Ex-White House staffer jailed for 10 years over Philippines plot

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A former White House employee and FBI analyst was jailed for 10 years yesterday for slipping US secrets to plotters in his native Philippines who wanted to overthrow President Gloria Arroyo.

Leandro Aragoncillo, a 48-year-old naturalized American who also served in the Marines, pleaded guilty in May last year to passing secret information to Philippine opposition figures in an attempt to topple Arroyo's government.

"The sentencing of Leandro Arangoncillo brings to a close a harmful and disgraceful story of how a formerly trustworthy FBI employee and US Marine can turn into an enemy of the American people and the American way of life," said the Federal Bureau of Investigation's lead agent on the case, Weysan Dun.

"Aragoncillo and his cohort, Michael Ray Aquino, have come full circle in the justice system, and for them the circle ends at a federal penitentiary," he said.

Aragoncillo and Aquino, a former Philippines National Police official, were arrested in September 2005. Aquino was among those to whom Aragoncillo was said to have passed classified information.

Aquino was sentenced Tuesday by the same district judge in New Jersey to 76 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to unlawfully possessing and retaining documents and information relating to US national defense.

Aragoncillo pleaded guilty to four counts of conspiracy to transmit US secrets, transmitting secrets, unlawful retention of secrets and unlawful use of a government computer.

He was also fined 40,000 dollars for his actions, which included stealing classified information from the office of the vice president from about October 2000 to February 2002, first under Al Gore and then Dick Cheney.

Some of the information was marked "top secret" and related to terrorist threats to US government interests in the Philippines, the Department of Justice (DoJ) said.

Aragoncillo admitted that his espionage activity continued during his time as an FBI intelligence analyst after he left the White House, according to the DoJ.

"Those charged with protecting the nation have a special responsibility to maintain their oath of loyalty to the United States," assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said.

"As a former US Marine and FBI analyst, Aragoncillo betrayed that oath, violated our espionage laws, and now must suffer the consequences of his actions," he said.