Revisiting a fascinating spy case involving what looks like espionage for love, the IHT carried an article based on a China Times interview with A former Taiwanese spy has denied allegations that she had a personal relationship with a veteran U.S. State Department officer in order to gather intelligence for Taiwan, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Isabelle Cheng, a former agent of Taiwan's National Security Bureau in Washington D.C., burst into tears when she discussed the alleged links, which led to the arrest of Donald Keyser in September 2004, according to the mass-market China Times daily.
Keyser, a State Department veteran of 30 years service, was sentenced to one year in jail January on charges of concealing his personal relationship with Cheng and of unauthorized possession of classified documents.
The China Times quoted Cheng, 37, as saying in an interview in Taipei that misleading news reports about the spy incident unfairly caused damage to Keyser and herself.
"He (Keyser) was such a patriotic person, and now he's even stripped of his pension," she was quoted as saying in her first known interview with the media since the case erupted.
She denied the Taiwanese spy agency ever used sex to help gather intelligence, the report said.
Cheng resigned from the National Security Bureau after testifying in the case in Washington. The newspaper said she is studying for her doctorate in an unnamed foreign country.
U.S. court documents revealed an intensely personal relationship between the two. Keyser was said to have frequently expressed his infatuation with Cheng, and the two often discussed international relations.
Keyser had denied engaging in sexual contact with Cheng, even though federal agents said they witnessed the pair in compromising positions.
Cheng is the wife of a China Post reporter stationed in Washington, Chris Cockel (the China Post reproduces the AP story without -- oops! -- mentioning that the paper is connected to the case). For those of you interested, a background and history on the case is given here. The original Taipei Times analysis, slanted in the other direction, is online here.
However, some of you read the IHT article and probably felt that something was wrong. Here it is, I think:
A former Taiwanese spy has denied allegations that she had a personal relationship with a veteran U.S. State Department officer in order to gather intelligence for Taiwan, a newspaper reported Sunday.
"He (Keyser) was such a patriotic person, and now he's even stripped of his pension," she was quoted as saying in her first known interview with the media since the case erupted.
If she has no "personal relationship" with Keyser, how does she know that patriotism is such an important part of his personality? Nor do her comments coupled with tears imply any distance between herself and Keyser. I'm sure the China Times interviewer was appropriately sympathetic.....
[Taiwan]
I always wondered about that captain! Where is Chris Cockel now, and what was he doing working for the CHINA POST in DC that year after originally reporting from Taipei for several years. Was he a CIA plant who led Isabelle to Keyser. The media, blue and green, has never explored that angle: just who was, is, Chris Cockel. Is he still married to her? GOOGLE THE NAME?
ReplyDeleteThe New York Sun has a four page article about this case, including this:
ReplyDelete''While she was allegedly involved with Keyser, Ms. Cheng was engaged to and reportedly married a *British* man, Christopher Cockel, who served as the Washington correspondent for an English-language Taiwnese newspaper, the China Post. The government said Ms. Cheng's other relationship added to the government's "concerns regarding her motivation for engaging in an intimate relationship with the defendant."
So he was, is, British. Could not be CIA. Must be MI5.
http://www.nysun.com/article/36073?page_no=4