Edward Lin's Contacts with Taiwan Probed in Spy Case

choi

David Larter, 'Rogue Archer:' Navy Officer's Contacts with Taiwan Probed in Spy Case. Navy Times, Aug 7, 2016.
http://www.navytimes.com/story/m ... influence/88362208/

Quote:

(a) "The court filings obtained by Navy Times reveal new details about the investigation of [Edward] Lin, codenamed 'Rogue Archer' by investigators, which uncovered some alleged unreported travel to Asia and his ongoing contact with Taiwanese diplomats and military staff on defense matters.

(b) "One of the specifications of failing to obey a lawful order related to mishandling of classified information. It tracks back to a crew manifest left in his luggage, according to the motion. In Lin's top secret world, the list of names in the air crew are secret.

"In May, Lin's bags were searched at the San Francisco airport and security found old Navy flight manifests in his bag. A Department of Homeland Security agent interviewed him and Lin claimed the records were stuffed in his flight suit from last year and he had never pulled them out.

"Lin abandoned the records to the agents who said they would destroy it, but Lin never reported the compromise of the classified information. His lawyer argues that there is no duty to self-report because it would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, a precedent that has been upheld in the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

"The government is set to argue that Lin violated established security procedures that govern classified information handling and ignored the reporting requirements for compromised secret-controlled information when he turned over the flight manifests to a third party [here alluding to Homeland Security agents, not Taiwan] – albeit agents from Homeland Security who told him they would destroy the records.

(c) " 'Rogue Archer' [section heading]

"The motions shed light on new details of the NCIS investigation into the accused spy. The court's ruling on a previous motion, which denied Lin release from pretrial confinement, details a number of the key allegations arising from the NCIS investigation.

"Notably, there is no mention of any allegations of spying for the People's Republic of China, which was widely reported by media that cited to defense and government sources.

"Lin was placed under investigation in April 2014.  Labeling Lin 'Rogue Archer,' the investigation uncovered both 'personal and impersonal contact' with representatives from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, DC., which is Taiwan’s de-facto embassy.

"During that time he was part of the Taiwan Young Scholars program and under its auspices he took a trip there in 2011, paid for by the Taiwanese government and not reported to the Navy by Lin.

"He traveled again to Taiwan in 2013 to visit family, but he again met with a former naval attaché from TECRO while he was there, according to the documents.

"Taiwan has denied any involvement in the case and denies that it was spying on the US.

"During a search of his emails, agents uncovered a handful of emails to TECRO reps, some of which discuss weapons programs such as submarine-launched torpedoes. In one email, a TECRO rep asks Lin if the results of weapons tests were releasable, to which Lin responded that they were usually classified secret but that some secret information was shareable under security agreements. Lin then was shown to have gone in and modified unclassified briefs dealing with that program on his computer, but there is no evidence he shared them.

"In fact, each of the emails listed as compelling evidence used to deny his release from pretrial confinement appear to be fairly mundane. One email asks Lin about the US military draft 徵兵, to which Lin responds that the sender should check out the Selective Service website.

"In another email, Lin sends a TECRO rep a link to an unclassified All-Navy message dealing with sequestration. Another email was a news article with some notes, all unclassified.

"In denying the motion to release Lin, the judge said he had shown a 'dangerous pattern of disclosing classified information,' but did not point to any disclosures of classified information.

Note:
(a) The news report is lengthy. The quotation is the new developments. There is no need to read the rest.
(b) Naval Criminal Investigative Service
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na ... vestigative_Service
(NCIS)
(c) "In another email, Lin sends a TECRO rep a link to an unclassified All-Navy message dealing with sequestration."

sequestration
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un ... questration_in_2013