Spy's huge cache was buried inside parks in 2 states

WASHINGTON — Convicted spy Brian Regan buried more than 20,000 pages of documents classified as top secret or higher and he intended to sell them to Iraq, Iran and other countries in "one of the largest espionage schemes in history," law-enforcement officials said yesterday.

The trove of documents, CD-ROMs and videotapes, found in 19 locations by FBI agents after months of digging at state parks in Virginia and Maryland, contained detailed information about U.S. satellites, early-warning systems and weapons of mass destruction, officials said.

Agents also unearthed a manual that officials said could have allowed Saddam Hussein or other enemies to evade spy satellites.

Regan, 41, a former Air Force intelligence analyst and father of four from Bowie, Md., was convicted this year of trying to sell classified documents to Iraq and China — but it was only after his trial that authorities learned the full extent of the documents he admits taking from the super-secret National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, Va.

"This is someone who was very focused and intended completely to harm our nation in the most significant way," Paul McNulty, the U.S. attorney in Alexandria, Va., said at a news conference where officials displayed 10 boxes marked "top secret" and a green toothbrush holder in which Regan buried secret codes that recorded where the documents were stashed.

Federal officials detailed a complicated dig that involved dozens of FBI agents battling bugs and pouring rain as they forged through hilly terrain in Patapsco Valley State Park near Baltimore and Pocahontas State Park in central Virginia. The material was found in 19 locations — 12 in the Virginia park and seven in the Maryland park — starting in March and ending June 25. Regan had buried the documents over three years, ending in 2000.

The caches of documents were buried 18 inches deep, wrapped in garbage bags, lightweight plastic or Tupperware.

"It was horrible. There were mosquitoes, bugs, ticks, extremely hilly terrain, rivers, streams," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Haynes, a prosecutor on the case who accompanied agents.

FBI officials said Regan intended for a foreign intelligence service to recover the documents, and McNulty described Regan's activities as "what may have been one of the largest espionage schemes of all time."

Finding the classified documents proved difficult for even the FBI's best code-breakers. While Regan was cooperative as agents debriefed him in prison, officials said, even he forgot the complex codes he used to record locations of the buried packages.

Some codes were found, at Regan's direction, in the toothbrush holder, which was buried along Interstate 95 in Fredericksburg. Other codes were found in a buried purple salt shaker along I-95.

It took agents about a month, with Regan's help, to break the codes before they started digging. The 12 packages buried in the Virginia park were found quickly, but the Maryland material was harder because it was encoded so deeply, FBI agent Steven Carr said. Regan, who is still being debriefed in prison, had to accompany agents three times to the Maryland park.

Jonathan Shapiro, an attorney for Regan, declined to comment.

As sensitive as the documents discovered in the parks were, officials acknowledged that Regan never made contact with any handler.