Secret satellite manuals missing

Press, 8 November 1978, Page 8

Secret satellite manuals missing

I.NZPA-Reuter Hammond (Indiana) |i i The United States Govern-i i ment has disclosed that 13 [ copies of a secret manual of America’s spy satellite system were missing. The disclosure came at the j start of the trial of William ■ Kampiles, a former Central i Intelligence Agency officer I who is accused of selling ( one of the manuals to the Russians for SUS3OOO. A United States Attorney, j, ■ David Ready, told a court in j' | the industrial city of Ham-| , mond that, the manual detail- , led the technical data of the] (sophisticated KH-11 satellite], j reconnaissance system called j the “Big Bird.” 1 He said the high-powered photo surveillance system I was used by United States I intelligence to gather infori mation on troop movements lin foreign countries, missile j sites, and other strategic ’military installations. i Mr Ready said that 370 (copies of the manual were j printed in late 1976. A murimur went through the . i crowded courtroom when he added that 13 copies were h still unaccounted for. K a m p i 1 e s ’ s lawyer, i i Michael Monico, a former (Government prosecutor, said 1 [he was told last week that i 17 copies of the manual |j (were missing. “If we wait long enough,;! the copy which Kampiles is i 1 .accused of passing to the’i

I Russians might turn up,” he I declared. The prosecution alleged ■ that Kampiles, 23-year-old |spn of a Greek immigrant steelworker, pocketed the i manual while working at [C.I.A. headquarters in Lang- - ley, Virginia, between March !and November last year. ; Mr Ready charged that j Kampiles handed the manual lover in two sections to a [Russian agent in Athens between February 23 and [March 2 this year for SUS3OOO. The defence lawyer said the prosecution story’ was | unbelievable and charged [that Kampiles had been victimised as a result of a paranoia in United States intelligence circles about spies. He said that while Kampiles was on holiday in Athens last February he gatecrashed a party at the Soviet Embassy with the bizarre notion of passing himself off as an active C.I.A. ! agent. The Russians gave him SUS3OOO after he offered to sell them secrets about the American Bl bomber and missile sites, Mr Monico 'said. But Kampiles intended to pass them false information. Mr Monico said Kampiles told the C.I.A. about his encounter with the Russians, [mistakenly hoping he would r impress his old bosses enough for them to send 'him back to Athens as an undercover agent.