This is confusing..

[Joeboo]

Howdy all...

I'm wondering if someone can gleam some light on this situation for me. Below is an article that ran in the New York Sun, RE: Alleged treason in Brooklyn.

Mystery Deepens Over WMD Documents

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 6, 2008

How the classified military documents from Iraq, which named the coordinates of where the Army suspected weapons of mass destruction to be hidden, ended up in an Arabic translator's apartment on Hoyt Street in Brooklyn, is clear.

Not likely to be known anytime soon is what, if anything, the army contractor did with the documents.

The U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, which is prosecuting the case, appears to have little direct evidence that Noureddine Malki passed information on to the insurgency, either during his time in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, or upon his return to America in 2005. But it has raised the possibility that he may have done so. The government has said Malki regularly called phone numbers connected to insurgents and took bribes of at least $11,500 from Sunni tribal leaders.

The government, prosecutors wrote in one court filing, could "establish that the defendant had an opportunity to provide stolen classified information to anti-coalition forces."

Yesterday, at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, an Army officer with the 82nd Airborne Division described some of the reports that Malki had obtained. "The information is so critical that you do not want the information to get into the hands of anyone without the need to know," Lieutenant Colonel Michele Bredenkamp said, referring to a mission analysis report for the 82nd Airborne, to which Malki was attached. The document, among other things, described convoy routes and named known terrorists the Army was targeting. Between 60 and 70 individuals had authorization to view the document, which could be accessed through a secure computer, Colonel Bredenkamp testified.

"Would this be the type of thing for a soldier to take for a keepsake?" a prosecutor, John Buretta, asked.

"That's absurd," Colonel Bredenkamp said.

Malki has pleaded guilty to charges of unauthorized possession of national defense information. He is likely to be sentenced this spring. Prosecutors are seeking a 10-year sentence. Malki's lawyer, Mildred Whalen, is calling for him to be released on time served.

In court papers, Ms. Whalen has claimed that documents Malki "had in his possession were obtained or kept unknowingly."

In a short phone interview from prison last year, Malki told The New York Sun: "I never had bad intentions whatsoever."

"I loved this country more than them," he added, though it was not entirely clear to whom he referred. "I served this country in Iraq and they didn't."

Malki, a native of Morocco, immigrated to Brooklyn in 1989, his sister, Sonia Malki, said in an interview. While two of his siblings earlier moved to France, Malki decided to set out for America, after living in Paris for three months in 1989.

"This is not a terrorism case," Ms. Malki said. "This could happen to any immigrant."

Malki did not initially land on his feet in this county. He was homeless for a time. At one point he drove for a car service. A passenger robbed him, hitting his head so hard that he fell into a coma, Ms. Malki recalled.

Ms. Malki, who lives in France, said her brother went to Iraq as a translator out of gratitude to America, which gave him citizenship in 2000.

"In the end he has done a good job for this country," she said.

Now, I was Air Force Comm, and if I know anything it is ComSec, and OpSec measures that surround classified information, let alone operationally significant, and highly sensitive data such as what is described in this article. This story seems conspicuously...neh, suspiciously absent from the news cycle, at least to me.

Why?

Bush's warrantless wiretaping provision expires in 10 days...and this is a text book case to bolster its existence whether that program had anything to do with exposing this guy or not. Too boot, the WMD angle in the story would seem to make it all the more sensational.

Perhaps the New York Sun has such a tarnished reputation that this particular iteration of the story gained no traction? I don't know much about said paper. I still find it difficult to digest that this story isn't of any interest to any news source outside of punditry websites, and blogs.

So what am I missing here?

[Joeboo]

OK....now, i'm getting even more confused....

