC brand cell phone" was found along with his U.S. smart phone.

http:// freebeacon.com/national-security/ex-dia-official-charged-beijing-spy-used-chinese-cell-phones/

Former FEC Chair: FEC Complaints ‘Absolutely’ Biased Against Republicans

Democrat Ann Ravel says liberal groups responsible for most complaints

Ann Ravel, the former Democrat chair of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) who wanted to regulate Internet speech, said that complaints brought before the commission are "absolutely" biased against Republicans.

Ravel made the comments during an interview with the alumni magazine of U.C. Berkeley, her alma mater where she is now a lecturer at its law school.

When asked if there were any way that the number and types of cases that come before the FEC could be biased against Republicans, Ravel said yes.

"Absolutely. The cases have come primarily from watchdog groups, and most of those groups are on the liberal side," Ravel said. "However, they have also brought cases against Democratic committees. In fact, we had a case during the primary for the 2016 election that was brought by one of those groups against the Hillary Clinton campaign. The Democrats on the commission voted to investigate it. The Republicans voted to dismiss the case entirely."

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a "watchdog" organization that is often deemed "nonpartisan" by the media despite being a liberal group, is one such group that regularly files complaints to the FEC against Republicans. David Brock, the liberal operative and Clinton ally who founded Media Matters for America and a number of other groups, formerly chaired CREW.

Ravel specified in an email to the Washington Free Beacon that more complaints were made against groups that contribute to Republicans and that "Republicans on the FEC refused to enforce those cases, both by refusing to hear them in a timely fashion, or by not voting to investigate them after a hearing."

Democrats on the commission have also been accused of playing partisan politics with individual cases, including giving left-leaning groups a pass on alleged violations while being more critical towards Republican groups, and also voting against Republican appeals while voting in favor of Democrats.

"I appreciate the concern, and I cannot speak for Commissioner Weintraub or an about face from a previous vote, as I was not on the Commission at the time," Ravel said about one example provided over email of Democrats being accused of partisan politics.

Regarding another example dealing with Sens. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) and Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) avoiding fines for missing filing deadlines, Ravel blamed it on the "Byzantine system where the Senate refused to provide an online filing process it was not put in the public record on time" and that it seemed like a "minor violation" as they "both actually filed all their documents in a timely fashion."

A former FEC staffer said the commission's complaint process has been "weaponized."

"The FEC complaint process is being weaponized against conservatives, from the outside and sometimes even from inside the building," the former staffer said, who added that the FEC's enforcement agendas often consisted of three complaints against Republican groups for every one complaint against Democratic groups.

Ravel was appointed to the commission in 2013 by President Obama and later became embroiled in controversy after pushing to regulate Internet speech, which some saw as targeting conservative news sites such as the Drudge Report.

Ravel phoned it in from California during her final months with the commission after being passed up for the attorney general position in the state. During one call, Ravel seemed so distant that the chair asked if she were awake.

Despite Ravel's actions, she requested the commission hold a special session to vote on a foreign-funded junket that would allow her to travel to Ecuador to observe their elections.

Following the Free Beacon's publication of the story, Ravel's special counsel said that Ravel did not attend the FEC meetings due to other commitments, and that she would not be participating in the trip.

Ravel resigned during the week she would have been in Ecuador.

http:// freebeacon.com/politics/former-fec-chair-fec-complaints-absolutely-biased-republicans/

China Flight Tests New Multi-Warhead ICBM

Tenth DF-41 launch shows Beijing's most lethal nuclear missile nears deployment

China moved closer to deploying its newest and most lethal strategic weapon by conducting the 10th flight test of the DF-41 intercontinental-range missile last week.

Defense officials said the flight test of the multi-warhead DF-41 took place May 27 at the Taiyuan Space Launch Center in northern China and flew overland several thousand miles to an impact zone in the western Gobi Desert.

"We are aware of recent flight tests and we continue to monitor weapons development in China but we cannot provide information on specific tests," Pentagon spokesman Marine Corps Lt. Col. Christopher Logan told the Washington Free Beacon.

