Ex-NSA Analyst Pleads Guilty to Spying

A former crypto-analyst at the top-secret U.S. National Security Agency, who specialized in breaking foreign codes, pleaded guilty Friday to spying for the former Soviet KGB.

The Justice Department said in a statement that David Boone, a retired U.S. Army sergeant, had entered his guilty plea before the district court in Alexandria, Va. He will remain in custody until sentencing Feb. 26 and faces 30 years in prison without the chance of parole.

In his guilty plea, Boone, 46, acknowledged that between 1988 and 1991 he had delivered “highly classified documents” to agents of the KGB, the intelligence agency of the ex-Soviet Union.

“During that time period Boone spied on behalf of the Soviets. He passed to them highly classified and extremely sensitive documents and materials which could potentially cause grave harm to the national security of the United States,” the Justice Department said.

Among information Boone handed to the KGB were documents detailing U.S. targeting of tactical nuclear weapons in case of nuclear attack by the Soviets and details of the U.S. military’s use of signals intelligence.

“Many of the documents Boone delivered to the Soviets were classified at the ‘Top Secret’ level and designated as sensitive compartmented information,” the Justice Department said.

According to a “statement of facts” signed by Boone, a native of Flint, Michigan, he served in the U.S. Army from October 1970 until his retirement in June 1991. During most of that time he was a signals intelligence analyst.

During his 21-year Army career Boone also worked at the headquarters of the National Security Agency, which conducts eavesdropping operations around the world, in Fort Meade, Md.

He was later assigned to the U.S. Army intelligence station in Augsburg, Germany, from October 1988 through June 1991, when most of his spying activities occurred.

According to the statement, Boone first began spying for the Soviet Union in 1988 when he walked into the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C., and offered his services.

During this initial meeting, the former Army sergeant gave embassy employees a classified document he had written based on decrypted NSA information. He was paid $300 for the document.

In a later meeting with the Soviets, Boone arranged to continue his spying activities when he was sent to Augsburg. He received about $1,500 during this second meeting.

In Augsburg he was contacted by a KGB officer known as “Igor,” whom he met about four times a year until he retired from the Army in 1991. Boone received more than $50,000 for his spying activities during that time.

After retirement, Boone continued living in Germany where he worked in various computer-related jobs.

In September of this year, an FBI agent posing as a Russian spy contacted Boone, according to the statement. Boone met him twice and then resumed his spying career. He was arrested at a Washington airport hotel on Oct. 10 when he flew to the United States to meet with his contact.