[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. - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon Aug 27 2001 - 08:05:18 PDT