Update: ABC News has a disturbing look at the security situation in the White House. Question: how, four years after 9/11, do we wind up with the "first case of espionage inside the White House in modern history?" Aragoncillo worked inside the White House for three years, spanning the Clinton and Bush administrations, though the alleged spying took place after he was assigned to Dick Cheney's office, and the stolen info may even have come from the vice president's computer. Incredibly, in 2005, Aragoncillo was foolish enough to think he could get away with transferring the classified contraband by email... If security inside the White House is that bad, think what that means for the country...
Oh, yeah, and former defense analyst Larry Franklin spied for the Israelis.
Original post, 10:13 a.m.: The case of alleged spy Leandro Aragoncillo, a Phillipino-American former Marine, just got dicier. It seems the onetime FBI analysts, already accused, along with another man, Michael Aquino, of passing classified information from the FBI, CIA and State Department to the former president of the Phillippines (with possible coup implications) may have downloaded some of the contraband info from Vice President Cheney's computer. Says WaPo:
Joseph Estrada, the former Philippine president who was forced from office four years ago by mass demonstrations, has acknowledged receiving documents from Aragoncillo while the suspect was still in the Marines. Estrada told a Philippine newspaper last month that Aragoncillo had passed material while visiting him at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Manila, where the former president was receiving treatment while being held on corruption charges from 2001 through 2003. Part of that stay would coincide with Aragoncillo's time in Cheney's office.
Estrada, who remains under house arrest, said in a statement published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the information was "non-classified" and that he was unaware of any illegal activity by Aragoncillo.
"Why would they include me in that mess? I know nothing about issues involving him," Estrada told the newspaper.
The prosecutions of Aragoncillo and Aquino have ignited a political firestorm in the Philippines, and officials from the two countries say the United States is now caught in a feud between President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and rivals attempting to force her from office.
The blog Inside PCIJ has a lot more on the Aquino/Aragoncillo case, including the actual DOJ filings (more on that here) and details about the apparent lead man in the reputed spy ring, Aquino:
FBI investigation also revealed that Aragoncillo transmitted classified information 17 times via email, phone and SMS (text messages) to Aquino and still unnamed Philippine public officials.
If found guilty, Aquino faces a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment and $500,000-fine, while Aragoncillo will assume an additional maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and $250,000.
Aquino was a chief inspector of the defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC) headed by then Vice Pres. Joseph Estrada. When the PACC was disbanded to form the now also defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), he was promoted as senior superintendent. During his stint as a PACC agent, Aquino was implicated in five bank robberies and the Kuratong Baleleng rubout case, along with his superior, erstwhile chief superintendent (now senator) Panfilo Lacson, and 32 other police officials. The case was dismissed by a Quezon City trial court judge in 2003.
An American of Filipino descent, Aragoncillo was a graduate of the College of Commerce and Accountancy of the University of Santo Tomas. He was among nine alumni recognized as outstanding Thomasians during the college’s 71st anniversary celebration in 2004.
Reports in September said that the Philippine government was preparing to hand over three of its politicians for U.S. prosecution, and there are a number of subplots to this story, including the scandal-plagued presidency of current Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, who was forced to apologize for campaign irreguarities earlier this year, the Philippines own internal war on terror, which has bonded Arroyo's government to that of George W. Bush, and a not-so-subtle chorus of anti-U.S. feeling percolating inside yet another U.S. ally, where some people are asking, what was the U.S. government doing gathering damaging information about a supposedly friendly government?
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
