An Australian former fighter pilot accused of breaking an arms embargo by training Chinese military pilots wants access to classified government documents to demonstrate that a US request to extradite him is politically motivated, his lawyer has said. Daniel Duggan, who became an Australian citizen in 2012, is accused of breaching US arms trafficking laws by training Chinese pilots while working at a South African flight school in the early 2010s. Duggan faces up to 60 years in prison if he is convicted. A November court date had been set…
Tag: US military
Anthony Albanese urged to halt Daniel Duggan’s US extradition during meeting with president
Showing that their home-baked cake had made it safely to school was important in itself, but the Duggan family had little inkling of the happy snap’s broader significance. The photograph of Daniel Duggan with his kids outside their country New South Wales school captured one of his last moments of freedom. “That (cake photo) is the last photo of Dan with us,” his wife, Saffrine, said, ahead of Saturday, the day which marks a year since her husband was arrested. “Every photo that I take or have since, there is…
US navy sailor pleads guilty to accepting $15,000 in bribes from China
A US navy sailor pleaded guilty on Tuesday to accepting nearly $15,000 in bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for photographs of unclassified private US military information, according to court papers. Petty Officer Wenheng “Thomas” Zhao, 26, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and receiving a bribe, according to a plea agreement filed in federal court in Los Angeles. Zhao admitted sending his Chinese handler plans for US military exercises in the Indo-Pacific region, operational orders and electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system on a US military base…
Aukus could weaken China deterrence,
Doubts about Australia’s willingness to join forces with the US in a war against China are being cited by congressional researchers as a potential obstacle to the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine deal. A new research paper looks at the US plan to sell Australia between three and five Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s but suggests the idea “could weaken deterrence of potential Chinese aggression”. That stage of the deal aims to help Canberra bridge a “capability gap” before Australian-built nuclear-powered submarines begin to enter into service in the 2040s. The paper,…
Daniel Duggan: US extradition case could be delayed due to fight over AFP and Asio documents
Lawyers for an ex-US navy pilot accused of training Chinese airmen say delays in obtaining crucial material from the government mean an upcoming extradition hearing will have to be delayed. Daniel Edmund Duggan, 55, was arrested in October last year after the US government accused him of arms trafficking by providing military training to Chinese pilots in South Africa between 2010 and 2012. He is also accused of money laundering while a US citizen. The father of six denies all the charges. Appearing at Downing Centre local court on Wednesday,…
US and Beijing spar over shipwreck-turned-military outpost
An international row is growing between the Philippines, the US and China over a rusting ship that has been turned into a crucial military outpost in the South China Sea. The dilapidated second world war-era ship was deliberately run aground on a tiny reef in the South China Sea in 1999 by the Philippines, and a small contingent of troops continue to stay on board to stake the country’s claim in the highly disputed water. The strategically important South China Sea is subject to competing territorial claims by China and…
Mother of US navy sailor accused of spying urged him to work with China, court hears
The mother of a US navy sailor charged with providing sensitive military information to China encouraged him to cooperate with a Chinese intelligence officer, telling her son it might help him get a job with the Chinese government someday, the prosecution said on Tuesday. The assistant US attorney Fred Sheppard made the accusation at a hearing in federal court in San Diego in urging the judge not to release Jinchao Wei, who was arrested last week on a rarely used espionage charge. Prosecutors did not name the woman in court.…
US dispatches warships after China and Russia send naval patrol near Alaska
The US dispatched four navy warships as well as a reconnaissance airplane after multiple Chinese and Russian military vessels carried out a joint naval patrol near Alaska last week. The combined naval patrol, which the Wall Street Journal first reported, appeared to be the largest such flotilla to approach US territory, according to experts that spoke to the outlet. “It’s a historical first,” Brent Sadler, a retired Navy captain and senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the Journal. He also said the flotilla’s proximity to Alaska was a…
US navy sailors arrested on charges of passing sensitive material to China
Two US navy sailors have been arrested on charges of handing over sensitive national security material to China, US officials said on Thursday. Jinchao Wei, a 22-year-old sailor assigned to the San Diego-based USS Essex, was arrested on Wednesday on a charge related to espionage involving conspiracy to sending national defense information to Chinese officials. In a separate case, the justice department charged Wenheng Zhao, 26, for allegedly collecting bribes in exchange for giving sensitive US military photos and videos to a Chinese intelligence officer. “These individuals stand accused of…
US-China talks set out the most modest aim: better communication
When Janet Yellen left Beijing on Sunday after four days of talks, the US treasury secretary in effect admitted that the delegation achieved its main objective simply by sitting down with top Chinese officials. After years of dangerous and deepening separation between the people running the world’s two biggest economies, they were finally back in a room together. At a brief press conference that was the only tangible outcome of the talks, Yellen listed her hopes for the future. They included something that a decade ago would have been taken…