By most accounts, Gregg Bergersen seems to have been a normal “guy next door.” A weapons policy analyst working for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, he was pleasant to the neighbors and cheered his NCIS agent wife on when she ran her marathons.
He also allegedly shared classified information on weapon sales to Taiwan with an agent of the Chinese government:
Bergersen was… recorded, according to court documents, as telling (Chinese businessman Tai Shen) Kuo: “Now, the other information I gave you, um, I’m very, very, very reticent to let you have it, because it’s all classified . . . but I, I will let you see it . . . and you can take all the notes you want.”
“I appreciate it. I appreciate it,” Kuo said.
“But I, I, if it ever fell into the wrong hands, and I know it’s not going to, but if it ever . . . then I would be fired for sure. I’d go to jail . . . because I violated all the rules.
If proven, the government’s case sounds like the classic social engineering scam: A guy befriends you, buys you a drink, gets around in time to asking for a copy of the agency phone book. See, the business he’s in, he wants to sell things to the government, and he needs to network a little. You really oughtn’t give it to him – it’s for official use only – but, hey, what’s the harm? It’s just a phone book.
Now you’re a dupe.
You meet for lunch every now and again, and he always pays. It’s an expense, he explains. Comes off the taxes. Next thing you know you’re on a trip to New Orleans or Vegas and he’s got the bill – your money’s no good here. But he could use a little inside tipper on the competition. Nothing classified, mind – just a little bit of which way the breeze is blowing. Help him target the niche. Maybe he lands the contract, gets the agency what they need at a fair price. Good for everybody.
And then suddenly, without quite knowing how you’re in too deep. You’re breaking the really big rules, showing him the list – the classified list – and letting him take notes. Risking your livelihood, your good name, your family. Your freedom.
Your country’s security.
And then you’re caught on tape with your new best bud stuffing a half-inch wad of $100 bills in your shirt pocket. You feel a little unquiet all the time now, something in the pit of your stomach. An awareness of being a regular guy who has suddenly found himself way across the line, with no clear understanding of how it happened, or how to get back. And the feeling never quite goes away.
And then one day the FBI shows up when you’re getting ready to go for a run, but it isn’t a social call, they’re wearing body armor and have automatic weapons drawn, and you’re really not surprised. In a way you were kind of waiting for them. Had been for a while.
Next thing you know you’re lying face down on the cold ground with the bracelets snapping around your wrists, and they’ve got a warrant and your wife is proclaiming your innocence and the neighbors are staring and it started off as only a phone book.
But now you’re a traitor.
And you’re asking yourself, how did it come to this?
Well, if the government’s right Mr. Bergersen – and over here at least, you’re still innocent until proven otherwise – you’ll have plenty of time to think on that.
Traitor and dupe. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. I am surprised they didn’t try to flip him, though.
Absolutely right, Lex. Traitorous actions often start with small compromises. This is why values, not rules, are so important. Too bad we neither teach nor ‘value’ them much anymore.
I’m glad there are still some in the country who take such things seriously. Our future depends on it.
Back in the “Cold War” days….same tactics…get you be friends, ask for a recall roster to send out insurance solicitations, etc, etc, now bring me something good….and if you don’t well, you already have been breaking the rules and you’ll go down.
Same enemy, same tactics, same frailties. sux…
Well, yes…unless you’re Sandy Berger or Craig Livingston or Johnny Chung.
Then it’s just politics. You know. “So Tsu me,”
Weapons policy analyst turned traitor to the Chinese. An appropriate sentence would have to be something that the Chinese would offer for similar offense. We really need to be more creative with our punishments.
Happened to a Marine in Moscow in 1984 and 1985, as I recall. Duped by a Russian hotty and became a traitor. He had 9 years in prison (and the rest of his life) to consider his actions. Lonetree accepted the consequences of his actions–as a Marine should but as a certain Lieutenant Colonel
has not.
NCIS is pretty impressive. Had an agent in the house-no, IN THE BED- with the traitor and they still missed it.
Nice work. Good TV show.
Nose
Wow, Lex. . . seems like you know suspiciously too well the inner workings of this espionage racket. . .
As it ever goes the first time we lie.
It has been the undoing of so many good Men. And yet, we all have feet of clay. Meself included.
Subsunk
That really is the point, isn’t it Lex? You have to say NO right up front…
This is never a popular decision no matter what state of social affairs you apply it to.
Unless your name is Clinton. Then you can tell the State Dep’t. to back off and allow technology sales to Red China. Might have something to do with money that funds your elections, but that might be hard to to prove, and without a press willing to look into such things, well…
From 2002 –> http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/10/3/190315.shtml
Simple rules–offer or accept NO gifts, EVER.
And sadly be prepared to let opportunities and contracts go instead to those whose ambition is greater than their honor. The mentality that everything and everyone is for sale at some price mocks this question:
What price is your country and its future?
“Honor is like an island, once left, we can never return.”
And I cannot return to the island because ????
Sorry, should have given the full quote:
“Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return.” — Nicolas Boileau-Despraux
Because once honor is lost, you don’t get it back. And that’s a beach.
Humble, I had a similar reaction (Lex, I know you do not know from experience in this case, but your ability as a writer to get “inside the head” of a character is striking here).
