Sharon Scranage
Encyclopedia
Sharon Scranage is a former CIA
employee who was jailed for revealing the identities of CIA agents.
Scranage, who worked in Ghana
in the role of Operations Support Assistant, passed classified information to her boyfriend, Michael Soussoudis. Soussoudis, a Ghanaian citizen with permanent residence in the United States
, was a Ghanaian intelligence officer, and passed the information to intelligence chief Kojo Tsikata. Tsikata is alleged to have shared the information with several countries in the Soviet bloc.
Scranage is said to have come under suspicion when, upon her return to the United States in 1985, she failed a routine polygraph
test. After an investigation, Scranage cooperated with the authorities, and assisted in the arrest of Soussoudis. Soussoudis was later exchanged for a number of Ghanaian CIA agents who had been arrested following their exposure by Scranage.
Scranage was charged with espionage and with breaking the Intelligence Identities Protection Act
. She pleaded guilty to three of the eighteen charges against her, with the others being dropped. She was sentenced to five years in prison, later reduced to two years. To date, she remains the only person convicted of breaking the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which was introduced in 1982.
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
employee who was jailed for revealing the identities of CIA agents.
Scranage, who worked in Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
in the role of Operations Support Assistant, passed classified information to her boyfriend, Michael Soussoudis. Soussoudis, a Ghanaian citizen with permanent residence in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, was a Ghanaian intelligence officer, and passed the information to intelligence chief Kojo Tsikata. Tsikata is alleged to have shared the information with several countries in the Soviet bloc.
Scranage is said to have come under suspicion when, upon her return to the United States in 1985, she failed a routine polygraph
Polygraph
A polygraph measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions...
test. After an investigation, Scranage cooperated with the authorities, and assisted in the arrest of Soussoudis. Soussoudis was later exchanged for a number of Ghanaian CIA agents who had been arrested following their exposure by Scranage.
Scranage was charged with espionage and with breaking the Intelligence Identities Protection Act
Intelligence Identities Protection Act
The Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 is a United States federal law that makes it a federal crime for those with access to classified information, or those who systematically seek to identify and expose covert agents and have reason to believe that it will harm the foreign...
. She pleaded guilty to three of the eighteen charges against her, with the others being dropped. She was sentenced to five years in prison, later reduced to two years. To date, she remains the only person convicted of breaking the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which was introduced in 1982.
External links
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2007/06/07/nosplit/ftcia107.xmlThe spies who loved ... and lost their jobs, by Toby Harden, 7/23/07, The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
] - Soussoudis & CIA's Nightmare In Ghana, HomePage Ghana news article, 12/1/03