CIA Serect informants killed in China

According to a newspaper report, some 20 sources of the US secret service CIA were detected within only two years. Some were arrested, others even killed.

The "New York Times" (NYT) refers in its article to several reigning and former US government staff. According to this, up to 20 CIA sources were found between 2010 and 2012. Twelve of them have been killed. An informant had even been shot before his colleagues, apparently as a warning against espionage activities for the US.

The destruction of the informant network is assessed as a "severe setback" for the CIA spy network in the People's Republic. Until the time the system worked very well.

Important source is dead

For example, in 2010 the CIA was able to obtain first-class information about the Chinese government. Then, however, less and less information flowed, in early 2011 the first informants disappeared.

When more and more were killed, the CIA and the FBI had taken joint investigations. Nearly all employees of the US Embassy in Beijing were also examined. According to NYT, the investigations ultimately turned around a former CIA employee. The evidence, however, had not been used for arrest.

Mole at the CIA?

According to the report, it is still unclear why the informant network could be smashed. Investigators considered a spy in the CIA itself or a hacker attack on the secret communication system of the foreign secret service possible. It was the most serious such incident in decades.

The losses are similar to those in the Soviet Union and Russia by the betrayal of the two notorious spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, the report says. The authorities have not yet said anything about the revelations.