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CIA Clerk Admits She Gave Agents’ Names to Ghana Spy : They Were Lovers, U.S. Sources Say

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From Times Wire Services

A woman CIA clerk and a Ghanaian have been arrested on spying charges, the FBI said today in the latest espionage scandal to rock the U.S. government.

The woman, who worked in the U.S. Embassy in Accra, Ghana, admitted to the FBI that she revealed the names of CIA agents in Ghana, including the station chief, to her Ghanaian friend. She said she also identified Ghanaian “assets”--the Ghana agents who report to the CIA--and passed along a CIA intelligence report involving Libyan military equipment.

Agents arrested Michael Agbotui Soussoudis, a 39-year-old citizen of Ghana who said he is related to the head of state, and Sharon M. Scranage, a 29-year-old CIA clerk, on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage. The charges carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

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Webster said Soussoudis was arrested Wednesday night at the Holiday Inn in suburban Springfield, Va., and that Scranage, a resident of King George, Va., was arrested today in Alexandria where the FBI field office is located.

Justice Department sources said the two had been lovers.

Held Without Bail

U.S. Magistrate Harris Grimsley ordered both held without bail pending formal detention hearings, his on July 15 and hers July 18.

Soussoudis said at the hearing, “I am not associated with any intelligence service in Ghana; I am just related to the head of state, that’s all.”

Sources said he was either the nephew or cousin of Jerry J. Rawlings, who took over Ghana in a military coup.

The government said Scranage admitted her role in the affair during questioning by the FBI at the CIA offices from Monday through Wednesday.

Began in December, 1983

The affidavit charged that the spying began in December, 1983, when Scranage, then a seven-year veteran of the CIA, was assigned to Accra as an operations support assistant. She was stationed there until May of this year.

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An affidavit said that beginning in December, 1983, Scranage turned over to Soussoudis such information as:

--The identities of all CIA personnel in Ghana, including the station chief.

--The identities of Ghanaians who were cooperating with the CIA, including some who had turned over classified Ghanaian government documents. She obtained this information from classified CIA files and microfiches in the agency’s Accra station.

--Operational plans for CIA spying in Ghana.

Sources said that some CIA personnel had to be recalled from Ghana after their identities were compromised.

The affidavit said Soussoudis actively sought the names of Ghanaian dissidents who were cooperating with the CIA so he could have them arrested by the Ghanaian government.

Met Ghanaian Officials

The government said Scranage admitted that on May 24, 1985, just before her departure from Accra, she met there with Soussoudis and Ghanaian officials, including a Ghanaian intelligence official.

Sources said they believed that the officials present included Rawlings himself and the chief of the Ghanaian intelligence service.

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The affidavit said Scranage repeated the information she had earlier supplied to Soussoudis and saw that the intelligence official was holding handwritten notes she had provided to Soussoudis.

At this meeting, the affidavit said, she was asked by the intelligence official to learn the identities of three Ghanaians traveling abroad who had supplied information to the CIA by examining classified files at CIA headquarters here. She was told to supply the information to Soussoudis, who would travel to this country to receive it.

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