| MSgt. Brian Patrick ReganUnited States Air Force | |
| Birth Date: | 23 October 1962 |
| Birth Place: | New York City, New York |
| Nickname: | The Spy Who Couldn't Spell |
| Serviceyears: | 1980–2000 |
| Rank: | Master Sergeant |
| Unit: | Air Force Intelligence Support Group at the Pentagon |
| Battles: | Gulf War |
Brian Patrick Regan (born October 23, 1962, in New York City, New York) is a former master sergeant in the United States Air Force who was convicted of offering to sell secret information to foreign governments.[1]
He was born October 23, 1962, in New York City, New York. His childhood has been characterised as a difficult one; due to having dyslexia and having an "odd" personality, he was frequently bullied and ridiculed by classmates and children in his neighbourhood.[2]
From July 1995 to August 2000, Regan worked as a USAF assignee at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in Chantilly, Virginia, and was a signals intelligence specialist.[3] [4] He was forced into retirement in August 2000, having failed to accept an overseas deployment.[5] In October 2000, he was hired by TRW Inc., but brought back to NRO and monitored.[6] In 1999, he had begun downloading data from Intelink, and in total removed 20,000 pages, CD-ROMs and videotapes from NRO.[5] Regan's financial situation, a rift in his marriage, as well as the realization he would not be promoted again, eventually gave him the idea to commit espionage to make money.[7] According to prosecutors, he had credit card debts of $117,000 and wrote a letter to Saddam Hussein offering to sell intelligence material for $13 million. He also made similar offers to Libya and China.[4] [8] He buried the majority of the stolen documents in several forests.[5]
The plot was first discovered in December 2000, when an informant from the Libyan Consulate in New York handed the FBI a series of letters.[9] [5] The letters contained a letter written in a code Regan had created, as well as details on how to decode the letter, as well as code sheets.[10] Each envelope also contained aerial images taken by US satellites of military sites in the Middle East, as well as other imagery to prove he wasn't bluffing.[5] After narrowing the search down to Regan due in part to his dyslexia,[11] FBI agent Steve Carr and other investigators began investigating him in April 2001.[5] Upon his return to the NRO, cameras observed him using his work computer to again access Intelink files, with agents observing him taking notes.[12] In August 2001, Regan was arrested by the FBI at Dulles International Airport, preparing to board a flight to Zürich, Switzerland.[13] He was carrying classified documents and contact information for Iraqi, Libyan, and Chinese embassies in Switzerland hidden in his shoes.[3] [12] In February 2002, he pleaded not guilty to the charges.[14]
Jury selection for the trial began in January 2003,[15] [16] with potential jurors required to fill in questionnaires asking their opinions on crime, espionage, the September 11 attacks, and the death penalty.[17] Regan's lawyers had attempted to delay the trial due to the potential invasion of Iraq.[18] Prosecutors sought the death penalty, the first time it would have been used for espionage since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair in 1953; the death penalty for espionage had been reinstated in 1994, but had not yet been sought on 10 prior occasions.[19] [20] The prosecution called upon FBI code expert Daniel Olson to testify as to the secret messages Regan had attempted to send to Iraq and Libya; Olson described the code as "sophisticated".[21] Regan's attorney Jonathan Shapiro argued that the information Regan had used was "worthless" and described his actions as merely "bad judgment".[20] [22] Lawyer Nina Ginsberg argued that no serious foreign power would have dealt with him.[23] The following month, Regan was found guilty on two counts of attempted espionage and one of gathering national defense information, but the jury declined to impose the death penalty.[24] He was acquitted of the charge of attempting to spy for Libya.[25] He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in March of that year.[3] Regan's wife Anette avoided prosecution for attempting to cover up his actions.[26]
Five months after the conclusion of the trial, FBI agents began searching for the classified documents.[27] Highly sensitive documents would be discovered in the states of Maryland and Virginia, with over 10,000 assorted papers, videos, and CD-ROMs found; two anonymous sources believed all the hidden material had been found.[28] [29] He is currently incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute in Terre Haute, Indiana.[30] In 2016, journalist Yudhijit Bhattacharjee released a book about Regan and his capture titled The Spy Who Couldn't Spell: A Dyslexic Traitor, an Unbreakable Code, and the FBI's Hunt for America's Stolen Secrets.[11]