CLERK AT CIA, GHANAIAN LOVER HELD IN SPY CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605540014-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: July 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

r , Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605540014-0
2
WASHINGTON TIMES
12 July 1985
Clerk at
Ghanaian lover
Ii~jjlin spy case
Ed R ers She also was aware, from her
By
and Ted Agres admissions, that Mr. Soussoudis was
A CIA employee formerly based
in Ghana and a male companion
related to that country's leader have
been arrested on charges of conspir-
ing to reveal the identities of U.S.
CIA agents and their Ghanaian intel-
ligence sources, the FBI said yester-
day.
As a result of the alleged
espionage, numerous Ghanaians
who had secretly cooperated with
the CIA in that West African country
were taken into custody and more
than one has been killed, an
informed intelligence expert told
The Washington Times.
Some U.S. CIA agents had to be
recalled from Ghana when their
identities had been revealed, Justice
Department sources said.
. Sharon M. Scranage, 29, King
George, Va., who served in the CIA
station at Accra, Ghana, and her
Ghanaian friend, Michael Agbotui
Soussoudis, 39, were arrested in Vir-
ginia and charged with conspiracy
to commit espionage. They were
being held without bond.
Ms. Scranage, a divorcee,
admitted she passed security infor-
mation from CIA files in Accra to
Mr. Soussoudis from December
1983 until last May, when she was
transferred to the CIA headquarters
here, the FBI said.
Ms. Scranage wept as she arrived
for the magistrate's hearing. She
was then placed alone in a cell near
the magistrate's office where she
cried quietly while waiting for U.S.
marshals to remove her to the
Arlington County jail.
FBI Agent Julianne Slifco said in
an affidavit that Ms. Scranage
admitted that she knew the informa-
tion included the "true identifies of
CIA assets in Ghana," meaning con-
fidential sources who were provid-
ing information to the CIA.
intelligence agents and officials, Ms.
Slifco said in the affidavit.
The FBI said the Ghanaians also
obtained a CIA report on efforts by
Ghanaian strongman Jerry J. Raw-
lings' military government to get
weapons from the radical North
African nation of Libya.
The affidavits said Ms. Scranage
made her statements during ques-
tioning by the FBI in McLean Mon-
day, Tuesday and Wednesday. FBI
Direcor William Webster said yes-
terday the investigation was con-
ducted with the full cooperation of
the CIA.
Other information Ms. Scranage
admitted passing to Mr. Soussoudis,
according to the affidavit, included
classified CIA cable traffic, the con-
tents of an intelligence report con-
cerning dissident groups in Ghana,
CIA communications and radio
equipment and operational plans
concerning intelligence gathering
methods of the CIA station in Accra.
Just before her transfer, the affi-
davit said, Ms. Scranage said she
met with Mr. Soussoudis and
Ghanaian officials includin
a
g
n
intelligence agent, who urged her to
obtain more information from files
of the CIA headquarters.
They particularly wanted to learn
the identities of three Ghanains who
were traveling abroad and who had
supplied information to the CIA, she
told the FBI, according to the affida-
vit. They said Mr. Soussoudis would
visit her in Washington to get the
information.
According to Justice Department
sources, Mr. Soussoudis, a self-
employed business consultant, and
Miss Scranage, a divorced,
$22,000-a-year clerk, became lovers
in Ghana's capital in 1983.
FBI agents arrested Mr. Sous-
soudis in the Holiday Inn motel in
Springfield Wednesday where he
apparently was waiting for an
expected rendezvous with Ms.
Scranage, sources said.
She was arrested yesterday in the
Marriott Hotel at Tyson's Corner in
suburban Virginia.
Court documents said Mr. Sous-
soudis had about $2,700 in American
money and pound sterling, but told
officials he could not afford to hire a
lawyer.
Ghana is a country of "middle-
range" importance as far as U.S.
intelligence interests are concerned,
an informed intelligence source
said.
