Senators warn: FBI, other agencies work in buildings owned by China

This really gets my gears turning. What better way to swap around information let alone the ease of espionage it could create by having your secrets stored in a building that you simply lease.

Their alarm bells were set off by a report that said the General Services Administration has been placing FBI agents and other "high-security" government officials in buildings owned by foreign entities in China and other countries.

Moreover, many didn't even know that they were in a building owned by foreign entities.

Federal agencies took extra precautions after realizing they were in a foreign-owned building, but nine of the 14 agencies contacted by the GAO didn't have any of that information. "Federal agencies are among the top targets for cyber criminals, with many agencies experiencing thousands of attempted attacks daily,"

Remember the theories surrounding the HRC email controversy? During that time, some were sure that the tactic of leaving a "backdoor" open for foreign eyes to see was all by design.

The foreign-owned buildings have national security and privacy implications, as they house agencies ranging from FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency field offices to a Social Security Administration office in Seattle, Wash. Even the U.S. Secret Service rents space from companies based in Germany and China, according to the Government Accountability Office, which is the research arm of Congress.

Curious situation here.

Thoughts?

www.washingtonexaminer.com...

a reply to: JinMI


" Thoughts? "


Do Not Talk Business in the Bathrooms , the Walls More than Likely have " Ears " ..........

a reply to: Zanti Misfit

What about networking?

Generally everything goes to a room with routers and switches. What kind of security is afforded for the network that the building operates off?

I caught a spy putting a bug-camera in the ceiling when I was working in Spain. Turned him in, but because it was a Spanish-owned building, he had to be let go. This was decades ago. I can imagine how sophisticated these operations and counter-operations are now.

Why doesn't the American government have its own agency buildings?

Why are your important government agencies renting foreign-owned workplace buildings in your own country?

Do foreigners own any other important buildings? The White House? The Pentagon?

What happens if one day the foreign owners decide they want to evict the govt agencies?

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: Zanti Misfit

What about networking?

Generally everything goes to a room with routers and switches. What kind of security is afforded for the network that the building operates off?

I'm sure they use Norton AntiVirus. They'll be ok.

Oo

originally posted by: doobydoll
Why doesn't the American government have its own agency buildings?

Why are your important government agencies renting foreign-owned workplace buildings in your own country?

Do foreigners own any other important buildings? The White House? The Pentagon?

What happens if one day the foreign owners decide they want to evict the govt agencies?

It's by design. They won't evict anyone. No more than you'd shoo the bacteria on the slide under your microscope.

It's a game, being played. Foreign interests have deep pockets, and greedy bureaucrats have itchy palms...

Thoughts?

I wonder if the Chinese and Russian embassies in Washington are bugged.

originally posted by: Phage

Thoughts?

I wonder if the Chinese and Russian embassies in Washington are bugged.

That wouldn't be very nice of the Americans now, would it...

originally posted by: Phage

Thoughts?

I wonder if the Chinese and Russian embassies in Washington are bugged.

Arent embassies technically part of their countries government? I get what your saying though.

a reply to: JinMI

Technically they are the sovereign soil of their respective nations.

In turn, I get that the situation presented in your OP is not equivalent. But then, as a capitalist nation we must embrace free enterprise even if Beijing only does so in regard to its overseas investments. I doubt that their intelligence agencies are housed in US owned facilities.

But spies are gonna spy.

a reply to: JinMI

I find this funny - no one actually bothered to look at who the owners are before leases were renewed or taken out for the first time?

Like residential leases, commercial building landlords usually retain a key.

originally posted by: doobydoll
Why doesn't the American government have its own agency buildings?

Why are your important government agencies renting foreign-owned workplace buildings in your own country?

Because our country is governed by idiots who are elected by morons.

Do foreigners own any other important buildings? The White House? The Pentagon?

As far as I know, they don't own those yet, but that's probably not far away. Many of the occupants seem to be owned by foreign entities, though, and that's even worse.

The whole point of Spy agency is grab Intel(tech, falseflag, etc), kill evil(terrorist, power mongers, etc), and hunt down mad scientists since WW2.
I spy, you spy.
You can't have America to be the only spies, even CIA boycotted CIA attempting to cause WW3 with falseflag. I mean look at it this way. Americans always spy on each other. You need the other way around against power mongers.
Though Nazi spies in WW2 was proven to be done for evil, this isn't taught in most history. You have to search this info online.
When we had Cold War. CIA was a counter assassin/info against KGB.

As long as it doesn't start a shooting war everything will be fine. Apart from uploading viruses to power plants, and computers. The Chinese are not stupid enough to do any of those. That is what the Europeans, Certain Hackers or Terrorist does. Destruction every where!