L.A.'S TRUE SPY STORY SALT II DEB[ ]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400350026-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2004
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: November 11, 1979
• Content Type: NSPR

Lr'
Approved For Release 2005/01/12: CIA-RDP88-01315R0qu0Q3qpq - p e f -~.
LONG BEACH INDEPENDENT (CA.)
11 November 1979
LAJ
( i as MLA,
On Oct. 11 G' vl o z t (`L ' J . c. nr~ N: .~
met in secret
treaty betweE (, D --`y. (?
Union. G- .z ~,,,!!!
;Verificatil
the discussion, which was'limited to senators only.
Somio:senators have questioned whether the U.S. intel-
ligence network-can. adequately verify that the Soviets
are complying with the terms of the treaty.
}
ansr
=WHILE CIA DIRECTOR Stfield' Turne was
testifying, Sen. William S. Cohen, R-Maine,--began
asking detailed; precise questions that clearly showed .
Cohen had read the book, said Mike Donley, an aide to
Sen; Roger W..: Jepsen, R-Iowa, another committee
mediber.
It .was a brief exchange, a "flash in the pan,"
Donley said, but Cohen's questions "caught the atten-
bark of the other senators, as well as Turner's replies.
,The questions and answers during that exchange iJ
....'
b
,. ,. "led t,u,t the
I
probably dealt with
h
not
e
y
the security^of the. U.S. spy-satellite network, which
would help verify Soviet compliance of: any SALT II.
;This is evidrn.L because=!The Falcon gird the ?
Snowman reveals in detail for. the first time .that. Boyce and Lee sold the Soviets hundreds ? of docu-
meilts with extensive information about the satellite
network. It also reveals a stunning laxness in security
{ at TRW that enabled Boyce to gain access to and.
eventually steal the documents.
The stolen documents that. the U.S. government
} used to help convict Boyce and Lee dealt solely with
the Pyramider project;. a proposed ` top secret satellite.
system that would enable the CIA to? communicate .
instantly with its agents anywhere in the world..
-TRW developed plans for the Pyramider project
at the CIA's request; but it was judged too costly and
never approved
Lindsey writes, however, that Boyce and Lee sold
the Soviets much: more- than just. the- plans for- the-,
Pyramider project. He says the United States would.
have preferred to let Boyce and Lee go free rather than
reveal at their trial how much inormation they sold.
- ::The thousands of documents that the Soviets
bought contained,: among other things, detailed infer
mation: `about Projects- Rhyolite- and Argus, two spy- I.
satellite systems manufactured by TRW, Lindsey says..
The loss is significant, he writes, because the more
they know about the U.S. spy, satellites, the easier it is
for the Soviets to blunt their effectiveness:
The book's revelations- are apparently what
during the closed
Approved For Release 2005/01/12 : CIA
Schuster and written by Robert Lindsey,. Los Angeles
x ?+
bureau chief for The New York Times
;More-. than- a . compelluig'spy "story, the boo"-re-
veal.,ed enough. about _the nation's intelligence network
to raise a few eyebrows during U.S. Senate debates;on
the strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT II)
1I'he- book: also- may' affect a petition Boyce has
filed in federal court in Los Angeles to have his prison
tern reduced.::,
f Snowman, published this month by Simon and
both jthiing men are convicted of espionage in
federal court in Los Angeles. Boyce is sentenced to 40
years in prison, Lee gets a life term
. This true story is told' in _The. Falcon and `the
THEY EARN $80,000 before the scheme falls apart
when Lee ' is arrested by. Mean ' polide- for=acting
suspiciously outside. the Russian embassy` in January
By Bob Zeller
Staff Writer
{ Even now, the story seems impossible to believe.
A 21-year-old Palos Verdes man, drifting in anc
osat of coL!.ege and odd jobs, is hired in July 1974 as a
SF40-a-week clerk at TRW Defense and Space: Sys-
teins Group in Redondo' Beach, one of the nation's
largest defense?contraetors:
} Within five months, Christopher John Boyce is
{ gi- en top-secret clearance and assigned to work in the
Black Vault, a TRW communications center through
which some of the_nation's -most. sensitive. defense
seeretspass. r In the heart of the Black Vault, Boyce for two
years works as a kind of switchboard operator, decod-.
*g daily secret messages from the CIA and transmit
ii
f trig outgoing messag es..
When work is slow, Boyce joins some of his TRW
colleagues for cocktails in the Black Vault, mixing
"screwdrivers" in the CIA's document shredder.
' The brilliant, articulate son of an ex-FBI. agent,
Boyce becomes disgusted by the CIA secret activities
that he reads about each day. , :...: , ? ...
t S6 he develops a plan to sell the nation's defense
secrets to the Soviet Union. Boyce convinces Andrew
Daulton Lee, a narcotics dealer who was his close
boyhood friend in Palos Verdes, to deliver the secrets
to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City.
For- 22 months; Boyce and Lee are Soviet spies, -
selling some of the nation's most highly: classified
defense information. Boyce is, able to smuggle docu-
ments..out of the Black Vault as easily,. as liquor is
And.,Cohen's questions ?apparentlj,made'oother:A
senators realize that the Boyce-Lee case "involved`'