Listen here.A former brigadier general in the South African Air Force (SAAF) has been jailed in the United States after she pleaded guilty to one count of acting as an agent of South Africa and one of making a false statement in her security clearance application. In this interview with Chris Steyn, Jasmine Opperman, who spent over 20 years in South Africa’s intelligence services, and who is now a senior analyst at Fulcrum Analytics, takes viewers through the case of Portia Anyamba - who held the position of programme management operational specialist in the National Security Programme Office at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She came under surveillance by the FBI during regular communication with a State Security Agency (SSA) official stationed at the SA Embassy in Washington and was intercepted prior to another meeting with the official who had instructed her: “Please remember to also bring the laptop with.” Opperman says this case comes at a “very convenient time” for politicians in America. “Is this the ideal situation that the Trump government has been waiting for?” .Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Edited transcript of the interview.Chris Steyn (00:01.346)A former brigadier general in the South African Air Force has been jailed in the United States for spying. With me is Jasmine Opperman, a senior analyst of Fulcrum Analytics. Welcome, Jasmine.Jasmine Opperman (00:16.716)Morning to you all, and thank you so much for inviting me.Chris Steyn (00:21.942)You're welcome. Let's talk about Portia Anyamba. She was in quite a sensitive position as programme management operational specialist in the National Security Programme Office, part of the Manhattan Project, at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Do we know how she got into that position?Jasmine Opperman (00:43.81)To get into that position, first of all, she had to occupy no official position in South Africa, so one can take, and I think I must just reiterate this with your audience, we are working with the information currently at hand. So mind if we're going to move a bit into not speculation, but the most likely scenarios at play. Went to the US and ended up at the central nuclear energy centre of the United States, which is quite a central economically speaking position for the United States. At that point in time, she did not have access to sensitive information. Okay, let's make that clear. Then there is this whole process of the FBI where you have to go through a clearance process. And this is where the question starts arising. If the report is correct, and if I look at the FBI report… I had a look at the FBI report this morning, she clearly had no qualms about hiding her contact with State Security Agency officials, be it references or be it mentioned. The FBI does refer to certain falsified information that was shared with the FBI. And that is quite serious. I mean, she should have known. If there's one thing in the United States you don't do is when you apply for such a clearance or such a process, you stick to the truth, which tells me, Chris, that she had no, or …she had very little training..if we are going to start talking about a type of a covert agent. Remember, she has not been charged under a foreign espionage act. It's two other acts at play in the United States and that is critical and that explains the light sentence that she actually got. Because of course, if it was for foreign espionage, it would have been much, much harsher. So my eyes at this point are not so much on her, but the person handling her.Jasmine Opperman (03:09.41)For me, that speaks of and pathetic operational management of such type of sources. And this is where my concern lies at this point.Chris Steyn (03:25.985)Well, for some or other reason the FBI had this agent, this State Security Agency official under surveillance and they picked up that he was meeting with her on a regular basis. At some point she left a meeting with a computer, a laptop, and then the FBI intercepted her on her way to another meeting and retrieved that laptop. S, Jasmine, you spent over twenty years in…Chris Steyn (03:55.444)…South African intelligence services. Do you know whether declared agents in the States are routinely under surveillance by the FBI? And that that is how this could have been picked up?Jasmine Opperman (04:07.67)Let me just make a distinction here. If you are going as a declared member in a diplomatic mission, you are under surveillance. You will be under surveillance. You will be tracked. There is no two ways about it, depending which state you go to.I am starting and I was playing around with scenarios before our podcast that she was contacted by someone in the embassy and I could be wrong, but that is most plausible. How can you ask a person working at that energy facility to meet you at a coffee house with your laptop? It does not make sense. That's the last thing you will do.Thirdly, if this was the case that a declared member of SSA has picked her up, why was this not communicated back to SSA in South Africa, handed over to the appropriate people?Because you must remember the moment you go into covert recruitment, there are four factors at play. They call it the MICE paradigm, M-I-C-E. Okay, the first one is money. I do not think money has played such a big role. Yeah, I think what played a role in her case that made her vulnerable could have been her ideology, could have been her commitment to South Africa, because although there are not a lot of social media postings, those that are there, and I had a look at them this morning, that say clearly that she's committed to South Africa, she wants the best for South Africa, Bob’s your uncle for the handler. You can move in and you can use that to your advantage. Financially, I do not have a financial position. I don't want to speculate on that because of your audience. But if I look at the profile of what I have, if I look at her lifestyle and being in the United States,Jasmine Opperman (06:22.806)…I do not foresee that any financial gains would have convinced that to go this far. But my question remains, how did the operator think in making these calls I have just listed? It just smacks of anything against intelligence trade craft. It is unacceptable.Chris Steyn (06:49.867)Hm. I was astonished that he had sent a message or told her to remember to bring the laptop.Jasmine Opperman (06:57.326)That and meeting in a public place. You are a declared member. Now you are. Let's say it was someone from the embassy or let's say it was someone else. Why still meet at a public place knowing full well because you remember the value here is her access and where she works and you want to protect that.And for any country now, energy is a critical factor. So taking a laptop with and then meeting in a public place is exposing both her and the handler. And I'm telling you now the FBI will have photos of that meeting that has taken place between the two of them.Chris Steyn (07:44.651)Hm. Regular meetings apparently. Now he was identified in court documents as 10-1. Apparently he was stationed at the embassy in Washington.Jasmine Opperman (07:50.484)Yes, yes.Jasmine Opperman (07:54.543)There we go. There we go. And that then