WASHINGTON- Seorang pejabat dari Badan Intelijen Pertahanan (DIA) Amerika Serikat (AS) menjadi agen ganda setelah diam-diam bekerja untuk intelijen China. Sang mata-mata itu dituduh menjual rahasia Washington ke Beijing dengan imbalan USD800.000 atau lebih dari Rp11 miliar.

Pejabat DIA yang telah ditangkap itu bernama Ron Rockwell Hansen. Departemen Kehakiman AS menuduh Hansen membawa informasi rahasia saat dalam perjalanan dengan pesawat ke China.

Hansen telah dibawa ke tahanan pada hari Sabtu lalu.

Kasus Hansen ini adalah yang terbaru dalam serangkaian penangkapan terhadap pejabat Amerika dengan tuduhan menjadi mata-mata untuk Beijing. Hansen, yang berasal dari Syracuse, Utah, telah pensiun dari tentara AS di mana dia pernah bekerja di sinyal intelijen.

Sang agen ganda tersebut lancar berbahasa Mandarin dan Rusia. Dia direkrut pada 2006 untuk bekerja di DIA sebagai "petugas kasus", seseorang yang merekrut dan mengelola agen asing.

Berbasis di sebuah kantor komersial di Beijing, Hansen melakukan kontak dengan intelijen China. Menurut dokumen dakwaan, selama beberapa tahun dia mencoba untuk memperkenalkan dirinya kepada DIA dan FBI sebagai agen ganda yang akan bertindak pada akhirnya hanya untuk AS.

Namun, para penyelidik mengatakan dia mengadakan pertemuan rutin dengan agen-agen intelijen China yang tidak pernah dia laporkan. Komunikasi dengan intelijen Beijing itu menggunakan ponsel yang diberikan kepadanya oleh sumber-sumber intelijen China. Dia juga menyimpan informasi rahasia yang tidak seharusnya dia dapatkan.

Menurut para penyelidik, Hansen mengalami kesulitan keuangan yang mendalam antara 2013 dan 2016, dengan terlilit utang beberapa ratus ribu dolar. Selama dan setelah waktu itu dia menerima lebih dari USD800.000 dari China. Uang itu sering kali dibawa dalam bentuk tunai ke AS, dan dia tidak dapat menjelaskannya.

Pada awal tahun ini, FBI menemukan bahwa Hansen mencari informasi dari rekan-rekan Amerika-nya tentang posisi AS di Korea Utara dan Korea Selatan, serta operasi militernya yang direncanakan terhadap China. Informasi itu lantas dijual kepada kontak China-nya.

John Demers, asisten jaksa agung untuk keamanan nasional AS, seperti dikutip The Guardian, Selasa (5/6/2018), mengatakan; "Tindakan yang dituduhkannya adalah pengkhianatan terhadap keamanan negara kita dan orang-orang Amerika dan merupakan penghinaan bagi mantan rekan komunitas intelijennya."

Pada bulan Januari mantan agen CIA, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, juga ditangkap dengan tuduhan bahwa dia menjual informasi ke China. Dia dicurigai memberikan informasi tentang jaringan informan CIA yang diruntuhkan oleh China antara 2010 dan 2012.

Tak hanya Hansen dan Lee, mantan pejabat departemen luar negeri AS; Kevin Mallory, juga ditangkap tahun lalu karena jadi mata-mata untuk China. Selanjutnya, seorang diplomat AS lainnya, Candace Marie Claiborne, ditangkap karena mengambil uang dari para pejabat intelijen China, meskipun dia tidak secara langsung dituduh memasok informasi sebagai imbalan.

https://international.sindonews.com/...ina-1528190159

Ron Rockwell Hansen: US arrests man for trying to spy for China

A former US intelligence officer has appeared in court in Seattle charged with attempting to spy for China.
Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, was arrested by the FBI on Saturday on his way to a Seattle airport for a flight to China.
The justice department says Mr Hansen attempted to pass on information and received at least $800,000 (£600,000) for acting as a Chinese agent.
He agreed in a brief court appearance to be returned to his home state of Utah to face charges.

What are the charges?
Mr Hansen, who lives in Syracuse, Utah, was charged with attempting to gather or deliver national defence information to aid a foreign government.

Other charges - there are 15 in total - include acting as an unregistered foreign agent for China, bulk cash smuggling, structuring monetary transactions and smuggling goods from the US.
If convicted of attempted espionage, Mr Hansen faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Assistant Attorney General John Demers called Mr Hansen's alleged actions "a betrayal of our nation's security" and an "affront to his former intelligence community colleagues".
John Huber, US attorney for the state of Utah, called the allegations "very troubling".
Who is Ron Hansen?

According to court documents cited by the justice department, Mr Hansen served in the US Army as a warrant officer with a background in signals intelligence and human intelligence, before being recruited by the DIA as a civilian intelligence case officer in 2006.
The justice department says Mr Hansen, who is fluent in Mandarin and Russian, held top secret clearance "for many years" and travelled regularly between the US and China in 2013-17.
He is alleged to have attempted repeatedly to regain access to classified information after he stopped working for the US government, thereby alerting authorities to his actions.
What is the DIA?

The Defense Intelligence Agency is a branch of the Department of Defense, responsible for analysing and disseminating military intelligence.
The agency's primary responsibility is providing foreign military intelligence for US combat missions. It was established in 1961 and now has about 17,000 employees.
How are US-China relations?

The arrest comes at a challenging time for relations between the two countries. On Saturday, US Defence Secretary James Mattis accused China of attempting to intimidate its neighbours by deploying missiles to disputed islands in the South China Sea.
A Chinese military official dismissed the comments as "irresponsible".
Trade talks currently taking place between the two countries in Beijing have been overshadowed by a looming start date for US tariffs on Chinese goods.
Late last month, the White House announced plans to place a 25% tariffs on $50bn (£37bn) worth of Chinese imports, a significant escalation in a trade war between the two countries.

What other spying cases have been reported?
Mr Hansen is the latest in a string of former US intelligence officers caught up in spying cases related to China:

• Jerry Chun Shing, a former CIA case officer, was charged earlier this month with conspiring to gather or deliver national defence information to China
  

• Former CIA officer, Kevin Mallory, is currently on trial in Virginia, charged with selling information to the Chinese
  

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44364437