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Pentagon Spy: Official Charged in Classified Info Leak to China

by Jarrett Martineau | May 13, 2009 at 09:49 am

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James Fondren Jr, the former deputy director of the Washington liaison office for U.S. Pacific Command at the Department of Defense has been charged with conspiring "to relay classified information to a foreign agent".

Fondren is alleged to have fed this classified info to "an agent for the Chinese government".

Let's call a snitch a snitch and agree to call this what it is: spying.

Authorities say Fondren was involved for years in what spy-hunters call a "false flag" operation _ believing he was feeding information to one government, when in fact his handler was working for another country.

The specifics of the allegations are as follows, according to the Department of Justice:

According the Department of Justice, from Nov. 2004 to Feb. 11, 2008, James Wilbur Fondren, Jr., the employee, "unlawfuly
and knowingly conspired with others" to pass on information to another person he had reason to believe represented a foreign government.

How are American spies prosecuted in this day and age, anyway?

Court papers charge that Fondren, 62, provided information to a friend named Tai Shen Kuo, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Taiwan who lived primarily in Louisiana.

FBI investigators say that unbeknownst to Fondren, Kuo was taking orders from the Chinese government. Officials say Fondren believed the information was being sent to Taiwan.

More background on Fondren's case:

Prosecutors have charged a U.S. Defence Department official with feeding classified information to an agent for the Chinese government.

Officials have unsealed charges in federal court in Virginia against James Fondren, saying he conspired to relay classified information to a foreign agent.

Authorities say Mr. Fondren, 62, believed he was feeding information to the Taiwan government, when in fact the agent was working for China.

Mr. Fondren worked at the Pentagon and is the deputy director of the Washington liaison office for U.S. Pacific Command. He has been on administrative leave since February.