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==See also==
==See also==
[[Aldrich Ames]]
*[[Aldrich Ames]]
[[Robert Hanssen]]
*[[Robert Hanssen]]
[[Chelsea Manning]]
*[[Chelsea Manning]]
[[Edward Snowden]]
*[[Edward Snowden]]


==External links==
==External links==

Revision as of 15:25, 16 May 2021

MSgt. Brian Patrick Regan United States Air Force
Nickname(s)The Spy Who Couldn't Spell
Born (1962-10-23) October 23, 1962 (age 62)
New York City, New York
Service / branch United States Air Force
Years of service1980–2000
RankMaster Sergeant
UnitAir Force Intelligence Support Group at the Pentagon
Battles / warsGulf War

Brian Patrick Regan (born October 23, 1962 in New York City, New York) is a former master sergeant in the United States Air Force who was convicted of offering to sell secret information to foreign governments.[1]

Biography

The booklet of contact information for consulates that Regan used to try to sell the information.

He was born October 23, 1962 in New York City, New York.

From July 1995 to August 2000, Regan worked as a USAF assignee at the National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, Virginia, and was a signals intelligence specialist.[2][3] He was forced into retirement in August 2000, having failed to accept an overseas deployment.[4] In October 2000, he was hired by TRW Inc., but brought back to NRO and monitored.[5] In 1999, he had begun downloading data from Intelink, and in total removed 20,000 pages, CD-ROMs and videotapes from NRO.[4] According to prosecutors, he had credit card debts of $117,000 and wrote a letter to Saddam Hussein offering to sell intelligence material for $13 million. He also made similar offers to Libya and China.[3][6] He buried the majority of the stolen documents in several forests.[4]

The plot was first discovered in December 2000, when an informant from the Libyan Consulate in New York handed the FBI a series of letters.[7][4] The letters contained a letter written in a code Regan had created, as well as details on how to decode the letter, as well as code sheets.[8] Each envelope also contained aerial images taken by US satellites of military sites in the Middle East, as well as other imagery to prove he wasn't bluffing.[4] After narrowing the search down to Regan due in part to his dyslexia,[9] FBI agent Steve Carr and other investigators began investigating him in April 2001.[4]

In August 2001, Regan was arrested by the FBI at Dulles International Airport, preparing to board a flight to Zürich, Switzerland.[10] He was carrying classified documents and contact information for Iraqi, Libyan, and Chinese embassies in Switzerland.[2] In February 2002, he pled not guilty to the charges.[11] His trial began in January 2003, and prosecutors sought the death penalty, the first time it would have been used for espionage since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair in 1953; the death penalty for espionage had been reinstated in 1994, but had not yet been sought on 10 prior occasions.[12] The following month, he was found guilty on two counts of attempted espionage and one of gathering national defense information, but the jury declined to impose the death penalty.[13] Instead, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in March of that year.[2] His wife Anette also avoided prosecution for attempting to cover up his actions.[14]

He is currently incarcerated at FCI Hazelton in Preston County, West Virginia.[15] In 2016, journalist Yudhijit Bhattacharjee released a book about Regan and his capture titled The Spy Who Couldn’t Spell: A Dyslexic Traitor, an Unbreakable Code, and the FBI’s Hunt for America’s Stolen Secrets.[9]

References

  1. ^ Bhattacharjee, Yudhijit (October 13, 2016). "The Spy We Forgot". The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b c "Life Sentence For Bid to Sell Secrets to Iraq". The New York Times. 21 March 2003. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
  3. ^ a b "American Spy Cuts Deal, Gets Life". CBS News. 13 January 2003. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Bhattacharjee, Yudhijit (26 October 2016). "The spy who couldn't spell: how the biggest heist in the history of US espionage was foiled". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  5. ^ "Sources: Suspect Spied For Libya". CBS News. 24 August 2001. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  6. ^ "Espionage case of former sergeant in hands of jury". CNN. 11 February 2003. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  7. ^ Bhattacharjee, Yudhijit (1 November 2019). "How the FBI tracked down 'the spy who couldn't spell'". CNN. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  8. ^ Locker, Ray (29 October 2016). "This would-be spy was no James Bond". USA Today. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  9. ^ a b Schneider, Harold (22 December 2016). "Treason the Easy Way". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  10. ^ "Former US airman on spy charge". BBC News. 25 August 2001. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  11. ^ "US intelligence agent denies spying". BBC News. 15 February 2002. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  12. ^ Lumpkin, Beverley (22 December 2016). "Death Penalty for an Attempted Crime?". ABC News. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  13. ^ "Convicted Spy Dodges Death Penalty". CBS News. 29 March 2003. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  14. ^ Markon, Jerry (28 April 2003). "Coded Messages Add to Mystery Of a Failed Spy". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  15. ^ "Brian Patrick Regan". Locate a Federal Inmate. Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved 22 June 2018.

See also

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