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US colonel charged with giving security secrets to Chinese girlfriend
An American defence contractor has been charged with giving national security secrets to his younger Chinese girlfriend.
Benjamin Bishop's home in Kapolei, Hawaii
The home of civilian defense contractor Benjamin Pierce Bishop in Kapolei, Hawaii Photo: AP
By Rebecca Hartmann and agencies
8:12PM GMT 19 Mar 2013
Benjamin Pierce Bishop, 59, stationed at the US Pacific Command in Hawaii, was arrested on Friday on allegations that he had sent his 27-year-old girlfriend, identified as "Person 1", highly sensitive information about US defence.
The classified information allegedly included details, sent to the woman via email, on nuclear weapons and US relations with international partners.
Mr Bishop was also accused of giving the woman information about America's ability to detect foreign governments' low- and medium-range ballistic missiles, the use of US early warning radar systems in the Pacific Rim, and the planned deployment of US strategic nuclear systems.
He is charged with one count of wilfully communicating national defence information to a person not entitled to receive it, and one count of unlawfully retaining documents related to national defence.
If he is convicted he could face a maximum of 20 years in prison.
Mr Bishop was working as a civilian defence contractor, though it is not known at which organisation.
The couple met at a conference about international military defence issues and began an intimate romantic relationship in July 2011.
Although Mr Bishop has had top secret security clearance since July 2002, his girlfriend had no clearance. He allegedly hid their relationship from his employers, despite his position and security clearance requiring him to report and contact with foreign nationals.
In November 2012, a court authorised search of his home found twelve documents all classified as "secret.
According to the affidavit, the woman asked Mr Bishop what Western countries knew about the "operation of a particular naval asset of People's Republic of China". Mr Bishop researched the issue, which was not part of his mandate, and was seen reading and collecting classified information, according to the claims.
Mr Bishop's court appointed lawyer, Birney Berver, stated, "Colonel Bishop has served his country for 29 years. He would never do anything to harm the United States".
Mr Berver said the man was a lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserve.
A preliminary court hearing has been scheduled for 1st April and Mr Bishop is due to appear in court again later this week for a bail hearing.
China and the United States, the world's two largest economies, have long engaged in spying against each other.
US defence contractor, 59, 'gave classified information to 27-year-old Chinese lover in honeytrap'
Benjamin Pierce Bishop, 59, of Honolulu, charged with passing on secrets
The defence contractor met younger lover at military defence conference
He did not tell authorities about her as he should have done
A covert search of his home in Hawaii found documents marked 'secret'
By Harriet Arkell
PUBLISHED: 11:52 GMT, 19 March 2013 | UPDATED: 16:01 GMT, 19 March 2013
Bishop, who is accused of passing classified military information to a Chinese lover 32 years his junior
A defence contractor and former US Army officer has been arrested and charged with giving his younger Chinese lover secret information about existing war plans and American nuclear weapons.
Benjamin Pierce Bishop, 59, who worked in intelligence in Hawaii, appeared in court to face one count of communicating national defence information to a person not entitled to receive it and one count of unlawfully retaining national defence documents and plans.
According to the complaint filed in Honolulu, Bishop met the woman at a conference on international military defence issues and passed her the information by email after beginning a romantic relationship with her.
The complaint said the 27-year-old woman 'may have been at the conference in order to target individuals such as Bishop', who had top secret security clearance since 2002. Bishop was arrested on Friday at Pacific Command headquarters at Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii and appeared in court yesterday.
Authorities did not say when the conference took place but said the Chinese woman, whose identity has not been released, was in the US on a student visa at the time.
US Attorney Florence Nakakuni said Bishop had been charged with giving defence secrets to his Chinese lover
She allegedly began an intimate relationship with Bishop in June 2011, and the authorities say he passed on the information to her in an email in May, and also in a phone call in September, when he told the woman about the deployment of US strategic nuclear systems and about the ability of the US to detect other nations' low- and medium-range ballistic missiles.
Bishop is accused of hiding the relationship from the government even though his position and security clearance requires him to report contact with foreign nationals.
Authorities conducting a covert search of Bishop's home in the Honolulu suburb of Kapolei found 12 individual documents marked 'secret' although he was not authorised to keep classified papers at home, court documents said.
The woman asked Bishop last month what western countries knew about 'the operation of a particular naval asset of People's Republic of China', the complaint said, though the topic fell outside Bishop's regular work assignments.
Bishop researched the issued using open source records and was observed collecting and reviewing classified information on the topic, according to the complaint.
Bishop's home in Kapolei, Hawaii, where authorities found secret documents he was not supposed to have
At one point, when he travelled to the UK to visit the woman, Bishop tried to hide her identify on a request to leave for travel form 'by slightly changing her given name to a masculine form of the same name and by adding a letter to the surname,' according to an FBI agent's affidavit.
US Magistrate Judge Richard Puglisi conditionally appointed Bishop an attorney after hearing arguments that his finances weren't sufficient to cover the costs of defending himself.
Bishop's court-appointed attorney Birney Bervar, said Bishop was a lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserve.
He said: 'Colonel Bishop has served this country for 29 years. He would never do anything to harm the United States.'
Bishop's lawyer Birney Bervar said his client would never do anything to intentionally harm the United States
Bart DaSilva, a neighbour of Bishop's, said the man lived alone and was initially friendly when he moved in about three years ago. DaSilva said Bishop once brought over a woman and a girl he said were his wife and daughter from Thailand. But he said he never saw Bishop with other visitors, and noticed that Bishop increasingly began to keep to himself.
The complaint filed against Bishop at the court in Honolulu does not refer to the Chinese woman by name, calling her instead 'Person1'
'I kind of felt: "What did we do?"' DaSilva said. 'It was almost like he switched off.' No-one was available for comment at Bishop's brown, two-storey home in a hilly neighbourhood overlooking Pearl Harbor and downtown Honolulu.
Bishop, who faces a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted, was scheduled to appear in court this Friday for a hearing on whether he will remain in detention during the case. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for April 1.
