Brian Regan

A retired Air Force sergeant -- who in a letter to Saddam Hussein expressed frustration at the size of his government pension -- goes on trial today in federal court, accused of attempting to sell secrets about U.S. spy satellites to Iraq, Libya and China.

Brian Patrick Regan was playing an elaborate spy game that had "absolutely no chance of success," lawyers for the former Air Force sergeant argued Monday as his trial on charges of attempted espionage opened in U.S. District Court here. Regan, a former technical advisor at the Pentagon's top-secret National Reconnaissance Office, is accused of attempting to sell secrets about U.S. spy satellites to Iraq, Libya and China between 1999 and 2001.

An FBI agent testified Thursday that Brian Patrick Regan had run up credit card debt of almost $117,000, which prosecutors say provided a financial incentive for the retired Air Force master sergeant to offer to sell classified information to Iraq, Libya and China. Prosecutors have said Regan planned to offer Iraqi President Saddam Hussein secret details about American satellite surveillance that could help Iraq hide its anti-aircraft missiles for $13 million in Swiss francs.

Prosecutors finished their espionage case against Brian Patrick Regan with an FBI code expert explaining how the retired Air Force master sergeant allegedly concealed letters to Iraq and Libya. The defense then began making its arguments, hearing an expert testify that satellite pictures of Iraq, Libya and China could be bought from private companies. Regan, 40, of Bowie, Md.

Two national security experts testified Thursday the U.S. intelligence that spy suspect Brian Patrick Regan was carrying when he was arrested would not have harmed America if sold to a foreign government. "The information was not terribly significant," said Maynard Anderson, former acting deputy undersecretary of Defense for security policy. "It did not provide anyone any information that was not publicly known."

The case against Brian Patrick Regan went to jurors Monday after prosecutors argued that the spy suspect, accused of offering U.S. secrets to Iraq, Libya and China, would have sold them "whatever they would have paid for." Defense attorneys said the intelligence data he carried when arrested would not have compromised U.S. security and wasn't even secret -- it could be found through public sources. The jury deliberated about an hour, then broke for the night.

Jurors in Alexandria recessed without reaching a verdict in the trial of suspected spy Brian Patrick Regan. The jury is to resume deliberations today. Regan is accused of offering to sell classified data for $13 million to Iraq, Libya and China. If convicted, the jury would then consider whether to impose the death penalty. In that case, he could be the first American executed for espionage since the Rosenbergs in 1953, who were convicted of conspiring to steal atomic secrets for the Soviets.

The jury in the Alexandria trial of spy suspect Brian Patrick Regan finished a second day of deliberations and recessed for the weekend. The jury is scheduled to return Tuesday. Regan, 40, of Bowie, Md., is accused of attempted espionage for Iraq, Libya and China. He has pleaded not guilty. A retired Air Force master sergeant, Regan worked for the National Reconnaissance Office, a government spy agency, first while in the military and then for TRW Inc., a defense contractor.

A hapless and heavily indebted former intelligence analyst who sought to offer "vital secrets" to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was convicted Thursday of trying to spy for Iraq and China. But the jury failed to agree whether Brian P. Regan, 40, was guilty of seeking to sell military secrets to Iraq.

In a setback for the Justice Department, a federal jury Monday spared Brian Patrick Regan the death penalty for trying to sell "vital secrets" to the governments of China and Iraq. Regan, 40, was convicted Thursday of attempted espionage in the first U.S. spy trial in half a century that could have resulted in an execution. For that penalty to be imposed, though, jurors had to find that Regan provided specified military secrets to Iraq.