However, if I put myself in the place of the FBI and found out this was going on with highly placed people in the defense/government/tech, it would make total sense to get to the bottom of it and find out if national security was being jeopardized.
It surprises me that these "senior" guys were forking over their ID credentials to use this service. Just goes to show the extent to which their dicks controlled their brains. It will be interesting to see who, if anyone, gets busted as a result of this. Or if any of the owners "commit suicide" in prison (like Epstein did).
For me, this is 100% the important part of this article. I have security clearance, have had for now 28 years, and the rules of this program, especially the segmented and compartmentalized programs, are explicit and there is no grey areas in this rule. For at least half of the time I had clearance, the rules were more than half of them punishable by life in prison and maybe 10% were punishable by the death penalty. In our training, these are outlined clearly and we sign that we understand and agree to the terms. It is not an accident that anyone used their secured credentials improperly, they know what these are supposed to be for and what they are not supposed to be for, and when they are to be removed from their place and when they are not. Also, they know the consequences to the security programs as well as to their careers and personal freedom and liberty. BUT, since the penalties have been eroded to the point where I am fairly certain I could take secured photographs and blow them up on a billboard and pay with my own name to have them put up, with a six month lease, say on the Atlantic City Expressway for millions to see, and the worst I'd get is a coffee and tea visit from FBI.
THE SAME CREDENTIALS THEY USE TO ENTER THE PENTAGON WERE EMAILED TO HOOKERS, CHINESE HOOKERS! Why are they not in prison today?
The government gravy train has become such that there is no serious consequence for anything, and this is very bad for the rest of us who actually DO follow the rules, and for those of us who fund the whole thing, and whose economic results and non-murdered results hinge on the proper use of security clearance. Really, these guys who used Federal Identification for this ought to be hung from a tree in Arlington. The Federal code USED TO say this, but today, as I mentioned, they might get a "really stern talking to", and have a "letter" put in their file. In other words, nothing.
Also, to your first point about Chinese intelligence. My career in Army was in Intelligence, at least half of that period was in counterintelligence, and I can be clear that the book has entire lessons about setting up just such an operation; we used to do similar social programming for military and political leaders in Serbia to get them to be executed or arrested by their own men, to take them off the battlefield without us having to fire a shot. No reason to think that Chinese intelligence isn't involved, but for me it's more likely just some AMP folks doing AMP folks stuff and the whole thing getting the lid blown off because the customers were not Tom Dick and Harry, but General Tom and Colonel Dick and Undersecretary Harry.