The flight test comes amid growing tensions between the United States and China over Beijing's militarization of islands in the South China Sea and a looming trade war over the Trump administration's aggressive posture toward unfair Chinese trade practices.

The flight test last week was the 10th known launch of the DF-41 that will be armed with up to 10 multiple, independently targetable reentry vehicles or MIRV warheads.

The intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system will be deployed on a road-mobile ICBM capable of targeting all of the United States. The mobility and ability to hide the weapon from intelligence detection poses serious challenges for U.S. strategic nuclear deterrence.

China's state media have said the DF-41 will be capable of being armed with up to 10 warheads each with a yield of 150 kilotons, or single, massive, 5.5 megaton warhead. A kiloton is the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT; a megaton is equal to 1 million tons.

The addition of multiple warheads to all of China's ICBMs represents a substantial increase in the number of warheads in the arsenal capable of ranging all of the United States.

China made no mention of the latest flight test in state controlled media.

However, Chinese authorities announced in an international notice to airmen the closure of airspace on May 27 along a flight path used past DF-41 tests, according to Henri Kenhmann, who runs the East Pendulum blog that monitors Chinese military developments.

The main Communist Party newspaper reported in December that the DF-41 is one of Beijing's most potent new weapons. The People's Daily said the DF-41 would be fielded early in 2018 and has a range of over 7,500 miles.

As in the past, the latest DF-41 flight test appeared timed to send a political message to the United States.

The most recent test took place days before a U.S. trade delegation headed by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross visited China for talks.

China issued a statement Sunday warning that if the Trump administration goes ahead with plans to impose $50 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods that Beijing would break off past trade accords.

"If the United States introduces trade sanctions including tariffs, all the economic and trade achievements negotiated by the two parties will be void," the official Xinhua news agency said.

Before last week, the most recent DF-41 flight test took place Nov. 6—two days before President Trump visited Beijing in what military analysts said was an intentional show of force prior to the presidential visit.

A report made public last year by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center said the DF-41 is a new road-mobile ICBM likely capable of carrying MIRV payloads.

"The number of warheads on Chinese ICBMs capable of threatening the United States is expected to grow to well over 100 in the next five years," the report said, noting China's Strategic Rocket Force "continues to have the most active and diverse ballistic missile development program in the world."

http:// freebeacon.com/national-security/china-flights-tests-new-multi-warhead-icbm/

Schumer Won’t Say Whether Clintons Are Helpful to Dems

The senator claims not to have heard Bill Clinton’s latest comments on his impeachment

Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) declined to say Tuesday whether Bill and Hillary Clinton are helping the Democratic Party’s image.

Schumer did not answer a question from NPR's Rachel Martin about former President Bill Clinton lashing out at critics who brought up his impeachment and questioned whether he should have resigned. Meanwhile, his wife and two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has taken heat from some fellow Democrats, such as Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Claire McCaskill (Mo.), for her comments about those who voted for President Donald Trump.

"Are Bill and Hillary Clinton still helpful as public faces of the Democratic Party?" Martin asked after pointing out their recent controversial comments.

"You know, I haven't heard Bill Clinton's comments, I just got here — but the bottom line is Democrats have to put forward a positive, strong economic program," Schumer replied. "We have to oppose Donald Trump when he's wrong, but we also have sit and do positive things."

He said the party should focus on the needs of the middle class rather than "hypotheticals" about different individuals.

"So hypotheticals, who's good, who's bad — we have to focus on the things that average, working-class, middle-class Americans need," Schumer concluded.

Schumer’s fellow Democratic New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand said in November that, in light of the #MeToo movement, she believes Clinton should have resigned from the presidency over the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Clinton chalks this thinking up to the "context" in which Gillibrand is operating, but said in his own context it would not have made sense to do so.

"[Gillibrand's] living in a different context. And she did it for different reasons," Clinton said. "So, I – but I just disagree with her."

Schumer has indirectly criticized Hillary Clinton in the past, arguing Democrats should have a more positive message than they did in 2016. He has also claimed not to pay much attention to the news about the party, even saying he did not follow the party's 2016 primary.

http:// freebeacon.com/politics/schumer-wont-say-whether-clintons-helpful-dems/

>>1645861

All kinds of dark secrets hiding behind those eyes, for sure, wonder if he'll spill to save his ass. Alot of these people have those freaky eyes though.

