Posted on 12/14/2005 3:50:42 PM PST by pganini
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A former US State Department official pleaded guilty to removing top secret government documents while conducting a "personal relationship" with a Taiwanese spy, the Justice Department said.
Donald Keyser, a former principal deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, also pleaded guilty to making false statements over his "undisclosed personal relationship" with a Taiwanese intelligence agent named as Isabelle Cheng, the department said.
The career US diplomat, 62, will be sentenced on February 24 over the single count of removing thousands of documents over a 12-year period, and two of making false statements to investigators.
A State Department spokesman said Keyser, who joined the diplomatic corps in 1972, had left the government on September 30, 2004, but declined to comment further.
The Justice Department said in a statement that Keyser could face a maximum sentence of eight years in prison. Each count carries a maximum fine of 250,000 dollars.
"Between 1992 and September 4, 2004, Keyser removed numerous classified documents from the State Department and transported them to his home in Fairfax, Virginia.
"In all, Keyser had over 3,600 documents in either hard copy or electronic form," the statement said.
US authorities said Keyser had conducted an "undisclosed" relationship with Cheng from 2002 to September 2004, saying she was employed by "the foreign intelligence agency of the government of Taiwan".
Cheng, also known as Nain-Tzu Cheng, arrived in Washington in 2001 where she worked out of an office at The Tapei Economic Cultural and Representative Office, which represents the Taiwanese authorities in Washington.
"Keyser ... regularly communicated with her by telephone and e-mail, met with her privately on numerous occasions, and occasionally travelled with her," the statement said.
In one late 2003 trip to China and Japan on official State Department business, Keyser also made a secret trip to Taiwan to meet with Cheng without disclosing his additional stopover to the US government or even his family.
Under State Department rules, he should have disclosed his stopover and secret meeting with Cheng in Tapei.
He is one of the most senior US diplomats to admit to taking secret documents.
Keyser had served at US embassies abroad in posts overseeing US foreign policy for East Asia and the Pacific regions, including stints at the US missions in Tokyo and Beijing.
As a principal deputy assistant secretary, Keyser had "extensive involvement in, and responsiblity for, the foreign policy of the United States with respect to East Asia and the Pacific" and top level security clearances.
He admitted making numerous false statements to investigators who opened a probe into his actions.
The United States is a major ally of Taiwan, to which it has sold significant quantities of military hardware, including two navy destroyers which arrived in Taiwan earlier this month.
However, the US relationship with Taiwan has stoked controversy with China which sees Taiwan as part of its territory waiting to be reunified despite their split in 1949 after a civil war. Beijing is opposed to any country having diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
I hope he gets a severe sentence.
yeah, yeah, yeah,...what does she look like?
Dunno, no photo.
DEATH to Keyser the geyser, Quail Pointe Lane, Fairfax Station, VA.
The question was what does SHE look like?
I'm sure she's hot......
I am wondering the same thing.
no, most caucasians will go for the ugliest Asian women (i see it all the time). That's why Zhang Ziyi is popular in the US.
Is that a ChiCom pin on your lapel, Mr Ambassador?
Selling out your country for some nookie..tsk tsk tsk. You should have your little brain lobotomized.
Enjoy prison, you traitorous bastard. Only wish Sandy Burglar and Bill Clinton could be your cell mates.
He'll get off with the slap of his hand as long as he was smart enough to stuff the documents into his sock while acting out his treasonous indiscretion.
Yea, she picked one he!! of a husband too.... ; )
Bump for Justice
was she hot?
Oh, well, as long as Bush can be blamed it's OK, right?
five years ago Keyser, then deputy director of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, was suspended without pay in a flap over a missing top-secret laptop computer at the department.
Then-Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright suspended Keyser and disciplined several others over the missing computer, which was never found. Keyser's boss at the time, J. Stapleton Roy , one of the most senior Foreign Service officers, resigned in protest over Albright's action, which was also criticized by former ambassador Robert B. Oakley .
http://tinyurl.com/84bvn
Ah, THAT missing laptop! Yeah, I remember.
Hey, we actually caught one. How often does this go on, folks?
I guess we now know where the missing laptop went.
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