| When
Robert Lipka was a 19-year-old soldier in the U.S.
Army assigned to the National Security Agency (NSA)
at Ft.
Meade, Maryland, he made a decision—a decision to
betray his country for cash. From 1964 to 1967, he
was assigned
to the Collections Bureau, later renamed the Priority
Materials Branch. His principal assignment was to remove
classified NSA national defense documents from teleprinters
and deliver them to the appropriate departments. However,
Lipka often hid these classified documents on his person
to escape detection from NSA security and used a common
espionage technique known as a “dead drop” to
transfer these documents to the KGB and then retrieve
payment at a prearranged site. Lipka, whose KGB code
name was “Rook”, also possessed spy cameras
to clandestinely photograph sensitive documents.
In August 1967, Lipka resigned from the Army and
moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he attended
college at a local
university. When he left, he took more classified NSA
documents with him.
An independent investigation regarding two individuals,
Peter and Ingeborg Fischer, indicated that they were
most likely German/Russian operatives acting at the
behest of the KGB.The investigation further revealed
that the
Fischers had made contact with Lipka in 1968. When
the agents discovered that Lipka used to work at NSA,
they
suspected
he had been the spy utilizing the code name “Rook.”
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The
Fischers. Lipka's mug shot photo. |
In 1993, based on the information developed from the
Fischer investigation and a book written by a former
KGB Major General which contained a detailed description
of espionage committed by a young soldier at NSA in
the mid-1960s, an FBI undercover agent posing as a
Russian military intelligence official contacted
Lipka. Because
the undercover agent knew his correct code name, Lipka
agreed to several face-to-face meetings in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania and
Baltimore, Maryland. During these meetings, Lipka complained
that the KGB had not paid him enough money for the
NSA documents he had transferred and accepted
$10,000 as the balance due for his past espionage activities.
With no statute of limitation for espionage, on September
24, 1997, more than 30 years after his crime of betrayal,
Lipka was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Philadelphia home
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