Live data from Hacker News

5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police

justice.gov

61–70 of 196 posts

Re: 5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police

#61
post #31

Anyone else curious about the ages of the defendants? 59, 73 and 62 years old respectively. Is it harder for the PRC to recruit younger "spies" or are older ones just more reliable?

Younger spies are more careful?

ah! indeed that's another possibility, they simply don't get caught (at least this time)

Re: 5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police

#62
post #21

Sometimes I think this sounds conspiratorial, and surely isn't happening. Who has the time or money to pay 5 people to just go around harassing and stalking people for political gain only? Then I remember the story of the lady in East Germany who, after it fell, managed to get the Stasi records that finally proved that yes, they had been stalking her, harassing her, and spying on her. They would do things like wait u…

There are a lot of cases of Chinese, Russian, Iranian, Saudi, etc. dissidents or critics being targeted overseas. I'm not sure why it's a surprise to anyone or why people think it doesn't happen.

To make sure the qualify of the brain-wash process for the whole country, which is the foundation for those countries' stability, dissidents must be eliminated or harassed enough so they shut-up, wherever they might be.

Re: 5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police

#63
post #23

These details are wild, scary, and fascinating. Fascinating from the perspective of how easy it is for foreign governments on the other side of the world to try to scare the shit out of US citizens by hiring some scumbag PI for probably as little as $5k. > Beginning in September 2021, Lin hired a private investigator (the PI) in New York to disrupt the campaign of a Brooklyn resident currently running for U.S. Congre…

That's considerably more than just "harassing a US resident".

Re: 5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police

#64
post #21

Sometimes I think this sounds conspiratorial, and surely isn't happening. Who has the time or money to pay 5 people to just go around harassing and stalking people for political gain only? Then I remember the story of the lady in East Germany who, after it fell, managed to get the Stasi records that finally proved that yes, they had been stalking her, harassing her, and spying on her. They would do things like wait u…

There are a lot of cases of Chinese, Russian, Iranian, Saudi, etc. dissidents or critics being targeted overseas. I'm not sure why it's a surprise to anyone or why people think it doesn't happen.

Agreed. It seems naive to think "of course that wouldn't actually happen" without any real evidence except your own incredulity. Why shouldn't they harass people in small ways? It's cheap, annoying, and minor enough that most people will just brush it all off as coincidences. You obtain your goal of punishing those who got on your wrong side, without having to worry about attracting too much attention.

Hell it doesn't even have to be state actors, if anyone here pisses off someone with too much money, it wouldn't be hard to hire someone anonymously on craigslist to harass you. People have done a lot worse for a lot less money

Re: 5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That reminds me of COINTELPRO, and how the FBI tried to get MLK to commit suicide by sending him a harassing black mailing letter. It's amazing how states particularly when they have apparatuses that can go rouge or are even actually encouraged by the government like the Stasi were go to ridiculous lengths to harass people they find politically inconvenient.

that is true, but that was more than fifty years ago..

> Anonymous discovered that HBGary was conspiring with a law/lobbying firm known as Hunton and Williams to launch a highly sophisticated campaign to subvert and sabotage the enemies of their clients. In some cases these plans involved illegal actions. The targets were journalists, labor unions, and political opponents.

> One client was Bank of America, who hired Hunton and Williams to launch a campaign against Wikileaks. At some point the list of targets was expanded to various other supporters of Wikileaks such as journalist Glenn Greenwald. The other client so far revealed was the Chamber of Commerce, which wished to target labor unions and a shockingly long list of their supporters.

> The main tool of attack would be the use of the Palantir technology to analyze the network of support for the targets.

Source: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/02/13/943139/-HBGary:-...

The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities never properly followed up on that incident. In 2011 it asked the DoD and NSA to provide any contracts with HBGary, Palantir and Berico, but as far as I can tell that never ended up happening, the whole thing was just buried over time and forgotten.

Re: 5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police

#66

Sometimes I think this sounds conspiratorial, and surely isn't happening. Who has the time or money to pay 5 people to just go around harassing and stalking people for political gain only? Then I remember the story of the lady in East Germany who, after it fell, managed to get the Stasi records that finally proved that yes, they had been stalking her, harassing her, and spying on her. They would do things like wait u…

Same with Ernest Hemingway, remembered for his paranoia later in life, specifically about the US government watching him. Going to doctors for this, to no avail.

Turns out the FBI was following him, as detailed in recently classified documents (2010s).

My synopsis is that they enabled his predisposition for depression and paranoia. But the initial observation of being watched by the government was not inaccurate.

Re: 5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police

#67
post #14

Sometimes I think this sounds conspiratorial, and surely isn't happening. Who has the time or money to pay 5 people to just go around harassing and stalking people for political gain only? Then I remember the story of the lady in East Germany who, after it fell, managed to get the Stasi records that finally proved that yes, they had been stalking her, harassing her, and spying on her. They would do things like wait u…

Any chance you have a source for the bicycle tire story? I'm keen to read more about it (and similar stories).

Did a quick search and didn't find it. All I remember is it was written up in a rather major publication some years ago talking about the fall of Stasi.

While trying to find my source, I did find out Putin was in East Germany when the wall fell, and was working for KGB. Along with Stasi, Putin burned so much evidence of their wrongdoing, it broke the furnace.

So I guess Putin was a questionable fellow even back in the 1980's and 1990's!

Re: 5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police

#68
post #60
post #31

Anyone else curious about the ages of the defendants? 59, 73 and 62 years old respectively. Is it harder for the PRC to recruit younger "spies" or are older ones just more reliable?

Yes, I noticed that too. Seems like they're tapping older people with connections and resources. I imagine there's going to be more younger gen assets to tap in future, a lot more nationalist PRC diaspora in west now vs older gen who fled PRC/China when it was a shitshow.

I've been surprised how nationalist some older Chinese expats are. In particular, I found some older HKers were very pro PRC. This was all before the Umbrella Movement. I put it down to becoming more conservative as you age (anecdotal evidence).

Re: 5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police

#69
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of Gang stalking[0]. It always seems to happen to people who present themselves as generally not very mentally healthy, but sometimes you have to wonder. If you were the very unlucky target of some deniable, organized harassment effort, it would certainly take its toll on your mental health. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_stalking

relevant Onion https://youtu.be/FzoXQKumgCw

tangentially relevant Onion https://www.theonion.com/police-flip-through-unsolved-crimes...

Re: 5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police

#70
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Younger spies are more careful?

ah! indeed that's another possibility, they simply don't get caught (at least this time)

I am totally shooting from the hip on all this, but I do wonder if/when there is a trade-off point between the expertise and energy youth can put into the trade versus the benefits and efficiencies of experience.
Post reply on HN