Accused Air Force Spy May Have Been Working for Libya

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

[OK, while having nothing to do with information security, I have yet
to see anyone else mention the hand-held GPS unit in Mr. Regan's bag,
GeoCached dead-drops?  - WK]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,32878,00.html

Saturday, August 25, 2001
FoxNews.com

Federal prosecutors said Friday that retired Air Force Sergeant Brian
P. Regan had access to some of the United States' most sensitive
defense secrets, and that he shared that information with a foreign
government.

A federal source identified that government as Libya.

The FBI arrested Regan, 38, at Washington's Dulles International
Airport Thursday before he could board a flight to Zurich,
Switzerland. The bureau had earlier that day watched him go to work at
a National Reconnaissance Office facility in Chantilly, Va., earlier
Thursday, according to an affidavit released Friday.

The NRO a builder of U.S. spy satellites whose very existence was an
official secret until 1992 was Regan's last assignment with the Air
Force. In July, Regan returned there as a civilian employee of TRW, a
government contractor in Fairfax, Va., and his security access was
reinstated.

According to the affidavit, the FBI had been monitoring Regan's office
with a video camera and observed him logging on to Intelink, a
classified computer system for the U.S. intelligence community. Regan
read a secret document on his computer, took notes in a small
notebook, and then put the notebook in his front pants pocket.

At about 9 a.m Thursday, while Regan was in a meeting, the FBI
searched his minivan and found a bag containing encrypted messages and
handwritten notes listing addresses and phone numbers for the
diplomatic offices of an unidentified country in Switzerland and
Austria.

Regan had reservations to fly to Zurich via Frankfurt, Germany. A
father of four, Reagan had told colleagues he and his family were
going to Disney World.

At about 5:30 p.m., FBI agents stopped Regan as he was trying to pass
through an airport security checkpoint.

FBI Special Agent Steven A. Carr questioned him, and Regan denied
knowing about cryptanalysis and coding. But the agents then showed
photos of documents found earlier in his bag. "This is my stuff," he
said, shortly before he was arrested.

In addition to the documents, the affidavit said agents found items in
Regan's possession including the small notebook that he had been using
in his office, three rubber gloves, a hand-held global positioning
system device and a piece of paper in his shoe listing names and
addresses in a European country.

On Friday, Regan had little to say before U.S. Magistrate Judge Welton
Sewell in nearby Alexandria, Va. Sporting a goatee and dressed in a
striped polo shirt, Regan told the judge in a barely audible voice
that he couldn't hire a lawyer. The judge said the court could appoint
one.

Prosecutors asked that Regan be held without bond on a charge of
conspiracy to commit espionage, and a combined detention and
preliminary hearing was set for Wednesday. Prosecutors said the
maximum sentence on conviction were life in prison or, in certain
cases, the death penalty, and a $250,000 fine.

Prosecutors would not name the country or countries for which Regan
allegedly conspired to spy. But a government source, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said one was Libya.

The affidavit said Regan was suspected of being the source of a number
of classified documents received by an unnamed country. The documents
included secret electronic images, a secret CIA intelligence report
and a secret document related to a foreign country's satellite
capability.

It was unclear what interest Libya might have in such material.
Private analysts said Libya is chiefly concerned with the military
activities of its North African neighbors and U.S. knowledge of
Libya's chemical weapons program.

A search of Regan's work computer showed that his password had been
used to access some of the documents and to access Intelink addresses
associated with other documents, authorities said.

The affidavit didn't say whether Regan received any compensation for
his alleged actions, but did mention he had debts of $53,000 earlier
this year.

Regan, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., lives with his wife and children in
one of about a half-dozen attached townhouses at the end of a quiet
street in suburban Bowie, Md.

Regan served in the Air Force from August 1980 until retiring in
August 2000 as a master sergeant with a number of military honors. He
was trained in cryptanalysis and his responsibilities included
administering the Intelink Web site, the affidavit said.



-
ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org

To unsubscribe email majordomo () attrition org with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY
of the mail.