The South Korean ‘Spy’ Affair
The major media outlets earlier this month ran breathless headlines about a former C.I.A. officer “caught spying for South Korea.”
The BBC, for example, wrote “Ex-CIA Analyst Charged with Spying for South Korea.” The Los Angeles Times wrote, “Sloppy Spycraft? Indictment of a Former CIA Analyst Embarrasses South Korea.” Even the venerable Time Magazine disingenuously wrote, “Former CIA Office Charged with Being Secret Agent.”
The problem is that literally none of those headlines were true.
Sue Mi Terry, a former Korea analyst for the C.I.A., a former deputy national intelligence officer for the Koreas, and a former national security council director for Korean Affairs, was most certainly not charged with spying for South Korea.