WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- A contract worker for the National Reconnaissance Office, charged last year with attempted espionage for an unnamed foreign country, faces new charges in a superseding indictment Thursday.
Brian Patrick Regan has been charged with attempting to spy for Iraq, Libya and China.
The indictment returned by a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., charges that Regan actually wrote letters to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, offering to betray his country for millions of dollars.
Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson said Regan could face the death penalty on conviction of either of the first two counts, attempting to spy for Iraq and Libya. Thompson said any decision to seek the death penalty would be made later.
The 40-year-old Regan spent 20 years in the Air Force and retired as a master sergeant in 2000. His specialty was signals intelligence analysis. From 1995 until 2000 he was detailed to the headquarters of the NRO in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington.
The NRO designs, builds and operates U.S. reconnaissance satellites.
On leaving the Air Force, Regan went to work for defense contractor TRW Inc. and was assigned to the NRO as a contract employee.
At the NRO, Regan kept his top-secret security clearance and was given access to "sensitive compartmented information" -- some of the nation's top secrets.
The superseding indictment said Regan composed a letter to Iraqi agents sometime between 1991 and 2001, instructing them to deliver a sealed envelope to Saddam.
Regan's alleged letters, full of spelling and grammar errors, are reproduced in the superseding indictment.
Regan, claiming to be a Middle East-North African CIA analyst, allegedly tells Hussein, "I am willing to commit espionage against the United States," and offers to turn over a handbook of U.S. reconnaissance programs and collection systems.
"If I commit espionage," Regan allegedly tells Hussein, "I will be putting my self and family at great risk. If I am caught I will be enprisioned for the rest of my life, if not executed for this deed. My wife and daughter will be discrased and harrashed by everyone in our community."
Regan allegedly then asks for $13 million in Swiss francs.
He also allegedly offers to supply the Iraqis with the location and orbits of all U.S. spy satellites, among other things.
The Gadhafi letter was nearly identical to the Hussein letter, the superseding indictment said.
Speaking to reporters, Thompson said he could not say whether the letters were actually sent, or give out any more details than were in the superseding indictment.
The Justice Department official also declined to say why it took so long to bring the new charges.
Thompson alleged Regan had a "systematic and calculated plan to damage our national security," and the materials he was offering the three countries "directly concerned satellites, early warning systems and major elements of defense strategy."
Regan also allegedly used the Internet to find the addresses of the Iraqi, Libyan and Chinese embassies in Europe, according to the superseding indictment. He allegedly used the secure Intelink network inside NRO to obtain classified information not directly related to his work.
He was arrested last August at Washington Dulles International Airport before leaving for Europe. He allegedly was carrying incriminating materials, including a global positioning system receiver and the addresses of the embassies of the three countries in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Paris.
He was indicted last October on a single count. Regan is scheduled for arraignment in U.S. District Court in Alexandria at 9 a.m. Friday.
