AMERICAN ENGINEER CHARGED WITH ESPIONAGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302530063-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 63
• Publication Date: October 18, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302530063-1 STAT
ARTICLE AP ''
ON PAGE _.s3 44
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
18 October 1983
American engineer charged
Fran, Inquirer Wire Services
SAN FRANCISCO'- An American
engineer has been -charged with
stealing and passing to Soviet-bloc
agents documents aimed at helping
the United States survive a nuclear
attack, the Justice Department said:
yesterday.
About 100 "extremely sensitive"
classified documents allegedly were
passed in a series of 14.meetings over
a 4%-year period-and were turned
over to Polish intelligence agents
who routed them to 'the Soviet'
Union, the Justice'.Departmettt said.
The documents included informa-
tion on the Minuteman interconti-
nental ballistic missile and the bal-
listic-missile-defense research -and
development programs of the United
States, according to federal authori-
ties.
James Durward Harper Jr. Of
Mountain View, Calif., was charged
with stealing secrets from May 1979
to the present for more than $250,000,
according to the FBI.
Harper, 49, who was arrested Satur-
day. was arraigned yesterday. If con-
victed, he could be sentenced to life
in prison.
The affidavit said the FBI obtained
information from a high-ranking of-
ficer of the Polish intelligence serv-
ice.
It said that when the documents
about the Minuteman were delivered
to the Polish intelligence service in
Warsaw on June 5, 1980, a team of 20
KGB analysts and engineers was
flown from Moscow to evaluate
them. The following month, the offi-
cers instrumental in obtaining the
documents received a commenda-
tion signed by Yuri V. Andropov,
who now is Soviet president but then
was bead of the KGB.
Harper told a US. magistrate yes-
terday that he intended to "cooper-
ate in every way" with 'the govern-
ment. -
Harper, whose late wife, Ruby Lou-
ise Schuler, had access to the infor-
mation through her job at Systems
Control Inc. in Palo Alto. Calif., alleg-
edly contacted the Polish intelli-
gence service in May 1979.
with espionage
Ms. Schuler had a "secret" security
clearance through her job as a secre-
tary-bookkeeper at Systems Control,
a government contract facility and
computer company owned by British
'Petroleum.
She quit the company in August
1982 because of illness and died June
22. Harper remarried a month later.
Harper, a power-supply consultant
at. Solectron ..Corp., .never .had. any
security: clearance. The, FBI said it
recovered some _ government docu-
ments when it arrested him at his
apartment on the San Francisco Pen-
insula.
The FBI charged that since 1979,
Harper had furnished classified in-
formation to the Polish intelligence
service and that information was
passed to the Soviet KGB.
In the affidavit, FBI agent Allan
Power said the documents allegedly
stolen by Harper and Ms. Schuler
were classified as "secret" and "con-
fidential."
He said the Army described, the
documents as "extremely -sensitive
research-and-development efforts"
that would enable the Minuteman
missile and other U.S. strategic
forces to survive a pre-emptive nu-
clear attack by the Soviet Union.
Power said an Army official main-
tained that passing these secrets to
Poland and the Soviet Union would
"cause serious damage to our nation-
al defense and -would provide War-
saw Pact analysts with a windfall of
intelligence information."
Army official John Cunningham,
acting director of technology for the
Ballistic Missile Defense Project of-
fice, said the value of the documents
to Warsaw Pact military planners:.is
"beyond calculation:" according 'to
Power's affidavit.
Harper appeared before U.S. Magis-
trate Owen -Woodruff, who advised
him ofthe charges and of his right io,
an.attorney. .
"I have no intention of hiring a
lawyer," +larper said.-My intent is to
cooperate with the government .ai
every way I can to expedite the pro-
ceedings." -
A preliminary hearing was set fpe
Oct. 27. .
Harper's arrest was the result of an
extensive investigation that turned
up volumes of government docu-
ments. Although Harper had no ac-
cess to the classified documents and
information he sold for about
$250,000, Ms. Schuler was believed 46
have helped him through her job.
The FBI affidavit said Harper trav-
eled to Switzerland, Vienna and War-'
saw as part of the espionage conspir-
acy. At one point, he allegedly-
boasted that he had "stashed" about
200 pounds of military documents: -
Systems Control Inc. had numer-
ous contracts with the Ballistic Mis-'
site Defense Advanced Technology
Center in Huntsville, Ala., and kept
classified documents at its Palo Altb'
office. ? -
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302530063-1