A Chicom spy at the State Department?

Bill Gertz:
The FBI has arrested a State Department official who is charged with concealing extensive contacts with China's intelligence service.

Candace Marie Claiborne, an office management specialist who held a top-secret security clearance, faces charges of obstructing an FBI probe and making false statements about years-long contacts with two Chinese intelligence agents.

Claiborne, 60, worked for the State Department since 1999 and was posted at the headquarters in Washington, as well as U.S. diplomatic posts in Beijing and Shanghai, along with posts in Baghdad and Khartoum, Sudan.

A criminal complaint in the case said she conspired with two Chinese intelligence agents working for the Shanghai State Security Bureau. She also worked with a fourth person who is a male U.S. citizen and relative of Claiborne's who was not identified by name but labeled "Co-conspirator A" in court papers.

The case is one of the first Chinese espionage-related operations involving a U.S. citizen to surface in nearly 10 years.
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The FBI counterintelligence investigation revealed that Claiborne was coopted into working with Chinese intelligence beginning around 2010 in exchange for cash and gifts.
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"Claiborne appeared motivated by the profitable nature of her information-sharing relationship with the [People's Republic of China intelligence service] agents," the complaint says, adding that her journal indicated she could make $20,000 a year working for the spy service.

The FBI alleges Claiborne received gifts and benefits worth tens of thousands of dollars from the Chinese.
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If the allegations are proved, she appears to have been a cheap date in selling out US interests. It is not clear to me why China could not glean the same information by just reading the US media on the internet.

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