| Anyone surprised by this? China is doing everything it can to penetrate our military, intel and political spheres. |
A mid-level Pentagon official working for U.S. Pacific Command now faces criminal charges in an ongoing espionage investigation for allegedly providing classified information to an agent of the Chinese government. James Fondren served as the Deputy Director of Pacific Command's liaison office and had a long friendship with Tai Shen Kuo, who was arrested and charged last year for passing sensitive information onto Chinese military and intelligence officials.
Fondren and Kuo were both friends and business associates. Prior to working at the Pentagon as a civilian, Fondren served as a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Air Force and retired in 1996. Two years later, according to the criminal complaint, Fondren established a consulting company in Virginia whose sole client was Kuo, a naturalized US citizen from Taiwan who lived in Louisiana and ran two companies in the United States.
Kuo is also linked to Gregg Bergersen, a former policy analyst at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. Kuo and Bergersen were arrested last February on espionage charges. Bergersen was accused of providing information on weapon sales to Taiwan and passing military communications security information to Kuo. Bergersen pleaded guilty to disclosing national defense information in March 2008 and was sentenced to 57 months in prison. Kuo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to disclosing national defense information a year ago and is currently serving a 15-year prison term. |