EXECUTIVE CALLED SPY CASE GO-BETWEEN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302870009-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: October 21, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000302870009-4
ARTICLE EA."
01 PAGE
BALTIMORE SUN
21 October 198
Executive called spy case
By Muriel Dobbin
Wes, Coast Bureau of. The Sun
San Francisco - He was known as
"The Yankee Trader," a veteran elec-
tronics entrepreneur opposed to re-
strictions on international trade, but
to the FBI he was "The Big Man." al-
legedly- a key figure in the latest espi-
onage melodrama to surface in Cali-
fornia's Silicon Valley.
Over the last decade. the nation's
home of high technology has become
a mecca for illegal traffickers in
trade secrets, and this week. an FBI
affidavit wove a We of Silicon Valley
spying at what was said to be "incal-
culable" cost to national security.
Federal authorities have estimat-
ee that a: least 100 cases are under
investigation in the crackdown on
electronics espionage and theft.
Douglas Southard. deputy district at-
torney of Santa Clara county. said
there has been a "steady increase" in
such cases since the first prosecution
10 years ago.
James Harper, a 49-year-old engi-
neer, was charged with stealing top-
secret documents on ballistic missiles
and selling the data to a Polish espio-
nage agent for at least 5250.000. But
the sbadoc ? figure who dominates
the most recent spy saga is James
Bell Hugle. 56. a electronics execu-
tive who once considered a run for
Congress. According to the FBI. he
was the go-between who introduced
the defendant to Communist agents
with a "shopping list" of American
defense secrets.
Mr. Bugle has not been charged so
far in the case. although he was said
to have testified briefly Monday be-
fore the federal grand jury now hear-
ing testimony. While an FBI spokes-
man refused to confirm that more ar-
rests were pending. he said that-the
--investigation "is continuing."
Don Hoeffler, publisher of the Afi-
croelectronics News, a weekly
newsletter about Silicon Valley, 're-
called his days as a "drinking buddy"
of Mr. Bugle. "He was always more
of a promoter than an engineer. but I
never thought of him as a traitor," he
said in an interview.
o -between
Mr. Boeffler said be had known
Mr. Bugle for many years, since be
became .involved .,,n the early elec-
tronics developmr it of the Fifties,
founding half a dozen companies in i
the Santa Clara valley and filing-pat-.1
ents in the area of microcircuit and
solid-state,electronics.
Mi` Bugle. be recalled. had -always
objected to trade restrictions.
"He believed in unfettered interna-
tional trade and he always seemed to
be in fight with the Department of
Commerce. He felt you couldn't stop
material getting behind the Iron Cur-
tain. so why have laws that didn't
work?" said Mr. Hoeffler.
The FBI documents claim that Mr.
Bugle was an intermediary- between
Mr. Harper and Polish agents from
1975 to 1979. The documents say one
of those agents was Zdislaw Przvcho-
dzien. a lieutenant colonel in the Pol-
ish Intelligence Service known as
"The Minister."
Federal bankruptcy records in
California show that in 1974. Mr.
Bugle was paid 5684.000 for equip-
ment from his now-defunct electron-
ics firm. and one of the men who
signed a receipt for that money was
Mr. Przvchodzien. who was listed as
representing a Polish government-
owned export company.
Mr. Bugle's name floats through
the 32 pages of the FBI affidavit,
which alleges that he met with Mr.
Harper in Poland, -Switzerland and
Austria in the course of meetings at
which documents were provided to
"The Minister" and agreements were
made about a three-way split of
money among Mr. Harper, Mr. Bugle
and Mr. Harper's late wife. Ruby
Louise Schuler Harper.
Mn. Harper, who died in June of
.cirrhosis of the liver, was an execu.
tive secretary at a Palo Alto firm in-
volved in classified defense research
and had clearance for classified in-
formation. She allegedly gave her
husband classified documents that he
passed on.
The Harper case is the latest in a
string of espionage dramas that have
been played in Silicon Valley. The
best-publicized spy case involved
Christopher John Boyce, convicted in
1977 of selling to the Soviets classi-
fied information dealing with Ameri-
can satellite "surveillance systems
from TRW Company in Redondo
Beach, where be was a security clerk.
Mr. Harper is represented by one
of Boyce's attorneys, William Dough-
erty, who also was a lawyer for Wal-
ter J. Spawr, of Corona, convicted in
1980 of illegally exporting high-tech-
nology laser beams to Russia.
Thomas Pardoe. a corporate gov-
ernment security officer for Mono-
lithic Memories. a Sunnyvale firm in-
volved in classified federal work, said
he had noticed a "sharp tightening" of
security and regulation over the last
year.
"Both the private sector and the
federal government have come to
realize what is at stake," .said Mr.
-Pardoe in an interview. -
Assoasi,e Press
WILLIAM BELL BUGLE
named in FBI affidavit
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000302870009-4