CPT J, are you sure honor cannot be regained? It is not an immediate recovery, and must be rebuilt, but surely it can eventually be restored. In impersonal terms, I think of the Marine Stokes who recovered from early missteps to be a legend in the Corps. And surely we all know people who have done what they regret and lived in a laudable manner hence.
FbL _ that is certainly true however, it is much easier to say NO at the beginning than to spend a life time making up for a transgression.
I would go so far as to say that there are quite a few politicians in our midst that have a need to make up for transgressions that they can never fullfill.
In my personal case, I talked to my boys about rocks in their napsacks… This was something I thought they could relate to. The more rocks you acumulate in your knapsack, the heavier your burden becomes. I certainly do not discount the idea that one can “overcome” the rocks in their napsack but, why accumulate them to begin with?
It is much easier to say NO at the beginning than to spend a life time making up for a transgression.
Absolutely, I certainly hope I didn’t seem to be arguing otherwise. Sadly (as Subsunk says above) most of us have feet of clay.
Oh yeah, I’ve read the Aubrey-Maturin novels. I mind the temptations the nasty American agent trolled across the Doctor’s nose when he had him prisoner in Boston.
Stephen, being a secret agent himself, turned that spigot right shut at the first inkling of it.
Spies are like Hari Krishnas, or $cientologists, or cops; they’ll start out all reasonable, and after they’ve gotten you a little bit compromised, they’ll go on from there.
Fuzzy, the reset button for honor is somewhere about the navel, according to Lois McMaster Bujold and Miles Vorkosigan.
Now, when it comes to reputation, that’s much harder to repair, when busted.
Oh, is NCIS (according to Google, it is) the same agency which screwed up the investigation of the horrible accident aboard USS Iowa, under their previous name?
Their theory was, I believe, that there was some kind of homosexual love-triangle suicide pact, or something. Took a Congressional investigation to find the truth.
The US Navy has always been mental about homos, more so than other Navies, I think.
Even when it was a hanging offense in the Royal Navy, it was joked about unless somebody had to take official notice of it
Justthisguy,
So which one’s the homo here, Bergersen or his wife? Think she’s his beard, huh?
Honestly, I haven’t a clue what your point is.
FbL,
We’re all wiser from our regrets, and I’ve certainly had mine. I agree that honor damaged by our prior mistakes can be redeemed. But it takes our own effort AND the faith of those who believe in us. One without the other won’t work.
Stoke’s’ fellow Marines believed in him. He proved many times he was fully worthy of their trust.
One’s own honor is a mirror that others want to look in, to see their best selves. An honorable person sees their best reflection in the trust of others, and knows how fragile that bond is. You don’t want to do anything to break that bond. Their faith gives you the strength to do whatever it takes to keep that bond whole. An honorable person, even if they’ve made mistakes, knows they will not be abandoned.
A traitor’s mirror is shattered, never to be made whole again. Nobody trusts them, not even the enemy. Whoever they threw their reputation away for holds them in contempt. If they feel remorse, it won’t save them. They are utterly alone. They are cast out.
JTG, don’t get your point on homosexuality, but you are correct about NIS/NCIS and their record of incompetence.
USS Iowa – Bizarre love triangle.
Tailhook- Gave immunity to the guys that really did the assualts and went after guys for such heinous crimes as looking at strippers.
This one- husband of agent is spy for ChiComs. Nice work.
Still, that Mark Harmon is quite a hunk.
As I look at this, it is like respect. On a certain level, respect is free, but if it is ever broken, it can never ever be fully repaired. People ask about forgiveness, well let’s look at it. A story- A parent tells their child, “DO NOT EVER PLAY WITH MATCHES!” The child later on begins to grow and have freedom. At some point, he begins to play with matches again. One time, it gets out of control and he is seriously burned over most of his body. At one point he asks for forgiveness, they freely give it. But does that really change reality of the burns? The scars and pain will be the reality of the rest his short life. This the raw fact of life. Military members know a strange balance between discipline and loyalty. They are not always on the same side.
Grumpy
The point I was trying to make was that I had heard that there was a perceived tendency that some in NIS thought that chasing homos was their highest calling, and that such people were prolly guilty of all kinds of other stuff, too.
In the 80’s while visiting my girlfriend in Ventura and she workin late, I took my fishing pole down to the harbor to do some night fishing. The best place was near the bait holding docks since it attracted some nice sized white sea bass. It was cold and misting some so I had the place all to myself. Around 10PM a rather portly fellow dressed in a slicker and hood descended the ramp and set his gear up on the rail a few feet away. We fished quietly for a bit and the mist was turning into rain and I was thinking of folding it up when he suddenly turned to me and asked in a very heavy Slavic accent, “SO, you live round here YES?”
I told him I was up visiting. “AH, yes, do Yu know of dis Vawn-den-Berg base near to here? I was less than a year out of the Navy and strange as his question was, a small WTF caution light began to flash in my brain. I bluffed with a ” I’m not sure, I think it was closed down years ago.” “But, They test rockets there still Yes?” By this time it was raining hard and I played dumb saying I really did not know and then bid him good luck with the fishing (sic) and made my way up the ramp to my car. I related this strange encounter to my girlfriend when I got to her place, but before going to bed that night I also called the base and gave a detailed account to the OOD. Just cuz.