White House spy stole classified documents
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-10-06 08:51

A former US Marine and naturalized 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, a report said.

ABC News said 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.

An undated photo by ABC News shows former U.S. Marine Leandro Aragoncillo. The White House said on October 5, 2005 it was cooperating with an investigation into Aragoncillo, who worked in Vice President Dick Cheney's office and has been charged with supplying classified reports to the Philippines. [Reuters]

Officials told ABC the classified material which Aragoncillo stole included damaging dossiers on the president of the Philippines. 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 spokesman Trent Duffy.

Officials are investigating how Aragoncillo got his job at the White House in 1999, and when he started spying, ABC said.

US Vice President Dick Cheney makes remarks at the annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2005, in Washington.[AP]

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 advisor during President George W. Bush's first term in office, the network reported.

Deposed Philippine president Joseph Estrada admitted last month receiving information from Aragoncillo.

Estrada, who is under house arrest while facing massive corruption charges in the Philippines, said Aragoncillo had visited him in detention and had passed on some documents on the Philippine political situation.

The former Marine's alleged spying is suspected of being part of opposition attempts to gain information to bring down the government of Philippine President Gloria Arroyo.

Aragoncillo apparently gave his information to Estrada while the deposed leader was being held in a military hospital, some time between mid-2001 and 2003.

In July 2004, he began working as an FBI intelligence analyst at its Fort Monmouth Information Technology Center 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 email 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."

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.

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