FBI ARRESTS ONE OF ITS OWN IN SPY CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404280036-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: October 4, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000404280036-6
USA TODAY
4 October 19$4
S
if
its
n
Miller's ' arrest was the third case of alleged espionage
brought to not in the past two days,.an indication, some ex-
perts said, of a tough new policy of cracking down on Soviet
operations and information leaks.
E On Tuesday, the FBI announced the arrest of Samuel Lor-
ing Morison, 40, an analyst with the Naval Intelligence Support
.
Center at Suitland, Md., on charges of giving three classified
photographs of a Soviet aircraft carrier to the British publica-
tion, Jane's Defence Weekly.
O Also Tuesday, Alice Michelson, 67, an East German, was
charged with receiving classified information from an Army
sergeant working as a double agent
The affidavit said Miller, "admitted having numerous per-
sonal meetings with Ogorodnikova from late May 1984 to late
September 1984" The FBI refused to confirm press reports
that thetwo_were romantically involved
Said Allan E. Goodman, associate dean of Georgetown Uni-
versity's School of Foreign Service: "It's a reminder that if all
the allegations of falling in love are true, even in an age of very
sophisticated electronic spying, the old- methods sometimes
work best" _
Added former CIA agent Walter Pforzheimer, "If (the KGB)
found somebody in straits, particularly financial, its quite a
classic case, it's a classic technique."
Agents observed four September meetings between Miller
and Svetlana.
"This," says John K Greaney, executive director of he Asso-
ciation of Former Intelligence Officers, "demonstrates how
bold the Soviets are to make this kind of move
The
' 1
By Barbara Ries
WILLIAM WEBSTER:
'Sad day' for the bureau
By Paul Clancy
and Sam Meddis
USA TODAY
It was, FBI Director. Wll-
clam Webster said ' Wednes
day, a "very sad day."
In the first case of Its kind,
an FBI agent, Richard W. " '
Miller, was arrested Tuesday
on charges of passing secrets,
to Soviet KGB agents. .
Miller, a20-year veteran,$
accused of giving a female So-
viet agent documents the FBI
says would give "a detailed
picture of the FBI and U.S. in-
telligence activities, tech-
niques and requirements."
The case gives a dramatic glimpse of the KGB's spy net-_;`
:
work and the U.S.'s counters to It. And the case shows that
despite high-tech wizardry, spying may come down to old
fashioned motivations: money and human chemistry.
Clearly, the FBI was shaken by the incident
Webster said the case was "an aberration on -the proud
record of patriotic and dedicated service" of the FBL
Spokesman John Hoos said at a Los Angeles press confer-
ence the bureau was feeling "very sensitive." .
Miller is hardly classic James Bond. At 47, he's the father,
of eight, paunchy and graying The alleged. Russian
agent, Svetlana Ogorodnikova, 34, is hardly a Mate Hart. At her .
arraignment yesterday, she appeared plain. She is slight, about
5 feet tall, and has short straight blond hair, a sharp nose and
sunken cheeks.
_ 'Svetlana and her estranged husband, Nikolay Ogorodnikov, .I
"both covert agents" the government says, had been under sur-
veillance since 1980. She was a nurse; he was a butcher. They-
lived upstairs in a simple stucco building just off Sunset Boule-
vard in Hollywood. But Svetlana, the, FBI has charged, was a
major in the KGB.
? According to the FBI's affidavit filed Wednesday, Miller
who met Svetlana in his job interviewing Russian emigres - .
was in financial trouble and Svetlanta offered a "sympathetic"
ear and away out of his money troubles.
The FBI said Miller admitted demanding $50,000 in gold for.
delivering the documents and in August requested $7,000 in
cash plus $1,000 in expenses"' . , .. -.
Miller was denied bail at a hearing Wednesday in San Diego.
iecause, federal prosecutors said, "Flight is a real strong risk."
If he is found guilty, Miller could face life imprisonment
John Moot, a federal public defender who represented
Miller at the bail hearing Wednesday, said, "I can tell you right
"STAT going to enter a pleaof not guilty."
,_. zInLe many pages of admissions, Moot said, "Those state-
nents are going to have to be looked at very closely" to be sure
hey were correctly obtained. "There are a lot of unanswered iuestions."
y
less. The feel re re ent-
y pretty confident nobody is watching what
the
d
i
yre
o
ng here ... They go as far as they can until they get
caught. They're like a vacuum cleaner - they want to collect
anything" _
Former CIA Director Richard Helms said the KGB got more
hi
ti
sop
s
cated under the late Yuri Andropov. Helms was CIA
head when Andropov ran the KGB. "Andropov did a lot to
modernize the KGB and sort of bring it into the 20th Century
,"
he said. But Helms said the Miller case doesn't appear to re-
fleet much sophistication. The KGB may simply have found a
'vulnerable target" in the FBI, Helms said.
Highlights of the FBrs affidavit
U Miller admitted to FBI agents that he had numerous meet-
ings
with Svetlana from May in September 1984. Miller told
her about his"personal, professional and financial problems."
Miller also told her that he was an analyst for the FBI and had
access to FBI documents marked "secret"
0 On August 12, 1984, Svetlana asked Miller if he w
ld b
ou
e .
willing to work for the KGB; copying FBI documents "for
which he would be paid very well by her government" -
^ On August 24,1984, Miller and Svetlana traveled from Los
Angeles to San Francisco. She delivered film canisters to the
Soviet consulate in San Francisco. She told Miller that she used
canisters to transport reports and messages to the consulate. - .
Goodman said the significance of the case is not that there
may have been a 'rotten apple" in the FBI - "but that the
Soviet KGB Is a very large, very sophisticated, very dedicated
intelligence service and its constantly targeting the U.S. and -i
apparentlyAable to make inroads into agencies whose person- .I.
nel are so carefully screened as the FBI's." -'- . _.,
Said Jim Bamford, author of The Puzzle Palace, a book on
the National Security Agency, "Once you've sold one secret,
you're hooked. They don't start by asking to get a top secret
,document They usually ask for something innocuous, like a
telephone
that point
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000404280036-6