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Friday, August 24, 2018

Gingrich: Foreign spies are threatening US colleges -- we must stop them

The United States is home to the world’s highest-ranking colleges and universities. Indeed, our higher education system is one of our greatest assets. Yet we do too little to defend it.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 20 million students planned to attend U.S. colleges and universities in 2017. And the National Science Foundation reported that more than 800,000 international students were enrolled in institutions of higher education in the U.S.

Most of these international students, faculty members and researchers are here to capitalize on America’s educational opportunities. However, some are here to exploit the openness of our higher education system.

According to an advisory warning released by the FBI in 2011, foreign intelligence services target American universities to recruit students and faculty members to be agents of espionage and attempt to steal technical information and products. The FBI also reported that certain foreign actors illicitly exploit the student visa program and use universities as hubs to spread false information and political propaganda.

For example, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee in February that China uses “nontraditional collectors, especially in the academic setting, whether it’s professors, scientists, students, we see … in almost every field office that the FBI has around the country.”

Wray added that China is “exploiting the very open research and development environment that we have, which we all revere. But they’re taking advantage of it.”

More


http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/08/24/newt-gingrich-foreign-spies-are-threatening-us-colleges-must-stop-them.html

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

SU has never worried about Chinese spies. They just want the money.

Anonymous said...

This is overreacting in a big way.Technical information and products can be accessed easily without even enrolling in a US college.Newt should know that.

Anonymous said...

The spies are the teachers!

Anonymous said...

This is a stupid accusation.
The only spies are the intelligence agencies (Facebook, Twitter, so on).

Anonymous said...

They might as well be. The CIA has had operatives in teaching positions for years handling and grooming the brightest for placement in public sector corporations, industry and the military. The liberal teaching agenda has proffered the perfect environment for these activities to go unnoticed.