Ex-CIA Agent Arrested for Disclosing Secrets

A former CIA officer is under indictment, accused of leaking classified information about Iran to a New York Times reporter.

Federal prosecutors charged Jeffrey Sterling with 10 counts related to improperly keeping and disclosing national security information.

Jeffrey Alexander Sterling, 43, was charged in a federal grand jury indictment returned in the Eastern District of Virginia Dec. 22, and unsealed Thursday.

Sterling worked at the CIA from May 1993 until January 2002.

Sterling, of O'Fallon, Mo., was arrested Thursday and appeared in federal court in St. Louis later in the day. U.S. Magistrate Judge Terry I. Adelman told him he would be detained through the weekend because the government had declared him a danger to the community. Another detention hearing was scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday.

The Justice Department does not say specifically what was leaked but, from the dates and other details, it is clear that case centers on leaks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James Risen for his 2006 book, "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration" The book revealed details about the CIA's covert spy war with Iran.

Sterling served on the Iranian desk at the CIA.

The Justice Department had twice subpoenaed Risen to force him to reveal his sources, but he refused.

The indictment charges Sterling with six counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information, and one count each of unlawful retention of national defense information, mail fraud, unauthorized conveyance of government property and obstruction of justice.

The Justice Department release does not identify what kind of secrets Sterling allegedly disclosed, but says that he "he was assigned to a classified clandestine operational program designed to conduct intelligence activities related to the weapons capabilities of certain countries," in Iran, which the release refers to as "Country A."

Sterling allegedly funneled information about "Country A" and an unnamed "human asset" or intelligence source there to Risen as fodder for articles and later a book the Justice Department says was published in January, 2006 - Risen's.

The Justice Department claims that Sterling was retaliating for "the CIA's refusal to settle on terms favorable to him in the civil and administrative claims he was pursuing against the CIA," and that Sterling, an attorney, knowingly violated non-disclosure agreements and legal secrecy commitments he made as a sworn CIA officer.

Sterling faces decades in prison if convicted.