Former CIA operative held in China spying case

A former CIA operative has been arrested in the U.S. on charges of unlawful retention of classified information, BBC News reported.

Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a naturalized US citizen, was held at New York’s JFK airport on Monday, according to the justice department.

He worked for the CIA between 1994 and 2007, when he left for Hong Kong.

The case is thought to be linked to an FBI investigation, which began in 2012, into the crippling of the CIA’s spy operation in China.

In the two years before, some 20 informants had been killed or jailed – one of the most disastrous failures of US intelligence in recent years. But officials did not know whether to blame a mole or data hack, BBC wrote.

Reports say investigators now suspect Jerry Lee of “helping China.”

Also known as Zhen Cheng Li, Lee served in the US Army from 1982-86, say court documents quoted by BBC.

He began his CIA career in 1994 as a case officer. He was given top secret clearance and signed several non-disclosure agreements.

When Mr Lee left the CIA in 2007, “those who knew him said he left the agency disgruntled after his career plateaued”, reported the New York Times.

Lee remained in Hong Kong and only returned to America in 2012 – according to one report, lured by a fake job offer.

The FBI’s investigation into why the US was losing so many informants in China was by this point in full swing.

FBI agents searched his hotel rooms in Hawaii and Virginia and found two small books with secret records, the US justice department says.

They contained handwritten notes on details such as “true names and phone numbers of assets and covert CIA employees”.

Lee left the US in 2013 after, the New York Times reports, being questioned by FBI agents.

According to the BBC report, Jerry Lee has only now been detained while on another visit, and it remains unclear whether he knew he was still under suspicion.

The U.S. justice department says that Lee, 53, has been charged “with unlawful retention of national defence information and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted”.

He has not been charged with espionage, which can carry the death penalty – with some reports, says BBC, “suggesting the US may not want to reveal secret information in court.”

Lee appeared in Brooklyn federal court yesterday [Macau time] after being arrested at JFK. He is being held there while awaiting transfer to Virginia, where a federal court has brought the charges against him, the report concluded. MDT/BBC News