Military tries to downplay damage from espionage case
ROC Central News Agency
2011/02/09 20:03:55
Taipei, Feb. 9 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) tried Wednesday to downplay the impact of intelligence allegedly leaked to China by a high-ranking military official, saying the officer had only limited access to highly classified information.
Lo Hsien-che, an army major general who has been detained since Jan. 25 on charges of spying for China, reportedly leaked information on Taiwan's military command and communications systems, but the military said Lo only had access to parts of such systems rather than a more complete overview of the network.
The ministry, however, declined to clarify whether the 51-year-old one-star general had access to a joint Taiwan-U.S. military communications project called Po Sheng, saying that the issue was still being investigated.
A senior official from Taiwan's representative office in Washington, D.C. said a day earlier that Lo was never posted to the United States as news reports had claimed, and that the intelligence he leaked was unrelated to U.S. military secrets.
Wang Ming-wo, acting director of the MND's Political Warfare Bureau, said at a press conference Wednesday that Lo was recruited by Chinese agents in 2004 in the middle of a 2002-2005 posting in Thailand, and could not have done much damage after returning to Taiwan.
During his time in his most recent posting as director of the communications and electronic information department at Army Command Headquarters, Lo was given mostly administrative responsibilities involving mostly non-sensitive tasks, Wang said.
He was promoted to the rank of general Jan. 1, 2008 but came under investigation last October on suspicion of involvement in espionage, Wang said, adding that the MND cooperated with the national security authorities in investigating the case from the very beginning.
His remarks were seen as a rebuttal of media reports that the military was unaware of Lo's spying for China until after it received tipoffs from U.S. intelligence units.
Blasting Lo's espionage as treason, Wang said Lo had traded his soul for money and brought shame on the country's military.
Lo is believed to be one of Taiwan's highest-ranking military officers to be detained on spying charges in more than 20 decades.
Despite subsiding tension in cross-Taiwan Strait relations, Wang went on, China has in effect intensified its efforts to penetrate Taiwan's intelligence network and absorb Taiwanese intelligence officers to work for the communist regime.
He further said the MND has set up a special task force composed of officials from the intelligence, communication, anti-espionage, army and military judicial fields to assess any damage that might have been caused by Lo's crimes.
"Various damage control measures have been in the works, some of which are already underway," Wang said.
The military will also review its personnel education and supervisory regulations and make necessary improvements to better protect defense secrets and intelligence, he added. (By Emmanuelle Tzeng and Sofia Wu) ENDITEM/J
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