OFFICIALS THINK SPYING LED TO DEATH OF C.I.A. INFORMANT IN GHANA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840051-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 51
• Publication Date: July 13, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840051-4
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NN -A=~- 13 July 1986
Officials Think Spying Led to Death of C.I.A.
Informant in Ghana
By STEPHEN ENGELBERG
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, July 12 - Reagan
Administration officials said today that
they believed at least one Central Intel-
ligence Agency informant in Ghana
was murdered after his identity was
disclosed by an agency employee
charged with espionage.
The officials, who asked not to be
identified, said there were fears in the
intelligence community that reprisals
would be taken against several other
Ghanaians who assisted C.I.A. covert
operations in the country.
Sharon M. Scranage, a employee of
the agency for seven years, was ar-
rested Thursday and charged with giv-
ing extensive information about the
agency's operations in Ghana to repre-
sentatives of the country's Govern-
ment while she worked there as clerk.
The authorities said Miss Scranage
turned over sensitive documents and
the names of virtually everyone work-
ing for the C.I.A. in the country to a
Ghanaian with whom she had devel-
oped a close personal relationship. Ad
ministration officials described
pair as "lovers."
"There were some serious conse- would increase the pressure on Mr.
quences," said one official. "They had Rawlings to punish those linked to the
somebody caught and we believe it's C.I.A.
likely they died as a result of this." "Rawlings cannot appear to be soft
Michael Agbotui Soussoudis, identi- on the C.I.A.," said Mr. Ergas. "Given
fied by a Federal complaint as her con- the nationalist winds blowing through
tact in Ghana, was arrested Wednes- the Third World, it would be very dam-
day and charged with espionage. He is aging if he was thought to be too cozy
a relative of Ghana's leader, Flight with the United States."
Lieutenant Jerry J. Rawlings. After her service in her West African
Mr. Rawlings, who came to power in per, Miss Scranage was posted to
a coup in 1981, has been recently seek- C.I.A. headquarter in Washington. Ru-
ing a rapprochment with the West. The thorities said Ghanaian officials had
State Department issued a statement asked her to search the agency's cen-
today which said relations with Ghana
tral files.
were good and added, "We assume According to the Federal complaint
they will continue to be." The Depart-
ment took issue with some news re-
ports it said characterized Ghana as a
Marxist state. Reports linking its for-
eign policy to the Soviet Union or Libya
were "quite inaccurate,"the State De-
partment said.
Senator Questions Security
Meanwhile, Senator Patrick J.
Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is
cerned about this type of relationship
going on," said Mr. Leahy. "I have
been saying for years that our people in
the military, the C.I.A. and the State
Department are just not security con-
scious."
Pressure on Rawlings Seen
vice chairman of the Senate Intelli.
gence Committee, said the case raised
serious questions about the security
precautions taken by the C.I.A. He said
he was particularly disturbed that the
agency had not investigated the rela-
tionship between Miss Scranage and
Mr. Soussoudis.
According to the complaint filed in
Federal court here, Miss Scranage
passed documents and information to
Mr. Soussoudis on a number of occa-
sions over 18 months. Some of these
meetings took place "at her resi-
dence," the complaint said.
"They should have been more con-
The prosecution of Miss Scranage
and Mr. Soussoudis was begun even
though officials knew it would expose
C.I.A. activities in Ghana and could
harm relations with the country, an in-
telligence official said.
Zaki Ergas, a professor in the Af-
rican Studies Program at Georgetown
University, said that the disclosures
about the C.I.A. activity in Ghana
questioning by F.B.I. agents chat she
had given Mr. Soussoudis the names of
Ghanaian dissidents working for the
agency, as well as communications
data and an intelligence report about
military equipment a Ghanaian group
had requested from Libya.
The complaint said the Ghanaians
cooperating with the C.I.A. had given
American intelligence operatives in-
formation deemed secret by the Gov-
ernment of Ghana.
`A Nice Young Lady'
Miss Scranage, 29 years old, was de-
scribed today by relatives as a church.
going woman and a model student.
"She was just a nice young lady, a
girl growing up," said Pansy Bum-
brey, an aunt who lives in Miss Scran-
age's hometown of King George, Vir-
ginia. Mrs. Bumbrey said Miss Scran-
age was an honor student and leader of
her high school cheerleading squad.
After graduating from King George
High School in 1974, Miss Scranage
spent two years at a business school in
Roanoke, Virginia, where she earned
an associate degree.
Mrs. Bumbrey said she learned of
her niece's arrest from television news
reports. "I was shocked," she said. "I
don't know why they keep saying
`lover, lover.' She was not that type of
person. She was a respected girl - her
whole family is. Anybody in the county
can tell you that."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840051-4