Spies

(Newser) - A judge sentenced Chinese-born engineer Chi Mak to 24 years in prison today for conspiring to send US military data to China, the Los Angeles Times reports. A US assistant attorney argued that Mak, 67, had violated US law even though the data on Navy submarines was not classified. Mak, a naturalized US citizen, proclaimed his love for America and vowed to appeal, Bloomberg reports. More »

(Newser) - Two brothers, one with ties to a UK-Russia joint oil venture, have been arrested in Moscow and accused of industrial espionage, the BBC reports. Ilya and Alexander Zaslavsky were charged after yesterday's raid on oil giant TNK-BP, but analysts say Russia's interest in the matter goes beyond spying, as the country angles to re-assert control over its oil industry. More »

(Newser) - A Pakistani intelligence chief whom slain leader Benazir Bhuttto suspected to be plotting against her is leaving his post with Bhutto's party poised to take power Monday, Reuters reports. Bhutto identified Ijaz Shah as one of four people who should be investigated if she were to be killed; many Pakistanis suspect the country's spy agencies were behind Bhutto's Dec. 27 assassination. More »

(Newser) - An Indian prisoner has finally come home after spending 35 years on death row in Pakistan on spying charges, the BBC reports. Trader Kashmir Singh was greeted by his family and hundreds of well-wishers as he crossed the border back into India. "I have got a new life," he said. Pakistan's human rights minister persuaded President Pervez Musharraf to free Singh after learning of the case. More »

(Newser) - Code names, kidnappings, secrets sold to international intelligence agencies: these staples of a thriller movie come from the real life of Heinrich Kieber, the whistleblower who for $7.4 million sold German authorities the information that exposed a huge tax-evasion ring. Kieber has been given a new identity and is living in hiding, but an exposé by Der Spiegel has uncovered past convictions, international adventures, and one very worried mother. More »

(Newser) - The FBI arrested a Defense Department employee and three others today on charges of spying for China, the Washington Post reports. The Virginia-based  DoD weapons analyst and two accomplices in New Orleans were coincidentally busted on the same day as an ex-Boeing engineer in Southern California, Justice Department officials in Alexandria, Va., and Los Angeles said. More »

(Newser) - Philip Agee, an ex-CIA spook who became a critic of US policies in Cuba, has died in Havana after surgery at age 72. Agee quit the CIA in 1969, and in 1975 published a book detailing the agency's alleged unethical policies against Latin American leftists. Agee moved to Cuba in 2000, where he started a travel website to bring Americans tourists there, the AP reports. More »

(Newser) - The former head of the CIA's clandestine service has been subpoenaed to testify about the destruction of  videotapes of the harsh interrogations of two al-Qaeda suspects. The subpoena for Jose Rodriguez was issued after the House Intelligence Committee staff studied documents on the interrogations that the CIA had surrendered to the panel. Rodriguez may seek immunity in exchange for his testimony. More »

(Newser) - The driver killed with Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed in a Paris car crash regularly communicated with the French intelligence service, a witness testified at the inquest into Diana's death yesterday. Henri Paul, the deputy head of security at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, fed information about important guests to agents, said a former hotel executive. Staffers "weren't happy" about the arrangement, but "we had to" cooperate, he testified. More »

(Newser) - UK spy agency MI5 has sent an unprecedented let