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Davis S. Boone: Another Spy Indicted

by Bill Uttenweiler
The Aerospace Corporation
Vandenberg AFB, CA

During his DICE (defensive information to counter espionage) briefings, Ray Semko of the Department of Energy tells his audience that he wants them to know that the US doesn’t forgive spies. Earned a little extra income from the KGB? The US is still looking for you. Ever think about trying it? Well don’t, because the US won’t give up looking for you either!

The latest example of that US determination came in the fall of 1998. David Sheldon Boone, a former analyst for the National Security Agency, was indicted on November 6, 1998, for spying for the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. Boone was living in Germany, but was coaxed back to the US in October 1998. He had met with a former FBI agent posing as a member of the Russian security service in London, UK, on September 12, 1998. At that time, Boone accepted a payment of $9,000 to resume his spying career.

During his stint at NSA, Boone reportedly turned over top secret material on tactical nuclear weapons targeting the Soviet bloc, and a 300- to 400-page guidebook listing intelligence systems used by the US military. For his efforts, Boone reportedly received payments totaling $60,000.

Boone’s arrest and indictment came on the heels of the conviction of former Pentagon procurement lawyer Theresa Marie Squillacote, and her labor organizer husband Kurt Alan Stand were convicted of espionage in a Washington DC area court. The pair, along with friend James Michael Clark had been arrested in late summer 1997, and charged with spying for the East Germans.

In Squillacote’s case, a search of her home turned up an admiring letter she had written to a Communist official in the government of South Africa. The FBI mounted a "false flag" operation, leading to believe the South Africans were willing to take her up on an implied offer to spy against her country. While Squillacote and Strand had plead not guilty, Clark turned states evidence in the case.

These cases have several common treads:

• With the end of the Cold War, records of the intelligence agencies of some formerly hostile countries have become available to the US.
• The FBI has attempted to verify the truth of the records by approaching the alleged spies under a false flag. (After all, who says foreign intelligence agents didn’t lie to their bosses or include erroneous information in their files.)
• The suspects, thinking they had gotten away with spying before, were willing to resume their double lives. Spying wasn’t just something they used to do. They were ready to do it again.

These recent arrests are reminders to all of us that spying still goes on, and that we should report adverse information or suspicious activities by cleared government and contractor personnel to our security officers.
[Webmaster's note: This article was originally written in November 1998 for the VSAC News & the NCMS Channel Islands Newsletter.]