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> On April 1, a Navy EP-3 electronic spy plane, operated by the National Security Agency and on patrol along the Chinese coast, was forced to make an emergency
by Cpoll 4y ago
> On April 1, a Navy EP-3 electronic spy plane, operated by the National Security Agency and on patrol along the Chinese coast, was forced to make an emergency landing on China's Hainan Island. After evacuating the crew, Chinese intelligence agents went to work extracting some of the agency's most secret espionage and cryptologic equipment, along with piles of documents classified above top secret. An enormous windfall, the hardware, software, and documents gave Chinese intelligence critical insight into the NSA's targets in their country, and the methods used to spy on them.
I don't understand this at all. Why would a spy plane be carrying all that? Why would top secret documents be unencrypted (or decryptable by the couriers of said documents)?
- kjellsbells 4y agoThe article is very sensationalist and written by someone who has a book to sell. Thats half of it. As regards the EP3 incident, the govt investigation showed that the crew took (mostly) the correct steps to destroy materials. They were not, contra the article, casually flying over with an address book of every US asset in China. For one, why would they (need to know, and all that). I think the article is trying to take an event that happened and juice it into something they want to sell a book on. The Intercept has the EP3 report and there is a wikipedia page about it, for what that is worth. As regards the article's claims that two highly colorful characters, who were brothers, bounced around between FBI and CIA, were allowed to work in the same country, both at elevated clearance levels, I'll reserve judgment but it seems a little too juicy to be quite true. I guess we'll find out in 20 years.