>>1645898

You are right they do, dead souls and no heart.

>>1645975

You know I agree with the sentiment, but, at the same time I can't help but feel as though we shouldn't have to continue to pay for and feed these slim balls.

DNC Leadership Split Between Personal Pursuits, Party Duties

When Tom Perez campaigned for the Democratic National Committee chair in December 2016, he distinguished himself from Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison by arguing that he would devote all his time to helping the party recover from its disastrous performance in the 2016 elections.

Perez at the time described the DNC position as a “full-time job” and emphasized the need “to have someone committed here for the long haul” leading the party.

Fast-forward 18 months and Perez is the DNC chair, Ellison is his number two, and they both have divided their time between personal pursuits and working for the cash-strapped DNC.

Ellison on Tuesday filed to run for attorney general of Minnesota in November and expressed enthusiasm at the opportunity to take on President Donald Trump.

“It was attorneys general who led the fight against the Muslim ban,” Ellison, the nation’s first Muslim congressman, told The Associated Press Tuesday. “I want to be a part of that fight.” Ellison will remain the DNC’s vice chair while campaigning for attorney general, he told the AP.

Ellison’s entry into the attorney general race is the latest evidence that the DNC is in disarray, Republican National Committee spokesperson (RNC) Steve Guest told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“The Democratic Party is divided, lacks a positive message, and now both of its leaders are only working part-time,” said Guest, a former Daily Caller reporter. “If Ellison is so frustrated about being in the House minority, does that mean he has serious doubts about Democrats’ ability to win in 2018?”

Ellison has been juggling his DNC and congressional duties since February 2017. “But he’s been chafing for months at both roles: being in the minority in Congress and being subsumed to DNC Chairman Tom Perez, who beat him for the top job,” Politico reported on Monday.

A spokesperson for the DNC did not return TheDCNF’s email asking how Ellison’s new commitment will affect his work as the party’s deputy chair.

Perez in September 2017 joined Brown University’s Watson Institute as a senior fellow for the 2017-2018 school year. Perez’s teaching load this past spring consisted of teaching a seven-week seminar as well as appearing at events on partisanship and the legacy of former President Barack Obama.

The DNC chair is currently listed as the institute’s “Senior Fellow in International and Public Affairs.” The institute did not return a voicemail inquiring whether Perez would continue his teaching fellowship in the Fall 2018 semester. Perez did not return an inquiry sent to his university email address.

The DNC has been chaotic under Perez and Ellison, who represent two opposing factions in the Democratic Party: Perez, the Democratic establishment, and Ellison the party’s socialist wing.

The two have butted heads over the party’s decision to interfere in key Democratic primaries ahead of the November midterms.

Ellison has argued that the DNC should remain neutral in Democratic primaries and even declined to endorse his own brother. Perez eschewed that approach and threw the party’s weight behind New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, an establishment favorite.

The Minnesota congressman’s ties to controversial figures have also caused public relations issues for the DNC.

Ellison misled the public for years about his relationship with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, The Daily Caller reported and The Washington Post confirmed.

http:// www.dailycaller.com/2018/06/05/dnc-tom-perez-keith-ellison-working-part-time/

CNN Commentator: National Anthem is ‘Problematic’

CNN commentator Angela Rye said Tuesday that she believes the national anthem is “problematic in and of itself.”

Rye tore into Trump during a discussion about the president disinviting the Philadelphia Eagles from their White House victory celebration after only a handful of players committed to attending. (RELATED: Trump Cancels Eagles Reception Over National Anthem Protests)

“It’s just dishonest, right?” Rye said. “This isn’t about people who disagree with the partisan leanings of the president. There are Republicans who are my friends — this is about someone who trafficked in bigotry, xenophobia, and racism from the very beginning of his campaign.”

