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House Republicans called on the Government Accountability Office to review how the Justice Department investigates foreign nationals sent to spy on U.S. soil.
Kentucky’s James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Wisconsin’s Glenn Grothman, who heads the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border and Foreign Affairs, say they have learned Chinese nationals have posed as tourists and food delivery drivers to access U.S. military bases and other sensitive government facilities as often as 100 times in recent years.
“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating how the U.S. Department of Justice investigates and prosecutes foreign nationals sent to the United States to collect sensitive information but are not professionally trained intelligence officers (IO), or ’nontraditional collectors,’” they wrote in a letter to GAO Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro.
The lawmakers continued, “Foreign intelligence organizations often utilize traditional intelligence officers for higher-risk collection, but they also use nontraditional collectors such as foreign nationals on student visas to collect less high-risk information.”
They added, “While these individuals might not be professionally trained intelligence officers, they may still be positioned and motivated to collect information aimed at jeopardizing U.S. national security.”
The Washington Times reached out to the GAO for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Last October, the Oversight panel received two briefings and a classified hearing after sending an inquiry to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and FBI Director Christopher Wray upon receiving reports that hundreds of Chinese nationals were seen illegally trespassing or trying to do so on U.S. military installations.
Following the briefings and hearing, the lawmakers said in a joint statement that their “concern” is now “heightened” that the “FBI does not dedicate the proper resources, or have adequate processes in place, to detect, monitor and counter, nontraditional collectors.”
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