A former aide to US Secretary of State Colin Powell was seen passing documents to Taiwanese intelligence agents and has been charged with concealing a trip to Taiwan, leading US dailies said yesterday.
Donald Keyser, who retired in July as the principal deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, was followed Sept. 4 by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents to a Washington restaurant where he was seen handing over some documents to two Taiwanese agents.
The documents were described by court papers filed Wednesday in Virginia as something "derived from material to which Keyser had access as a result of his employment with the Department of State."
The Washington Post and The New York Times said the court documents did not mention Keyser accepting any money for the documents, which he told FBI agents contained "talking points" that he often would prepare for his meetings.
Keyser was not charged with spying in the court papers but with violating State Department rules by failing to disclose a side trip he took to Taiwan last year during a visit to China and Japan.
Keyser, who advised Powell on China issues, allegedly met one of the agents in Taipei in September, the papers said.
Keyser, who after retiring from the number two position in the East Asia bureau last year was assigned to the department's Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia, made the news in 2000 over a missing laptop computer.
Meanwhile, the government yesterday dismissed allegations that two Taiwanese intelligence agents were involved in the case.
Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (
"The bilateral interactions and exchanges between the two countries have been sound, open and transparent," he said. "We'll fully cooperate with the US government in its endeavor to solve the case."
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