brings us back. If you are stationed as an intelligence officer, you do not become a diplomat. You remain an intelligence officer. Yes, you have to see people. Yes, you have to meet people. But these contacts must be open. Call it journalists, call it experts, call it professors, people that will not raise red flags. And here comes the person, takes this step, and now the focus shifts completely. The other scenario, I am, and please again, I'm playing with scenarios, plausible scenarios. Is this the ideal situation that the Trump government has been waiting for? To heat up mudsling South Africa yet again with another case. Yes, we had cases in the past. You will know about that. The Zimbabwean five, the three that you can remember, that was one of the biggest cases ever we had. But they are far and few between. They do not happen that frequently. Either they're not reported or we're certainly not aware of them. But this one comes at a very convenient time for politicians in America to say, so you are part of BRICS? You want access now to my energy sensitive information? What is your game plan? It is playing right into the hands. And that's another scenario we cannot ignore.Chris Steyn (09:36.565)Mm. So you mean they might not have made a big deal of it if it had not been politically expedient for Trump?Jasmine Opperman (09:46.413)Yes, irrespective of all…and really these days it's getting to me the anti-pro narrative click-bites running all over. I think one has to be careful. As a professional intelligence officer, be it FBI, be it SSA, whoever is in power is never your focus. It is the interest of the country that is now at play. But the politician will, needless to say, use all intelligence to the benefit of the political party, office position and seeking substantiating for what he has been saying. How he's going to link it to the so-called Genocide, that could be an interesting theory. We know Trump likes to make big jumps and making sweeping statements.Chris Steyn (10:38.869)Make big jumps. Make big jumps between pieces of information.Jasmine Opperman (10:44.078)But I do think the timing here cannot be ignored. And I keep on coming back to this. I think, let's just be honest, the South Africans, look in the State Security Agency, we're going through restructuring. We know that a local structure is gonna be established. I could have the names wrong, bear with me. It's gonna be the South African Intelligence Agency, and then you're going to have the foreign branch, the South African Secret Agency, and then you're going to have a Vetting Department. What astonishes me is that they are going to have, in terms of what I've heard from multiple sources, which I can say is credible, a department only focusing on terrorism. That was quite interesting, and I immediately asked the question, So who is setting our priorities? Is it the Gray Listing or is it the realities we are facing on the ground? I'm not saying terrorism is not. You know how I feel about terrorism. In my analysis, I've shared it all over. People know where I stand. But at the end of the day, I do think, and I'm not saying this negatively against any media house, but I think Daily Maverick should have just taken a step back here and do more proper investigation that it will enable you and I to sit down with far more facts at play which we do not have.Chris Steyn (12:19.381)I I'm just want to go back to her plea deal. She pleaded guilty to acting as an agent for South Africa. She pleaded guilty to supplying false information because when she was asked whether she had had contact with officials from foreign powers in the past seven years, she said no.Jasmine Opperman (12:30.808)That's correct.Jasmine Opperman (12:42.19)We listen to the sentence that was passed. Now, as a Brigadier, it's a senior level. Has there been a liaison with a State Security Agency? Most likely. Or did you refer to being handled as an informant? And this is the distinction we have to make here. Because if I read the article and I look at the research I've done,Jasmine Opperman (13:15.786)I still do not see that information was actually handed over by her to a specific handler, be it in the diplomatic circles or be it in South Africa. And I think that is why she was not, at the end of the day, found guilty on the Foreign Espionage Act because there was simply no evidence available. But I do think the State Security Agency must look beyond the headline here and say, what went wrong here? Who made contact? Who set up the meeting? What was the reason for setting up the meeting? Because when you have a covert, and I'm talking covert agent, and, Chris, recruiting a covert agent is a highly complex issue. They have to live up to a very specific profile. It's not an easy lifestyle. Many people argue…You know…this is not the James Bond idea what we are reading about. We are seeing the opposite here, the harsh realities of intelligence and how it can backfire if your handler has not been trained. I, looking at the State Security Agency, I think this is where we are going to find a few fault lines because I think this is what has happened to her. That she has been picked up by the FBI for other reasons? Yes, no doubt she was already in trouble. But the way the article is presented already accuses her of being a foreign agent. I don't think she was a foreign agent. I don't think her intent was to be a foreign agent, but that she was contacted and now I'm speculating that she believes she did the right thing…Jasmine Opperman (15:22.446)…is most likely at play. But even here as a former Brigadier, she has the right to determine and say, I'm not meeting you here, I'm not bringing my laptop here, I will meet you here, which tells me she has very little understanding on the nature and the operational tactics of being a covert agent. I rather see an access of convenience and opportunity that no one planned for and that was rushed into and that led to where we are today.Chris Steyn (16:01.473)I must say I did pick up a level of naivety here when she contacted individuals she listed as references and told them, I have just gotten information that they have started with interviews. They are sensitive about foreign connections, so please don't mention anything about the embassy.Jasmine Opperman (16:20.972)And that because she knows the moment she is going to say that she has contact with personnel in the foreign intelligence, in diplomatic circles, the FBI will look at whom, will look at, and then if it is the intelligence person, will start investigating that link. And that will then bounce back as an agent.A very simple thing, and I think it's already been done by me, is to look at Bitcoin, is to look at money flows and to see if there were additional payments made to her that she has to account for. I don't know if you have picked it up. I have most definitely not picked it up as you and I are talking now. Is it an option? It has to be investigated.Chris Steyn (17:20.641)Well, we now sit with a former Brigadier General of the South African Air Force in a Federal Prison in the United States. Thank you, Jasmine. That was Jasmine Opperman. Senior Analyst of Fulcrum Analytics, speaking to BizNews, I'm Christine.Jasmine Opperman (17:30.67)Thank you.