SPY CASE LOSS IS 'BEYOND CALCULATION'

Document Type:

CREST [1]

Collection:

General CIA Records [2]

Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):

CIA-RDP90-00552R000302530061-3

Release Decision:

RIPPUB

Original Classification:

Document Page Count:

Document Creation Date:

December 22, 2016

Document Release Date:

July 20, 2010

Sequence Number:

Case Number:

Publication Date:

October 18, 1983

Content Type:

OPEN SOURCE

File:

Attachment	Size
CIA-RDP90-00552R000302530061-3.pdf [3]	35.66 KB

Body:

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302530061-3 ARTICLE APPEARED ON PAGE _ USA TODAY 18 October 1983 Spy case loss is A California man handed the Soviet Union a huge "wind- fall of intelligence" about the USA's missile defense system before his arrest, the govern- ment said Monday. The "pounds" of documents handed--over to-the Soviets since 1975 reportedly detail USA attempts to allow Minute- man missiles to survive a Sovi- et nuclear "first strike." The FBI told a federal court in San Francisco that more than 100 defense secrets were peddled to the Soviets through Polish agents by James Dur- ward Harper Jr., 49, for pay- yond calculation' ments totaling $250,000. An Army missile expert said the value of the secret informa- tion to the Soviets "is beyond calculation." The Minuteman III system - located in silos in Wyoming, Nebraska, North Dakota and Montana - is the USA's most advanced laud-based one.- The'Soviets placed high val- ue on the information, the FBI said: Then KGB-chief Yuri An- dropov commended agents twice after shipments of infor- mation were in hand. The FBI said a Polish double agent told it a "team of about 20 KGB analysts and engineers was dispatched by plane from STAT Moscow to Warsaw to evaluate the importance and authentic- ity of the material." The FBI claims Harper was introduced in 1975 to two un- named people with a "shop- ping list".of high technology in- formation wanted. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302530061-3