Ex-CIA Officer Charged with Spying (fwd)

[ichudov@algebra.com (Igor Chudov @ home)]

nikst wrote:
> From nikst@glasnet.ru  Fri Apr  3 22:08:12 1998
> Message-Id: <m0yLKBy-001A7jN@mail.glas.apc.org>
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> From: "nikst" <nikst@glasnet.ru>
> Subject: Ex-CIA Officer Charged with Spying
> 
> Friday April 3 5:01 PM EST 
> 
> Ex-CIA Officer Charged with Spying
> 
> By James Vicini 
> 
> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A disgruntled former CIA officer has been arrested on
> spy charges
> alleging he passed secrets to two foreign nations about how the agency
> eavesdropped on their
> coded communications, U.S. officials said Friday. 
> 
> Douglas Groat, 50, who worked at the Central Intelligence Agency for 16 years
> until being fired
> in 1996, also was charged with trying to extort more than $500,000 from the spy
> agency in return
> for not revealing secrets to foreign governments. 
> 
> During a brief court hearing, a lawyer for Groat entered a not guilty plea to
> the five charges, two
> of which carry a possible death penalty. The case was the latest spy scandal to
> rock the CIA in
> recent years. 
> 
> U.S. Attorney Wilma Lewis said after the hearing that Groat participated during
> his CIA career
> in classified covert operations aimed at the penetration of cryptographic
> systems of foreign
> governments. 
> 
> He allegedly disclosed national defense information concerning the targeting
> and compromise of
> the cryptographic systems of two unidentified foreign governments to those
> governments, she
> told reporters outside the courthouse. 
> 
> The indictment alleged that he handed over the secrets to representatives of
> the foreign nation
> "with intent and reason to believe that said information would be used to the
> injury of the United
> States and to the advantage of a foreign nation." 
> 
> "The alleged unauthorized disclosure of these activities could have a
> significant impact on the
> national security of the United States," said Lewis, whose office will
> prosecute the case. 
> 
> "This case involves highly sensitive classified information that could have a
> serious impact on
> the national security of the United States. In short this is a serious
> espionage case," she said. 
> 
> The alleged espionage took place in late March and April 1997 while the alleged
> extortion
> scheme began in May 1996 and lasted until February 1998, the officials said.
> Groat was
> arrested by FBI agents without incident on Thursday. 
> 
> After prosecutors warned that Groat may try to flee the country, Chief U.S.
> District Judge Norma
> Holloway Johnson ordered Groat held without bond until next Thursday, when
> there will be
> another hearing. 
> 
> Prosecutor Eric Dubelier told the judge that Groat had been trained by the CIA
> "in traveling in
> false identification and deception." 
> 
> He said Groat possessed sensitive intelligence information which could cause
> "grave damage"
> to national security if disclosed. 
> 
> Groat, who was dressed in dark-blue prison clothing, stood before the judge
> during the hearing
> with his hands behind his back. Groat once conferred with his court-appointed
> lawyers, but
> never said anything during the proceeding held under unusually heavy security. 
> 
> George Tenet, the head of the CIA, said in a statement the full extent of any
> damage to national
> security has yet to be determined. 
> 
> "The charges against Mr Groat are extremely serious," Tenet said. "His arrest
> demonstrates that
> the U.S. government will not rest in our efforts against those who would commit
> espionage ...
> nor will we be intimidated by threats of blackmail." 
> 
> Groat worked as a technical officer in the CIA's Directorate for Science and
> Technology. He
> last had access to classified information in 1993, when he has placed on
> administrative leave. 
> 
> Officials said it will be up to Attorney General Janet Reno to decide whether
> to seek the death
> penalty in the case. They said the year-old investigation would continue. 
> 
> The case is the latest in a series of embarrassing spy cases involving the CIA.
> 
> 
> CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames was arrested in 1994 and has pleaded guilty to
> betraying at least 11
> Soviet and East European agents working for the United States in one of the
> most damaging
> espionage cases in U.S. history. 
> 
> Ames, a career officer who spent much of his 31 years in the CIA in
> counterintelligence, is
> serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison. 
> 
> Confessed double-agent Harold Nicholson pleaded guilty last year to spying for
> Moscow,
> becoming the highest-ranking CIA officer convicted in a spy case. 
> 
> Nicholson, a 16-year CIA veteran who uncloaked students he helped train for
> undercover
> missions, admitted collecting $300,000 from the Russians. 
> 
> **********
> 
> 



	- Igor.