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Man pleads guilty in espionage case

A former US defense official pleaded guilty in a US federal district court on Monday in a spy case involving a Taiwanese-American's alleged efforts to pass secrets to China on US arms sales to Taiwan covering vital defense systems.

Gregg Bergersen, 51, pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to disclose national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it. He could face 10 years in prison.

Bergersen stands accused of passing the defense secrets to Kuo Tai-sheng (郭台生), 58, a Taiwan-born naturalized US citizen who allegedly passed the information to a Chinese-American woman, Kang Yu-xin (康玉新), for delivery to an undisclosed Chinese official based in Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

Kuo is a son-in-law of Xue Yue (薛岳), a Chinese nationalist general who was a close associate of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).

In a fact sheet presented to court, it appeared that Bergersen may have believed the US military secrets were intended for the Ministry of National Defense (MND) in Taipei, rather than China, because Kuo led him to believe that.

Nevertheless, the unauthorized passing of secret information to any country is illegal in the US.

A Department of Justice (DOJ) affidavit filed with the northern Virginia federal court when the trio was arrested on Feb. 11 said the most potentially damaging information Bergersen passed to Kuo involved the Po Sheng, or "Broad Victory," air defense system inaugurated by the ministry in 2003.

Bergersen allegedly passed information to Kuo on the system's crucial C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) components.

Ministry officials said they did not think the Po Sheng program was compromised.

In its affidavit after the trio were arrested in February, the FBI referred in passing to a request by Bergersen to meet Taiwanese defense attaches in Washington, but the document did not reach conclusions on the matter.

In the latest fact sheet, the DOJ tells of a dinner at an Arlington, Virginia, restaurant on March 3 last year to discuss the Po Sheng system.

During the dinner, Bergersen allegedly told Kuo about the system and "requested that Kuo share the information with Taiwanese officials, and asked Kuo to arrange a meeting with Taiwan Ministry of Defense [sic] officials."

Bergersen "knew" that his statements to Kuo contained "information pertaining to the national defense of the United States and classified at the secret level," the DOJ said.

He also “had reason to believe that his unlawful disclosure of this information could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign government,” the department said.

When Bergersen warned Kuo to be careful with the information, Kuo responded that he was “just gonna tell them,” a reference to Taiwanese officials, the department said.

“As Bergersen well knew,” the fact sheet said, “Kuo maintained relationships with various officials from the Taiwan Ministry of Defense. However, Bergersen was unaware that Kuo also maintained contact with foreign officials of the PRC [People’s Republic of China], to whom Kuo would provide sensitive United States government information provided by Bergersen, including classified national defense information.”

It is still not completely clear whether Kuo simply deceived Bergersen, or whether the MND was somehow involved, and, if so, who was involved.

“Much of the information pertained to US military sales to Taiwan and was classified at the secret level,” a justice department news release said. “During the course of the conspiracy, Kuo cultivated a friendship with Bergersen, bestowing him with gifts, cash payments, dinners and money for gambling during trips to Los Vegas.”

Until his resignation last week, Bergersen was a weapons system policy analyst with the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, a Pentagon unit that coordinates weapons sales to Taiwan and other countries. He is also suspected of passing on information to Kuo on secret five year plans of US arms sales to Taiwan, which, the affidavit said, could give China valuable information about long-term US-Taiwan military cooperation and strategy.

The secret information contained the quantity, dollar value and names of the weapons systems, which “could be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of a foreign nation,” the fact sheet said.

“That’s hard stuff to get,” Bergersen was quoted as saying in response to Kuo’s request in a telephone call, the US fact sheet said.

“I’ll check into it,” he was quoted as saying

Kuo and Kang remain behind bars; Kuo is in Virginia and Kang in New Orleans. Neither has been indicted or formally charged, and the court has set an April 18 deadline for the US to return an indictment. Both have pleaded not guilty.

In a court appearance on Feb. 15, Kuo was denied bail and ordered to remain in custody. The court found that Kuo had damaging information “in his head” and could not be monitored sufficiently 24 hours a day to prevent that information on Taiwanese military matters being secretly passed on to China.

Kang has also been denied bond.

Kuo and Kang are named in a case separate from Bergersen’s. They are charged with a conspiracy to deliver material defense information to China, charges that carry maximum terms of life imprisonment.
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