Former CIA spy for KGB gets 18 years in prison

January 9, 1981

David Henry Barnett, the highest-ranking CIA employee to confess to being a "mole" for the Soviet KGB, was given an 18-year prison sentence for selling US intelligence information to the Soviets. The US district judge said the sentence was to deter others from selling secrets to foreign governments. MR. Barnett had faced a possible life imprisonment sentence.

The government said Mr. Barnett sold military secrets to the KGB for $92,600 in the early 1970s, then sought employment in the US intelligence network in 1977 to obtain mor e information for the soviets.