The following article appeared in the South China Morning Post on 24 May.
An Australian who allegedly tried to sell his country's secrets in Bangkok asked an e-mail chat group what canned fruit was best to use for sex.
Jean-Philippe Wispelaere's contacts with various sex, travel and defence chat groups reveal a conceited, penny-pinching, immature and perhaps lonely man.
The trail that eventually led him to wait - for FBI agents, as it turned out - by a baby grand piano at a Thai hotel with some of his country's top secrets in a shoulder bag criss-crossed the Internet for months before he joined the Defence Intelligence Organisation in mid-1998.
Wispelaere, 28, was lured from Bangkok to the United States in an FBI sting operation and charged last week.
Apparently, he had thought he was clever trying to sell top-secret papers to a so-far unnamed Asian country using a false identity. That arrogance shows strongly in the sharp put-downs he loved dishing out in, for example, travel advice on the Internet.
To a Canadian who wondered what currencies can be used in New Zealand, he wrote: "We use coconuts and trinkets. Blue marbles are especially appreciated, as they can buy no fewer than three sheep apiece."
A guru of budget globe-trotting, "JP" laid down the law about travel from Tibet to South America, from Hong Kong to Africa.
But his "advice" was racist at times.
"Gypsies are filth," he wrote. "I had no trouble with them in Italy. As soon as one got near I punched it very hard, male or female. I'm a 110kg bodybuilder, which makes life easier in that respect."
Wispelaere - or Piggy Le Hogg, as he styled himself on sexual matters - could pontificate knowingly about which sex films you should watch with a girlfriend.
He once asked what canned fruit to use in sex, writing: "Pears and apricots tend to be a little bulky."
Whatever his diversions, he acquired enough knowledge of military matters as a graduate student at the Australian National University to convince his country's spy masters to give him access to top-secret papers, many supplied by the US under sharing arrangements.
A travelling companion of Wispelaere's told an Australian paper Wispelaere was amazed at how easy it had been to steal secrets and that he had planned to spy for Britain.
The Sydney woman, 42, was quoted by the Sun-Herald as saying Wispelaere told her he was able to photocopy sensitive documents and "just walk out the door".
Wispelaere allegedly handed over 713 secret documents in exchange for US$120,000 (HK$930,000) from FBI agents posing as spies.
He faces the death penalty in the US if it is shown the secrets concerned nuclear weapons or military aircraft.
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A year and a half ago I got into a dangerous on-line
electronic war with this loser. He was spouting off about
his experience in Africa and, as mentioned above, he was
insulting and racist in his words towards everyone. Punch
his name up on dejanews to get your own taste of him. I
actually got so mad at him I tracked down his e-mail
address and sent him a series of e-mail bombs to show him
we didn't appreciate his constant insults of every traveler
who spoke other than him ... he was at the Austrailian
National University in Melbourne I think. The loser gets
what he deserves, I'll visit him in jail, ha ha!