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Who Is Franz Gayl, the Pentagon Worker Taking Heat for Op-Eds in Chinese State Media?
On 6/12/21 at 10:46 AM EDT
The Marine Corps confirmed to the
Washington Post Friday that Franz Gayl, a 64-year-old retired major who served in Iraq, is part of an on-going investigation after he wrote two
Global Times opinion pieces.
Gayl was the reported whistleblower behind a May 2007
Wired magazine piece entitled, Military Dragged Feet on Bomb-Proof Vehicles, which sparked controversy and congressional hearings at the time. Then-Delaware Democratic Senator Joe Biden praised Gayl in 2007 for his whistleblower efforts.
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Gayl has since worked as a science adviser to the Marine Corps and recently returned from Iraq after helping the U.S. military with a rollout of armored military vehicles dubbed MRAPs.
Franz Gayl, a celebrated whistleblower and former Marine, is being investigated after attacking American policy on Taiwan in a Chinese government mouthpiece.
The U.S. government launched a counterintelligence investigation against Franz Gayl, suspending the 64-year-old’s security clearances while it seeks to determine whether the retired Marine major has been compromised.