Pentagon official involved in Chinese espionage ring

A US defense department official with "top secret" security clearance who was working with the Pentagon has ben charged for selling classified information to China, although he believed that the information was intended for Taiwan.

Fondren turned himself in to federal agents yesterday and if convicted, faces a maximum five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

US officials filed a criminal complaint yesterday in the Eastern District of Virginia alleging that, during November 2004 to February 2008, James Wilbur Fondren, Jr., an employee of the Defense Department, unlawfully and knowingly conspired with others to pass on classified information to China.

Fondren, 62, had high security clearance and was working at the Pentagon as the deputy director for the Washington Liaison Office of the US Pacific Command.

According to the US officials, Fondren had ben involved for four years involved in a "false flag" operation, a term used in the intelligence community for an agent of a country passing on classified information or documents to a government, while the recipient is actually a third country.

"Today's case is the result of an outstanding long-term counterespionage effort by many agents, analysts and prosecutors that has thus far yielded three convictions," said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. "The conduct alleged in this complaint should serve as a warning to others in government who would compromise classified information and betray the trust placed in them by the American people."

"The allegations in this case are troubling, providing classified information to a foreign agent of the People's Republic of China is a real and serious threat to our national security," said Dana J. Boente, Acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. "The US government places considerable trust in those given access to classified information, and we are committed to prosecuting those who abuse that trust."

The FBI's Washington Field Office along with assistance of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations carried out the counterespionage operation.

Fondren had retired from active duty as a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force and later, began providing consulting services from his Virginia home. Fondren's sole client for his business was a friend by the name of Tai Shen Kuo, who was a naturalised US citizen from Taiwan.

Tai Shen Kuo lived primarily in Louisiana and maintained business interests in the US as well as China by having an office there.

Fondren became a civilian employee at PACOM at the Pentagon, where he was again granted a security clearance by the government. He held a top secret security clearance, worked in a sensitive compartmented information facility, and had a classified and unclassified computer at his cubicle.

Even after he began working at PACOM in 2001, Fondren continued to provide consulting services for Kuo.

Fondren, however did not know that Kuo was handled by a Chinese government official, who provided Kuo with detailed instructions to collect certain documents and information from Fondren and other US government officials, including Gregg William Bergersen, a former weapons policy analyst at the Arlington, Va.-based Defense Security Cooperation Agency in the Defense Department.

Fondren was under the impression that Kuo was passing on the information to Taiwan, where the US has military as well as intelligence sharing system.

Kuo had also introduced his Chinese handler to Fondren in March 1999, describing him to Fondren as a political researcher and consultant to the Chinese government. Fondren maintained periodic email correspondence with the Chinese handler and while Fondren was aware of Kuo's relationship with the Chinese handler, he was not aware of the Chinese handler's official's precise status in China.

Fondren provided Kuo with certain defense department documents and other information, some of which Fondren obtained from classified online systems available to him by virtue of his employment at the Pentagon. Fondren incorporated Defense Department information, including classified information, into "opinion papers" that he sold to Kuo for between $350 and $800 apiece through Fondren's home-based consulting business. Eight of the "papers" Fondren sold to Kuo contained classified information. Fondren also provided Kuo with sensitive, but unclassified Defense Department publications.

Fondren allegedly also provided Kuo with a variety of sensitive data, including classified information from a State Department cable, classified information about a Chinese military official's US visit, classified information about a joint US-China naval exercise, and classified information regarding US-China military meetings.

In one instance, Fondren provided Kuo with a draft defense department report on the China's military and stated to Kuo, "This is the report I didn't want you to talk about over the phone….Let people find out I did that, it will cost me my job."

In 2008, Kuo and former defense department employee, Gregg William Bergersen, were arrested on espionage charges. On the day of his arrest, Kuo was staying as a guest in Fondren's Virginia home and had among his possessions a draft, unclassified copy of a defense department document entitled "The National Military Strategy of the United States of America 2008."

During interrogation by the FBI, Fondren admitted that he gave the draft National Military Strategy report to Kuo.

Bergersen pleaded guilty for passing on information of US military sales to Taiwan, which was classified as secret and was later sentenced to 57 months in prison.

In 2008, Kuo also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 188 months in prison, but he had admitted in the court that he had cultivated a friendship with Bergersen, bestowing on him gifts, cash payments, dinners, and money for gambling trips to Las Vegas.

Also convicted was Yu Xin Kang, an accomplice of Kuo and was a conduit for delivering information to the Chinese handler. Yu Xin Kang, who had pleaded guilty was sentenced to 18 months in prison.