Quick Trial Date For Alleged Spy

A federal judge on Monday set an early June trial date in the case of a retired Air Force sergeant charged with attempting to spy for Iraq, China and Libya.

The unexpectedly quick trial date that U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee scheduled for Brian Patrick Regan surprised not only the defense, but also federal prosecutors, during a status hearing here. Government lawyers had been hoping for a trial in early November.

Nina J. Ginsberg, a court-appointed lawyer for the 39-year-old Regan, assailed the June 3 date as "just not doable and not fair" during the proceduring at the federal courthouse in this Washington, D.C. suburb.

She told the judge that her courtroom experts had indicated they could not be prepared for trial without at least five months to examine documents and other evidence.

"The United States is trying to kill Mr. Regan," Ginsberg said, adding that her client is entitled to fairness.

Regan, wearing tennis shoes and a green prisoner outfit, sat quietly throughout the hearing and did not speak. He has pleaded innocent.

Ginsberg declined to speak with reporters after the hearing.

Lee had indicated previously in court documents that he would reschedule the trial, which had been set for May 20, if government prosecutors sought to make the case against Regan subject to capital punishment .

The government decided Friday that alleged crimes by Regan, a retired master sergeant who worked at the super-secret National Reconnaissance Office, qualified for the death penalty because he created a "grave risk of death" to U.S. military pilots patrolling the no-fly zone over Iraq.

Regan worked first for the Air Force and then for contractor TRW Inc. at the office, an agency that designs, builds and operates the nation's network of spy satellites.

Legal experts said it was the first time in decades that U.S. prosecutors sought the death penalty in an espionage case, despite high-profile arrests since the mid-1990s of Harold James Nicholson, Earl Edwin Pitts, Robert Hanssen and Ana Belen Montes. All ultimately pleaded guilty to espionage or attempted espionage.

Ginsberg also represented Pitts, a former FBI counterintelligence agent who pleaded guilty to spying charges in 1997.

Regan allegedly intended to sell Iraqi President Saddam Hussein secret details about American satellites that could help Iraq hide its anti-aircraft missiles. He also is accused of plotting to sell similar information to China and Libya.

Regan, who lived in Bowie, Md., and has four children, has pleaded innocent to three counts of attempted espionage and one count of gathering national defense information. Court records showed he carried at least $53,000 in debts.

Authorities contend that Regan hoped to strike a bargain with Saddam, allegedly writing in a personal letter to the Iraqi leader that a demand for $13 million was a "small price" compared with the salaries of movie stars and athletes.

Ginsberg has pledged a "serious defense" and court documents offer hints at a possible trial strategy: arguing that Regan had adequately "sanitized" any sensitive documents he was carrying when he was arrested, and that the government occasionally gave him permission to carry classified documents while traveling.

Authorities arrested Regan on Aug. 23 as he was boarding a flight to Zurich, Switzerland, via Frankfurt, Germany, at Washington Dulles International Airport. They said he carried the addresses of the Chinese and Iraqi embassies in Switzerland and Austria in his wallet and also hidden under the sole of his right shoe.

Regan's defense team also has listed more than 270 classified documents - mostly reports or images - it intends to introduce during trial. The names of the files indicate many of the documents originated from two computers operated by the Defense Information
Systems Agency, which runs many of the Pentagon's computer networks.

Ginsberg also has asked to see internal government documents about the Justice Department's deliberations whether to seek the death penalty against Hanssen and Montes, plus documents that describe how the government assesses any damage to national security from spies.

By Ted Bridis