Letter: Spies operate at high levels

Friday, June 22, 2001 | 9:26 a.m.

The Aldrich Ames and Robert Hansen cases have been well publicized. But, as I suspected, there are many others. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, not long ago compared these to a steady and quiet parade.

In an address in Washington, D.C., Shelby quoted a Defense Security Service publication of 1997 that listed more than 120 cases "of espionage-related activities against the United States from 1975 to 1997 -- and those were just the ones that got caught."

Since that time, Shelby said, "we have had the Peter Lee case; the Squillacote and Tromfimoff cases; David Boone, an NSA employee; Douglas Groat, who pled guilty to extortion against the CIA in a plea bargain in which espionage charges were dropped; a conviction of INS official Marano Faget of spying for Cuba; and, of course, the Hansen case."

This does not take into account the controversial trade mission to China during which Loral CEO Bernard Schwartz began the business relationship with the Red Chinese company that resulted in the transfer of critical missile technology to Beijing. In the early summer of 1994 Schwartz had made a "soft-money" contribution to the Democratic National Committee in the amount of $100,000.

I guess if you are big enough, you can get away with treason.

KENNETH HOVEY