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Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Breaks Today

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Wed Oct 05, 2005 at 04:07:40 PM EST
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How's this for an attention deflector?

Both the FBI and CIA are calling it the first case of espionage in the White House in modern history. Officials tell ABC News the alleged spy worked undetected at the White House for almost three years. Leandro Aragoncillo, 46, was a U.S. Marine most recently assigned to the staff of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Aragoncillo was caught last year, arrested a month ago and began cooperating. Why break the story today? Did he steal secrets and give them to the Russians? Not quite.

Officials say the classified material, which Aragoncillo stole from the vice president's office, included damaging dossiers on the president of the Philippines. He then passed those on to opposition politicians planning a coup in the Pacific nation.

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    • Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Breaks Today | 24 comments (24 topical)
    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#1)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:52:59 PM EST
    Judith Miller's first post jail front page story on tomorrow's NYT will be Spy Linked to Philippine WMD's Found Plotting a White House Coup d'Etat

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#2)
    by SeeEmDee on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:52:59 PM EST
    Given that just about every intel organization in the world is itself riddled with spies, the chances of this information being in the hands of Beijing or Moscow or New Delhi or Tehran is very high. This could be much bigger trouble than we presently know.

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    I wonder if Michelle Malkin will now call for mandatory internment of Filipinos....after all, we are at war.

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#4)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    A_H-Here is the skinny on Malkin and her ilk Sadly, no via atrios

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#5)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    I'll take Mad Malkin to Gitmo myself, unless she's too much of an America-hating terrorist traitor to accept my offer.

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    Regarding the last comment, the left really has issues they need to work through. Regarding the post, I note that our hostess thinks a spy in the White House is no big deal just as long as it's one of the nice countries.

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    And it's BMB by a nose in the RWNJ to carry the third carry Malkin's water race.

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    Err. Preceding Should read: And it's BMB by a nose in the third race for the RWNJ to carry Malkin's water.

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#9)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    BMB-wher have you been on this incredibly important event. Since you are the 'Big Media Blog' I guess that you must have of posted this news one month ago when is happened...or were you asleep at the wheel, trolling around leftie sites like this.

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#10)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    et al - I can't resist it.... Can anyone of you tell me what Malkin has to do with this story?

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    I should have figured subtle humor would be lost on some here. I figure you are either being purposefully obtuse, or purposefully ignorant. If you can't figure it out, I'm not going to waste my time explaining it. Especially to someone whose response to my last queries has been "prove it's not". You don't bother with a legitimate response. Why should I?

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#12)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    adept - Sorry, I should have known it was hatred pretending to be humor.

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#13)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    Jim, Michelle Malkin has devoted quite a few words to the notion that if someone of your ethnic background causes harm to the US, you should be put in a concentration camp. Here we have a Filipino spy. Michelle is Filipino. Connect the dots?

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    Michelle Malkin has devoted quite a few words to the notion that if someone of your ethnic background causes harm to the US, you should be put in a concentration camp. Scar, Following the standard practice here: Do you have a link to support these claims? I also find it interesting that no one has yet mentioned that this guy also worked for Gore. Should I assume that espionage in the VP's office is a nonissue when the VP is a Democrat, or was that merely an oversight on everyone's part?

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#15)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    Well, she did right a book "In Defense of Internment". Isn't that the basic definition of internment? Locking up all the people of an ethnic group for the actions of others of the same ethnicity or the actions of their country of origin?

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#16)
    by swingvote on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    Kdog, Her book is an in-depth review of the actual internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, not necessarily a treatise in support of such (having not read the book, I'm not sure how far she goes in that vein, although she does seem to to be headed there). But my point was simply that Scar, among others, loves to jump on anything someone says and demand links to support them; I only thought it fair to do the same when someone unloads such a statement about a writer's positions. Evidence to support your claims is the standard here, isn't it? Or is that another standard that only applies to "non-liberals"? Thanks for the tip, though. I'm not a big fan of Malkin's, and she certainly has said some silly things in the past; I read her for the same reason I read Coulter: They are both sometimes more comedic than they are given credit for and it helps (somewhat) in understanding what the rabid liberals are screaming about. And I'm still suprised this issue was written up as happening in Cheney's office, rather than in the V.P.'s office. Could that have been an attempt to tie this directly to Bush somehow?

