| Title | Soviet Spy Ronald Pelton Set to be Released | |
| Date | Tuesday November 24 2015, @03:25PM | |
| Author | n1 | |
| Topic | ||
| from the forgive-and-forget dept. | ||
Just days after the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, Ronald W. Pelton is set to be released. In 1986, Pelton was convicted for selling classified information from his work at the National Security Agency to the Soviet Union. According to Secrecy News:
Tomorrow Ronald W. Pelton, a National Security Agency communications specialist who was convicted in 1986 of spying for the Soviet Union, will be released from prison.
Like Jonathan J. Pollard, who was convicted of spying for Israel and released last week, Pelton was apprehended in 1985, which became known as the Year of the Spy because so many espionage arrests and prosecutions took place during or around that time.
A search of the Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator indicates that Pelton's release, which has not been widely noted, is set for Tuesday, November 24. It further identifies Pelton as a 74 year old white male (Register Number 22914-037).
The Pelton case had several distinctive features.
Unlike most spies of the time, he did not steal U.S. government documents and turn them over to a foreign government. Instead, he was able to sell the Soviets information based on his "excellent memory and [...] encyclopedic knowledge of intelligence activities." Among the U.S. intelligence projects he compromised was IVY BELLS, an effort to secretly tap Soviet undersea communications cables.
Operation Ivy Bells tapped Soviet submarine cables during the Cold War.
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printed from SoylentNews, Soviet Spy Ronald Pelton Set to be Released on 2024-04-25 00:40:38