home site map contact us search help


1975 - 1980   Return to   HOME   DATES   NAMES   ORGANIZATIONS


1975 - 1980

1980- DAVID H. BARNETT, a CIA officer, was indicted 24 October for having sold to the Soviet Union details of one of the CIA's most successful undercover operations code-named "Habrink." Following a tour of duty in Indonesia between 1967 and 1970, Barnett resigned from the CIA to enter private business. In late 1976, faced with failure and debts of $100,000, he offered to sell classified information to the KGB. Barnett handed over full details of Habrink to the KGB, including CIA information on the Soviet SA-2 surface-to-air missile and the Whiskey class diesel-powered submarine. He also revealed the names of 30 CIA intelligence officers as well as the identities of informants recruited by the CIA. In all Barnett was paid approximately $92,000 by the KGB for information supplied between 1976 and 1977. US agents reportedly spotted Barnett meeting the KGB in Vienna in April 1980; he was questioned by the FBI upon his return to the US Barnett entered a plea of guilty and received an 18-year sentence. He was paroled in 1990.

New York Times, 23 Oct 1980, "Alleged Spy Sought 2nd Post, Aides Say"
New York Times, 30 Oct 1980, "Ex-Agent of CIA. Pleads Guilty"
Washington Post, 30 Oct 1980, "Ex-CIA Agent Pleads Guilty to Spying"

***

1980 - RUDOLPH ALBERT HERRMANN, KGB career officer, entered the US illegally with his family from Canada in 1968 and operated as a Soviet agent within the US under the guise of a free-lance photographer. His primary assignment was political information. While Herrmann claimed not to have recruited Americans for espionage, he admitted to having transmitted sensitive information collected by other spies and to acting as a courier for the KGB. Apprehended by the FBI in 1977, he agreed to operate as a double agent until the operation was terminated in 1980. Herrmann and his family were granted asylum in the United States and have been resettled under a new identity.

New York Times, 4 Mar 1980, "Double Agent Revealed by FBI.
Washington Post, 4 Mar 1980, "Soviet Spy Became a ‘Double Agent’
John Barron, The Inheritor: A Tale of KGB Espionage in America, 1982.

***

1979 - LEE EUGENE MADSEN, a Navy Yeoman assigned to the Strategic Warning Staff at The Pentagon, was arrested 14 August for selling classified material to an FBI undercover agent for $700. None of 22 highly classified documents taken by Madsen is known to have fallen into the hands of foreign agents; however, it is believed that he had intended to sell them to organized crime figures dealing in narcotics. Madsen, a homosexual, is quoted as saying that he stole Top Secret documents "to prove...I could be a man and still be gay." On 26 October 1979 he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Washington Post, 27 Oct 1979, "Sailor Receives 8 Years in Jail"

***

1978 - RONALD HUMPHREY, an employee of the US Information Agency, and DAVID TRUONG, a Vietnamese immigrant, were indicted in early 1978. A search of Truong's apartment at the time of his arrest in January uncovered two Top Secret State Department documents. Humphrey had turned over classified cables and documents to Truong who in turn sent them to the North Vietnamese delegation in Paris via a woman who was a Vietnamese double agent working for the FBI. Testimony indicated that Humphrey supplied documents to Truong in order to obtain the release of his common-law wife and her four children from communist Vietnam. Both Humphrey and Truong were convicted on six counts of espionage on 20 May, and on 15 July each received a 15-year sentence.

Washington Post, 21 May 1978, "FBI Continues Spy Case Investigation"
Washington Post,
24 May 1978, "Cables in Spy Case Larded with Gossip"

***

1978 - WILLIAM KAMPILES, a lower echelon CIA employee from March to November 1977, was arrested in August 1978 on charges he stole a Top Secret technical manual on an intelligence surveillance system and later sold it to a Soviet agent in Athens, Greece, for $3,000. Kampiles had resigned from the CIA after being told that he was not qualified for work as a field agent. He then proceeded to Greece where he contacted Soviet representatives. His detection followed receipt of a letter by a CIA employee from Kampiles in which he mentioned frequent meetings with a Soviet official in Athens. On returning to the US, Kampiles was contacted by FBI special agents and confessed to an act of espionage. Kampiles maintained that his objective was to become a double agent for the CIA. He was sentenced on 22 December to 40 years in prison.

Washington Post, 23 Aug 1978, "CIA ‘Big Bird’ Satellite Manual Allegedly Sold to Soviets"
New York Times, 12 Nov 1978 "Spy Trial Focusing on Security in C.I.A."
Washington Post Magazine, 4 Dec 1983, "Spy Rings of One"

***

1978 - VALDIK ENGER and RUDOLF CHERNYAYEV, both Soviet employees of the UN Secretariat, were arrested by the FBI in New Jersey in May 1978 for accepting classified information on anti-submarine warfare passed by a US Naval officer acting on instructions of the Naval Investigative Service and the FBI. The officer, Navy Lieutenant Commander Art Lindberg, acted as a double agent in a counterintelligence operation called Operation Lemonaid.

In August 1977, LCDR Lindberg took a trip on the Soviet cruise ship Kazakhstan. Upon the ship's return to New York, he passed a note to one of the Soviet officers containing an offer to sell information. He was later contacted by telephone by a Soviet agent. During subsequent telephone calls LCDR Lindberg was given contact instructions on the type of information to get and the locations of drop sites where that information could be left and payment money could be found.

