Intelligence Whispers

WASHINGTON, SAN FRANCISCO, AND MANILA -- October 14, 2005 -- Knowledgeable sources are reporting that the case of accused White House spy Leandro Aragoncilla, a former Marine aide on the staff of the Vice President and later a an FBI employee, involves a Roman Catholic Opus Dei espionage and political assassination team operating in the United States. Aragoncilla and his control officer, Michael Ray Aquino, a former officer with the Philippine National Police's Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) in the Philippines, were arrested for illegally obtaining classified documents from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney and an FBI computer system that were injurious to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The documents were passed by Aquino to Philippine opposition figures linked closely to a powerful Opus Dei movement in the country. That movement was reportedly participating in a planned coup against Macapagal-Arroyo. (The April 2002 U.S.-supported abortive coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was also supported by Opus Dei elements in Venezuela). The Philippine Department of Justice has asked for an arrest warrant to be issued against Aquino and his one time police assistant Cesar Mancao for the murder of Philippine publicist Salvador "Buddy" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000. The Aragoncilla-Aquino ring is being linked to a wider Opus Dei espionage and political black bag operation that reached into the highest levels of the FBI. Convicted Soviet and Russian spy Robert Hanssen was a longtime member of Opus Dei's St. Catherine of Siena's Church in Great Falls, Virginia. Other prominent members of St. Catherine's included Hanssen's boss at the FBI, Louis Freeh, Jr. The Opus Dei espionage ring operating out of Cheney's office is reported to have had a degree of approval from officials inside the Bush White House. Although Aquino is being held in jail in Passaic, New Jersey, Mancao is reportedly at large in south Florida, possibly with a wink and a nod from Gov. Jeb Bush's administration.