Its ties to Libya could mean that
CIA secrets allegedly passed to the
government in Accra were relayed to
Libyan leader Col. Moammar Qad-
dafi and, very likely, to the Soviet
Union.
An American intelligence expert,
who requested anonymity, said yes-
terday it is "not infrequent" for U.S.
intelligence to use one country as a
base to gather information about
other nations.
He said Ghana is a "communica-
tions center" for U.S. intelligence
operations in Central and West
Africa, especially Nigeria, as well as
concerning Libya's efforts to gain
influence in the region.
The State Department yesterday
refused to speculate on whether
U.S.-Ghanaian relations, which it
characterized as "a good working
diplomatic relations:" might be dam-
aged by spy disclosures.
In separate hearings yesterday in
Alexandria, U.S. Magistrate W. Har-
ris Grimsley ordered both held with-
out bail pending detention hearings
July 19.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin
Williams said, "There is strong evi-
dence that he I Mr. Soussoudis I ... is
actively engaged in espionage
against the United States."
One intelligence source said Mr.
Soussoudis was a member of the
Ghanaian intelligence service in
addition to being related to Mr. Raw-
lings.
I am not associated with any
intelligence service in Ghana:' Mr.
Soussoudis said. "I am just related to
the head of state, that's all."
He was taken immediately to the
District of Columbia jail.
. There were conflicting reports
regarding East Germany's role in
Ghanaian security and intelligence
operations. Some intelligence
experts said East Germany main-
tains complete control over these
operations and said the alleged pen-
etration of the CIA operation was
"too sophisticated" for the
Ghanaians to manage on their own.
Other sources said the Ghanaians
did exercise control over their secu-
rity services.
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 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605540014-0
Mary Scranage, Ms. Scranage's
mother, said the arrest came as a
surprise although her daughter had
confided to her some days ago that
she had a problem:'
"But. no, she really didn't talk;"
Mrs. Scranage said.
Her daughter, a member of the
Corinthean Baptist Church in Wash-
ington, had always been very active
in church activities, she said.
The Rev. John W. Chapman, pastor
of the Little Ark Baptist Church in
King George said she joined his
charge at an early age.
"I do not believe the charges
against her are true:' he said. "I
believe that if there was any such
thing as secrets being passed from
her hands, she did it under threat.
Her loyalty to her country, church
and God is beyond reproach."
At the church, Miss Scranage dis-
cussed "some things that happened
in Africa:' and told the minister "she
had to flee from where she was stay-
ing:' Mr. Chapman said, declining to
elaborate.
"She said she didn't know when
she was going back, and I let it drop
right there:' he said.
Intelligence sources said Ms.
Scranage's official "cover" in Accra
was at the U.S. Embassy, although
this could not be immediately con-
firmed.
She was employed as a CIA oper-
ations support assistant, the
affidavits said. One source said that
in that capacity she could have run
safe houses in the country and par-
ticipated in other "administrative"
CIA operations.
As such, she is said to have had a
great deal of information concern-
ing U.S. agents and operatives there.
Intelligence sources speculated
that the Ghanaians would have
wanted to continue "running" Ms.
Scranage as an agent and to get
more information out of her from
wherever she was reassigned by the
CIA.
This intelligence would likely be
shared with others, such as the Sovi-
ets, as a trade for other information.
The Ghanaians, the sources said,
would have wanted her relationship
with Mr. Soussoudis to continue.
. Mr. Rawlings has ruled Ghana.
since he lead a Dec. 31 1981, coup
that toppled then-President Hilla
Limann.
Early in his rule Mr. Rawlings
developed close ties with Libya and
Soviet bloc countries and promised
to use Cuba as the model for Ghana's
development.
In recent years Ghana has
received about $1 billion from west-
ern nations, the International Mon-
etary Fund and the World Bank
which has allowed it to begin stabiliz-
ing its economy. The Reagan admin-
istration has requested $20 million
in foreign aid to Ghana in fiscal 1986,
three-quarters of which would be for
food.
Duve Doubrava, Kevin Cook and
Pam McClintock contributed to this
report.
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Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605540014-0