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#17)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    Furthermore, we have obviously underestimated the Phillipino threat. To be "safe", all Phillipino-Americans should be forced to report to Homeland Security for background screening, lie detector tests, and anal probing. We can't be to careful, the stakes are too high. Sarcasm aside, this seems like a minor spy issue. He wasn't selling/stealing US secrets, this was Phillipine govt. info. I'd bet there are far more dangerous spies in our govt./military doing far worse as I type. jpaul..I haven't read the book either, so I really shouldn't be a critic, but I have heard and read enough of Malkin to form a solid opinion that she is no friend to freedom, a cheerleader for tyranny. You make a fair point about this guy working for Gore as well. As we both know, the sad fact is our political system is all about scoring points and making the other guy look bad, and not about the interests of the country or solutions to our problems.

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#18)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:43 PM EST
    JR-Here are the "cliff notes' from the horses mouth (BTW-I'll let you in on a secret: it is called google)
    The word is out about my new book, In Defense of Internment: The Case for "Racial Profiling" in World War II and the War on Terror. I've been keeping it under wraps over the past year as I quietly toiled away in the wee hours of the morning, but since Instapundit kindly mentioned receiving the book yesterday, I am delighted now to share a few more details with you.
    link Next time use google before you post, it will save all of us time and space.
    Her book is an in-depth review of the actual internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, not necessarily a treatise in support of such
    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#19)
    by swingvote on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:44 PM EST
    Squeaky, Still trying to score a point and still failing, aye? First off, you should try reading the comments before you respond. JR isn't here at the moment. Second, my point was not that the claim wasn't true, only that those who constantly demand proof of every assertion have a habit of not doing so themselves. You would have known that had you actually read the thread rather than trolled through it (pun intended) looking for something to respond to out of context; but hey, to each their own. I will make a note, however, for future reference of course, that Squeaky requires no evidence of anything. It will make ignoring your comments that much easier. Cheers.

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#20)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:44 PM EST
    Justpaul,
    Her book is an in-depth review of the actual internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, not necessarily a treatise in support of such
    Oh come on. You can't possibly expect me to ignore the elephant in the corner that is the far-right fantasy of locking up all the Muslims/Arabs/Turks/brown people. Michelle sure as hell doesn't, as she constantly posts about how the MSM isn't racist enough and Gitmo and Abu Ghraib ought to be held up as a model for the WoT/GSAVE. And by the way, as others have noted, it is necessarily a treatise in support of internment, hence the title of the book, "In Defense of Internment".

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#21)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:44 PM EST
    jp- gosh, I wonder how I could have possibly confused the two of you. You comments are so unalike. Sorry! Your sly point innocently implied that Malkin does not support forced internment is disengenous at best. Deflecting it by suggesting that I was not following the comment line is typical, irrelevant and a load of horse puckey. Ask for a link, get it and then deflect is standard wingnut procedure proved once again by you.

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#22)
    by Dadler on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:44 PM EST
    Scar, Nice response to Jimbo. Notice he hasn't responded. Might be repairing the cracks in the glass house.

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#23)
    by peacrevol on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:44 PM EST
    In her prefatory note to readers of her new book "In Defense of Internment," Michelle Malkin says the following about the book's goal: "This book defends both the evacuation and relocation of ethnic Japanese from the West Coast (the so-called "Japanese American internment"), as well as the internment of enemy aliens, Japanese and non-Japanese alike, during World War II. My work is by no means all-encompassing; my aim is to provoke a debate on a sacrosanct subject that has remained undebatable for far too long." Though the book may not be her own opinion, it appears that she is trying to outline a case that would support internment, aye. That, in turn, would have the same affect as if it were her own views, aye? It's not so much aboot whether or not she thinks internment is good. It's aboot the influence it will have on its readers. It's aboot giving a reason to keep around an age old system that leads to racism.

    Re: Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Brea (none / 0) (#24)
    by peacrevol on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:44 PM EST
    Here is an interesting site on Malkin's book. It is the opinion of the person who posted the site, but it is probably the most information about the book you can find without reading the whole thing.

    Spy in Cheney's Office: Month Old Story Breaks Today | 24 comments (24 topical)