Traitors in our midsts. Utah man pleads guilty to spying for China...

via Salt Lake City Tribune.

A Utah man who once served as a case officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency has pleaded guilty to trying to spy on the United States on behalf of China.


As part of the plea agreement, Syracuse resident Ron Rockwell Hansen, 59, will likely spend 15 years in federal prison, according to a news release from Utah’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.


Hansen worked with the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2000 to 2006 when he was a warrant officer in the Army. After leaving the Army in 2006, he was hired by the Defense Intelligence Agency, where he learned to speak both Mandarin-Chinese and Russian fluently as part of his training. He quit the job less than a year after he was hired to work for Salt Lake City-based H-11 Digital Forensics, a cybersecurity firm run by his brother Jon.

Story here. 

Obviously greed trumps patriotism...at least in this guy's case.  But you have to wonder.  The Chinese are throwing around money like crazy and a lot of people are chasing the American/Consumer dream of more, more, more.

Can an open society survive?

Does the very nature of modern life mean that internal surveillance is a NECESSITY for national survival?

I don't know but this is troubling.  From just a sketchbook look at this guy's resume he would seem to tick the boxes of what you would want in an intel professional.  He was an Army Officer.  He served in the DIA.  He spoke the language of our definite enemy (China...a Mandarin speaker is a rarity I would think) and our supposed enemy (Russia).

He was a valuable asset.

But he turned.

Should I feel sad for his weakness or fearful for our country or both?