(More) Espionage at the White House

October 6, 2005

Throughout American history, there have been spies who have, on occasion, infiltrated the federal government and obtained valuable secrets. Throughout that history, no spy has ever been able to breach the White House itself. That is, until the Bush gang took over.

Officials tell ABC News the alleged spy worked undetected at the White House for almost three years. Leandro Aragoncillo, 46, was a U.S. Marine most recently assigned to the staff of Vice President Dick Cheney.

“I don’t know of a case where the vetting broke down before and resulted in a spy being in the White House,” said Richard Clarke, a former White House advisor who is now an ABC News consultant.

Federal investigators say Aragoncillo, a naturalized citizen from the Philippines, used his top secret clearance to steal classified intelligence documents from White House computers.

In 2000, Aragoncillo worked on the staff of then-Vice President Al Gore. When interviewed by Philippine television, he remarked how valued Philippine employees were at the White House.

“I think what they like most is our integrity and loyalty,” Aragoncillo said.

In this particular embarrassment, Aragoncillo wasn’t working with al Queda; he used his power — he started his efforts while working in Dick Cheney’s office — to obtain classified documents on the president of the Philippines, which he then passed on to the opposition that were planning a coup at the time.

Whether the spy stole information that endangered the U.S. directly is secondary to the fact that it happened at all. As John Martin, who was the government’s lead espionage prosecutor for 26 years, 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…. 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.”

In context, there’s reason to wonder if the Bush gang appreciates national security secrets at all. In one instance, they intentionally leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent. In another instance, the administration allowed a spy to work alongside Doug Feith and Paul Wolfowitz in order to collect intellingence on Iran and leak it to Israel. In another instance, the White House wanted to turn power in Iraq over to an Iranian spy. Now we learn that a Philipino spy worked alongside the Vice President.

The Bush gang realizes we want to keep national secrets secret, right? That “Manchurian Candidate” thesis is looking more apt all the time.

Can you clarify the bit about him working for Gore in 2000? It seems to go against your thesis that it was the Bush Administration that ‘let down the side’ by not properly investigating an employee. It also seems odd that this White House would hire someone who had worked for the opposition.

  • He wasn’t a spy when he worked for Gore. His espionage activity only covers the last three years.

  • Can you clarify the bit about him working for Gore in 2000?

    That’s a good question, but all the details have not yet been fleshed out. What seems clear, however, is that Aragoncillo did not begin his espionage work until working in Cheney’s office. Exactly when the background-check breakdown occured, however, is still not quite clear.

  • This guy was hired during the Clinton years, and went on to work for Gore’s 2000 campaign. Weird that the Bush Administration kept him on, but I don’t think you can pin this one on them. The guy was litterally just attaching the classified documents to emails and sending them off using his Hotmail and Yahoo accounts. This is an embarrrisment, but the egg belongs on the face of the Secret Service, or whoever is in charge of making sure spies don’t get into the White House. I just don’t think it is fair to blame the President for a mistake made by somebody in the counter-intelligence office before he even was inagurated.

  • You guys are missing the obvious. Cheney kept him on BECAUSE of his connection to Gore. Cheney and his minions then fed him the documents because they want to see an overthrow of the Phillipine government… and should Aragoncillo get caught, heck, they could blame it on Gore.

    C’mon, after 5 years I thought you guys would have a better grasp of this admin’s machinations.

  • Did the White House want Arroyo gone?

    Here’s an intriguing angle for a follow-up story. We know that the administration has no problem interfering with democratic governments. Ask Hugo Chavez. If they did n fact want to give some ammo to Arroyo’s opponents, it seems unlikely that they would just pick up the phone and call. Phone logs can be subpoenaed and all that. On the other hand a “spy” in the VPOTUS’s office would make a convenient cut-out if anything went wrong.

    After the Guckert incident, and particualrly after this Safravian guy we know that the WH will interfere with Secret Service security whenever they see fit. With SS out of the loop the only concern is that their cut-out does something seriously stupid and attracts the attention of the FBI, or the INS.

    So, we know already that they will interfere with governments they don’t like, that they don’t mind screwing with classified intel and that they will happily make a hash of Secret Service protocol. Is connecting those dots any more unlikely than a half-assed klutz of a spy operating undetecetd, in the White House, for three years?

  • Tim,

    Given Arroyo’s track record, I’m not sure we can call the Phillipine government “democratic,” but of course the same might be said for our own if we’re too serious about shady election manipulation undermining the legitimacy of elected representatives.

    That said, on the basis of the available information I agree with the general consensus that we can’t really pin this one on Bush. The ABC article cited indicates that Aragoncillo began working at the White House in 1999. It’s also not clear that his spying activities occured only during the *last* three years; the article indicates that he was spying *at the White House* for three years, but he was no longer working at the White House when he was arrested.

    At any rate, it’s clear that Clinton/Gore let the guy in the door in the first place, and as much as we might like to it’s not really fair to blame Bush for that mistake.

  • Here is the WH reasoning for overthrowing the Phillipine govt. at parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/ repository1/library/prspub/dxed60.pdf :

    Relations with the US and Australia have been strained in mid-2004 by President Arroyo’s accelerated withdrawal of the contingent in Iraq, in the face of threats to the life of Angelo de la Cruz. ….On 5 August, the US declared that the Philippines was now not considered to be a part of the ‘coalition of the willing’. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher
    ——————————————————————————–
    Page 4
    said that the US was ‘disappointed’ at the withdrawal fromIraq but added that, ‘The Philippines remains an ally, onewith whom we have a long shared history and manycommon interests including defeating terrorism in the region.’

  • You’d think he’d have had to undergo a background check if he was working for the VP, as Gore was then, but perhaps not if it was in campaign-related activities. An odd story.

  • 1.Is comment 4 above correct that the ‘spy’ was sending classified documents from Hotmail and Yahoo accounts? If that’s true there are some very basic network security problems that need to be addressed.
    2. I have Phillipine satellite TV and the documents that I saw on the Phillipine news were the U.S.’s analysis of the political / social situation in the Philippines and speculation as to the outcome.
    I didn’t see anything damaging to the Phillipines or anything advocating a coup. Of course I don’t know all the facts nor do I think I saw everything.

    My questions are, was anything “stolen” that harms the U.S.? Was the spy’s intent to find facts about his own country (Phillipines) or to do harm to the U.S.? Who was the spy spying on, the U.S. or the Phillipines? Was there anything really substantial in any of the documents? Who initiated the spy’s arrest; was the spy’s arrest initiated by the Arroyo gov’t because it didn’t want to chance anything substantially damaging being leaked out? My impression is that it is was the Arroyo government that initiated the arrest.

    It would be nice to have more facts.

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