Decade of the Spy Jeffrey Loring Pickering On 7 June 1983 an individual using the name Christopher Eric Loring entered the Naval Regional Medical Clinic Seattle Washington acting very erratic and stating that he possessed a large quantity of secret documents vital to the security of our country The individual was in possession of one plastic addressograph card imprinted with the address of the Soviet Embassy Washington DC During permissive searches of Pickering's automobile and residence by NIS Special Agents four Government marked envelopes containing classified microfiche and 147 microfiche cards containing a variety of classified defense publications were located Through investigation the individual was identified as Jeffery Loring Pickering who had previously served in the US Marine Corps During his Marine enlistment he was described as a thief thrill seeker and a perpetual liar Pickering left the Marines in August 1973 but became dissatisfied with civilian life and began efforts to reenlist in the military Pickering assumed an alias Christopher Eric Loring hid the facts of his prior USMC affiliation and enlisted in the US Navy on 23 January 1979 During interrogation Pickering admitted stealing the classified material from the ship's office of the USS Fanning FF-1076 between July and October 1982 Pickering likewise expressed an interest in the KGB and advised of fantasizing about espionage He ultimately admitted mailing a five-page Secret document to the Soviet Embassy Washington DC along with a typed letter offering additional classified material to the Soviet Union On 3 October 1983 Pickering pled guilty at a General Court-Martial to several violations of the UCMJ including espionage He was convicted and sentenced to five years at hard labor forfeiture of $400 per month for 60 months reduction to E-1 and a bad conduct discharge Jonathan Jay Pollard On 21 November 1985 the FBI arrested Jonathan Jay Pollard a 31-year-old Naval Investigative Service analyst Antiterrorism Unit and charged him with selling sensitive documents to the Israelis He was turned in by a colleague at work who noticed that Pollard requested classified documents not needed in his work Pollard used his position as an analyst to justify his requests for documents to the Navy Message Center rather than clandestinely acquire the documents He also had courier orders and the Navy Message Center wrapped the documents Pollard passed to the Israelis The FBI entered the case on November 15 and began a series of interviews with Pollard After an interview with FBI agents on November 21 Pollard and his wife drove to the Israeli Embassy in Washington where they stayed for approximately 20 minutes Inside the Embassy Pollard requested political asylum with the hope of fleeing the United States The Israelis refused to grant them asylum When they came out the FBI arrested Pollard who then confessed he worked for the Israelis and that he sold sensitive documents to them since June 1984 The next day the FBI arrested his wife Anne Henderson Pollard Both were charged under the espionage code for selling classified documents to an Israeli intelligence unit for $50 000 Immediately after the arrest the Israeli Government announced that this news came as a complete surprise and that the Government would cooperate in any with the US Government The Israelis also promised to return any stolen classified documents An Israeli Government postarrest investigation codenamed Siren was launched A few days after the investigation began the Israeli Government announced that the Pollard case was a rogue operation conducted by a few intelligence operatives The United States was not satisfied with the Israeli explanation and pressed Prime Minister Simon Peres In response to Peres' agreement to cooperate fully a delegation of high-ranking officials from the FBI and Departments of State and Justice traveled to Israel in December 1985 to pursue the Pollard investigation The delegation included Abraham Sofaer Legal Affairs Advisor at State and his assistant Pat Schaubel Joseph diGenova US Attorney for the District of Columbia Assistant Attorney General Edward S G Dennis Jr head of the criminal division Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mark M Richard and William J Birney the second-ranking prosecutor in the US attorney's office 278 Decade of the Spy in Washington DC and FBI agents Joseph Johnson and Eugene Noltkamper The delegation remained in Israel for one week The cooperation promised by Peres was not forthcoming The Israelis finally relented and gave up their stonewalling after the delegation threatened to return to the United States When the delegation returned to the United States they believed that the Israelis had fully cooperated with them The Department of State issued a statement to that effect Later the American Government learned that the Israelis had not been as honest as once thought When the United States learned that the Israelis withheld the role of Col Aviem Sella Israeli Air Force who recruited and handled Pollard for several months the United States protested again to Israel The Americans threatened to withdraw its immunity from prosecution granted to Rafael Eitan Yossi Yagur and Irit Erb all involved in the Pollard operation The Israelis again agreed to fully cooperate but to this day it is believed they still did not come clean on the Pollard operation According to the Israelis at their first meeting with Pollard he identified himself as a civilian Navy intelligence officer and produced his ID card and his courier authorization He said he wanted to give the Israelis certain information that was being withheld from them by the United States At the first meeting Pollard did not provide any classified information but did at a subsequent meeting At a meeting in Paris Pollard was introduced to his new handler Rafael Eitan who agreed to pay Pollard $1 500 each month On 4 June 1986 Jonathan Jay Pollard pleaded guilty