Spy receives life terms

Press, 18 December 1986, Page 11

Spy receives life terms

NZPA-Reuter Baltimore A convicted spy, Ronald Pelton, was sentenced yesterday to concurrent life terms in prison for selling National Security Agency (N.S.A.) secrets to the Soviets.

Judge Herbert Murray told Pelton: “You have caused inestimable damage to United States intelligence, and damaged the safety of citizens and intelligence agents alike.”

Pelton, aged 45, a

former N.S.A. signals analyst, told the Judge: “I abandoned God to pursue the American dream. My pursuit of it ahead of God was wrong.” Prosecutors agreed in July to recommend concurrent terms for Pelton on four counts in return for his co-operation with United States intelligence officials who sought to repair the damage he did to national security.

The Government also agreed not to prosecute him for income tax eva-

sion and a related espionage charge in Washington. A jury convicted Pelton on June 5 of three espionage counts and a charge of transmitting unauthorised information to a foreign power. Pelton, who had a topsecret security clearance, admitted to the F. 8.1. that he sold national secrets to Soviet embassies in Washington and Vienna between January, 1980 and November, 1985, for $U535,000 ($70,000).