A former Pentagon official was sentenced Friday to three years in prison for espionage after being convicted of giving classified information to a Chinese spy masquerading as an agent for Taiwan.
The sentence imposed on James W. Fondren, 62, of Annandale, was significantly less than the 6 1/2 years sought by prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton said a lighter sentence is warranted because the information disclosed by Fondren caused little or no harm to U.S. national security.
Sure, it starts as unclassified stuff for a "friend." They don't care what you supply at that stage--just that you are supplying them. And then slowly, the boundaries of open source material and the stuff stamped in red at the top gets a little murky. And pretty soon you're supplying the PIN for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to a guy with a Red Star lapel pin, and hardly notice it.
Yeah, a little time in prison will be a good idea.