“We’re now going to end up in a midterm where we’re talking about the national anthem,” she added. “The national anthem is problematic in and of itself. There is a second verse that Colin Kaepernick brought attention to that has yet to be discussed on broad platforms.”

http:// www.dailycaller.com/2018/06/05/cnn-commentator-national-anthem-problematic/

Newt Gingrich Schools ‘The View’ On The Most Misunderstood Thing About Trump [VIDEO]

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich made the case Tuesday on “The View” for why President Donald Trump has been successful.

The comments came after Meghan McCain asked about the most misunderstood thing about Trump. Gingrich was on the show to promote his latest book “Trump’s America: The Truth about Our Nation’s Great Comeback.”

“The most misunderstood thing is that he’s extraordinarily smart,” Gingrich replied. “This is a guy who made billions of dollars, beat 16 people for the nomination, beat Hillary Clinton on a billion dollar campaign. This is a guy who has enormous intelligence, and the biggest part of that is, on little things he’s totally unpredictable, sometimes self-destructive.”

“On big things he’s very consistent,” he added. “He does what he says. He sticks at it month after month. And I think we get confused in part because the news media picks up all the small things.”

“Frankly, part of the purpose I think every morning of his tweets is to remind liberals he’s still here,” he continued. “He knows it drives them crazy. They wake up in the morning, the first thing they see is a tweet by Trump, they go, ‘oh, my god, he’s still president.'”

Earlier in the segment, he also pointed out that the economy under Trump is doing incredible and destroyed host Sunny Hostin’s attempts to give Barack Obama credit for the success.

“I think the best thing is the economy,” Gingrich explained. “I think the fact that we have the lowest black unemployment in history.”

“Can he take credit for that? Isn’t that Obama’s doing? I mean really,” Hostin interjected.

“I think this quarter we will have more than twice the economic growth rate of any quarter in eight years of Obama,” Gingrich responded.

“Because he’s been set up. He was given a gift, Newt. It’s true,” Hostin snapped back.

“So Obama gets it both ways,” Gingrich said. “He got a terrible gift from George W. Bush. He gave Trump a good gift. Anything good that happens under Trump is actually Obama.”

“It’s true,” Hostin explained.

“Well, that’s one way to look at the world,” Gingrich responded.

http:// www.dailycaller.com/2018/06/05/newt-gingrich-the-view-misunderstood-thing/

>>1646189

Completely unhinged, I can't even find myself applauded, it's laughable now.

Literally Tens Of Millennials Show Up To Maxine Waters Appreciation Rally

Maxine Waters has turned around her congressional career by hitching her wagon to the Resistance movement. One of the most outspoken advocates against Donald Trump in Congress, Waters has seen her media influence skyrocket in the era of Trump.

But that new social media cache is not translating well to the youth in her district, if her recent “Auntie Maxine” meetup is any indication.

The candidate held a Meet & Greet Tweet-A-Thon on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in her district in Los Angeles. A promotional card for the event advertised that “top social media influencers” would be on hand to support “our fearless champion in Congress.”

A video posted of the event, however, shows fewer than 20 people in the room. That’s including Waters. When the camera panned to the room where the event was being held, many empty chairs and tables can be seen. The small group of supporters huddled in a circle to tell the congresswoman what issues they care about, and to listen to Waters talk about housing, the border, Donald Trump, Ben Carson and her congressional opponent, Omar Navarro.

Tweet-a-thon https://t.co/oimMj7HQw2

— Maxine Waters (@MaxineWaters) June 3, 2018

Also, not all who attended the event would be considered in the millennial voting demo.

http:// www.dailycaller.com/2018/06/05/maxine-waters-millenial-meet-and-greet-small-crowd/

>>1646138

I have a feeling it won't be long before it implodes.

Another Trump Campaign Aide Was Invited To Cambridge Event Where ‘Spygate’ Started

Carter Page was not the only Trump campaign adviser invited to a July 2016 event at the University of Cambridge, the storied British institution where “Spygate” is believed to have originated.

The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned that an invitation to attend the campaign-themed event was extended to Stephen Miller, another Trump campaign adviser who currently serves in the White House. Miller did not attend the event, which featured former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as a keynote speaker.

