Day: June 8, 2006

One of the players in the case of Katrina Leung, a Republican who is accused of spying for the Chinese, has pleaded guilty to lesser charge and will receive a light sentence:

In a deal with the government, [former FBI agent] Denise K. Woo, 47, will be sentenced to a year of probation and a $1,000 fine. She had faced five felony counts, including revealing the identity of an FBI informant, telling a friend that he had been wiretapped and lying to the FBI about the leaks…

According to [her attorney, Michael] Camuñez, Woo was an FBI agent working in white-collar investigations when the bureau discovered in 1999 that she was a friend of a target of the Chinese counterintelligence squad.

Woo tried to tell supervisors that her friend, who has not been charged, was innocent, but her “substantial concerns” were ignored, her lawyers said. She told him about the informant only after she determined that he wasn’t really a spy, her lawyers said.

The FBI’s Chinese counterintelligence squad during these years was in disarray. Its lead agent, James J. Smith, retired in 2000.

Three years later, Smith was indicted after his longtime lover, an FBI informant named Katrina Leung, was accused of being a double agent for China.

If you have never heard of Katrina Leung, you may be scratching your head about now, wondering how this Chinese spy case flew under your radar.

The reason you haven’t seen the likes of Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Chris Matthews spewing spittle all over their anchor desks over this breach of security by the Red commies is simple: Leung was a Republican.

BuzzFlash published a great overview of the politics of the Leung spy case in 2003. (I’ll add the punchline at the bottom):

[…]

Disgruntled sky cops: On Wednesday, a House committee released a report about how federal air marshals say their jobs could be improved. One recommendation was to end the requirement that has marshals board with the airline flight crew instead of boarding with passengers.

“We need to be more secretive and blend in more,” said one air marshal, whose name was redacted in the Judiciary Committee report.

Marshals have to identify themselves to up to 10 airline employees on a flight, which could pose a security risk, the marshal said. “Many of these employees are not discreet and state out loud what we do,” the comment, dated Aug. 28, 2002, stated.

Maybe if they took off the 10-gallon hats, chaps and spurs they might blend in a little better.

Marshals also cited health issues and fatigue — hey, that just goes with air travel nowadays. “Sinus and ear problems are becoming a major concern,” the summary stated, citing headaches, vertigo, nausea, joint pain and muscle cramps as recurrent problems, which is an accurate description of what most airline passengers traveling in coach experience on flights of greater than two hours’ duration.

Great — our last line of defense against airline terrorists are marshals suffering from sinus infections, vertigo, nausea and cramps whose cover was blown by Bambi the flight attendant. The vaunted Transportation Safety Administration rides again!