Espionage

Here is Jerry Markon’s take, in the Washington Post, on the DOJ’s decision to drop charges against Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, formerly of AIPAC. According to Rosen, the criminal case was pushed by government officials “who have an obsession with leaks . . . and an obsession with Israel and the theory that it spies on America.” The theory that Israel spies on America? Let’s not go overboard, Steven. Defense attorneys praised the new Administration’s willingness to evaluate cases on the merits, but law enforcement sources said that EDVA prosecutors made the ultimate call.

The Wall Street Journal reports here that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia has dropped all criminal charges against former AIPAC employees Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman. They had been accused of passing classified national security information to Israeli sources. AIPAC is a well-known pro-Israel lobby group. DOJ officials cited an intervening appellate decision which increased their burden of proof.

In Alexandria, Virginia on Friday, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema sentenced Tai Shen Kuo of New Orleans to 188 months in prison for his role in passing classified national defense information about Taiwan from a to an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China during the period from March 2007 to February 2008. Kuo, a Taiwanese-born US citizen, pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government. He solicited the information from Gregg Bergersen, a former weapons systems policy analyst at an agency within the Department of Defense who had a top-secret clearance; the DOJ press release states that Kuo “led Bergersen to believe that he would make Bergersen a part owner or an employee of a company selling US defense technology to Taiwan after Bergersen’s retirement from government service.” Kuo then used Yu Xin Kang, a Chinese citizen and resident alien, as an intermediary to pass the information to the unregistered Chinese agent. Bergersen was sentenced in July to 57 months in prison. Kang was sentenced to 18 months in prison on August 1.

In Alexandria, Virginia on Friday, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema sentenced Yu Xin Kang of New Orleans to 18 months in prison for aiding and abetting an unregistered foreign agent. Kang, a Chinese citizen and resident alien, pleaded guilty in May, admitting that she acted as an intermediary in passing classified national defense information about Taiwan from a New Orleans businessman to an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China during the period from March 2007 to February 2008. The documents originated with Gregg Bergersen, a former DoD analyst who was sentenced to 57 months in prison on July 11 (earlier). He passed the classified documents to Tai Shen Kuo of New Orleans, a Taiwanese-born US citizen, who passed them to Kang. Kuo also pleaded guilty in May and faces a possible life sentence; he will be sentenced on August 8 (APF, DOJ).

In Alexandria, Virginia on Friday, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema sentenced Gregg Bergersen of Alexandria to 57 months in prison for conspiracy to disclose national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it. Bergersen, a former weapons systems policy analyst at an agency within the Department of Defense who had a top-secret clearance, pleaded guilty on March 31. He admitted passing classified national defense information about Taiwan to a Taiwanese-born US citizen, Tai Shen Kuo of New Orleans. He was unaware that Kuo was passing the information to Yu Xin Kang, also of New Orleans, and that she was passing the information to an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China. Kuo and Kang pleaded guilty in May and will be sentenced in August (Reuters via WaPo, DOJ).

A Presidential Administration is winding down and the quadrennial drum-roll for the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard is upon us. Yesterday’s Washington Post detailed the latest efforts of Pollard’s friends, including the Israeli government, to secure Pollard’s freedom. The short story carried the usual abbreviated rehash of the Pollard case, noting the severe harm he caused to U.S. intelligence and the lame-ass excuses of his supporters. What I found interesting was the detail that President Bush, on his trip to Israel, dined with, among others, Rafi Eitan, Pollard’s one-time Israeli intellligence handler in Washington and an un-indicted co-conspirator in the case. Eitan left Washington in a hurry at the time of Pollard’s arrest and is barred from entering our country. Although Eitan was never tried, and is innocent until proven guilty, the Israeli government admitted in 1998 that Pollard was its spy and there is really no dispute that Eitan aided and abetted Pollard’s espionage. Yes, I know, Eitan is an Israeli Cabinet Minister. In that sense it was perfectly normal for him to have been at what I assume was a state dinner. But it stills sticks in my craw that the President of the United States was seated at the table with somebody identified by our own government as a co-conspirator in one of the major spy scandals of recent history.