begs

WASHINGTON — Christopher J. Boyce, whose sale of CIA satellite secrets to Soviet agents was one of the nation’s gravest espionage crimes of the 1970s, pleaded before a Senate panel Thursday for improvements in U.S. security procedures and for other young persons to avoid his fate.

In an emotional, hourlong statement, the 31-year-old Boyce said his 21 months of spying at TRW Inc. offered no “James Bond” thrills and brought him “only depression and a hopeless enslavement to an inhuman, uncaring foreign bureaucracy.”

“As we sit here, a half-dozen, perhaps a dozen, perhaps more Americans are operatives of the KGB,” the former Californian told the Senate Governmental Affairs permanent investigations subcommittee, which is examining how federal security clearances are granted.

‘None Are Happy’

“Perhaps some of them have been in place for years. I tell you that none of them are happy men or women,” he said during testimony described by Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Me.) as “one of the most powerful and poignant statements we have ever heard.”

Boyce, who is serving a 68-year prison sentence for espionage and for robbing banks after escaping from the Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution in 1980, said that “for whatever reason a person begins his involvement . . . the original intent and purpose becomes lost in the ignominy of the ongoing nightmare.”

Although Boyce took the witness stand in his defense during his 1977 spy trial, his Senate testimony Thursday–in which he paused to fight back tears four times–provided his fullest statement to date on his actions and reflections as a Soviet collaborator.

He told senators that he had received a top-secret clearance from the government in 1975 after only a cursory investigation in which he was never interviewed about his anti-Establishment attitudes, which were well known among his friends.

Boyce said the government interviewed only his parents and some of their acquaintances, “who lived in another world” and knew nothing of his opinions.

Smoked Marijuana at 16

“Had the investigators asked any of my friends what I thought of the U.S. government, and in particular the CIA, I would never have gotten the job,” Boyce said. “Had they asked, they would have learned that I had first begun smoking ‘pot’ at 16 and that I had experimented with a variety of other drugs.”

He said he was hired only because his father, a former FBI agent, knew a top security official at the company.

At the Redondo Beach-based TRW, where Boyce worked as a clerk assigned to a highly sensitive satellite project, plant security was “a joke–almost laughable,” making it easy to photograph thousands of documents to pass on to Soviet agents, he said.

Boyce–who testified before the subcommittee while guarded by a dozen federal marshals–described the informal atmosphere and lax security at TRW and said his co-workers never suspected he was cooperating with the Soviets.

Parties in ‘Black Vault’

“We regularly partied and boozed it up during working hours within the ‘black vault,’ ” the super-secret room housing the CIA satellite project, he said. “Bacardi rum was usually stored behind the crypto machines.”

Boyce said a code-destruction machine similar to a blender “was used for making banana daiquiris and Mai Tais. On occasion, the project security manager would join us for a drink on the house.”

Boyce, whose case was recounted in the best-selling book “The Falcon and the Snowman” and in a subsequent film, said he understood that TRW has tightened security in recent years. Witnesses from the company confirmed this in later testimony.

Monkey Badge

So lax was security at TRW, Boyce said, that “my immediate supervisor once made a security badge with a monkey’s face on it and, to everyone’s amusement, used it to come in and out of the building.”

With tears in his eyes, Boyce said he no longer is “a rebellious 21” and agreed to testify “in the hope that I am performing a constructive act.”

He concluded: “I only wish that before more Americans take that irreversible step, they could know what I now know, that they are bringing down upon themselves heartache more heavy than a mountain.”

KATIE Price has begged fans for help after issuing an update on husband Lee Andrews.

The star, 47, insisted that police still cannot find him after he went ‘missing’ six days ago.

Lee, 43, was due to jet to the UK to appear on Good Morning Britain alongside Katie but failed to show up – largely understood to be as a result of a travel ban.

Katie has now issued another video statement and begged fans for their help.

The star said: “I just don’t know what to say. The last time, you know, I heard from as I said before was Wednesday at 10 o’clock.

“I’ve been reading his last few messages and then I’ve heard nothing.

TRUTH ABOUT LEE

Katie Price’s conman hubby EXPOSED as Sun’s Clemmie catches him red-handed

ROLL THE TAPES

Listen to Katie Price’s conman hubby’s voicenotes to The Sun IN FULL

“My anxiety levels are sky high.

“I just don’t know what to say.

“If there is anyone in Dubai or you know anyone in Dubai and you spot him – cause I don’t know where he is.

“Cause the last thing I know his hands are tired. He had a hood over his head, not fully over and he was in the back of a van.

“And that’s all I know.

“The police can’t find him anywhere where he’s been detained.

“No phone calls have been made. So I don’t know where he is.”

Clearly worried, Katie added: “I just want to know someone helped find him.

” I don’t know where he is. I don’t know what’s happened to him. And it’s been five days.

“I’m a survivor, but I’ve never been in a situation like this.