J. D. Gordon, the director of the campaign’s national security advisory committee, told TheDCNF he believes the invitation from Cambridge to Miller was sent in May 2016. That’s a month before a graduate assistant of FBI informant Stefan Halper sent an invitation to Page to visit the campus.

“The invitation was to Stephen Miller who could not attend,” Gordon, a former Pentagon spokesman, told TheDCNF. “In the midst of our policy office search for a surrogate, Carter Page informed me that he had also been invited and would like to attend.”

Gordon said he told Page the campaign preferred he did not attend the Cambridge conclave.

“Though since he wasn’t planning to make public remarks, conduct media interviews or otherwise represent the campaign, he was not required to fill in one of our request forms.”

Gordon said Miller, a former Senate aide to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, passed the Cambridge request to John Mashburn, a campaign policy adviser. Mashburn gave it to Gordon.

The three-day Cambridge conclave was where Page first met Halper, a former Cambridge professor who turns out to have also been working for the FBI as part of a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign.

Page, an energy consultant, has said Halper, a veteran of three Republican administrations, offered advice about the campaign during a brief chat on the sidelines of the event.

The pair met numerous times over the course of the next 14 months, Page told TheDCNF. He visited Halper’s farm in Virginia and met with the 73-year-old academic in Washington, D.C. They stayed in contact through September 2017, the same month the U.S. government’s surveillance warrants against Page expired.

Halper, who has longstanding connections to the CIA, met with at least two other Trump campaign advisers — Sam Clovis and George Papadopoulos.

Clovis met with Halper once for coffee on Sept. 1, 2016 at a Washington-area hotel. Halper met Papadopoulos over the course of several days in mid-September 2016 in London. Halper paid Papadopoulos’s airfare and hotel stay in London. He also paid the young campaign aide $3,000 to write a policy paper on Mediterranean energy issues.

But the meetings were just cover for Halper’s work as an informant.

During one dinner with Papadopoulos, Halper asked whether the campaign adviser knew anything about Russians hacking Democrats’ emails. Papadopoulos, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his interactions with another professor, dismissed Halper’s question. Papadopoulos’s wife, Simona Mangiante, told TheDCNF that Halper grew frustrated at Papadopoulos’s response.

http:// www.dailycaller.com/2018/06/05/stephen-miller-carter-page-spygate/

Al Gore Blames Clinton-Lewinsky Affair For 2000 Loss

Al Gore blamed Bill Clinton and the scandal that led to the former president’s impeachment for his 2000 presidential election loss, a recently-released book claims.

The Lewinsky scandal and Bill Clinton’s subsequent impeachment “cast a permanent shadow on their joint accomplishments” and tanked the former vice president’s chances of succeeding him, according to author Kate Anderson Brower’s book First In Line: Presidents, Vice Presidents and the Pursuit of Power.

The book, released Tuesday, claims that Gore’s team felt that his former boss “did not want Gore to succeed” in his race against George W. Bush, and states that a friendship that was once close eventually soured over the affair, the 2000 race and Hillary Clinton building her own power base inside the White House, according to a Daily Mail report.

Brower’s book describes a “Shakespearean” trajectory to the relationship between the two men as Gore found himself increasingly competing against “the most powerful first lady in American history.”

“The two (Gore and Hillary) fought over turf almost like a brother and sister fighting over their father’s attention,” writes Brower, according to the Daily Mail.

And so far, there has been “no closure” for Gore.

Clinton himself made headlines recently for a Monday night question about apologizing personally to Lewinsky that got him “hot under the collar.”

“The truth is, the hubbub was I got hot under the collar because of the way the questions were asked, and I think what was lost are the two points that I made that are important to me,” said Clinton. “The suggestion was that I never apologized for what caused all the trouble for me 20 years ago.”

“I did. I meant it then, and I meant it now. I apologized to my family, to Monica Lewinsky and her family, and to the American people before a panel of ministers in the White House. I live with it all the time.”

http:// www.dailycaller.com/2018/06/05/al-gore-blames-clinton-lewinsky-affair-for-2000-loss/

>>1646411

I am not sure what to make of that statement.