Pentagon Analyst Pleads Guilty in China Spying Case

Guilty Plea in China Spy Case

Matthew Barakat | Primetime Politics 0 Comments Discuss

Pentagon Analyst Pleads Guilty in China Government Spying Case

MATTHEW BARAKAT, AP News


A Defense Department analyst pleaded guilty Monday to charges alleging
he gave classified information about U.S. and Taiwanese military
communications systems to a businessman working with the Chinese
government.



Gregg Bergersen, a weapons analyst at the Defense Security
Cooperation Agency who held top secret security clearances, was
arrested last month. Prosecutors alleged he divulged military secrets
to a New Orleans furniture salesman, Tai Kuo, who turned over the
information to the Chinese government.



Bergersen, 51, of Alexandria, pleaded guilty Monday to a single
count of conspiring to communicate national defense information to a
person not entitled to receive it. He faces up to 10 years in prison
when sentenced on June 20.



The government says Bergersen received thousands of dollars in cash
from Kuo since March 2007. It said Bergersen thought Kuo was closely
affiliated with the Taiwan Ministry of Defense, and was unaware that
Kuo also maintained contact with an official of the Beijing government.



Some of the weapons information passed between Bergersen and Kuo
related to Taiwan's new air defense system. Taiwanese military
officials have said the disclosures caused some damage but did not
compromise key technology.



Kuo and a third defendant, Chinese national Yu Xin Kang, 33, face
more serious charges that carry a possible life sentence. Both are in
jail awaiting trial.



Kuo, 58, is a naturalized U.S. citizen and a native of Taiwan. He
is a son-in-law of Xue Yue, a Chinese nationalist general who was a
close associate of Chiang Kai-shek, leader of Nationalist forces that
lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong's Communists on the mainland.



Prosecutors allege that Kang, 33, served as the go-between for Kuo and the People's Republic of China.



The Chinese government has called the espionage accusations groundless and accused the U.S. of "Cold War thinking."


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