NSA Headquarters, Fort Meade, Maryland

The National Security Agency (NSA) is conducting a counterintelligence probe at its Fort Meade, Md., headquarters in a top-secret hunt for a Russian agent, according to a former intelligence official close to the agency.
 

Russian Mole

The former official said the probe grew out of the case of 10 Russian "illegals," or deep-cover spies, who were uncovered last summer and sent back to Moscow after the defection of Col. Alexander Poteyev, a former SVR foreign intelligence officer who reportedly fled to the U.S. shortly before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited here in June.

Col. Poteyev is believed to be the source who disclosed the U.S.-based agent network.

NSA counterintelligence officials suspect that members of the illegals network were used by Russia's SVR spy agency to communicate with one or more agents inside the agency, which conducts electronic intelligence gathering and code-breaking.

One sign that the probe is fairly advanced is that FBI counterintelligence agents are involved in the search.

"They are looking for one or more Russian spies that NSA is convinced reside at Fort Meade and possibly other DoD intel offices, like DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency]," the former official said. "NSA is convinced that at least one is at NSA."

* * * * *

If the Russkies had been more patient, they could have saved themselves all the trouble of penetrating the NSA and whatever else. It would have been a lot cheaper and easier to sit back in Moscow and just read the information in the New York Times or Wikileaks.

Back in the 70s and 80s USAF Intel was spending big money and risking lives to find out bits of data about the newest Soviet aircraft. The Soviets meanwhile, were spending about $50 per year for a subscription to Aviation Week and getting better information about our latest aircraft.