Embarrassment

US authorities are red-faced over mounting evidence that Leandro Aragoncillo might have pilfered classified documents not only from the FBI but, previous to that, from the White House no less.

The Filipino-American worked for former vice-president Al Gore, Condoleeza Rice when she was National Security Adviser and Vice-President Dick Chenney. He had access to intelligence briefing documents. Considering the e-mail trail established by the FBI covering that agency’s own files, Aragoncillo had particular interest in intelligence tidbits that could be potentially damaging to the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

There have been intelligence breaches in the US in the past. But this is the first instance that a potential breach in the security of the White House files is being investigated.

There have been previous incidents involving espionage being conducted by friendly governments on US agencies. But this is the first time that an espionage incident involves the Philippines.

Fortunately for US-Philippine relations, Aragoncillo was not acting as an agent of the Philippine government. Otherwise, this incident might have become truly disastrous for our already tepid bilateral relations with the superpower.

Our relations with the US entered limbo after the Philippine Senate voted to terminate the Bases Agreement in 1991. Coinciding with the end of the Cold War, and thus our sudden loss of importance as a frontline state in the global containment strategy against communism, that act put us in the margins of the American view of the world.

Out bilateral relations began to warm up again after the 9/11 attacks on the US. Manila stood solidly behind the campaign against global terror and once again assumed the role of a frontline state. We supported the offensive against the Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and then sent a small but highly symbolic contingent to Iraq.

But the Angelo de la Cruz incident happened. Our government bowed to insular emotionalism and bowed to the demand of terrorists by pulling out our minor contingent from the Iraqi front. That seriously disappointed the governments involved in the Coalition of the Willing.

Our bilateral relationship returned to limbo – saved only by concern over the fact that radical Islamic networks in Southeast Asia have used training camps in Mindanao. That factor encouraged the US to continue paying attention to our own security needs, especially those needs directly bearing on the challenge of combating terrorists.

Even then, however, American authorities incessantly expressed disappointment about our inability to eliminate the training camps used by the Jemaah Islamiya. The recent bombing in Bali has been traced to bomb-makers who trained in Mindanao.

There is also some degree of exasperation not only in Washington but also among our neighbors in the region over our inability to pass an effective anti-terror law and constrict the activities of radical Islamic networks. We are perceived as the weak link in the anti-terror chain.

The US is likewise discomfited by our increasingly close collaboration with China. Although that closer relationship might work to our advantage, given our serious need for more substantial security partnerships, it reduces the cards available to US strategy to trump what they perceive as China’s growing hegemony over the region.

From all indications, Aragoncillo was acting on behalf of scheming politicians of the opposition. Some of them, in all their wisdom, publicly admitted to receiving documents through the e-mail from Aragoncillo. That immediately implicates them in what is turning out to be a really serious espionage case.

Aragoncillo is a friend of Joseph Estrada and the latter has admitted receiving information from him. His co-accused, Michael Ray Aquino served Senator Panfilo Lacson and fled the country after being named in the Kuratong Baleleng massacre and the Dacer-Corbito murder case.

In addition, both Senator Aquilino Pimentel and Rep. Roilo Golez have publicly admitted to receiving material from either Aragoncillo or Aquino.

These guys also happen to all be in the opposition. Some of them have been accused of being involved in an effort to topple the present government.

That adds another dimension to the espionage incident. Not only was US intelligence breached, the information acquired due to that was apparently used for partisan purposes in the Philippines.

This doubles the significance of this espionage case on the embarrassment quotient.

The Palace correctly maintains that the espionage case is a purely American concern. It is their security agencies that was infiltrated by muckrakers who happen to be of Filipino descent. It is principally the task of US authorities to investigate that breach in security and find means to improve the integrity of their confidential files.

But that does not mean we are spared our just share of the embarrassment arising from this incident. Our credibility as a security partner comes under greater doubt. The trustworthiness of Filipinos building careers in US security agencies will now come under a cloud.

Fortunately, the highest ranking Filipino now working in the White House is the highly talented executive chef of the presidential kitchen. No other Filipino will in the foreseeable future be appointed to highly sensitive jobs in the US government, thanks to Aragoncillo’s sloppy spying.

The indictment of Aragoncillo and Aquino, however, also means we have exported our cheap, scandal-driven style of politicking to damage the routine integrity of foreign government agencies. The two have broken into American security files in order to muckrake in aid of creating turbulence in the home country.

It is embarrassing enough that we seem to have exported tadtad-style murder to Singapore and that our country has become a center for manufacturing counterfeit dollars and treasury warrants. Now we appear to have exported snitches and pickpockets straight to the White House.

Not only have we allowed ourselves to be a weak link in the global anti-terror chain, our vain politicians have resorted to sloppy espionage in aid of tsismis.