Daniel Duggan is facing extradition from Australia to the US over allegations of training Chinese fighter pilots while working for a South African company.

Former US intelligence officer John Kiriakou and Australian lawyer and defence analyst Dr. Glenn Kolomeitz, believe the case is politically motivated and part of the US government’s efforts to send a message to China amidst a “cold war” between the two nations.

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Daniel Duggan, an Australian citizen and father of six, has been detained in a maximum security prison since October 2022, facing extradition to the United States over allegations of training Chinese fighter pilots, which he denies.

On 19 December 2024, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus confirmed Duggan’s extradition to the US.  He will be handed over “to American authorities in the early part of 2025,” The Guardian reported.  He potentially faces a 60-year prison term in the US if convicted.  However, his legal team continues to challenge the decision, citing issues with the extradition treaty and the lack of evidence presented against Duggan.

His family has launched a petition on Change.org, urging the Australian Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, to reverse his decision to extradite Duggan, arguing that the case is politically motivated and that Duggan should not be handed over to the US. 

The family has also initiated a legal challenge in the Federal Court to block his extradition, claiming the allegations against him are baseless and that the extradition process has been unfair.  They argue that Duggan has no criminal history and that the charges against him have not been tested in court.

A couple of weeks ago, Sydney Criminal Lawyers reported that a date has been set for Duggan to appeal his extradition.  His appeal will be heard by the Federal Court of Australia on 26 August 2025.

Geopolitics: Sending a Message to China

John Kiriakou is an American whistle-blower, author, journalist and former intelligence officer. He is known for exposing the Central Intelligence Agency’s (“CIA’s”) use of enhanced interrogation techniques, which he described as torture.  For speaking out, Kiriakou made himself a target of the state.  A 2013 article published by The New Yorker said: “Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer now at the Brookings Institution, told me that Kiriakou’s prosecution ‘seems disproportionate and more like persecution. There appears to be a vindictiveness about this.’”

Writing about Duggan’s case for Consortium News in 2023, Kiriakou said:

The US Justice Department has made something of a sport of attacking people on “national security” grounds.  Just look at what has happened in recent years to Tom Drake, Chelsea Manning, Jeffrey Sterling, Daniel Hale and this writer [Kiriakou].

The Justice Department’s attack dogs told Tom Drake and Chelsea Manning that they had the “blood of American soldiers” on their hands.  That was an outrageous lie, of course.  They told Jeffrey Sterling that he had aided Iran’s nuclear programme.  That was made up out of whole cloth.  They told Daniel Hale that he had weakened America’s war-fighters.  That was ludicrous.  They told me that I had “weakened our democracy” and “aided the enemy” after I blew the whistle on the CIA’s illegal and immoral torture programme.  Those were more outrageous lies.

Now they’re going after a man who has done nothing to hurt anyone, who has done literally nothing to weaken the United States or to strengthen its enemies.  I’m talking about Daniel Duggan.  The father of six is facing 60 years in prison for allegedly assisting the Chinese.

John Kiriakou: US Justice Dept’s Next Victim, Consortium News, 8 September 2023

Kiriakou then went on to explain “how ridiculous the accusation [against Duggan] is.” And concluded, “The issue here is that the US government is engaged in a cold war with China … Dan Duggan is a victim of that cold war.”

In the video below, Dr. Glenn Kolomeitz, who spent 30 years in the Australian Army and is now an international lawyer and defence analyst, said Duggan is a political prisoner.  Why is the US out to get Duggan?

“We can link this almost to the day when China went from being the trading partner, this friend, broadly this friend, to being the adversary – almost to the day.  And suddenly, bang, there’s this indictment raised, these allegations raised in the US against Dan, notwithstanding that it was many, many years after the allegations allegedly took place. So, it reeks of politics and it reeks of messaging to China,” Dr. Kolomeitz said.

Related: Why is a former fighter pilot wanted by the US government? 60 Minutes Australia,  12 May 2024

Five Eyes Bulletin

On 5 June 2024, the Five Eyes partners – the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – jointly released a bulletin warning about China’s efforts to recruit current and former Western military pilots to enhance its air defence capabilities and gain insights into Western military tactics.  The bulletin called China’s recruitment operations a “persistent, adaptive threat.” 

