WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2008
U.S. Official Charged With Selling Secrets
Pentagon Analyst Accused Of Passing Info To China, Posing "Serious Threat In Post-Cold War World"
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Kenneth L. Wainstein, Asst. Attorney General for National Security, at a news conference today discussing the arrest of a Defense Department analyst for conspiring to disclose classified information, after allegedly selling defense documents to a go-between for the Chinese government. (CBS)
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Additionally, two immigrants from China and Taiwan accused of working with the defense analyst were arrested after an FBI raid Monday morning on a New Orleans home where one of them lived.
The two cases - based in Alexandria, Va., and Los Angeles - have no connection, and investigators said it was merely a coincidence that charges would be brought against both on the same day.
The arrests mark China's latest attempts to gain top secret information about U.S. military systems and sales, said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein. He described China as "particularly adept, and particularly determined and methodical in their espionage efforts."
"The threat is very simple," Wainstein said at a Justice Department news conference in Washington. "It's a threat to our national security and to our economic position in the world, a threat that is posed by the relentless efforts of foreign intelligence services to penetrate our security systems and steal our most sensitive military technology and information."
An official at the Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the first case, prosecutors said weapons systems policy analyst Gregg W. Bergersen, 51, of Alexandria, Va., sold classified defense information to a New Orleans furniture salesman. In return, the salesman, a Taiwan native identified as Tai Kuo, a 58-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, forwarded the information to the Chinese government.
The data outlined every planned U.S. sale of weapons or other military technology to Taiwan for the next five years, prosecutors said.
It's not clear how much money Bergersen received for the classified information, or if he was even aware it was intended for the Chinese government. Court documents portray him as nervous during at least one meeting when he handed over a diskette of documents to be recorded, asking Kuo to keep their deal a secret.
"I'd go to jail, I don't wanna go to jail," Bergersen said in a conversation taped by the FBI.
"I'd probably go to jail, too," Kuo responded. Prosecutors described him as chuckling.
A third alleged conspirator in the case, Chinese national Yu Xin Kang, 33, served as the go-between for Kuo and the People's Republic of China, prosecutors say.
Kuo and Bergersen, who worked at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency in Arlington, Va., were arraigned before Magistrate Judge John Anderson at the federal courthouse in Alexandria. Bergersen was charged with conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Bergersen, who was arrested at his home early Monday, wore a long black T-shirt and blue shorts. His wife, who identified herself only as Ofelia, told reporters Bergersen was innocent and the charges "came out of the blue."
Tai Kuo was charged with conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government. He faces life in prison if convicted. Kang was to appear in federal court in New Orleans, facing the same charges as Kuo.
In the second, unrelated case, former Boeing engineer Dongfan "Greg" Chung, 72, was arrested on charges of working as an unregistered agent for the Chinese government who stole trade secrets from the defense contractor. The stolen data largely focused on aerospace programs, including the Space Shuttle, prosecutors said.
Chung, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was indicted last week on espionage, conspiracy and obstructing justices charges that were unsealed Monday. He has been the subject of an FBI investigation for nearly a year as part of an inquiry into another Chinese-born engineer who was convicted in 2007 of stealing military data for the Chinese government.
As early as 1979, prosecutors said, Chinese officials were tasking Chung to collect data on U.S. aviation, including the Space Shuttle and various military and civilian aircraft. At one point, Chung responded in a letter that he wanted to "contribute to the motherland," according to the Justice Department.
Over an 18-year span, Chung traveled to China many times to deliver lectures on the Space Shuttle and other programs, and he allegedly met with Chinese government officials there to discuss how to transfer U.S. data.
Chung, who has a security clearance, worked for contractor Rockwell International from 1973 until 1996, when Boeing acquired Rockwell's defense and space firm. He retired from Boeing in 2002 but returned the next year as a contractor. He ultimately left Boeing in 2006.
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Add a Comment See all 170 Comments
"I''d go to jail, I don''t wanna go to jail," Bergersen said in a conversation taped by the FBI.
Well, Mr. Bergersen, perhaps you should have thought that through before you sold us out. You had a good job in the Pentagon - at age 51 you were probably a GS-14 making over $100k. You had it made, you moron. In four years, you could have retired. You probably have over $300k in the thrift savings plan plus your FERS.
The fact this jerk committed a crime becomes a magnet for election whining and name calling and not focusing on his breaking the law and selling out our country? What is wrong with you people???? (Sorry, he is not yet convicted; bet if he was selling gum drops , fear of prison would not have been part of the conversation - but that would involve a thought process.)
This is what we get when we have a nation of people constantly whining about anything and everything and obsessed with what kind of underwear teen aged pop stars wear. Who cares!?!?!?
Conservatives and liberals - you are all part of the same nightmare. Would both of you whining groups just get on a barge and leave this great country of ours so the rest of us can live decent and fulfilling lives in peace?
By the way, of course we have spies and if they get caught, we expect them to pay the price and so should they. Blog sites certainly provide insight into the lack of cranial [critical] mass in the modern U.S.- Reply to this comment
- Just wait until the Clintonistas try and seel this away from him via secret delagates at the convention.
