CIA, GHANA, AND THE<SANITIZED>

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 00624354
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: July 13, 2023
• Document Release Date: August 18, 2022
• Case Number: F-2020-01347
• Publication Date: September 1, 1990

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TITLE: CIA,
Ghana,
and the
AUTHOR:
VOLUME:
34
ISSUE:
Fall YEAR:
1990
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111.
STUDIES IN
INTELLIGENCE
A collection of articles on the historical, operational, doctrinal, and theoretical aspects of intelligence.
)
All statements of fact, opinion or analysis expressed in Studies in Intelligence are those of
. the authors. They do not necessarily reflect official positions or views of the Central
Intelligence Agency or any other US Government entity, past or present. Nothing in the
contents should be construed as asserting or implying US Government endorsement of an
article's factual statements and interpretations.
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(b)(3)
The The Scranage Case
CIA, Ghana, and the
This article is based on a Counterintelligence Anal-
ysis Report published by the CIA's Counterintelli-
gence Center Analysis Group in January 1990.
In 1983, Sharon Scranage became the first
known CIA employee to spy for an African
intelligence service operating
Scranage was assigned to the CIA Station in
Accra, Ghana, and Ghanaians figured pro-
miniently in her downfall�her lover, Michael
Soussoudis:
A look at the roles
and motivations of each explains what happened.
Sharon Scranage
Sharon Marie Scranage, born in October 1955,
was one of three children in a close-knit family
with deep roots in rural Virginia. Friends and
neighbors recalled the Scranage family as "per-
fect" and Sharon as a "good kid." The Scranages
were active in a local church, her father worked for
many years at the Marine Base in Quantico, and
her brother was a security man at the US Naval
Surface Weapons Center at Dahlgren. The family
were solid, self-respecting citizens, well known in
their community. Scranage graduated in 1974
from high school, where she belonged to the honor
society and was a cheerleader. After graduating
from a Roanoke business college, she joined the
CIA as a clerk-stenographer in May 1976 and was
assigned to the Office of Imagery Analysis. She
was promoted one year later.
Scranage married a security guard with a private
firm in 1978. She divorced him in November
1980
Four years after their divorce, however, she
27
(b)(1)
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kept him informed about her Agency em 1(b)(1)4
and impending assignment to Ghana. (b)(3)
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In April 1982, Scranage was assigned to t1-1-1,(/Dii)(1
Division in CIA's Directorate of 0 eratiomk
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In May 1983, she v(b)(1)
assigned to Accra as an operations supportb \13\.
tant. Despite her desire to go overseas aga�...I�
Scranage noted before leaving for Accra that she
was not "enthusiastic" but "would make the best
of it."
(b)(3)
(b)(6)
Michael Soussoudis
Michael Agbotui Soussoudis was born in April
1946 in Accra to a French-Ghanaian woman and ;(b)(6)
Greek sailor. From 1966 to about 1983, he lived
_Seeret---
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Connection
Figure 1
The Sharon Scranage Case: Key Players
Michael Agbotui Soussoudis
Scranage's lover and
Ghanaian case officer
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Secret
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328670 11-90
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in West Germany and subsequently in the US.
Soussoudis attended college in New York, where
he married and later divorced an American wom-
an. After he returned to Accra, he spent much of
his time with American women. Friends and rela-
tives called him a "playboy" and "more American
than African."
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Background
When Scranage arrived in Accra on 27 May 1983,
Ghana was in a transitional phase marked by
continuing revolutionary rhetoric tempered by
some signs of pragmatism.
People's
Daily Graphic
Figure 2. This feature article in the
People's Daily Graphic was part of an
anti-CIA campaign in the Ghanaian press.
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Several days later, Scranage reported to CIA Head-
quarters, where the Office of Security had decided
to interview her and give her a polygraph examina-
tion
and Scranage quickly admitted having given
classified information to the Ghanaians. CIA in-
formed the FBI and the Departmen � f t te and
Justice of its �reliminary findin s
During interrogation, Scranage agreed to heln the
FBI lure Soussoudis to the US;
Scranage took annual leave from 29 June to 7 July
to visit her parents. Soussoudis, who had arrived
in the US, tried unsuccessfully to contact her
during her leave.
Upon her return to Washington, Scranage, at the
instruction of the FBI, contacted Soussoudis and
arranged to meet him at a motel in northern
Virginia on 10 July. Soussoudis appeared at the
motel and was arrested without incident. Scranage
was arrested the following day.
Scranage was charged with espionage, conspiracy
to commit espionage, disclosure of identities of
US intelligence agents, conspiracy to disclose clas-
sified information, and disclosure of classified
information. She pled guilty. In November 1985,
she was sentenced to five years in prison at Alder-
son, West Virginia.
In April 1986, a US District Judge reduced Scran-
age's sentence to two years, citing the disparity
between her sentence and Soussoudis's treatment.
Soussoudis had received a 20-year sentence for
seeking information from Scranage about CIA
agents in Ghana and Ghanaian dissidence, but he
was allowed to return to Ghana in exchange for
Secret
most of the agents�and their families�that
Scranage had compromised.
Sharon Scranage was paroled in July 1987 after 18
months in prison. Michael Soussoudis went home
in November 1985 to a hero's welcome.
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This article is classified SECRET
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