Press: Questions of National Security

The CIA tangles with the Washington Post and NBC

Sitting in the backseat of a U.S. marshal's car, Ronald Pelton betrayed little emotion last week as he arrived for the start of his espionage trial in a Baltimore courthouse. For 14 years, Pelton worked in a low-level computer job at the top secret National Security Agency. He had a knowledge of Russian, access to sensitive intelligence data and, in later years, money troubles. After Pelton left the NSA in 1979, according to federal authorities, he started selling information to the Soviets. Accused spies like Pelton have been a cause of growing concern to the U.S. intelligence community. Lately, however, they...

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