Former Cheney And Gore Aide Accused of Spying

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The New York Sun

NEWARK,N.J. – A former FBI intelligence analyst pleaded guilty yesterday to passing classified information while he worked in the White House and at the FBI to plotters he said were trying to overthrow President Arroyo of the Philippines.

In a federal court hearing, the former analyst, Leandro Aragoncillo, outlined five years of efforts to pass top secret and secret information. He worked as a military aide to vice presidents Gore and Cheney starting in 1999, and later became a civilian employee of the FBI.

Aragoncillo, 47, did not identify by name the current and former Philippine officials to whom he gave secrets aside from former Philippine police official Michael Ray Aquino, who was arrested with him in September.

Mr. Aquino is accused of passing information from Aragoncillo about Filipino leaders to current and former officials of that country.

Federal prosecutors identified among the participants in the plot a former Philippine president, Joseph Estrada, opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson and a former House of Representatives speaker, Arnulfo Fuentebella, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Newark.


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