This is an interesting problem that the U.S. government faces. There are a large amount of spies attempting to steal information from U.S. universities and research institutions for both commercial reasons and militaristic reasons. In response, it seems that government agencies and universities are cooperating to combat this. In addition to this, foreign intelligence services are trying to recruit American students while they are studying abroad.
Interestingly enough, both the universities I have attended were also attended at some point by radical Islamic terrorists (one was arrested while I was there), and I know universities have been on the lookout for potential Islamic terrorists for some time.
Has anyone ever encountered something like this at their Undergrad, Business school, or Study Abroad?
Glenn Duffie Shriver studied [abroad] at East China Normal University in Shanghai. After graduation, he fell in with Chinese agents, who paid him more than $70,000. At their request, he returned to the U.S. and applied for jobs in the State Department and the CIA. He was sentenced to four years in prison in January 2011 after pleading guilty to conspiring to provide national-defense information to intelligence officers of the People’s Republic of China. “Study-abroad programs are an attractive target. Foreign security services find young, bright U.S. kids in science or politics, it’s worth winning them over,” Figliuzzi said.
Do you think there is anything more that can be done to assure international students are not spies?
Do we risk antagonizing and losing smart foreign students who want to work and live here?
I did not know that foreign intelligence services were heavily targeting universities. The first time I heard of spies in U.S. universities was during the Russian Spy Scandal in 2010. One of the spies was at Columbia Business School.
Link to article
Damn, that's crafty. Yes, I worked with a European group in college, but quickly realized what they were. Sometimes, students don't even realize that they're being used but I never even considered that they would target students. Strange considering that the the CIA recruits at my alma mater, the majority of the kids applying aren't from here.
Checking in before the "what schools are targets, semi-targets, non-targets for potential spies" shenanigans.
CSIS recruits very widely @ Canadian schools, I'm sure CIA has got a big recruiting thing happening in US schools. As per outside agencies, seems sketchy .... of what value is a random undergrad to foreign agency
So which foreign government do you work for?
In all seriousness, I would not be surprised if they were doing this. If I knew anything about it, I'm not sure I'd share it in a place where the Chinese government could read it. We're a free country, but I'm not sure it helps the US, tactically, to share a whole lot about where the CIA recruits, who they look for, how they vet candidates, etc.
I think the solution to all of this is an open society. Let's make all of the police video feeds from public places available online. Tactical secrets are unavoidable, but let's try to run a government that doesn't have any strategic secrets.
The scary thing for me is: how many Glenn Duffie Shriver's are there out there?!?!
They really could solve this problem with more intelligent immigration policies.
Don't think there were any spies at my school, although one kid did look and dress a lot like Austin Powers.
Paranoia on the rise. Maybe it is time to stop listening to the MSM. I would be worried about Israel, though. $115 billion dollar to date. Access to all kinds of facilities. Installing sensitive telecom equipment everywhere.
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