AIR FORCE PILOT PROSECUTED FOR `LEAKING MILITARY SECRET'
ROC Central News Agency
2006-09-05 22:30:18
Taipei, Sept. 5 (CNA) An Air Force jet fighter pilot has been referred to the Military Prosecutor's Office on charges of "leaking military secrets," the Air Force General Headquarters announced Tuesday.
An Air Force spokesman said Jen Chun-kang, one of several F-16 pilots who escorted President Chen Shui-bian's plane during his flight to Palau Sept. 3 on a South Pacific diplomatic tour, was grounded and suspended from his duties after a photo he took of the president's plane during the mission appeared on his girlfriend's personal Web site.
The spokesman said related military departments will determine whether the photo can be considered a secret document.
If it is established that the photo is a classified document, the Air Force will reserve the right to sue Jen's girlfriend for publicizing the photo, he added.
Jen's girlfriend posted the photo in her personal blog along with a description of the escort as being like "eagles seeing off a frog" and the comment that it was really not worthwhile to dispatch Air Force jet fighters to "bid farewell to a god of plague."
The photo was later removed after triggering online discussion and media publicity.
Commenting on the air force's decision, Lin Yu-fang, a legislator of the opposition People First Party who serves on the legislature's national defense committee, said the Air Force should not penalize the pilot for the sake of pandering to the scandal-ridden president.
Lin said that Jen, an Air Force lieutenant, was carrying out an order issued by his superiors when he took the photo in the air with a digital camera. "The Air Force General Headquarters should not make a fuss by punishing Jen in the name of leaking secrets if they failed to warn him that he could not share the photo with his relatives and friends," Lin said.
(By Han Nai-kuo)
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