2 accused in separate spying cases

WASHINGTON — A Defense Department analyst and a former engineer for Boeing Co. were accused Monday in separate spy cases with helping deliver military secrets to the Chinese government, the Justice Department said.

Additionally, two immigrants from China and Taiwan accused of working with the defense analyst were arrested after an FBI raid Monday morning on a New Orleans home where one of them lived.

The two cases — based in Alexandria, Va., and Los Angeles — have no connection, and investigators said it was merely a coincidence that charges would be brought against both on the same day.

The arrests mark China's latest attempts to gain top secret information about U.S. military systems and sales, said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein. He described China as "particularly adept and particularly determined and methodical in their espionage efforts."

"The threat is very simple," Wainstein said at a Justice Department news conference in Washington. "It's a threat to our national security and to our economic position in the world, a threat that is posed by the relentless efforts of foreign intelligence services to penetrate our security systems and steal our most sensitive military technology and information."

An official at the Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In China, it was a national holiday and calls to the Foreign Ministry's Information Department and to a duty officer cell phone number were both answered by voice mail.

In the first case, prosecutors said weapons systems policy analyst Gregg W. Bergersen, 51, of Alexandria, Va., sold classified defense information to a New Orleans furniture salesman. In return, the salesman, a Taiwan native identified as Tai Kuo, a 58-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, forwarded the information to the Chinese government.

The data outlined every planned U.S. sale of weapons or other military technology to Taiwan for the next five years, prosecutors said.

It's not clear how much money Bergersen received for the classified information, or if he was even aware it was intended for the Chinese government. Court documents portray him as nervous during at least one meeting when he handed over a diskette of documents to be recorded, asking Kuo to keep their deal a secret.

"I'd go to jail, I don't wanna go to jail," Bergersen said in a conversation taped by the FBI.

"I'd probably go to jail too," Kuo responded. Prosecutors described him as chuckling.