Did anyone notice this story?
Pentagon staffer guilty of handing secrets to China agent

Patrick Rowan, acting assistant attorney general for national security, said Bergersen had “betrayed his oath to serve and protect our nation.”

“This case serves as a reminder that espionage networks are relentless in their efforts to steal our secrets and continue to pose a serious threat to our national security,” he said.

China’s foreign secret service is among the “most aggressive” in trying to steal sensitive US military technology and information, US Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell charged last September.

A week ago, Chinese-born US engineer Chi Mak was jailed for 24 years after being convicted of conspiring to smuggle sensitive technology about US Navy submarines to China.

Being reminded of those times makes me have convulsions. No, I’m not from the DDR, but know it well, having experienced the system in the vicinity.

baldi, you are ein Engel.

baldilocks on April 1, 2008 at 11:08 AM

Actually, I’d bet you love being one.

“The paper says it will have an outside investigating agency run background checks on all current staff to see whether they have any other former Stasi informants and agents on the masthead. That seems like a long-overdue step. Cleaning house after 20 years suggests that management didn’t much care if the problem existed at all until now.” – Ed

Fair enough, but expect no big changes.

Firstly, Berlin, not to mention eastern Berlin, is “Red-Red” i.e. run by the equivalent of a neo-Democratic-and-Communist Party coalition – as wished by the vast majority of residents. They like their journalism, as their politics, far-leftist-to-communist.

Secondly, with such a far-left population mix (the movie “Good Bye, Lenin!” was not really wrong: in a sense, communist East Germany did take over West Germany), the only place you’ll likely find replacements will be Frankfurt or somewhere in Bavaria…but then, no one in Berlin would buy the paper anymore!

Pfüa Gott!

Berlin Poll: “The Stasi (Ministry for State Security of the DDR) was an intelligence agency, just like any other state would have.”

“The Berlin Wall was built by…?” 13.6% of all Berlin students (12.4% West and 14.3% East) answered that it was the Allies, 1.9% (1.6% West and 2.2% East) said it was the USA, 46% answered the Soviet Union (47.2% West and 44.8% East), 4.5% said it was West Germany (3.9% West and 5.3% East) and only 34.9% answered correctly with the DDR (34.9% West and 33.4% East).

The paper says it will have an outside investigating agency run background checks on all current staff to see whether they have any other former Stasi informants and agents on the masthead. That seems like a long-overdue step.
posted at 8:09 am on April 1, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

We need to vet our own journalists. Lotsa KGB money came over to fund “peace” and “environmental” groups.

Spartacus on April 1, 2008 at 9:42 AM

Bingo.

We need to vet our journalists and every member of our government (yes, everyone in all three branches) by having them publicly confess something close to the following:

“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and I completely rebuke the Constitution OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY of the United States of America.”

I wonder how many government officials inserted “of the Communist party” under their breath as they were being sworn in and repeated the oath of office…

Berliner Zeitung newspaper

I hate to be a pain-in-the a** pedant, but seeing that phrase is like seeing ‘Berlin Newspaper newspaper.’

Dude, everybody in East Germany was a “Stasi informant”.

Lehuster on April 1, 2008 at 8:41 AM

Pretty much.

Wired has a good story about the slow process of piecing together the billions of torn pieces of paper the from the Stasi. They couldn’t burn or shred the documents fast enough so they took to tearing a single sheet of paper into 37 pieces. Researchers are now using technology to piece the shreds back together. There are many more people that are going to be tied to the Stasi. It’s only a matter of time until they are uncovered involuntarily. They might as well come forward now. Reconcile your sins to your fellow German.

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/16-02/ff_stasi

A good look at how East Germans dealt with the dual-life they had to lead under the Communists and the difficulties they face coming to terms with it is Timothy Garton Ash’s “The File,” which recounts his own trip to Berlin after the fall of the Wall to see his own file.