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William Kampiles
American intelligence officer; CIA Agent

William Kampiles

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American intelligence officer; CIA Agent
Work field
Gender
Male
Birth
Age
70 years
The details

Biography

William Peter Kampiles (born December 21, 1954) is a former United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee during the Cold War known for selling a top secret KH-11 spy satellite manual in 1977.

Early life

Born to Greek parents, Kampiles grew up in Hegewisch, on the far south side of Chicago. Kampiles' family was poor and lived in a small rental apartment. His father died in 1964 when Kampiles was nine. He attended college with a state grant from his father's social security benefit, by working at the college cafeteria, and his mother's salary from working at the south side Ford factory in the cafeteria.

Career

Kampiles was disappointed with his low-ranking status as a CIA clerk, and he decided to steal a top-secret KH-11 spy satellite manual from his employers in 1977 for monetary gain. In November 1977, Kampiles resigned from his job at CIA in Langley, Virginia.

Espionage and prison

Kampiles flew to Greece and sold the manual to the Soviet embassy in Athens in return for $3,000. When Kampiles returned home, to hide where the money came from, he took his mother Nikoletta and his brother Mychael to the neighborhood bank where the three opened a new savings account, depositing the money. Kampiles told his mother he had received the money in Greece as a gift for offering sex. Afterward, Kampiles contacted a Greek-American CIA agent about his contact with a Russian agent. The Greek American asked him to send a letter writing his version of the encounter on paper and mail it to him. Bill felt his version would get him reinstated to the CIA after he had already lost his clerk job there. Instead, the case was passed off to another Greek American, experienced senior research analyst Vivian E. Psachos, who realized the story Kampiles gave was not true. He was asked to fly to Washington where inside a hotel room with a double mirror he confessed the truth. He was told his version was not possible, and they coerced him by informing him he had made his mother and brother accomplices by adding their names to the savings account. He was charged with espionage by the US Government, put on trial in 1978, and convicted. He was arrested on August 17, in Hammond Indiana, a day before he could leave the country with his mother. He had told friends he had plans to buy a restaurant/bar in Athens and had purchased tickets for himself and his mother.

At the trial, his defense team unsuccessfully argued that the manual was not a highly guarded secret and that Kampiles had always intended the transaction to establish his value as a double agent for the CIA. He was originally sentenced on November 17, 1978, to 40 years imprisonment; however, his prison sentence was later reduced to 19 years, and he was released on 16 December 1996, after serving 18 years as Federal Prison inmate "04028-164".

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