Related:

• US, 5 Eyes Partners Issue Fresh Warnings About China Recruiting Former Western Military Pilots, NTD, 5 June 2024
• Five Eyes Raise Alarm: China Recruits Western Military Pilots, Dev Discourse, 5 June 2024

At the time, Eurasian Times reported that “there have been several reports in the last few years that have categorically noted that China is ensnaring Western fighter pilots – from the US, the UK, France and Germany – to train its cadet pilots. However, that concern is growing as Beijing remains relentless in its poaching.”

In December 2024, Eurasian Times again noted the Five Eyes bulletin, this time linking it to Duggan’s case:

At the time [the Five Eyes bulletin was released], Michael Casey, the head of the National Counterintelligence and Security Centre, a division of the US intelligence agency, said, “The PLA [People’s Liberation Army of China] wants the skills and expertise of these individuals to make its military air operations more capable while gaining insight into Western air tactics, techniques and procedures. The insight the PLA gains from Western military talent threatens the safety of the targeted recruits, their fellow service members, and US and allied security.”

The bulletin claimed that the PLA has been using private companies in South Africa and China to hire former fighter pilots from Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and other Western nations to train cadet pilots in the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) and the PLA Navy (PLAN). Notably, Daniel Duggan has also been charged with training Chinese fighter pilots in South Africa between 2009 and 2012.

Years after moving to Australia in 2005, Daniel started teaching at the Test Flying Academy of South Africa, or TFASA  … US prosecutors allege that Daniel was involved in the unlawful training of Chinese military pilots in aircraft carrier landing and take-off.  According to the prosecutors, he was an American citizen while he taught at TFASA, which means he required permission from the US government before he could train any foreign military forces.

China’s Struggle With ‘Trap Landing’ Finally Traps Ex-US Fighter Pilot; Will Be Extradited To US For Helping PLA, Eurasian Times, 23 December 2024

Dual Criminality Requirement Not Satisfied

Daniel Duggan was indicted by the United States in 2017 on charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States by unlawfully exporting defence services to China, conspiracy to launder money and violations of the Arms Export Control Act and international traffic in arms regulations.  The indictment also claimed that Duggan conspired with others, including TFASA, to export defence services in violation of an arms embargo on China.

Related: A Startling Extradition Case of Daniel Duggan, Law Office of Bryan Fagan, 23 December 2024

According to the Extradition Act, dual criminality is required.  Dual criminality is a fundamental principle in extradition and international prisoner transfer processes. It stipulates that a person can only be extradited from one country to another if the act for which they are sought is considered a crime in both the requesting and the requested countries. This principle ensures that a person is not extradited for an act that is not criminal in the country where they are located.

Dual criminality requires that the crime for which extradition is requested be punishable under the laws of both countries involved. This means that for someone to be extradited, their alleged conduct has to be a criminal offence in both the surrendering and the requesting state.

In 2017, when Duggan was indicted by the United States, Australia did not have the same exporting defence services offence as the US.  As Sydney Criminal Lawyers noted, “the legislation that created this offence didn’t pass [in Australia] until June 2018, long after the 2017 US indictment had been sealed.”

Australia’s Extradition Act requires dual criminality to exist to progress an extradition from Australia. “This means that the conduct constituting a criminal offence in the foreign nation seeking extradition must too be a local crime at the time the extradition request is made,” Sydney Criminal Lawyers said.

Before the Attorney General Dreyfus made his decision to extradite Duggan, the Free Dan Duggan Campaign noted:

There are multiple arguments that Dan’s legal team will present to the Attorney General, who will ultimately make the decision about Dan’s extradition:

1. There is a requirement of dual criminality which specifies Australia must have the same law as the US that must be applied against Dan. In this aspect, there are no Australian charges against Duggan, nor have any Australians previously been charged with similar such offences. (For many years, Australian ex-servicemen  –  as well as their US colleagues – have supplied military services around the world. Most recently, numerous Australians are currently in Ukraine.)

Free Dan Duggan Campaign

“The charges against him are clearly politically motivated and unfounded. He faces no Australian charges,” the Free Dan Duggan Campaign says.

Featured image: Daniel Duggan. Source: Furious wife of fighter pilot locked up in one of Australia’s toughest jails reveals what his life is like behind bars: ‘They are trying to break him … He’s a shadow of himself’, Daily Mail, 25 February 2023

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