Retired FBI Agent Sentenced to Probation, Fined in Spy Case

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http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBNNP8FBBE.html

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A retired FBI agent who pleaded guilty to lying about his affair with a suspected Chinese double agent was sentenced Monday to probation and fined $10,000 after apologizing for his behavior.

"I have nobody but myself to blame for being here today," James J. Smith said. "I stand before you ashamed and humiliated by my actions, and all I can do is apologize."

Standing before Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, Smith added, "I apologize to your honor, to the court and to the citizens of the United States."

Smith, 61, at one time faced up to five years in prison for lying to the FBI about his two-decade affair with accused Chinese double agent Katrina Leung. A plea agreement allowed him to cooperate with the government in return for leniency.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EE27Ad02.html

The spy who was anything but cold



Katrina Leung

<snip>Now, it appears, if the charges against Leung are true, it was a highly placed Republican giving away the secrets, and FBI agents who were witting or unwitting participants. Certainly, with a Republican administration in power in Washington, DC, federal authorities and congressional leaders have gone inordinately quiet, to Democratic glee, after calling for a seemingly never-ending parade of public congressional hearings into allegations against the Democrats. "Will the FBI look into Leung's donations to the Republican Party and her activist involvement with the GOP {Grand Old Party, or Republicans}? Don't bet the ranch on it," said a Democratic newsletter, Buzz/Flash News Analysis. The newsletter and other Democratic organs have repeatedly asked whether Leung had been passing along Chinese government money to influence the Republicans, as the Republicans, in a tit-for-tat, had charged the Democrats with doing during the Clinton administration.

Leung and her husband emigrated from China to San Marino, once a nearly all-white, extremely wealthy, conservative enclave of Los Angeles. Since the early 1990s, it has increasingly filled up with wealthy Chinese, particularly those betting against a benign takeover of Hong Kong in 1997 by the Chinese government. She describes herself as a "venture capitalist" and owns a bookstore, Monterey Books and Stationers, in nearby Monterey Park. She rose quickly to the top of Los Angeles Republican ranks, giving lavish parties at her US$2 million home, which is flanked by four stone lions and features two swimming pools. A US congressman named her to the California State Republican Central Committee. Leung was spotted at the inaugural ball of President George W Bush.

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1. It's all in the title Spin.

Proven by psychologists, most people don't read past the first paragraph. Many stop at the title. Those would assume the FBI agent was retired when he committed the crimes.

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2. That is what they want us to think n/t