ENEMY OF THE STATE PART FOUR: THE SPOTLIGHT SHIFTS

The espionage spotlight has recently shifted from Edward Snowden to the Chinese hackers recently charged for "cyber espionage" as the FBI documentation states – and that is also how the journalists frame it. Is the acts of espionage committed by these Chinese men, however, what this is really about? In the FBI documentation of the Chinese hackers' crimes, it alleges that Wang Dong, Sun Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu, and Gu Chunhui – the five members of the Chinese military accused of these crimes – not only engaged in computer hacking, but also in a sort of economic espionage by stealing U.S. trade secrets in order to benefit Chinese corporations. Also within these documents is a chart indicating the charges against the five Chinese hackers and the sections of the U.S. Code that correspond to the charges. The prominent statute that acted as grounds for several of the charges was found in section 1030 of the U.S. Code, called "Fraud and related activity in connection with computers". However, also within this section of the U.S. Code is a series of accusations that not only apply to the Chinese hackers but also the recent actions of the United States. For example, “Whoever intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains—information contained in a financial record of a financial institution, or of a card issuer as defined in section 1602(n) [1] of title 15, or contained in a file of a consumer reporting agency on a consumer, as such terms are defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.)… [or] information from any protected computer…” Is that not similar to, if not exactly what the NSA does to American citizens? Furthermore, it seems as though that this is all an attempt to veer the world’s focuses from the United States and their unconstitutional actions of what may essentially be referred to as computer hacking to another country all the way across the globe, despite the fact that the counts against the five Chinese “computer hackers” are not likely to ever be debated in a courtroom and are not even legitimate. One thing that reduces the credibility of these charges is the many suspicious coincidences – that may not actually be coincidences at all – that may be found within the FBI documentation. One thing to note is that the documentation was released by the Pittsburgh division of the FBI. Also, the victims of the Chinese hackers such as Westinghouse were companies that deal with steel as well as energy – particularly, in Westinghouse’s cases, nuclear energy. Though these may seem like small, irrelevant details, they are most definitely not, due to the one thing they have in common: Representative Tim Murphy. What exactly does this member of the House of Representatives have to do with the indictment of these Chinese men? Representative Tim Murphy seems to be in pretty deep with both Westinghouse and several American steel corporations, as he is, for one, the Congressional Steel Caucus Chairman. In fact, he commented on the Chinese hackers’ indictment recently, saying, “This indictment proves we’re losing manufacturing jobs not because the US stopped making great products, but because the Chinese government is stealing ideas, inventions, and intellectual property straight out of Western Pennsylvania,” said Rep. Murphy. “The Chinese government hacked into our computers, stolen business blueprints, erected trade barriers, and manipulated currency markets all to give state-owned enterprises an unfair and illegal advantage against American competitors.” He expresses clear allegiance with the American steel companies while denouncing the Chinese hackers. Also, Representative Murphy has strong ties to Westinghouse, as he recently backed the global company’s loans. In addition, Representative Murphy represents the 18th district of Pennsylvania in the House, the very state from which the FBI indicted the five Chinese men. There is too great a number of connections between Representative Murphy and this indictment to be considered mere coincidences. In conclusion, something just does not add up in regard to these charges against the five Chinese men. There is much more to this story than there seems to be, and it may very well be a cover up to shine the spotlight of unauthorized surveillance and hacking on anyone aside from the NSA.