A Pentagon official has been charged with spying for China in a case that has strong links to Taiwan.
The US government alleges that James Wilbur Fondren Jr, 62, was in the thick of an espionage conspiracy.
“The complaint unsealed today alleges that Mr Fondren conspired to steal our nation’s secrets for a foreign government,” FBI Executive Assistant Director Arthur Cummings said.
Fondren retired from active duty as a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force in May 1996. About two years later, he started providing consulting services from his home in Virginia — near the Pentagon — but had only one client.
The client was an old friend from his hometown in Louisiana — a naturalized US citizen from Taiwan called Kuo Tai-shen (郭台生), who was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison last May after pleading guilty to espionage charges in a separate case.
Kuo, the son-in-law of General Xue Yue (薛岳) — a key adviser to dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) — was a prosperous businessman involved in the export-import business with China and who maintained a private office in Beijing.
Court papers show that Kuo opened two companies to win contracts related to US sales of defense technology to Taiwan, but was unsuccessful.
At the same time he cultivated Pentagon contacts, including Fondren, and convinced them he was close to officials with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND), including a three-star general with ambitions to be minister of defense, the papers said.
The papers allege that Kuo told Fondren that the general needed advance information about US weapons sales to Taiwan and about military matters relating to China so that he could promote his political career.
In August 2001, Fondren returned to the Pentagon as a civilian to work as deputy director of the US Pacific Command Washington Liaison Office with a “top secret” security clearance, giving him access to highly classified military documents.
The court papers allege that between November 2004 and February last year, Fondren provided Kuo — through his home-based consulting company — with a long series of what he called “opinion papers” containing classified information about a Chinese military official’s US visit, a US-China naval exercise and US-China military meetings.
The papers say that Kuo paid him between US$350 and US$800 for each paper, but the information was not going to Taiwan. Rather, Kuo was selling it to Kang Yu-xin (康玉新), a Chinese woman living in New Orleans who was passing it on to an official in Chinese intelligence in Beijing.
Meanwhile, US intelligence monitored Fondren’s and Kuo’s communication. They discovered that China had given Fondren a codename — “Fang.”
On one occasion, Kuo urged Fondren to be “very quick” in providing information because “TECRO [Taiwan’s representative office] would soon have the report” and Kuo said he wanted to deliver the information to Taiwanese officials before they received it through official channels.
Court papers said one recording made by US intelligence in Fondren’s home had Kuo talking about the phony Taiwan connection.
Kuo: “See, he, he [a Taiwan general whose name has been removed from the transcript] told me, I this, see, I’m going to see him Monday.”
Fondren: “Yeah.”
Kuo: “In Taiwan. He wants to, he wants to be, he wants to work his way to be a Secretary of Defense for Taiwan.”
Fondren: “Um-hmm.”
Kuo: “MND, that’s what that, that’s what he’s right now he a, the position, they, the position really no power.”
Fondren: “Yeah, right.”
Kuo: “Is more, it’s not civilian position, he’s in Taiwan, the, the, the Secretary of Veteran, Veteran Affairs is not civilian position.”
Fondren: “Right.”
Kuo: “He’s still a three-star general.”
While Fondren was only arrested on Wednesday, he has been on paid leave for more than a year as the investigation was completed.
On Feb. 11 last year Kuo and Kang and US Defense Department employee Gregg William Bergersen — a weapons policy analyst — were arrested on espionage charges.
Bergersen admitted that between March 2007 and February last year he provided Kuo with extensive secret information about US military sales to Taiwan. Again, the information went directly to China.
In March last year, Bergersen was sentenced to 57 months in prison. In May, Kuo was sentenced to 188 months in prison and Kang was sentenced to 18 months. All three pleaded guilty to espionage charges.
If convicted when he goes on trial this summer, Fondren faces up to five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine.
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