Washington – By the government’s own account, FBI analyst Leandro Aragoncillo was spying in plain sight. He rummaged through FBI computers for intelligence reports unrelated to his work and then e-mailed the classified documents to opposition leaders in the Philippines.
He had traveled more than a dozen times to the Asian country on personal business since 2000. And he carried debt of at least a half-million dollars – on Marine retirement pay and an entry-level FBI salary.
But for at least seven months, the bureau that makes catching spies its No. 2 mission after fighting terrorism missed signs of espionage in its own ranks – again.
Safeguards the FBI put in place after it was rocked by the Robert Hanssen spy scandal in 2001 failed to raise red flags about Aragoncillo, according to interviews and court papers reviewed by The Associated Press.
It took outside help – U.S. customs officials separately developed suspicions about Aragoncillo – to alert the FBI. The bureau soon discovered he was sending sensitive U.S. intelligence assessments about the Philippines’ government to Filipino opposition leaders, court records say.
Those who helped the FBI after Hanssen’s deadly betrayal to Russia are astonished that Aragoncillo appeared to exploit some of the same weaknesses.
“I don’t know why they had to wait until somebody turned him in,” said former Attorney General Griffin Bell, a member of the panel that investigated FBI security after Hanssen. “…How could he get by that long?”
The FBI acknowledged it did not suspect Aragoncillo until the tipoff from Customs but said it eventually would have detected its analyst’s behavior.
Meanwhile, Aragoncillo’s lawyers and prosecutors are trying to wrap up a plea deal that would secure a guilty plea and his cooperation. Prosecutors have said Aragoncillo has “essentially admitted” to taking classified documents.
The 47-year-old is not charged with espionage, which carries a maximum penalty of capital punishment, as plea discussions continue.
Instead, he’s charged with conspiring to reveal government secrets, acting as a foreign agent and improperly using FBI computers. Those charges carry a maximum of 25 years in prison.
