Page 2 - Toothbrush Case News Today

>> we did not know what classified information hed taken. and if brian reagan committed espionage, he deserved to go to jail, and it was my job to put him in jail. so now we have all of our resources towards the case and we are looking very hard at his entire background. from what we learned about brian reagan, he had a difficult childhood. he had dyslexia, and so he couldnt read, and so you can imagine what thats like for a child that cant read. because of dyslexia, people assumed he wasnt br...

Information to a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. and if he doesnt have classified information to pass on to the bad guys, youve got quite a dilemma. >> what we did know is that brian reagan expressed interest in coming back to work as a contractor at the national reconnaissance office. in fact, he had applied for a position and he was awaiting feedback from them on that application. >> so we presented to the director of nro asking that he allow reagan to come back and work for them...

Listen, but to see pretty much everything that he did. several days after brian returned to the nro for work, he was alone in the room and he was noticeably looking up and gazing at the roof tiles looking for what would appear to be a bug or camera. he wanted to make sure that he was not being monitored. and then once he felt comfortable, he decided that he would just browse for classified information. he browsed on anything from counter intelligence to the iranian threat, anything that was hi...

>> and so now we are in a panic because we had no idea whether he had classified on him. >> and we felt that he was probably going to make an attempt to reach out to the intelligence service in a foreign country versus doing it in the u.s. >> but the fbi has no jurisdiction overseas, and so now you have no choice but to stop him from going out of the country, but you may lose your case because of it. >> so after coordination with the intelligence community, secretary of defense and the fbi, a de...

On august 23rd, 2001, the fbi arrested brian reagan at dulles airport in virginia just as he was getting ready to board an international flight. >> there are so many different items on him when he was arrested. brian had three different letters with codes on them, sheets and sheets of these three digits. he had cryptic notations. he was basically covered with codes all the way down to his shoes. and we knew we needed to unlock these codes and find whatever hes taking or whatever hes giving away....

That we would agree to that. and brian reagan said, no. i dont want 12 years. i want eight years. if you dont give me eight years, im going to go to trial. my argument was if we allowed brian reagan to gray mill the government, who says the next spy is not going to try to do the same thing? it was just a bad idea. and so we prepared to go to trial. >> for the first time now in half a century, an espionage trial in the united states could lead to a death sentence. the trial of brian patrick reaga...

>> i am a middle east north african analyst for the central intelligence agency. i am willing to commit espionage against the united states by providing your country with highly classified information. if i am caught, i will be imprisoned for the rest of my life, if not executed for this deed. my wife and my daughter will be disgraced and harassed by everyone in our community. considering the risk i am about to take, i will require a minimum payment of 13 million u.s. dollars wire transferred in...

About the person that wrote this letter? >> im a middle eat north african analyst for the central intelligence agency. im willing to commit espionage against the united states by providing your country with hayly classifihay -- highly classified information. if im caught, i will be in prison for my life if not executed. my wife and daughter will be disgradi disgraced and harassed by everyone in my community. considering the risk, ill require a minimum payment of 13 million u.s. dollars wire tran...

Documents in multiple locations in maryland and virginia. >> there were 19 packages total. seven in maryland and an additional 12 packages in virginia. >> he gave us the name of the parks that he had buried them in but the coordinates to where they were buried were in a toothbrush holder that was buried under a sign alongside i-95 south on exit to fredericksburg in virginia. >> in a sense, he was creating espionage treasure hunt. >> this was his way to stay anonymous. if he buried them and gave ...

Truth, even how to break the codes. we followed everything brian tried to tell us and tried to reconstruct what he couldnt remember and tried to make it work but it was tough. and as i came up with a solution, the case agent was on the phone with the team in the state park and they dug it up 30 minutes later. after they recovered all of the 12 packages from virginia, the next battle was the coded locations for seven more packages buried in maryland. this is a code i had never seen before because...