アメリカ国家安全保障局(NSA)民間委託で中国への情報が筒抜けに: 天漢日乗

2007-12-22

アメリカ国家安全保障局(NSA)民間委託で中国への情報が筒抜けに

何でもかんでも
　アウトソーシングすれば安上がり
なんて、間抜けな考えだから、
　国家的な対中国情報工作がむざむざと中国に筒抜けになった
という情けない事件。
産経より。

中国に通信傍受筒抜け　翻訳、ダミー会社に委託

2007.12.22 18:59

【ワシントン＝山本秀也】米紙ワシントン・タイムズは２１日、ハワイで中国の通信を傍受していた米国家安全保障局（ＮＳＡ）の施設が、中国の情報機関が作ったダミー会社に業務を委託した結果、機密である監視対象や傍受内容が中国側に筒抜けになったと伝えた。業者への不十分な背景調査による大失態だが、米側の情報専門家は、軍や行政機関で急増する「民間への業務委託」を利用した工作ルートとして警戒を促している。
　複数の米政府筋の話として同紙が報じたところでは、情報を盗まれたのは、ホノルル近郊のクニアにあるＮＳＡのアジア向け通信傍受施設だ。傍受記録の英訳をハワイの翻訳会社に委託したが、この会社が中国最大の情報機関である国家安全省が作ったダミー会社であることが発覚した。
　会社名や情報漏れの期間は報じられていない。事件は米海軍犯罪捜査局（ＮＣＩＳ）の対スパイ捜査から判明。数百万件もの傍受記録がこの会社に渡った結果、監視対象から米側の情報源まで中国側に把握された。
　米海軍の情報関係者は、この失態で情報収集に支障が出たほか、米側を混乱させるための「偽情報」を流す中国側の工作まで手助けした懸念を示した。ＮＳＡに対しては、国家安全省のほか、中国の軍事情報機関である総参謀２部も工作を担当している。
　業務委託の接点を通じて、中国側はこのほかＮＳＡ内部の軍人・軍属に対しても、スパイ獲得工作を図った。同紙は中国系米国人への工作を伝えているが、ハワイの連邦地裁に起訴された別の中国スパイ事件では、契約業者のインド系技師が中国の巡航ミサイル開発に有益な米側のレーダー回避技術を渡していた。
　民間への業務委託が盲点となった事件について、米国防情報局（ＤＩＡ）の日系元工作員、マイケル・タンジ氏は、ブログで「（問題となった翻訳は）１０年前ならいずれも軍人か政府の文民職員がやった仕事ばかりだ」として、とりわけ翻訳の業務委託からの情報漏れの懸念を訴えている。

けけけけけ。
いや〜、NSAも何やってるんだか。

アメリカの州の内、
　もっともアジア系人口の割合が多い州がハワイ
であり、最新の調査では
　39.9%
を占める。総数ではカリフォルニア州が一番だけど、割合ではハワイ州が最高だ。ハワイに行くと、アジア系であることは珍しく無いどころか、むしろ
　普通の住民
である。もちろん、アジア系住民の出入りも激しい。
以前は広東語が中心だったチャイナタウンでも、2000年頃から、北京語が通じるようになった。それだけ
　大陸からの「新移民」が増えている
ということだし、
　スパイ要員も入ってきている
ってことだ。

"The Washington Times"の元記事を貼っておく。(英語)

China taps into U.S. spy operations

December 21, 2007

By Bill Gertz - China's intelligence service gained access to a secret National Security Agency listening post in Hawaii through a Chinese-language translation service, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

The spy penetration was discovered several years ago as part of a major counterintelligence probe by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) that revealed an extensive program by China's spy service to steal codes and other electronic intelligence secrets, and to recruit military and civilian personnel with access to them.

According to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, China's Ministry of State Security, the main civilian spy service, carried out the operations by setting up a Chinese translation service in Hawaii that represented itself as a U.S.-origin company.

The ruse led to classified contracts with the Navy and NSA to translate some of the hundreds of thousands of intercepted communications gathered by NSA's network of listening posts, aircraft and ships.

NCIS agents discovered that the translation service, which officials did not identify by name, had conducted contract work for the National Security Agency facility at Kunia, an underground electronic intelligence post some 15 miles northwest of Honolulu that conducts some of the U.S. intelligence community's most sensitive work.

Kunia is both a processing center and a collection point for large amounts of Chinese- and other Asian-language communications, which are translated and used in classified intelligence reports on military and political developments.

Naval intelligence officials familiar with the Chinese spy penetration said the access to both "raw" and analyzed intelligence at Kunia caused significant damage by giving China's government details on both the targets and the sources of U.S. spying operations. Such information would permit the Chinese to block the eavesdropping or to provide false and misleading "disinformation" to U.S. intelligence.

The officials did not say how long the Chinese operation lasted before being detected.

NCIS also discovered a major Chinese intelligence operation that sought to recruit Chinese Americans as spies, and to recruit Navy and civilian intelligence workers with access to Kunia's secrets.

According to the officials, China's program to recruit intelligence workers was discovered in 2005 after a Navy cryptographic technician was caught accepting a no-cost visit to China, paid for by Beijing's government.

The case led to an NCIS probe that discovered other intelligence personnel, many of them nearing the ends of their careers, who were targeted by Chinese intelligence for recruitment.

The ethnic recruitment effort involved similar tactics. China's intelligence service used intelligence officers and supporters to identify Chinese Americans with access to secrets who would be approached and offered free visits to China, often to meet relatives. The Chinese would then use the visit to attempt to recruit the Americans as spies.

Chinese-American ethnic groups in the past have denounced the U.S. government for singling out Asian Americans as spy targets, accusing counterintelligence officials of racism. But the Chinese recruitment program shows that Beijing actively seeks to develop spies through such ethnic targeting.

NSA and NCIS spokesmen declined to comment when asked about the Chinese intelligence-gathering operations in Hawaii.

I.C. Smith, a former FBI special agent, said both China's civilian MSS and military spy service, known as "2 PLA" for the Second Department of the Chinese military, are targeting NSA.

"There can be no higher target for an intelligence service, and that includes China's MSS and 2 PLA, than gaining access to an adversaries' codes and electronic intelligence," he said, because it is the ultimate in "foreknowledge" advocated by ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu.

Getting U.S. electronic intelligence and codes would give China specific information on what is known and allow Beijing to take defensive measures "based on knowledge, not supposition," Mr. Smith said, adding that "it also allows for disinformation to be done with confidence and it basically gives the intelligence service every advantage over the enemy."

The NSA Hawaii operations center employs several thousand people and was recently expanded at a cost of more than $350 million. An NSA press release in August stated the expansion is "one facet of the agency's efforts to evolve a global cryptologic enterprise that is resilient, agile and effective in prosecuting a dynamic threat environment."

The facility was singled out for criticism in the past by intelligence reform advocates because of its restrictive policies on information-sharing.