http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7323698.stm 

BBC News
31 March 2008

A US defence department analyst has admitted giving classified 
information about military communication systems to a businessman 
working for China.

Gregg Bergersen, 51, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to 
disclose national defence information "to persons not entitled to 
receive it".

Mr Bergersen faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on 20 
June.

Correspondents say his admission comes amid growing concern in 
Washington about the activities of Chinese spies.

Four others were arrested in separate case last month for allegedly 
passing secret details about the space shuttle and other US aerospace 
programmes to China.


Air defence system

Mr Bergersen, a weapons systems policy analyst at the US Defence 
Security Co-operation Agency (DSCA), was arrested last month with joint 
Taiwanese-US national Tai Shen Kuo and Yu Xin Kang, a Chinese national 
living in the US.

The FBI said Mr Bergersen had received thousands of dollars for passing 
on classified information to Mr Kuo, a New Orleans-based furniture 
salesman who has also been accused of turning over that information to 
the Chinese government.

The US government said that Mr Bergesen thought Mr Kuo was closely 
affiliated with Taiwan's ministry of defence and was unaware he was in 
contact with Chinese officials.

Mr Bergesen's lawyer, Mark Cummings, said that there had been no 
explicit exchange of money for information. For instance, Mr Bergesen 
had won $3,000 from Mr Kuo in cash in a poker game in Las Vegas in April 
2007, he said.

"In hindsight, he understands that the money was given to him in 
anticipation that he would provide documents," Mr Cummings added.

Ms Kang ferried the information between Mr Kuo and Chinese officials, 
the FBI alleged.

Mr Kuo, 58, and Mr Kang, 33, face a more serious charge of "conspiracy 
to disclose national defence information to a foreign government". They 
face up to life in prison if convicted.

The information passed on related to Taiwan's new Po Sheng air defence 
system. Taiwanese officials said that some damage had been caused by the 
disclosures, but that they had not compromised key technology.

The Chinese government has dismissed the espionage accusations as 
groundless and accused the US of "Cold War thinking".


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