Word: groates
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...Thursday FBI agents arrested Douglas Fred Groat, 50, a disgruntled S&T officer the CIA fired two years ago. They accused him of telling two foreign governments how the agency had cracked the "cryptographics systems" they used to scramble their communications. "This is a serious espionage case," says U.S. Attorney Wilma Lewis, who refused to disclose which foreign governments were involved...
...does not yet know how much damage it has suffered from Groat's alleged spying. Investigators do not think it is as extensive as the havoc caused by CIA mole Aldrich Ames, who was convicted in 1994 of passing intelligence to Moscow over a nine-year span. But the agency's code-breaking capabilities are among its most guarded secrets, and Groat could face death if convicted. A nation hostile to the U.S. that learned of the penetration would quickly change its codes. "This also could be a huge embarrassment," said a CIA source, if the nation Groat leaked...
...expertise in penetrating foreign communications, Groat practically invited the FBI investigation that led to his arrest. A 13-year veteran who had worked on numerous covert operations overseas, Groat had been put on administrative leave in 1993 from his $70,000-a-year job on account of poor performance. After the CIA finally decided to let him go in 1996, prosecutors allege that Groat tried to get the agency to pay him more than $500,000 in hush money to keep him from passing to foreign governments the secrets he remembered. The agency refused to pay and eventually turned over...
When FBI agents arrested him last week, Groat was divorced and living in a Winnebago van. According to his indictment, however, Groat in the interim had begun to carry out his threat, allegedly passing on "the targeting and compromise of cryptographic systems" to the two foreign governments in March and April...
...arrest, said CIA Director George Tenet, "demonstrates that the U.S. government will not rest" in hunting down spies, "nor will we be intimidated by threats of blackmail." But Justice Department and CIA officials refused to explain why it took authorities almost two years to arrest Groat after he allegedly first attempted to extort money from his former employer...