What would you call that? Lib on Lib crime?
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Posted by hillaryin08 at 09:23 AM : Feb
I thought you favored Hillary. - Reply to this comment
- Ironic, that US citizens sell out their own country, but China is the party vilified for buying the secret information.
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Posted by brianbwb at 12:58 AM : Feb 12, 2008
+ report abuse
Duh!! as they say it takes two to tango - Reply to this comment
- That is not funny you left wing poor excuse for an american
Posted by scottyusa at 07:58 AM : Feb 12, 2008
I find nothing funny about this either!! - Reply to this comment
- Well, sorry but the people in Anwar don''''t want drilling on those lands...Posted by RowdyTexan2
BS. They welcome it and why not, it''s good for their economy and frees us from our dependence on foreign oil. Drilling does nothing bad to anyone or any animal. Mark my word, a dem becomes president, we''ll start drilling in Anwar. The dems want the credit. - Reply to this comment
- several posters here suggest we should stop trading with China, and helping their economy! Actually, it''s been the other way around with the Bush administration! We have borrowed close to one Trillion dollars from China! How do you think the war in Iraq & Afghanistan are being funded? Whoever gets elected as our next President is going to have that huge debt to deal with.
- Reply to this comment
- ,......is it just me or isn''''t that what Darth and Shrub have been doing for years???,......Posted by veteran71
No, you''re confused...it was Clinton who did that. - Reply to this comment
- Obama Looks To Ride Wave Of Momentum
Ahead Of 3 Tuesday Primaries, Clinton Dismisses Talk That Her Campaign Is In Trouble
Just wait until the Clintonistas try and seel this away from him via secret delagates at the convention.
What would you call that? Lib on Lib crime? - Reply to this comment
- "These so called "spies", apparently did not make the appropriate kick back payments on time to Bush/Cheney and needed to be taught a lesson." Posted by JohnShaft4
It wasn''t the kickbacks, these guys were muscling in on Bush''s and Cheney''s turf. Bush originally wanted to sell those secrets to Russia. - Reply to this comment
- These so called "spies", apparently did not make the appropriate kick back payments on time to Bush/Cheney and needed to be taught a lesson.
Posted by JohnShaft4 at
That is not funny you left wing poor excuse for an american - Reply to this comment
- NO one should have secrets at all. We should have gone global long ago.
It looks dumb for all countries to have secrets. We are on a relatively small planet together. Creating countries to be private clubs with the main goal being money and power has proved to be extremely damaging to all live species. - Reply to this comment
- These so called "spies", apparently did not make the appropriate kick back payments on time to Bush/Cheney and needed to be taught a lesson.
- Reply to this comment
- Ironic, that US citizens sell out their own country, but China is the party vilified for buying the secret information.
- Reply to this comment
- Put him in an orange jumpsuit and send him off to Guantanamo for years of enhanced interrogation methods ("we don''t torture")!
Then 6 years later bring him to trial, but not necessarily in a US court--despite him being a US citizen. Just give him a "fair trial followed by a fair hangin''!" Put a black hood over his head, write neocon on it and drop him through the floor at the end of a noose! - Reply to this comment
- U.S. Official Charged With Selling Secrets
Pentagon Analyst Accused Of Passing Info To China, Posing "Serious Threat In Post-Cold War World"
This whole Neocon regime is starting to remind me of a bad movie, like Kill Bill or something. - Reply to this comment
- And state government is not going to anything about the immigration neither . . . their manufacturing business help smuggle illegals in the state. Haven''t you noticed, some states have a concenrated ethic preference . . . some states have mostly mexican . . . some have states (racist Mayors) have polish illegals . . . some have states (wealthy) and slave indonesians. We have regular Rome here, the U.S. Constitution is just a piece of paper according to the Bushwacker.
- Reply to this comment
- Today''''s rampant corruption that sweeps across the U.S. government opens a cancer of greed, deceiption and betrayal. Spying is only a offspring of this deterioating government leadership, its b*i*t*c*h jackels are harboring in the White House.
- Reply to this comment
- he should be figuring out how to remove the 20 million plus illegal immigrants from our country....he would be a hero if he did...
Posted by jeff92706
Heck, he is not going to do a thing about that. Immigrantion labor is a state concern. The bushwacker only concerned is making cheap labor available to rich monopolies. That wall on the border is such a joke. - Reply to this comment
- Posted by pilgrimsway,
You have a monkey on your back. You have a drunkard, drugy, paranoid maniac in the White House. The Bushwacker is doing the Japanese Encampment routine, but he resembles the psycho-Hitler control freak.
More than likely, he''ll hire cheap mexican labor for prison guards. - Reply to this comment
- There is no conspiracy that Muslims would want to hurt our country! There are no cells in America planning our demise! There is no one they would rather, not Dan, see in the presidents chair that has roots to them. This is a gentle world. Not a world of reality with underlings and minions trying to overthrow our government! Why we would be considered a racist to think this way!
- Reply to this comment
