Security experts say there were red flags in the kind of relationship struck up between the U.S. Pacific Command defense contractor and his much younger mistress from China.
"We’ve had history from biblical times of young women getting older men in trouble with military cases, so it certainly isn’t anything new," said Carl Baker of Pacific Forum, a Honolulu-based program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, "and it’s something that you always need to be aware of, that it can happen."
In the spy trade it’s called a honeytrap — a person who woos another into romance, actually targeting the goods on their national secrets instead. That allegedly happened when a 27-year-old Chinese citizen, in Hawaii on a student visa, connected with 59-year-old Bishop at a Hawaii military conference a couple of years ago.
"He should have known better, Baker said. "That’s one of the responsibilities you have as a senior officer in the military, that there are limits to what you can do and what you should do. It’s bad for the integrity of the military when you see cases like this."
It’s a case that has shocked Bishop’s quiet Makakilo neighborhood overlooking Pearl Harbor.
"I thought, what in the world is going on over there?" neighbor Margie Degarmo said, describing what happened as federal and military agents combed Bishop’s house Friday, the same day he was arrested at Camp Smith, U.S. Pacific Command headquarters. "The garage door was open and I noticed people coming in and out and going back and forth. One of the gentlemen took off his jacket and I saw ‘NCIS’."
"I’m like, in my own back yard?" Degarmo said. "So they stayed there all day, collecting — in fact a black latex glove flew up into my yard, I found it yesterday afternoon, so they were pulling out stuff."
An FBI affidavit in Bishop’s espionage-related case says agents found documents on classified secret topics at the house, as well as at Bishop’s PACOM workspace, where he served as a contractor with top-secret clearance.
"There are warning flags that should go up when you do those reinvestigations for security clearances," Baker said. "That’s why you have to report all the contacts you make with foreign nationals when you have a security clearance."
According to the affidavit, Bishop hid the relationship with the woman, even changing the girlfriend’s name to a masculine-sounding name instead during an overseas visit with her.
It’s the second high-profile case of possible espionage in Hawaii in recent years, following the conviction of Noshir Gowadia for selling B-2 Stealth bomber secrets to China.
Gowadia was sentenced to more than 30 years behind bars. Bishop’s maximum sentence is stated as being less.
"They’re saying already in this case the maximum sentence is 20 years, so that gives you some sense of relative severity of the case," Baker said. "In some ways it’s probably less serious but not to be taken lightly."
Also not to be taken lightly is the likelihood that this won’t be the last alleged attempt at an intelligence breach.
"Sometimes everybody wants to say Hawaii is just palm trees and beaches, but we do have a lot of national security capability and facilities on the island," Baker said. "You have a lot of different aspects of military capabilities and technology that go on her,e so of course those kinds of activities draw people who are looking for that kind of information."
"All military people here recognize that’s a danger," Baker added, "and that as you start increasing the number of tourists from China specifically, that becomes a concern, because it becomes more access, people can get here easily."
Very little is known at this point about the woman from China, besides her status as a student-visa-holder.
"After 9/11 we drew way back on the student visas," Baker said, "and it sort of cost us in some ways because we lost the diversity in our universities, so there’s this balance you have to strike between being part of the Asia-Pacific and trying to protect information."
As for protecting information from the "honeytrap," he said it is a real concern, but so are cybersecurity threats that eliminate the middleman.
"Taking snapshots of documents and things like that it is a bit old fashioned isn’t it? It’s much easier to probe with a computer and steal it at midnight when nobody’s watching," Baker said. "You can bore into a defense contractor and get all the specifications for the latest and greatest missile."
Bishop’s detention hearing takes place Friday in federal court.
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See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
