Posted on 03/22/2006 6:24:32 AM PST by HAL9000
Ousted President Joseph Estrada said Tuesday he was notified by an American court that US authorities bugged his telephone conversations with a former FBI analyst who was charged with illegally revealing US government secrets.Estrada has previously acknowledged receiving American government assessments of Philippine political events from Leandro Aragoncillo, who has been accused of illegally downloading confidential US information and passing them to other people while working as an FBI intelligence analyst.
Estrada told The Associated Press that he received a notice from a New Jersey court, which informed him that some of his telephone conversations with Aragoncillo were wiretapped by US authorities.
The notice indicated that the wiretapping, done in the course of investigating Aragoncillo, was authorized by the New Jersey court, Estrada said.
Estrada said there was no indication that he was being investigated by US authorities.
"The notice said that my telephone calls with Aragoncillo were wiretapped," Estrada told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The wiretapping was authorized by the court."
Aragoncillo, a 21-year Marine veteran who became an FBI intelligence analyst in 2004, was arrested in the US last year.
He has been charged with conspiring to reveal government secrets, acting as a foreign agent and improperly using FBI computers. Those charges carry a maximum sentence of 25 years.
He has not been charged with espionage, which carries a maximum penalty of capital punishment.
fyi
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