Ex-Intelligence Official Pleads to Leaking Top Secret Info to Journalists

20 Feb 2020

The Associated Press | By Matthew Barakat

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A former counterterrorism analyst pleaded guilty Thursday to leaking classified information to two journalists, including one he was dating.

Henry Kyle Frese, 31, of Philadelphia, held a top-secret clearance when he worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency. He pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria to illegally transmitting national defense information.

Prosecutors say Frese leaked classified details about foreign nations' weapon systems in 2018 and 2019.

The court papers do not explicitly identify the journalists who received the information, but details in the papers make it clear that the recipients were Amanda Macias of CNBC and Courtney Kube of NBC News.

Macias wrote multiple articles in 2018 about China’s missile systems.

The Justice Department said Frese’s prosecution is one of six that have been filed in the last three years as part of a crackdown on leaks of classified information.

Frese declined comment after Thursday's hearing. He faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in June.

Court documents indicate that between March 2018 and October 2019, when Frese was arrested at his office, he participated in at least 630 phone calls with Macias and 34 calls with Kube.

Frese admitted as part of the plea agreement that he agreed to help Kube and provide her with classified information because he believed it would help Macias progress professionally.

A statement of facts filed Thursday with Frese’s plea agreement indicates he also transmitted classified information to an employee of an overseas counterterrorism consulting group.

Court documents indicate that several factors allowed investigators to develop Frese as a suspect in their leak investigation. To begin with, Frese and Macias lived together at the same address for much of 2018. In addition, only 26 people had accessed all five of the intelligence reports that were referenced in the articles, according to audit logs. Frese was one of them.

Frese also admitted that he searched multiple times for classified information that was outside his areas of responsibility based on requests from Macias and Kube.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/02/20/ex-intelligence-official-pleads-leaking-top-secret-info-journalists.html/amp?__twitter_impression=true

N. Korea orders reorganization of the country’s caste system

New effort to reclassify North Koreans' songbun categorization is focused on better understanding the ideological mindset of the country's younger generation

By Ha Yoon Ah - 2020.02.21 2:00pm

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the Ministry of People’s Security (MPS) last month to reclassify the “birth songbun” and “social songbun” of all North Koreans, Daily NK has learned…..

…….INESCAPABLE SONGBUN

Birth songbun, or family ancestry, refers to the songbun of an individual’s parents at the time of their birth. Social songbun, otherwise known as an individual’s job category, is the songbun of an individual’s parents when the individual reaches adulthood (and obtains formal citizenship).

Birth and social songbun both group people into one of four categories: soldier, office worker, worker, or farmer. North Korean officialdom treats residents discriminatory on the basis of which category they belong to.

“When people are assigned to positions in the party [Workers’ Party of Korea], government or the military, songbun becomes an important yardstick of appraisal,” the source explained. “Birth and social songbun provide officials with a way to understand where the person came from and the potential they have for development in the society.”

Kim ordered that individuals be grouped into one of twelve categories, which appears to be aimed at allowing officials to quickly understand the “ideological status” and “inclinations” of individual North Koreans.

Daily NK sources explained that there were originally just 10 categories, but that Kim created two more: “ideologically wavering” and “complainers and discontents.”

……..

https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korea-orders-reorganization-countrys-caste-system-songbun/