Counterintelligence
News and Developments. "Spy Dies in
Prison." Mar. 1998. [http://www.nacic.gov]1. Jeffrey M. Carney
2. James M. Clark (see Theresa Marie Squillacote)
3. Clyde Lee Conrad
4. Judith Coplon
5. Jack E. Dunlap
6. Noel Field
7. James Wilbur Fondren, Jr.
8. Kenneth Wayne Ford, Jr.
9. Jane Foster
Materials presented chronologically.
Sgt. Jeffrey M. Carney was an Air Force linguist at an NSA listening post in Berlin from 1982 to 1984. He defected to East Berlin in 1985 and passed on secrets; in 1991, he was sentenced to 38 years in prison. [Scott Shane, "Some at NSA Betrayed Country," from Scott Shane and Tom Bowman, "No Such Agency," Baltimore Sun, reprint of six-part series, 3-15 December 1995, 6.] After his defection, Carney changed his name to Jens Karney. [Benjamin B. Fischer, "The GDR's Exceptional Spies," International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 22, no. 1 (Spring 2009), 265/fn. 5.] Carney served 11 years of his sentence before being released. [Fischer, 265/fn. 6.]
Retired Army Sergeant Clyde Lee Conrad was arrested in 1988 by Federal Republic of Germany authorities and tried for espionage on behalf of the Hungarian and Czechoslovak intelligence services between 1976 and 1988. He was convicted by the Koblenz State Appellate Court on June 6, 1990, and sentenced to life in prison.
Four others were later convicted on espionage charges in Florida for involvement with Conrad's spy ring: Roderick James Ramsay, sentenced in August 1992 to 36 years in prison; Jeffrey Rondeau and Jeffrey Gregory, sentenced in June 1994 to 18 years each; and Kelly Therese Warren, sentenced on 12 February 1999 to 25 years in prison. Associated Press, "Former Soldier Gets 25 Years for Her Role in Espionage Plot," Washington Post, 13 Feb. 1999. Reuters, "Woman Gets 25-Year Term for Spying in Germany," New York Times, 14 Feb. 1999. Counterintelligence News and Developments, "Former Army Clerk Sentenced," Mar. 1999.
Counterintelligence
News and Developments. "Spy Dies in
Prison." Mar. 1998. [http://www.nacic.gov]
"Clyde Lee Conrad ... died on January 8, 1998, in a German prison where he was serving a life sentence. The 50-year-old Conrad was convicted of masterminding an espionage ring that sold highly sensitive information to Hungarian and Czechoslovak intelligence agents from 1975 to 1985."
4. Judith Coplon
Mitchell, Marcia, and Thomas Mitchell. The Spy Who Seduced America. Montpelier, VT: Invisible Cities Press, 2002.
Bath, NIPQ 19.1/2, notes that the authors conclude that, based on the Venona transcripts, Judith Coplon was indeed a spy. However, "the government's unceasing efforts to convict on the basis of inept investigation and tainted evidence" also made her a victim. For Jonkers, Intelligencer 13.2, this story is still relevant because it teaches "how NOT to prosecute an accused spy." (Emphasis in original) The reviewer's bottomline: "Good reading, deep secrets, still relevant -- a triple hit."
To Peake, Studies 47.2 (2003), the Mitchell's "have done a superb job of researching this famous case. And although their decision not to include endnotes is impossible to comprehend, [footnote omitted] they did indicate in the text the major sources used." And they "leave no room for doubt as to Coplon’s guilt.... Judy Coplon’s notorious story is a major part of counterintelligence history and the Mitchells have brought it to life in vivid terms. It is a great read." Similarly, Leab, I&NS 20.2 (Jun. 2005), finds that the authors have "used intelligently a wide range of sources.... The book is a good read."
Sgt. Jack E. Dunlap was a NSA courier who allegedly sold secrets to the Soviet Union for three years; he killed himself while under investigation in 1962. Scott Shane, "Some at NSA Betrayed Country," from Scott Shane and Tom Bowman, "No Such Agency," Baltimore Sun, reprint of six-part series, 3-15 December 1995, 6.
