Word: agent
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...onetime CIA Agent David Barnett a KGB mole...
...news did nothing to improve the already tarnished reputation of the Central Intelligence Agency. In Baltimore last week, a grand jury indicted David Barnett, 47, a former CIA covert agent, on a single count of selling top-secret information to the agency's Soviet counterpart, the KGB. Barnett allegedly fed the Soviets details about a CIA operation code-named HABRINK, set up to collect data on Soviet weaponry systems...
Barnett failed, apparently because there were no openings. In January 1979, however, he was rehired by the CIA as a contract agent; 13 months later he abruptly resigned. By that time, both the CIA and the FBI were aware that Barnett was a KGB agent. In fact, TIME has learned that his links with the Soviets were known to some U.S. officials at least two years before the CIA rehired him. That, of course, raises a crucial question: Why was Barnett allowed to return to the agency...
Justice Department officials contend that Barnett was not arrested or exposed earlier because the CIA hoped to turn him into a triple agent. Intelligence experts scoff at this argument on the ground that the KGB would never trust a turncoat agent with any Soviet secrets. Another theory is that rehiring Barnett was simply an administrative goof. When it was discovered, officials decided that the best strategy was to play for time until it was decided how to handle his case with the least amount of damaging publicity. Whatever the truth, the Justice Department promises to shed at least some light...
Most of the journalists, meanwhile, huddled at tables and TV monitors in the adjoining public hall, where batteries of typewriters, phones, computer banks and even a travel agent greeted them...