Case Against Spy Suspect Goes to Jury

The case against Brian Patrick Regan went to jurors Monday after prosecutors argued that the spy suspect, accused of offering U.S. secrets to Iraq, Libya and China, would have sold them “whatever they would have paid for.”

Defense attorneys said the intelligence data he carried when arrested would not have compromised U.S. security and wasn’t even secret -- it could be found through public sources.

The jury deliberated about an hour, then broke for the night. Jurors were to resume deliberations Wednesday.

Regan, 40, of Bowie, Md., has denied trying to sell classified information to Iraq, Libya and China. The retired Air Force master sergeant worked as a military member and a civilian employee for defense contractor TRW Inc. at the National Reconnaissance Office, the government’s spy satellite agency.

If convicted, he could become the first American executed for spying since 1953, when Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were put to death for plotting to steal U.S. atomic secrets for the Soviets.

Summing up the case, Assistant U.S. Atty. James Gillis contended that Regan sent letters offering to sell top-secret intelligence data to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi for $13 million. Investigators found the documents on a laptop computer taken from Regan’s home.

Regan checked a special e-mail address he set up to receive responses to the offer, Gillis said. “He would have given them whatever they would have paid for,” Gillis said. “Can you imagine what Saddam Hussein could have done with the information he was offering?”

Defense attorney Nina Ginsberg said the prosecution presented no evidence that Regan sent the letters, which were riddled with misspellings.

Prosecutors say Regan wanted to sell the data to pay off debts of more than $100,000.