Quote:
FBI Raids House in Chinese Spy Case Feb 11 03:42 PM US/Eastern
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Defense Department analyst and a former engineer for Boeing Co. were charged Monday in separate spy cases for allegedly handing over military secrets to the Chinese government, the Justice Department said. Additionally, two immigrants from China and Taiwan accused of working with the defense analyst were arrested after an FBI raid Monday morning on a New Orleans home where one of them lived.
The two cases—based in Alexandria, Va., and Los Angeles—have no connection, and investigators said it was merely a coincidence that charges would be brought against both on the same day.
The arrests mark China's latest attempts to gain top secret information about U.S. military systems and sales, said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein. He described China as "particularly adept, and particularly determined and methodical in their espionage efforts."
"The threat is very simple," Wainstein said at a Justice Department news conference in Washington. "It's a threat to our national security and to our economic position in the world, a threat that is posed by the relentless efforts of foreign intelligence services to penetrate our security systems and steal our most sensitive military technology and information."
An official at the Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the first case, prosecutors said weapons systems policy analyst Gregg W. Bergersen, 51, of Alexandria, Va., sold classified defense information to a New Orleans furniture salesman. In return, the salesman, a Taiwan native identified as Tai Kuo, a 58-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, forwarded the information to the Chinese government.
The data outlined every planned U.S. sale of weapons or other military technology to Taiwan for the next five years, prosecutors said.
It's not clear how much money Bergersen received for the classified information, or if he was even aware it was intended for the Chinese government. Court documents portray him as nervous during at least one meeting when he handed over a diskette of documents to be recorded, asking Kuo to keep their deal a secret.
"I'd go to jail, I don't wanna go to jail," Bergersen said in a conversation taped by the FBI.
"I'd probably go to jail too," Kuo responded. Prosecutors described him as chuckling.
A third alleged conspirator in the case, Chinese national Yu Xin Kang, 33, served as the go-between for Kuo and the People's Republic of China, prosecutors say.
Kuo and Bergersen, who worked at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency in Arlington, Va., were arraigned before Magistrate Judge John Anderson at the federal courthouse in Alexandria. Bergersen was charged with conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Bergersen, who was arrested at his home early Monday, wore a long black T-shirt and blue shorts. His wife, who identified herself only as Ofelia, told reporters Bergersen was innocent and the charges "came out of the blue."
Tai Kuo was charged with conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government. He faces life in prison if convicted. Kang was to appear in federal court in New Orleans, facing the same charges as Kuo.
In the second, unrelated case, former Boeing engineer Dongfan "Greg" Chung, 72, was arrested on charges of working as an unregistered agent for the Chinese government who stole trade secrets from the defense contractor. The stolen data largely focused on aerospace programs, including the Space Shuttle, prosecutors said.
Chung, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was indicted last week on espionage, conspiracy and obstructing justices charges that were unsealed Monday. He has been the subject of an FBI investigation for nearly a year as part of an inquiry into another Chinese-born engineer who was convicted in 2007 of stealing military data for the Chinese government.
As early as 1979, prosecutors said, Chinese officials were tasking Chung to collect data on U.S. aviation, including the Space Shuttle and various military and civilian aircraft. At one point, Chung responded in a letter that he wanted to "contribute to the motherland," according to the Justice Department.
Over an 18-year span, Chung traveled to China many times to deliver lectures on the Space Shuttle and other programs, and he allegedly met with Chinese government officials there to discuss how to transfer U.S. data.
Chung, who has a security clearance, worked for contractor Rockwell International from 1973 until 1996, when Boeing acquired Rockwell's defense and space firm. He retired from Boeing in 2002 but returned the next year as a contractor. He ultimately left Boeing in 2006.

Apparently, you're only a spy if you are handing information over to communists....otherwise....well (see above story).

[Rock Island Ranger]

Whats the confusion? The NAACP will come to their rescue saying our enemies have a right to the information and the constitution should protect a persons right to sell state secrets. Fuck, before it's over the Govt. will be prosecuted for harassing the poor spys.

[Joeboo]

I made a critical error.

I assumed that we want to capture traitors, call them out for what they are, prosecute, and punish these people, and let them rot in a prison whose walls are their only protection from a country that they betrayed.

But you know what you get for assuming things...