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Former British spy arrested for selling secrets
[March 03, 2010] LONDON (AP) -- A former MI6 spy stole top secret files on intelligence gathering techniques and offered to sell them for 2 million pounds ($2.9 million) to an unspecified foreign government, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
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Prosecutor Piers Arnold told a London court that Daniel Houghton, 25, is alleged to have attempted to sell the highly classified documents, but was arrested Monday after British intelligence posed as the potential buyer. Houghton was not asked to enter a plea during a brief hearing. Arnold said Houghton, who is a dual Dutch and British national, is accused of copying top secret files from the domestic agency MI5 to CD and DVDs while working for the MI6 overseas intelligence service between September 2007 and May 2009. He did not specify what job Houghton had with MI6, but said the alleged attempted sale came after he left the agency. Arnold told the court that disclosure of the files would compromise the ability of MI5 and MI6 to gather intelligence, and could potentially endanger national security. "Some of these files had a security classification of top secret, others were classified as secret," Arnold said. Britain's intelligence agencies are notoriously protective of their intelligence gathering techniques. Houghton faces two charges, one for theft and another for violating Britain's official secrets act -- the confidentiality law that all intelligence officers are expected to abide by. The theft charge carries a maximum possible penalty of seven years in jail; the official secrets act offense has a potential punishment of two years in prison. He was remanded in custody to return March 11 for a hearing at a London magistrates court. |
