PENINSULAN HELD IN SPY CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302530051-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 51
• Publication Date: October 19, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302530051-4
SUNNYVALE VALLEY JOURNAL (C
19 October 1983
STAT
eninsulan held
^
isy Steve Taylor
Valley Journal staff
case'
SAN FRANCISCO - A Mountain View man was
charged Monday with selling classified information
related to the Minuteman ballistic missile to a Polish
government agent who passed it on to KGB agents for
the Soviet Union, FBI officials announced this mom-
ing.
The information was described as the key to the
American efforts to make the Minuteman system se-
cure from an enemy attack.
James Durward Harper Jr. allegedly obtained the
information from two government contract compan-
ies in Palo Alto, where Harper's now-deceased wife
was employed and had a security clearance.
FBI spokesman Special Agent Bob Gaft of the San
Francisco FBI office said the damage done to U.S.
defense and security is "beyond calculation." Gaft
quoted a U.S. Defense Department technology ex-
pert as saying this leak has done "serious damage to
the national securtty."
The Minuteman is the primary land-based missile
system deployed by the United States.
The criminal complaint filed against Harper indi-
cates that some documents describe "extremely sensi-
tive research and development efforts ... which would
enable the Minuteman missile and other strategic
cooperate with authorities to expedite the proceed-
ings."
Harper received at least $250,000 for the informa-
tion he supplied, according to FBI agents. Agents said
he might. have sold the information for much more
According to an affidavit filed with the criminal
complaint against Durward, the FBI obtained infor-
mation about the espionage activity from a high-rank-
ing officer in the Polish intelligence. service.
The affidavit alleged that Harper "did unlawfully,
knowingly and willfully conspire" with Zdzislaw Trzy-
chodzien, an officer in the Polish intelligence service
Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa, and others to transmit the de-
fense documents to the Polish People's Republic.
Harper's wife, Ruby Louise Schuler, was employed
by Systems Control Inc. and Systems Control Technol-
ogy, sister companies at 1801 Page Mill Road, Palo
Alto, and both government contracting firms that-
work on a portion of the Minuteman system and other
government defense projects.
According to the FBI, Schuler obtained copies of
the documents for Harper. Schuler died in June.
' Beginning in May 1979, Harper met on 14 different
occasions with Polish agents in Warsaw, Geneva,
Vienna, Mexico City and other sites.
Gaft said Hugle introduced Harper to the Polish
forces ... to survive a preemptive nuclear attack by agents.
the Soviet Union." At those meetings arrangements were made to sell
Gaft described the arrest of Harper as one of the the information, deliver the information and receive
biggest espionoge cases ever uncovered in the Bay payment, according to FBI officials.
Area. An affidavit said that when the documents about the
Agents said the investigation still is underway and Minuteman were delivered to the Polish intelligence
that further arrests may be made. service in Warsaw on June 5, 1980, a team of 20 KGB.
Another Mountain View man, William Bell Hugle, analysts and engineers were sent by plane from Mos-
who operates B and D Associates of San Jose, an cow to Warsaw to evaluate them. The following
engineering consulting firm, is among those being in- r>?lotith, the officers instrumental in obtaining the doc-
vestigated, according to officials. Hugle has not been uments received a commendation signed by Soviet
arrested. President Yuri Andropov, who was then head of The
Harper, 49, a contract engineer, was arrested Satur- KGB.
day at his apartment at 1931 California St.. Moun- The FBI said its agents recovered some government
tain View. He appeared before U.S.. Magistrate Owen documents when they arrested Harper, who had no
E. Woodruff Tuesday and was ordered held without government security clearances, at his Mountain
bail until another hearing today. He -faces a capital View apartment.
crime espionage. charge. If convicted of the charge, ~---_
Durward could face a maximum sentence of life in 1 'JS
prison.
At his appearance Tuesday, Harper said,' "I
have no intention to hire a lawyer. My intention is to
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302530051-4
The FBI affidavit quoted John Cunningham of the
Army's Ballistic Missile Defense Project Office as
saying documents stolen by the Harpers were 'ex-
tiemely sensitive research and development efforts
undertaken by the Department of Defense which
wbuld enable the Minuteman missile and other stra-
tegic forces of the United States'to survive a pre-emp-
tive nuclear attack by the Soviet Union."
Cunningham told the FBI that "communication of
tle documents to the Polish People's Republic and
tge, Soviet Union would cause serious damage ,to our
gational defense and would provide Warsaw Pact ana-
lysts with a windfall of intelligence and information
about the capabilities of our strategic forces and our
present and future plans to defend them."
;The FBI said that during the investigation informa-
ten was obtained from a "confidential source who -
had direct access to Polish intelligence information."
-It said the source was a high-ranking officer in the_
S.$., the Polish secret police, and worked directly
with Zdzislaw Przychodzien, then a lieutenant colonel
fir, the S.B. as well as with their superior officer, Sergei
Gromotowicz.
:;The affidavit said that in September 1981, an attor-
ney in the Los Angeles area contacted CIA off ,gals
$ith a proposal made on behalf of awtitiffamed client
who was ultimately identified as Harper.
-:The proposal was that the government grant him
immunity from prosecution for crimes, relating to
the illegal sale of trade and defense secets to agents of
the Polish government, in exchange for the client
Cooperating with the government as an informant
against others and as a counterintelligence operative.
..-Harper was never granted immunity.
-While keeping the Identity of his client secret in
February and March of 1982, the attorney provid-
ed; with the consent of Harper, detailed but anony-
mous statements concerning the man's past deeds
and experiences in selling information to_epjesenta
byes of the Polish government.
-The statements were prepared from tape'4sebrdins
made by Harper. In early March 1982, the attor-
ncy said he also respresented Harper's wife, Ms.
Sehuler, who-had participated in the espionage. He
proposed that any agreement include her.-She died in
qne.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302530051-4