A former United States marine and naturalised US citizen from the Philippines breached security at the White House and allegedly used his top-secret clearances to steal classified documents from Vice-President Dick Cheney’s office, ABC News reported.
The network said on Wednesday that Leandro Aragoncillo (46) worked undetected at the White House for almost three years before leaving to take a job with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was arrested last month and accused of downloading more than 100 classified documents from FBI computers.
Officials told ABC the classified material that Aragoncillo stole included damaging dossiers on Philippine President Gloria Arroyo. They were allegedly passed on to opposition politicians planning a coup in the Pacific nation.
The FBI and CIA are calling it the first case of espionage at the White House in modern history, according to ABC.
The White House referred reporters to the FBI, but confirmed an investigation had been launched.
”No comment, all questions have to be addressed to the FBI, it’s a pending investigation and the White House will do its best to cooperate,” said deputy White House spokesperson Trent Duffy.
In Manila, the Philippine government said the matter was an internal US affair and declined comment.
”We consider it as the business of the US government and we are not making any further comment,” Arroyo spokesperson Ignacio Bunye said.
Officials are trying to figure out how Aragoncillo got his job at the White House in 1999, and when he started spying, ABC said.
The former marine worked on the staff of then vice-president Al Gore in 2000 and told friends he also worked with former president Bill Clinton and with Condoleezza Rice when she was national security adviser, the network said.
”Even though it’s not for the Russians or some other government, the fact that it occurred at the White House is a matter of great concern,” John Martin, the government’s lead espionage prosecutor for 26 years, was quoted as saying.
”Of course, it is a source of embarrassment when you find out that this kind of activity has been carried out literally right under your nose.”
The former marine’s alleged spying is suspected of being part of opposition attempts to gain information to bring down Arroyo’s government.
Deposed Philippine president Joseph Estrada admitted last month receiving information from Aragoncillo.
Estrada, who is under house arrest while facing corruption charges in the Philippines, said Aragoncillo visited him in detention and had passed on some documents on the Philippine political situation. The transfers apparently occurred between mid-2001 and 2003.
In July 2004, Aragoncillo began working as an FBI intelligence analyst at its Fort Monmouth Information Technology Centre in New Jersey, according to a criminal complaint released by the US Justice Department in September.
The complaint alleges that he used an FBI database to obtain classified documents about the Philippines and used personal e-mail accounts to send them to individuals in the Philippines, including former and current public officials, from January to September 2005.
Michael Ray Aquino, a former official with the Philippines National Police arrested in March for overstaying a tourist visa, was charged alongside Aragoncillo with ”acting as unregistered agents of a foreign official and passing classified information to that official and others in the Republic of the Philippines”.
Aquino is a known protégé of opposition leader Senator Panfilo Lacson, who has been active in opposition efforts to oust Arroyo.
Both Estrada and Lacson have been actively calling for the ouster of Arroyo, who has been embroiled in her own political scandal stemming from opposition allegations that she cheated to win the May 2004 elections.
Since his arrest, Aragoncillo has been cooperating with police, according to ABC. ”He has admitted to spying while working on the staff of Vice-President Cheney’s office,” the network said. – AFP
