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More charges filed against accused spy

Prosecutors could seek the death penalty on two of the counts against Regan.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A retired Air Force sergeant was charged Thursday with attempting to sell U.S. secrets to Iraq, Libya and China, with prosecutors offering a letter to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as evidence.

The Justice Department said the charges against Brian Regan involved a "betrayal of his country." They said Regan, in a draft of a letter to Hussein, boasted of his "top-secret clearance" and demanded millions in exchange for U.S. national security secrets, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson said.

"I am willing to commit espionage against the United States by providing your country with highly classified information," Regan wrote, according to Thompson.

"Considering the risk I am about to take, I will require a minimum payment of 13 million U.S. dollars. There are many people from movie stars to athletes in the U.S. who receive tens of millions of dollars a year for their trivial contributions," Thompson quoted the letter.

A similar letter, Thompson said, was written to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Thompson refused to say whether the letters were received by either leader.

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A 20-year veteran of the Air Force, Regan last worked as a contractor at the National Reconnaissance Office -- the government agency responsible for designing, producing and fielding U.S. spy satellites. He retired from the military in 2000.

"The grand jury indictment being released today details a systematic and calculated plan to damage our country's national security," Thompson said. "Regan is charged with attempts to sell our intelligence agency's most valuable secrets for the purpose of enriching himself."

The secrets, according to the indictment, pertained to satellites, early-warning systems, means of defense against large-scale attacks, communications information and major elements of defense strategy.

Regan, 39, was arrested shortly before boarding a flight to Switzerland in August at Dulles International Airport, outside Washington.

At that time, Thompson said, FBI agents recovered from Regan's wallet a piece of paper with information about two classified images of missile facilities in Iraq and China.

An earlier affidavit stated authorities discovered a carry-on bag in Regan's car containing several pages of coded messages, phone numbers of diplomatic offices in Switzerland and Austria belonging to at least two unidentified countries, and a global positioning device "used to locate ... drop or signal sites."

Two counts could bring death penalty

He had originally been indicted in October on the single count of attempted espionage. The new indictment supersedes that one, charging him with three counts of attempted espionage and one count of gathering national defense information.

Thompson said Regan "made a regular practice" of accessing the intelligence community's classified Internet last August.

Two of the charges, Thompson said, would make Regan eligible for the death penalty upon conviction, but no decision has been made on whether the government will seek it.

A father of four, Regan is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.

His attorney, Nina Ginsberg, said Regan would plead not guilty to the charges. The attorney also said there had been early discussions of a plea agreement with the government, "but they did not reach fruition."

Regan retired from the Air Force last August as a senior noncommissioned officer with the rank of master sergeant, and was working on a government contract relating to spy satellites at the time of his arrest.

Military records indicate that Regan entered the Air Force in New York in August 1980. Early in his military career, he was assigned to a number of Air Force "electronic security" intelligence units.

Regan was stationed in Greece, Korea, Hawaii and Texas before taking an assignment with the Air Force Intelligence Agency in the Washington area. Following two more stints with intelligence units at the Pentagon, he was assigned to the National Reconnaissance Office, according to a document provided by the Air Force.

The number and variety of medals Regan was awarded during his 20 years of service are considered by other senior non-commissioned Air Force officers to be average. The awards include a number of good conduct medals and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.