[ISN] Accused Air Force Spy May Have Been Working for Libya

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Mon Aug 27 2001 - 05:56:35 PDT

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    [OK, while having nothing to do with information security, I have yet
    to see anyone else mention the hand-held GPS unit in Mr. Regan's bag,
    GeoCached dead-drops?  - WK]
    
    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,32878,00.html
    
    Saturday, August 25, 2001
    FoxNews.com
    
    Federal prosecutors said Friday that retired Air Force Sergeant Brian
    P. Regan had access to some of the United States' most sensitive
    defense secrets, and that he shared that information with a foreign
    government.
    
    A federal source identified that government as Libya.
    
    The FBI arrested Regan, 38, at Washington's Dulles International
    Airport Thursday before he could board a flight to Zurich,
    Switzerland. The bureau had earlier that day watched him go to work at
    a National Reconnaissance Office facility in Chantilly, Va., earlier
    Thursday, according to an affidavit released Friday.
    
    The NRO a builder of U.S. spy satellites whose very existence was an
    official secret until 1992 was Regan's last assignment with the Air
    Force. In July, Regan returned there as a civilian employee of TRW, a
    government contractor in Fairfax, Va., and his security access was
    reinstated.
    
    According to the affidavit, the FBI had been monitoring Regan's office
    with a video camera and observed him logging on to Intelink, a
    classified computer system for the U.S. intelligence community. Regan
    read a secret document on his computer, took notes in a small
    notebook, and then put the notebook in his front pants pocket.
    
    At about 9 a.m Thursday, while Regan was in a meeting, the FBI
    searched his minivan and found a bag containing encrypted messages and
    handwritten notes listing addresses and phone numbers for the
    diplomatic offices of an unidentified country in Switzerland and
    Austria.
    
    Regan had reservations to fly to Zurich via Frankfurt, Germany. A
    father of four, Reagan had told colleagues he and his family were
    going to Disney World.
    
    At about 5:30 p.m., FBI agents stopped Regan as he was trying to pass
    through an airport security checkpoint.
    
    FBI Special Agent Steven A. Carr questioned him, and Regan denied
    knowing about cryptanalysis and coding. But the agents then showed
    photos of documents found earlier in his bag. "This is my stuff," he
    said, shortly before he was arrested.
    
    In addition to the documents, the affidavit said agents found items in
    Regan's possession including the small notebook that he had been using
    in his office, three rubber gloves, a hand-held global positioning
    system device and a piece of paper in his shoe listing names and
    addresses in a European country.
    
    On Friday, Regan had little to say before U.S. Magistrate Judge Welton
    Sewell in nearby Alexandria, Va. Sporting a goatee and dressed in a
    striped polo shirt, Regan told the judge in a barely audible voice
    that he couldn't hire a lawyer. The judge said the court could appoint
    one.
    
    Prosecutors asked that Regan be held without bond on a charge of
    conspiracy to commit espionage, and a combined detention and
    preliminary hearing was set for Wednesday. Prosecutors said the
    maximum sentence on conviction were life in prison or, in certain
    cases, the death penalty, and a $250,000 fine.
    
    Prosecutors would not name the country or countries for which Regan
    allegedly conspired to spy. But a government source, speaking on
    condition of anonymity, said one was Libya.
    
    The affidavit said Regan was suspected of being the source of a number
    of classified documents received by an unnamed country. The documents
    included secret electronic images, a secret CIA intelligence report
    and a secret document related to a foreign country's satellite
    capability.
    
    It was unclear what interest Libya might have in such material.
    Private analysts said Libya is chiefly concerned with the military
    activities of its North African neighbors and U.S. knowledge of
    Libya's chemical weapons program.
    
    A search of Regan's work computer showed that his password had been
    used to access some of the documents and to access Intelink addresses
    associated with other documents, authorities said.
    
    The affidavit didn't say whether Regan received any compensation for
    his alleged actions, but did mention he had debts of $53,000 earlier
    this year.
    
    Regan, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., lives with his wife and children in
    one of about a half-dozen attached townhouses at the end of a quiet
    street in suburban Bowie, Md.
    
    Regan served in the Air Force from August 1980 until retiring in
    August 2000 as a master sergeant with a number of military honors. He
    was trained in cryptanalysis and his responsibilities included
    administering the Intelink Web site, the affidavit said.
    
    
    
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