in US District Court to reduced charges of espionage in return for providing government prosecutors with details of what was described as a highly organized and wellfinanced Israeli spy operation of which he was a part A negotiated plea avoided a trial that would have made it necessary to declassify some of the sensitive information and would have obviously strained relations between the United States and Israel The Israeli Embassy in Washington released a statement labeling as baseless recent news reports which suggested Pollard was part of a widespread Israeli espionage operation in the United States Pollard pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to deliver national defense information to a foreign government The usual sentence for espionage is life in prison but by Pollard's pleading guilty the government as part of its plea bargain waived the right to ask for a life sentence Anne Henderson Pollard also pleaded guilty to lesser charges being an accessory after the fact to possession of national defense documents and conspiring to receive embezzled government property Each of her offenses carried a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a $250 000 fine The government agreed to recommend to the judge that Anne Pollard serve her sentences concurrently As part of the plea-bargain agreements the Pollards had to continue to cooperate with investigators and testify if necessary In February 1987 Wolf Blizter a reporter for The Jerusalem Post stated that far from the small-time bungler portrayed in some news accounts Pollard was a master spy who provided very important information to the Israelis News wire reports stated that information provided by Pollard included detailed information that expedited Israel's raid on Tunisia in 1985 and noted that a report in The Jerusalem Post described him as one of the most important spies in Israel's history On 4 March 1987 Pollard was sentenced to life in prison His wife Anne received a five-year term After Anne was released from prison she went to Israel to reside She is now divorced from her husband Jonathan Jay Pollard Pollard has continuously sought pardon for his activities but in 1997 for the second time President 279 Decade of the Spy Clinton denied clemency to Pollard The President cited Pollard's lack of remorse and said that to shorten his sentence after he had served only 10 years was unwarranted and would not serve the goal of deterrence He previously denied clemency in March 1994 as did President Bush in January 1993 Daniel Walter Richardson Daniel Walter Richardson a US Army sergeant stationed at the Aberdeen Proving Ground Maryland was arrested on 7 January 1988 and charged with attempting to spy for the Soviet Union Richardson intended to offer unspecified national defense information to Soviet representatives in exchange for money No information is believed to have been compromised Officials stated that Richardson was apprehended after electronic surveillance picked up his efforts to contact Soviet representatives This led to his negotiation with an undercover government agent posing as a Soviet He was arrested at the Holiday Inn in Aberdeen Maryland with an unclassified military manual and circuitry from the M-1 tank in his possession as he attempted to meet with the undercover agent An Army spokesman stated that Richardson had a Secret clearance but no ready access to classified materials Although trained as an instructor his job was to issue tools to students at the Ordinance Center School at Aberdeen An administrative official identified money and revenge against the military as Richardson's chief motivations for espionage Described as a mediocre soldier Richardson was demoted in August 1987 for repeated tardiness He was charged at the time of arrest with espionage failure to report contacts with a foreign government theft and unauthorized disposition of government property On 26 August 1988 Richardson was sentenced by a military jury to 10 years in prison fined $36 000 and discharged with a bad conduct record Ivan N Rogalsky Ivan N Rogalsky a Soviet alien living in New Jersey entered the United States in December 1971 He had been a merchant sailor in the Soviet Union and while in the United States was employed as an electrician and mechanic In November 1975 Rogalsky met an Radio Corporation of America RCA engineer at a party in Palo Alto California Rogalsky asked the engineer who was associated with the RCA Space Center Princeton New Jersey for unclassified information concerning the space shuttle program The engineer reported the request to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with the FBI counterintelligence operation directed against Rogalsky On 7 January 1977 after accepting a classified document from the engineer Rogalsky was arrested on charges of conspiring to commit espionage The document concerned a highly classified and sensitive project under study at RCA for the Department of Defense Aranking official assigned to the Soviet Mission of the United Nations Yevgeniy Petrovic Karpov was named coconspirator in the case In January 1981 Rogalsky then 38 years old was released from Federal custody without standing trial The Federal District Court judge hearing the case ruled that Rogalsky was mentally incompetent to stand trial and ordered him to undergo periodic psychiatric counseling Sharon Marie Scranage Sharon Marie Scranage was a CIA clerk stationed in Ghana Shortly after her arrival there in May 1983 she began to date Michael Soussoudis a cousin of the Ghanaian head of state The two became intimate and Scranage began to provide sensitive CIA information to him Later when Scranage hesitated to cooperate with him he not only threatened her but other CIA employees if she did not continue with her espionage activities Scranage provided the identity of several CIA Sharon Scranage being led away from arraignment on 11 July 1985 at the US District Court in Alexandria Virginia 280