U.S. SWAPS SPY FOR 8 GHANIANS WHO AIDED CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504890021-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 7, 2012
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: November 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504890021-6
ARTICLE A -* LOS ANGELES TIMES
ON PAGEP -26 November 1985
U.S. Swaps Spy
for 8 Ghanians
Who Aided CIA
have helped entice Souseoudis to a
hotel in suburban Virginia, where
he was arrested.
She pleaded guilty to one count
of revealing classified information
and two counts of disclosing names
of persons working for the CIA.
U.S. District Judge Richard L.
Williams on Monday sentenced her
to five years in prison, with eligi-
bility for parole in 18 months.
At the sentencing, defense law-
yer Brian P. Gettings argued that
she was entitled to some leniency
because the CIA had failed its duty
"to protect her from the other
side...
Gettings contended that "none of
this would have happened" if the
CIA had fully warned Scranage
when the agency first may have
suspected she was the target of
Ghanaian intelligence.
But Assistant U.S. Atty. Justin
Williams, while acknowledging
that Scranage helped U.S. authori-
ties break up the plot, argued that
she still should receive a "substan-
tial" prison term for making "grie-
vous disclosures" of classified in-
formation.
Urged to Break Of?
e
In November, 1983, shteGhan said.athian
station chief told her tha
officials had complained that some-
one who fit her description was
holding "secret meetings" with
Ghanaian citizens. She was advised
to "gradually break off" with Sous-
soudis, she said
Judge Williams said that he
would take into consideration
Scranage's contention that the CIA
"may have been loose" in its
operation in Ghana.
Law enforcement officials would
not disclose the identities of the '
eight Ghanaians released under the
swap. But news accounts from
Ghana identified four persons who
had been convicted of spying for
the CIA.
They are: Felix Peasah, a U.S.
Embassy security officer; Theodore
Atiedu, a police inspector for Gha-
na's Bureau of National Investiga-
tion; Stephen Balfour Ofosu-Addo,
a former chief superintendent of
police, and Robert Yaw Appiah, a
technician with the Ghanaian Post
and Telecommunications Corp.
By PH LIP HAGER
and RONALD J.OS'TROW,
Time Staff writers
WASHINGTON-A Ghanaian
national accused of obtaining U.S.
secrets from a CIA clerk who was
his lover is being swapped for eight
residents of that country who re-
portedly aided the CIA, law en-
fm . ement ofddsls said Monday.
Thh officials said that Miebael A.
Soumoudis. 39, a cousin of Lt. Jerry
Rawlings, the military leader of
Ghana, pleaded no contest to two
counts under the espionage act
during closed proceedings last
week in U.S. District Cast in
Almndri, Va.
He was sentenced Monday to 20
years in prism-with the term
reduced to time served-sod was
turned over to Ghendtn Ambessa-
doe Eric Otoo on cmditim he,
promptly leave the country.
Flews I. Airless Country
In return, eight Ghanaians de-
scribed by officials as "of interest to
the United States" are being flown
along with their families to an
unidentified African country, U.S.
officials said. The eight are CIA
"assets" whose identities were re-
vealed to Soussodis by Sharon M.
Scranage, a CIA clerk who served
at the U.S. Embassy in Accra,
Ghana.
Soussoudis and Scranage, 30,
were arrested last July after U.S.
investigators became suspicious of
her activities upon her return from
Ghana. Federal officials charged
that she gave Souseoudis CIA data
at the request of Rawlings and
other Ghanaian officials, including
the chief of the co mtry's intelli-
genceservice.
After her arrest and firing by the
CIA. Scranage cooperated with
U.S. investigators and was said to
Extensive Trabdag CMed
He also said that she had under-
gone considerable CIA training on
how to protect herself against
intelligence operations in a hostile
country before she was assigned to
Ghana in 1983.
Judge Williams, in passing the
sentence, said it was important that
"the message go out ... there will
be swift and certain punishment, no
matter what your emotional prob-
lems, no matter what your charac-
ter flaws."
Scranage faced a maximum pen-
alty of 30 years in prison and
$110,000 in fines. Her sentence also
requires her to go on probation for
two years and perform 1,000 hours
of community service work after
release from prison.
In 40 minutes of sometimes-
tearful testimony, Scranage admit-
ted that she had fallen in love with
Soussoudis after she had volun-
teered for the assignment in Ghana
in the wake of a failed marriage in
the United States. She described
her lonely life in Accra and con-
trasted it with Souesoudis' luxuri-
ous residence.
Scranage said that she had told
the CIA station chief in Ghana-
whom she did not identify-that
she was seeing Soussoudis but was
instructed only "to be careful."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504890021-6