5.05.2006
Ex-official Guilty of Spying from Cheney's Office (Reuters.com)
By Christine Kearney
NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - A Philippine-born former White House official pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges that he took top secret documents from Vice President Dick Cheney's office and turned them over to Philippine opposition figures.
Leandro Aragoncillo, 47, faces 15 to 20 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines for his plea on conspiracy, transmission and retention of national defense information and unauthorized use of a computer.
Aragoncillo, a U.S. citizen and former Marine, worked in the White House as administration chief of the security detail assigned to the Vice President from 1999 to 2002 where he held a top security clearance. He later took a job as an intelligence analyst with the FBI in New Jersey.
He admitted in court to passing on documents classified as top secret, secret and confidential that included information relating to terrorist threats against U.S. government interests and military personnel in the Philippines.
Prosecutors called his guilty admission a "plea agreement" but refused to say if he would testify against another defendant in the case, Michael Ray Aquino, a former senior Philippine police intelligence officer accused of taking documents from Aragoncillo.
The case has caused a political scandal in the Philippines because the stolen documents were used by opponents of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to try to oust her.
(More ... Ex-official guilty of spying from Cheney's office | Reuters.com) ¶ 20:28
NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - A Philippine-born former White House official pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges that he took top secret documents from Vice President Dick Cheney's office and turned them over to Philippine opposition figures.
Leandro Aragoncillo, 47, faces 15 to 20 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines for his plea on conspiracy, transmission and retention of national defense information and unauthorized use of a computer.
Aragoncillo, a U.S. citizen and former Marine, worked in the White House as administration chief of the security detail assigned to the Vice President from 1999 to 2002 where he held a top security clearance. He later took a job as an intelligence analyst with the FBI in New Jersey.
He admitted in court to passing on documents classified as top secret, secret and confidential that included information relating to terrorist threats against U.S. government interests and military personnel in the Philippines.
Prosecutors called his guilty admission a "plea agreement" but refused to say if he would testify against another defendant in the case, Michael Ray Aquino, a former senior Philippine police intelligence officer accused of taking documents from Aragoncillo.
The case has caused a political scandal in the Philippines because the stolen documents were used by opponents of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to try to oust her.
(More ... Ex-official guilty of spying from Cheney's office | Reuters.com) ¶ 20:28
