C.I.A. agent who sold secrets to Russia jailed for 18 years

Press, 10 January 1981, Page 8

C.I.A. agent who sold secrets to Russia jailed for 18 years

NZPA Baltimore David Barnett, a former United States Central Intelligence Agency operative, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for selling intelligence secrets to the Soviets for $U592,600 ($97,200). “I don’t think there is any question you did harm to this country,” said United States District Judge Frank Kaufman. Judge Kaufman said the sentence was intended to deter others from selling intelligence secrets. The maximum sentence for espionage is life in prison, but Barnett could be eligible for parole after six years... - - • ■ >

Barnett pleaded guilty last October 29 to a single count of transmitting information to a foreign Power.. The plea came as part of a bargain with the Federal Government.

The Government had agreed not to make any recommendation for sentence,. but made a statement detailing Barnett’s crime. - “Mr Barnett did not withhold the lion’s share of the information he had about the American intelligence community’,” said the prosecuting counsel, David Queen. “The most damaging information in the hands of Mr Barnett, in the opinion of C.I.A. analysts, was transmitted to the K.G.8.,” Mr Queen added in the statement at Barnett’s sentencing. When he pleaded guilty, Barnett, a 47-year-old father of three, who runs an import-export business, was described as a debtridden former C.LA. agent whose actions had sparked a K.G.B. operation, spanning three continents. Georg* Matava, a Jus-

tice Department lawyer said then that the Government would prove Barnett left the C.I.A. in 1970 in hope of making more money. He then failed as a businessman in Indonesia, Mr Matava said, and, more than SUS 100,000 in debt, turned to the K.G.B. in 1976 to sell American secrets. Over the next 31 years, Barnett proved an indifferent Soviet spy, Mr Matava said: “He lied to the. K.G.8., disobeyed orders, failed to meet goals and was caught by the F. 8.1.”. But Barnett did reveal the names of 30 C.I.A. undercover agents, several foreign C.I.A. collaborators, and details of a C.I.A. undercover operation known as Ha-Brink, then one of its highest priority operations, the Government said. Mr Matava said that Ha-Brink bad obtained

manuals and parts from almost every weapon the Soviets had supplied to one nation — not named by Mr Matava but identified by sources as Indonesia. Because of Barnett, Mr Matava said, “lite Soviets probably have issued tactical orders to counter the United States Navy’s knowledge about how long Soviet submarines can stay submerged.” The C.I.A. took Bamett back as a part-time contract employee in Washington in January, 1979 to train agents, and three months later, he was in contact with the K.G.B. T*ie Soviets siad he should get full-time C.I.A. work. Then on March 18 last year the F. 8.1. confronted Bamett at his part-time C.I.A. job, and after a short conversation with the agents, Bamett began his confession, Mr Matava said. ,