Ex-Airman Charged With Spying in Theft of Classified Material

A retired Air Force master sergeant working for a government contractor was charged Friday with conspiring to commit espionage in connection with the theft of classified data from a super-secret federal agency that designs and operates the nation’s spy satellites.

Brian P. Regan, 38, did not immediately respond to the charges during an appearance in U.S. District Court in nearby Alexandria, Va., a day after his arrest by FBI agents as he attempted to board a flight for Europe. He was held without bond pending another court hearing next week.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Welton Sewell said he would appoint an attorney for Regan after the defendant said he had no lawyer. Regan, who was not handcuffed, was dressed casually in a striped polo shirt and dark green slacks.

Prosecutors would not disclose the country for which Regan allegedly conspired to spy, although sources said it was not Russia. Nor did prosecutors allege any motive for espionage except to say Regan had consumer debts of $53,000.

Law enforcement sources, requesting anonymity, said initial assessments indicate the damage allegedly caused by Regan was far less extensive than that brought by FBI spy Robert Philip Hanssen, who confessed last month to nearly 20 years of spying for Russia in return for $1.4 million in cash, diamonds and Rolex watches.

Hanssen provided Moscow with information about U.S. early warning systems, satellites, nuclear defenses and communications intelligence. He also confirmed the identity of some Russian agents working for the United States.

According to a 21-page affidavit filed in court, Regan allegedly took computer documents from the National Reconnaissance Office where he worked. The documents were labeled “secret,” which is not the highest classification, and dealt with electronic images from overhead satellites, classified pages from a CIA newsletter and portions of a CIA intelligence report, according to FBI agent Steven A. Carr.

Other purloined documents, Carr’s affidavit said, related to “a foreign country’s satellite capability” and the “unclassified” table of contents for an otherwise “top secret” intelligence manual.

Authorities, however, were not minimizing Regan’s alleged criminality, especially in view of his 20-year Air Force career. Among his honors is an award for distinguished service as an intelligence analyst after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Speaking to reporters after Regan’s brief court appearance, U.S. Atty. Kenneth Melson said:

“Mr. Regan conspired to transmit classified U.S. national defense information to a person or persons he knew was working for a foreign government with the intent to aid that foreign government and bring injury to the United States.”

Melson said he knew of no connection between Regan and Hanssen, who is undergoing six months of intensive debriefings on the extent of his espionage activities.

If convicted, Regan could face life in prison and a $250,000 fine, prosecutors said.

While in the Air Force, Regan worked at the reconnaissance office in Chantilly, Va., a Washington suburb, from July 1995 to August 2000, when he retired from the military, court papers said. But he continued to work for the agency after taking a job with TRW Inc., a defense firm doing contract work for the reconnaissance office.

Officials said Regan was put under surveillance in June because of vague “suspicious conduct” on his part, and incriminating clues were subsequently obtained from his office computer. His alleged espionage occurred over about the last 11 months, authorities said.

“On several occasions while under surveillance,” the affidavit said, “FBI personnel have observed Regan conducting what appear to be surveillance detection runs, that is, conducting multiple U-turns, pulling over to the side of the road and appearing to be checking to see whether he is under surveillance.”

In searching Regan’s office, FBI agents found that his computer password had been used to access some of the stolen documents, as well as to use a classified U.S. government computer system called Intelink to “surf” the addresses of the country that had received the documents and two other nations.

He also traveled to Iceland and to countries in Europe the same day that one document had been accessed, the affidavit said.

On Thursday, just hours before his arrest at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, the FBI searched his Dodge Caravan while Regan was in a meeting at the reconnaissance office. The court was told that agents found a bag containing encrypted messages and handwritten addresses and phone numbers for unnamed foreign countries’ diplomatic offices in Switzerland and Austria.

Regan had told colleagues he was taking his family to Disney World in Florida this week and wrote “Orlando” on the office bulletin board as his destination. Instead, FBI agents took him into custody without a struggle as he passed through security to board a Lufthansa Airlines flight for Zurich, Switzerland.

Regan, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., is married and has two sons and two daughters.