SPYING - Retired AF sergeant arrested

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Retired Airman Charged With Spying

By KAREN GULLO Associated Press Writer

August 24, 2001

WASHINGTON -- Federal authorities have arrested a retired Air Force sergeant on spying charges, a government source said Friday.

The retired sergeant was taken into custody Thursday evening and was to appear in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., Friday afternoon, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The source declined to identify the person arrested, but said the individual lived in the Washington area and had recently left the service.

The arrest comes several months after the apprehension of former FBI agent Robert Hanssen, a longtime counterintelligence expert who pleaded guilty to spying for Russian over a period of 15 years.

Hanssen, a Vienna, Va., resident arrested in February after he left a package for his Russian handlers in a park near his home, agreed to cooperate with authorities last month under a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty.

Hanssen, a father of six, promised a full confession of his spying activities as part of the agreement and has been debriefing intelligence authorities during interviews conducted at his jail cell.

The source said the information that the retired sergeant is alleged to have leaked to foreign sources is not nearly as damaging to national security as the secrets Hanssen divulged to the Soviets and later to the Russians.

Hanssen provided Moscow with information about U.S. satellites, early warning systems, defense or retaliation against nuclear attack, communications intelligence and major elements of defense strategy, the government said.

Copyright © 2001, The Associated Press

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001


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