Robert Stephen LipkaRobert Stephen Lipka
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ArchiveArchive #2

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Justice that is responsible for all List of United States federal prisons, federal prisons ...

. Retrieved on July 5, 2013. (June 16, 1945 – July 5, 2013) was a former army clerk at the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

(NSA) who, in 1997, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. He was arrested more than 30 years after his betrayal, as there is no

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...

for

Early career

Robert Lipka was assigned to the

as an intelligence analyst in 1964, when he was a 19-year-old U.S. Army soldier. He worked in the central communications room from 1964 to 1967, where he was responsible for removing and disseminating highly classified documents throughout the agency.Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen, Spy Book: The Encyclopedia of Espionage Despite his junior rank, Lipka held a high security clearance, and had access to a diverse array of highly classified documents.

Espionage

In September 1965, Lipka presented himself to the Soviet Embassy on 16th Street, as a walk-in or volunteer spy. He announced that he was responsible for shredding highly classified documents, and over the next two years he made contact with the residency around fifty times, using a variety of skilled

tradecraft Tradecraft, within the intelligence community, refers to the techniques, methods, and technologies used in modern espionage (spying) and generally as part of the activity of intelligence assessment. This includes general topics or techniques ...

.Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield''. According to his handler at the time, former KGB General

Oleg Kalugin Oleg Danilovich Kalugin (; born 6 September 1934) is a former KGB general (stripped of his rank and awards by a Russian Court decision in 2002). He was during a time, head of KGB political operations in the United States and later a critic of ...

"the young soldier (Lipka) ... was involved in shredding and destroying NSA documents and could supply us with a wealth of material." He goes on to say that Lipka gave him "whatever he got his hands on, often having little idea what he was turning over."

Lipka compromised daily and weekly top-secret reports to the White House, information on US troop movements throughout the world, and communications among

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

allies. During the two years Lipka supplied the KGB top-secret information, he received payment of about $27,000. Kalugin claims that Lipka used the money he received, around $500 to $1,000 per package he delivered, to finance his college education. However, Lipka regularly complained that he deserved more money, and threatened to break contact if this demand was not met. In August 1967, Lipka made good on his threat, and left the NSA at the end of his military service in order to attend

Millersville University of Pennsylvania Millersville University of Pennsylvania (commonly known as Millersville University, The Ville, or MU) is a public university in Millersville, Pennsylvania. It is one of the ten schools that comprise the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Educa ...

. In order to discourage any attempts by the KGB to recontact him, Lipka sent a final message claiming that he had been a

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...

for US intelligence all along. According to

Vasili Mitrokhin Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin (; March 3, 1922 – January 23, 2004) was an archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, who defected to the United Kingdom in 1992. Mitrokhin first offer ...

, the KGB knew this was a lie because of the high importance of the classified documents Lipka provided. Both the residency and illegals (non diplomatic cover handlers) tried to renew contact with Lipka intermittently for at least another 11 years, though without success.

Investigation and arrest

Similar to the

John Anthony Walker John Anthony Walker Jr. (July 28, 1937 – August 28, 2014) was a United States Navy chief warrant officer and communications specialist convicted of spying for the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1985 and sentenced to life in prison. In late ...

case, Lipka's ex-wife made accusations of his treason to the FBI. Furthermore, after the defection of Vasili Mitrokhin in 1991, MI6 provided the FBI with evidence of Lipka's activities from the

Mitrokhin Archive The Mitrokhin Archive refers to a collection of handwritten notes about secret KGB operations spanning the period between the 1930s and 1980s made by KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin which he shared with British intelligence in the early 1990s. Mitr ...

. In 1993, armed with these accusations, revelations from Kalugin's memoir, and information from a separate investigation implicating Lipka, the FBI decided to use a

false flag A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misrep ...

operation to catch him. FBI agent Dimitry Droujinsky contacted Lipka, posing as a GRU officer based in Washington named "Sergei Nikitin." Lipka told Nikitin that he was still owed money, and over the course of four meetings, "Nikitin" gave Lipka $10,000. After a lengthy investigation, Lipka admitted to having been a spy while at the NSA, and in February 1996 he was arrested at his home in Millersville, PA, and charged with handing classified documents to the Soviet Union. As there is no

in espionage cases, it did not matter that Lipka had ceased spying for the Soviet Union three decades before his arrest.

Guilty Plea and Sentence

In May 1997, Lipka accepted a plea deal to avoid trial, which could have resulted in a life sentence. In the courtroom, ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

'' reported, Lipka "exploded into tears as he confessed that he had handed over classified information to KGB agents." He was sentenced in September 1997 to 18 years in prison, a $10,000 fine, and additional reimbursement to the FBI of the $10,000 given to him by "Nikitin."

Prison and death

According to the

, Lipka was released on December 8, 2006. On July 5, 2013, Robert Lipka died in Meadville, PA at the age of 68.

References

John W. Whiteside, III, ''FOOL'S MATE - A True Story of Espionage at the National Security Agency'' - 2014

External links

Famous Cases: Robert Lipka, An American Spy
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060718075505/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.browse&sort=Collection&item=The%20Mitrokhin%20Archive Wilson Center, Mitrokhin Archive * http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Lipka-8.jpg {{DEFAULTSORT:Lipka, Robert 1945 births American people convicted of spying for the Soviet Union National Security Agency people 2013 deaths People convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 United States Army soldiers