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Retired U.S. airman accused of spying
©Los Angeles Times
© St. Petersburg Times, WASHINGTON -- A retired Air Force master sergeant working for a government contractor was charged with conspiring to commit espionage Friday after being accused of stealing classified data from a super-secret federal agency that designs and operates the nation's spy satellites. Brian P. Regan, 38, did not immediately respond to the charges during an appearance in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., a day after his arrest by FBI agents as he attempted to board a flight for Europe. He was held without bail pending another court hearing next week. U.S. Magistrate Judge Welton Sewell said he would appoint an attorney for Regan after the defendant said he had no lawyer. Regan, who was not handcuffed, was dressed casually in a striped polo short and dark green slacks. Prosecutors would not disclose the country for which Regan allegedly conspired to spy. The Associated Press reported that it wasn't Russia or a U.S. ally. Knight Ridder reported that Libya was one of the countries. Prosecutors also didn't indicate a motive for espionage except to say Regan had accumulated consumer debts of $53,000. The Los Angeles Times, citing law enforcement sources who requested anonymity, reported that an initial assessment indicates the damage allegedly caused by Regan was far less extensive than that caused by FBI spy Robert Hanssen, who confessed last month that he spied for Russia for nearly 20 years in return for $1.4-million in cash, diamonds and Rolex watches. Hanssen provided Moscow with information about U.S. early warning systems, satellites, nuclear defenses and communications intelligence. He also confirmed the identity of some Russian agents working for the United States. Regan, according to a 21-page affidavit filed in court, chiefly stole computer documents from the National Reconnaissance Office, where he worked. The documents were labeled "secret," which is not the highest classification, and dealt with electronic images from overhead satellites, classified pages from a CIA newsletter and portions of a CIA intelligence report, according to FBI agent Steven A. Carr. Other purloined documents, Carr's affidavit said, related to "a foreign country's satellite capability" and the "unclassified" table of contents for an otherwise "top secret" intelligence manual. Authorities, however, were not minimizing Regan's alleged criminality, especially in view of his 20-year Air Force career. Among his honors was an award for distinguished service as an intelligence analyst following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Speaking to reporters after Regan's brief court appearance, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Melson said, "Mr. Regan conspired to transmit classified U.S. national defense information to a person or persons he knew was working for a foreign government with the intent to aid that foreign government and bring injury to the United States." Melson said he knew of no connection between Regan and Hanssen, who is undergoing six months of intensive debriefings on the extent of his espionage activities. Upon conviction, Regan could be subject to a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a $250,000 fine, prosecutors said. While in the Air Force, Regan worked at the reconnaissance office in Chantilly, Va., a Washington suburb, from July 1995 to August 2000, when he retired from the military, court papers said. But he continued to work for the agency after taking a job with TRW, a defense firm performing contract work for the reconnaissance office. Officials said Regan was put under surveillance last June because of "suspicious conduct" on his part, and incriminating clues were subsequently obtained from his office computer. His alleged espionage occurred over about the last 11 months, authorities said. On Thursday, just hours before his arrest at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, the FBI searched his Dodge Caravan while Regan was in a meeting at the reconnaissance office. The court was told that agents found a bag containing encrypted messages and handwritten addresses and phone numbers for unnamed foreign countries' diplomatic offices in Switzerland and Austria. Regan had told colleagues he was taking his family to Disney World this week. Instead, FBI agents took him into custody without a struggle as he passed through security to board a flight for Zurich, through Frankfurt. A native of New York, Regan is married and has two sons and two daughters.
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From the Times wire desk
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