CIA employee charged with espionage

Monday, Nov. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The arrest was confirmed today by FBI spokesman Bill Carter after The New York Times disclosed the case. The newspaper described the suspect as a career employee entrusted with training other officials in the agency.

FBI Director Louis Freeh and CIA Director John Deutch called an afternoon news conference at FBI headquarters to provide details of the case, Carter said. The spokesman declined to provide further information.

A federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the CIA employe was arrested Saturday. Another official said the worker was to appear today before a federal magistrate in Alexandria, Va.

The Times said FBI intelligence agents arrested the employee without incident in Virginia.

It was not yet clear what information the employee was accused of sharing, or how authorities had come to suspect him. But authorities believe the employee had access to various security information involving the former Eastern bloc.

The employee was an instructor who trained other CIA officials and had been stationed overseas, officials told the Times. He was assigned to a counterterrorism unit in recent months to restrict his access to classified materials, the newspaper said.

The case is apparently the second time a career CIA employee has been accused of spying for Russia. In 1994, counterintelligence officer Aldrich Ames was sentenced to life in prison without parole after he admitted selling secrets to the Soviets for eight years. The agency has said his treachery led to the deaths of 10 Western agents and compromised dozens of operations.

It was unclear how long the CIA worker is suspected of working for the Russians. Officials told the Times his espionage began at least as early as 1994, but that he may have been recruited by Russia before the 1991 collapse of the Eastern bloc.

The arrest and search warrants served in the case were sealed, the Times said, along with affidavits describing the suspected activities of the CIA employee.

The question of whether the Soviet KGB or the Russian intelligence agencies that succeeded it after the collapse of the Soviet Union has penetrated the CIA beyond Ames has been heavily debated in spy circles.

This weekend's arrest, however, was the first indication of a second leak within the CIA, the newspaper said. Ames has said he did not know of any other moles within the CIA.

Officials did not say what the worker's motive may have been for spying, although in recent cases involving Americans, the motive was financial gain. The Soviets paid Ames more than $2.5 million for his information.