Barth, Bernd-Rainer, and Werner Schweizer, eds. Der Fall Noel Field: Schlüsselfigur der Schauprozesse in Osteuropa [The Case of Noel Field: Key Figure in the Show Trials in Eastern Europe]. Berlin: BasisDruck Verlag, 2005. Includes DVD, Noel Field -- Der erfundende Spion [Noel Field -- The Fictitious Spy], a documentary film directed by Werner Schweizer, in German, French, and English.
Fischer, IJI&C 22.2 (Summer 2009), believes that this "meticulously documented history" will "stand as the final word on this Cold War mystery."
De
Toledano, Ralph. "The Noel Field Story." American Mercury
80 (Apr. 1955): 5-8.
Petersen: "Soviet agent in State Department, League of Nations, and relief organizations in Europe, 1930-1940s."
Lewis,
Flora. Red Pawn: The Story of Noel Field. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965. The Man Who Disappeared: The Strange History of Noel Field.
London: Arthur Barker, 1965.
Constantinides: This is a "fine study" that puts "Field and his activities for the Soviets and OSS in proper perspective and at the right level of importance" -- that is, "a minor figure who played a negligible role."
Steven, Stewart. Operation Splinter Factor. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1974. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1974.
Constantinides finds this story of U.S. perfidy against the Soviet Union "quite unreliable," and calls it "one of the worst books to appear in years in the field of intelligence; no time need be spent on it." For Fischer, IJI&C 22.2/343-345 (Summer 2009), this is a "specious account." The book is "replete with factual errors," and its basic thesis "is sheer nonsense."
CNN. "Defense Official Charged in Spy Conspiracy." 13 May 2009. [http://www.cnn.com]
According to a criminal complaint unsealed in the Eastern District of Virginia on 13 May 2009, Pentagon official James Wilbur Fondren, Jr. "has been charged with conspiracy to communicate classified information to a person he believed represented China's government." Fondren worked as the "deputy director for the Washington liaison office for U.S. Pacific Command."
Markon, Jerry. "Defense Department Official Convicted in Espionage Case." Washington Post, 25 Sep. 2009. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
On 25 September 2009, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, convicted James W. Fondren Jr. "of providing classified information to a Chinese government agent and lying to the FBI about it." He "faces as much as 20 years in prison when he is sentenced" on 22 January 2010.
Shane, Scott. "Ex-Federal Employee Indicted on Documents Charge." New York Times, 24 May 2005. [http://www.nytimes.com]
Former NSA employee Kenneth Wayne Ford Jr. has been "indicted in Maryland for possession of classified documents. The federal indictment said ... Ford ... left the agency in late 2003 and was arrested on Jan. 12, 2004, for illegally possessing secret information 'relating to the national defense.'"
Associated Press, 24 May 2005, adds that the 23 May 2005 indictment included "charges of unlawfully possessing classified national defense information and making a false statement" in a submission to Lockheed Martin for a security clearance.
Castaneda, Ruben. "Md. Man on Trial Over NSA Documents." Washington Post, 30 Nov. 2005, B5. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
Kenneth W. Ford, Jr., who worked as a computer expert at NSA, is on trial in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, "on charges that he took national security documents without authorization. Ford is also accused of failing to inform a prospective private-sector employer, who required him to have a security clearance, that he was charged with taking the secret documents illegally."
U.S. Attorney's Office. District of Maryland. "Former Maryland NSA Employee Convicted of Wrongfully Possessing Classified Information." 16 Dec. 2005. [http://usaomd.blogspot.com/2005_12_11_usaomd_archive.html]
On 15 December 2005, "a federal jury convicted Kenneth Wayne Ford, Jr., ... on charges of unlawfully possessing classified information related to the national defense, and making a false statement to a U.S. government agency."
Foster,
Jane. An Unamerican Lady. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1980.
Constantinides notes that Foster, who worked in Morale Operations with OSS during World War II, was indicted with her husband in 1957 as Soviet agents. In discussing her OSS experiences, Foster "relates much about personal, social, and administrative matters but precious little about her operations." With regard to the charges brought against her, she denies being a Soviet agent but admits that she lied about her Communist Party membership and marital status. The indictment against Foster came on the basis of information from FBI double agent Boris Morros. See Morros, My Ten Years as a Counterspy (1959).
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