Naval Investigative Service and FBI agents kept the drop zones under surveillance and later identified the Soviet agents. On 20 May 1978, FBI agents moved into the drop zone and apprehended three Soviets, Enger, Chernyayev and another man, VLADIMIR ZINYAKIN, third secretary at the Soviet Mission to the United Nations. Zinyakin avoided arrest due to diplomatic immunity. Enger and Chernyayev, the first Soviet officials ever to stand trial for espionage in the United States, were convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Altogether they paid the Navy officer $16,000 for materials he provided. Enger and Chernyayev were later exchanged for the release of five Soviet dissidents.

New York Times, 21 May 1978, "2 Russians Arrested by F.B.I. for Spying"
Washington Post, 24 Dec 1978, "The Spy Who Came Into It Cold"
Los Angeles Times, 24 May 1979, "Navy Officer ‘Drafted' as Counterspy"
Naval Investigative Service Command, Espionage, 1989

***

1977 - IVAN ROGALSKY, a former Soviet merchant seaman admitted to the US as a political refugee, was arrested in New Jersey on 7 January after receiving a classified document from a cleared employee of RCA Research Center. The employee, who worked on communications satellite and defense projects, had agreed to work under FBI control after first being approached by Rogalsky. The ex-seaman had earlier asked the RCA employee for unclassified information about the space shuttle program. A second secretary of the Soviet Mission to the United Nations, YEVEGENY P. KARPOV, was named as a co-conspirator. Karpov had been suspected of being a KGB officer by the FBI. According to later press reports, Rogalsky was not tried due to questions regarding his sanity. He claimed to receive instructions from disembodied voices.

New York Times, 8 Jan 1977, "Soviet Alien Arrested in Jersey on Spy Charges"
New York Times, 9 Jan 1977, "Accused Soviet Spy Known as a Drifter"
New York Times, 16 Jan 1977, "Spy Case Clouds a Russian Holiday"

***

1977- CHRISTOPHER J. BOYCE, an employee of TRW Inc., a California-based Defense contractor, and his friend, ANDREW DAULTON LEE, were arrested in January 1977 for selling classified information to the Soviets. Over a period of several months, Boyce, employed in a vaulted communications center, removed classified code material which was passed on to KGB agents in Mexico City by Lee.

The scheme, which netted the pair $70,000, was discovered only after Lee's arrest by Mexican police as he attempted to deliver classified material at the Soviet Embassy. Film strips marked Top Secret found on Lee by Mexican authorities were turned over to the American officials. Under questioning by Mexican security police and FBI representatives, Lee implicated Boyce, who was arrested on 16 January in California.

 The pair are reported to have seriously compromised the Ryolite surveillance satellite system developed at TRW. Lee was sentenced to life in prison, Boyce to 40 years. In 1980 Boyce escaped from prison and spent 19 months as a fugitive. Following Boyce's second apprehension, his sentence was increased by 28 years.

New York Times, 13 Apr 1977, "Alleged Spy for Soviets Linked to CIA"
New York Times, 27 Apr 1977, "Man Said to Admit Spying for Soviets"
New York Times, 22 May 1977, "To Be Young, Rich—and a Spy"
Robert Lindsey Robert Lindsey, The Falcon and the Snowman, Simon and Schuster, 1979.
Testimony of Christopher J. Boyce before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, April 1985 (cited in the preface)

***

1976 - EDWIN G. MOORE II, a retired CIA employee, was arrested by the FBI in 1976 and charged with espionage after attempting to sell classified documents to Soviet officials. A day earlier, an employee at a residence for Soviet personnel in Washington, DC, had discovered a package on the grounds and turned it over to police, fearing it was a bomb. The package was found to contain classified CIA documents and a note requesting that $3,000 be dropped at a specified location. The note offered more documents in exchange for $197,000.

Moore was arrested after picking up what he thought to be the payment at a drop site near his home. A search of his residence yielded ten boxes of classified CIA documents. Moore retired from the CIA in 1973, and although financial gain was a strong motivational factor leading to espionage, it is known that he was disgruntled with his former employer due to lack of promotion. Moore pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was granted parole in 1979.

Washington Post, 13 Apr 1977, "Thought He was on Assignment for CIA"
Washington Post, 25 Apr 1977, "Trial of Ex-Agent..."
Washington Post,
6 May 1977, "Moore Guilty of Trying to Sell CIA Files"

***

1975 - SADAG K. DEDEYAN, an employee of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory who was cleared for access to classified information, and a relative, SARKIS O. PASKALIAN, were arrested in 1975. Disregarding regulations, Dedeyan brought home a Top Secret document on NATO defenses to work on. Paskalian, who had been recruited and trained by the KGB in 1962, surreptitiously photographed the document and allegedly sold the film to Soviet agents for a reported sum of $1,500. Dedeyan was charged with failing to report the illegal photographing of national defense information. Paskalian was charged with conspiring with Soviet agents to gather and transmit national defense information. Dedeyan was convicted and sentenced to three years. Paskalian pleaded guilty to espionage and was sentenced to 22 years.

Washington Post, 28 Jun 1975, "2 Arrested by FBI On Spying Charges "
Relative Duped Him on Spy Photographs, Accused Man Says"
"Paskalian: Choreographer, Merchant"
New York Times, 28 Jun 1975 "2 Held in Plot to Spy for Soviets on NATO.

 

Return to   HOME   DATES   NAMES   ORGANIZATIONS

 

[ Home | Site Map | Contact Us | Search | Help ]
Security and Privacy Notice