Two Men Are Charged With Passing Secrets to Philippines

New York Times ^ | September 13, 2005 | RONALD SMOTHERS

[SJackson]

NEWARK, Sept. 12 - A Federal Bureau of Investigation intelligence analyst and a former top Philippines law enforcement official were charged in federal court on Monday with espionage.

Arrested were the F.B.I. analyst, Leandro Aragoncillo, 46, of Woodbury, N.J., a naturalized United States citizen who was born in the Philippines, and Michael Ray Aquino, 39, of Queens, a former deputy director of the Philippines National Police under the government of the former president Joseph Estrada. The two men are accused of passing classified agency information to government officials in Manila in a case that appeared related to the Philippines' fractious internal politics.

According to affidavits by F.B.I. agents, Mr. Aragoncillo passed copies of classified F.B.I. documents about the Philippines to Mr. Aquino between February and August of this year by way of cellphone text messages and e-mail messages through Hotmail and Yahoo accounts

[samadams2000]

Nearest tree....

[Sabramerican]

I'll be looking out for a breathless Lesley Stahl.

[SJackson]

Kudu's for being the only Freeper interested in this when it broke.

DRUDGE ABCNEWS: UNPRECEDENTED SECURITY BREACH; SPY AT WHITE HOUSE!

[McGavin999]

Well, this is a little different from what is being touted about this guy. They made it sound like he was stealing from the WH computer while he worked for Cheney.

[SJackson]

It's espionage.

I simply found it interesting that this thread gets no attention, todays, which implicates the White House, quite a bit, a lot of it deflection. A lot of the interest seems to center around who's ox is being gored, or who one can gore.

Just an observation, and I'm not accusing you of disinterest. DRUDGE ABCNEWS: UNPRECEDENTED SECURITY BREACH; SPY AT WHITE HOUSE!

[aBootes]

I believe that he has begun to cooperate with the investigation and that the WH spying is self-admitted.

[McGavin999]

Ah, that does make a difference. This guy has apparently been spying for quite awhile then.

[McGavin999]

Since this has become public, I would be willing to bet that everyone in the WH has now undergone a second background check. Tradition allows for a lot of people to remain from one administration to the next, perhaps this tradition should either stop or include a fresh background check prior to remaining on staff.

What is troubling to me is that he was a Marine. He has not only brought discredit to himself, but to the Corps. A fit punishment for him would be to turn him over to the Marines.

[george wythe]

Press release dated Sep 12, 2005 by the Us Department of Justice

Aragoncillo is the same guy who worked both at the White House from 1999 to 2002 and at the FBI from 2004 to 2005

[SJackson]

What is troubling to me is that he was a Marine. He has not only brought discredit to himself, but to the Corps. A fit punishment for him would be to turn him over to the Marines.

Turn him over informally, I'd agree.