“I don’t think many people have been in a situation like this where all of a sudden the last message you get, FaceTime from your husband in the back of a van, a dirty old van.

“The thoughts in my mind was just his face on that FaceTime and then he’s gone.”

The star concluded her lengthy video statement by saying:  “We need to find him.

“And that’s all I can say, just please help find him.

“Then when we find him, I’m sure there’ll be an explanation or something where we know exactly what’s gone on until then – he’s been silent for five days, gone off grid for five days.

“That’s not normal for anyone.

“I know there’s all this stuff online that he’s a con man, he’s a scammer, but I just want to say to everyone, I want to find him.

“So just keep your eyes open. And I’m really upset and distressed that everyone thinks I’m in on this.”

It comes just days after Katie said she feared Lee had been “kidnapped”.

However, we exclusively revealed he was not missing but hiding out in his villa.

The Sun’s Clemmie Moodie shared that Lee has not been “kidnapped“.

It came after she caught Lee red-handed and released a bombshell account about his burner phones and scamming voice notes.

Clemmie gave Lee some money to invest to see what he would do with it, and spent weeks chatting to him about investment opportunities.

However, she has since not seen a single penny of her money returned.

Gogglebox legend and former jungle queen Scarlett Moffatt will beg David Haye to “stop it” on tonight’s I’m A Celeb as the boxer causes tensions in the camp to rise even further

Scarlett Moffatt is seen begging David Haye to “stop it” as a huge row breaks out on tonight’s episode of I’m A Celebrity…South Africa. The TV star, 35, who became Queen of the Jungle on the regular edition of Ant and Dec’s reality survival show just two years after she found fame on Gogglebox in 2014, is back on the All Stars version of the programme and can be seen trying to keep the peace during tense scenes set to air on Friday night.

Already at the centre of controversy thanks to sexist comments he made earlier this week, boxer David will be seen trying to bully Emmerdale star Adam Thomas into taking part in the Termite Terror, unable to accept that the former soap actor just isn’t feeling up to it.

Trying to sleep, Adam admits it would be hard to get through it today because he is feeling dehydrated, but David is seen raging: “Dehydrated?! We’ve all got the same amount of water! Adam is doing it and that’s it!”

READ MORE: I’m A Celebrity’s David Haye under fire for nasty comments to Adam ThomasREAD MORE: I’m A Celebrity fans fume at ‘ungrateful’ David Haye after Adam Thomas’ risky move

Adam has arthritis, which he has been open about. Explaining how it affects him, he said previously: “It is an autoimmune disease. Basically means my immune system is attacking my own body. It causes a s**t-load of pain.”

Some days he will need help doing simple day-to-day tasks and his mental health has been affected, but ultimately, it’s made him stronger. He can experience pain in his fingers and knees on some days, but others, he can be in pain all over his body

David’s co-stars continually try to remind him that their campmate isn’t feeling well enough to get through it, but he becomes hellbent on trying to force Adam into it. He continues: “When is your top form gonna come? Why aren’t we forcing this dude to go and do it? Coincidentally, every time there’s something to do, he’s not feeling well!”

It is at that point that Scarlett, clearly in despair at the situation developing, says: “Stop it David, he’s not well!” David has already caused a major stir during his All Stars stint, when early on in the series, he made comments about his girlfriend Sian. When talking about his partner cooking for them all, he then added: “She’s like tall, blue eyes. She’s lovely. She’s got the personality of a proper ugly bird.”

Despite Scarlett’s suggestion he should stop there, he continued his tirade as he added: “She has. Most ugly girls realise they don’t they’re not pretty enough to… they gotta have a personality to banter and to tell jokes and s**t, so people overlook the fact that they’re not aesthetically amazing, straight away.

“Which is what’s called Ugly Duckling syndrome, where girls are ugly, when they start off, and then they and then they kind of they, they get pretty as they get older. But they still got the personality of when they’re ugly. Does that make sense?”

In the rant, which left angry viewers fuming, he added: “You get a girl who’s pretty from day one, you get a girl who’s different day one. Everyone goes ‘You’re so beautiful. You’re amazing’. She grows up thinking, I’m amazing. Everyone loves me. I can open any door. I can go anywhere I want.

“They don’t have to have a personality, because most super pretty girls are just idiots. But then their ugly friend, they’ve got work a bit harder, be more personable. They got to be nicer to everyone. Gonna get you a drink.”

It was recently claimed that David made those comments because he could not rely on AI to tell him that they were “safe” to say out loud. The source insisted there was “no malice” but added he would use AI to “check he’s not offending someone before he comments”.

“His focus inside camp has always been the game, survival decisions and camp dynamics rather than trying to offend anyone. Those who know him best understand there was no malice behind the remark,” a source told The Sun.

“When AI started he started using it all the time to check he’s not offending someone before he comments. It’s a bit of a comfort blanket for him – but he didn’t have that in the jungle.”

* I’m A Celebrity…South Africa airs weekdays at 9pm on ITV and ITVX.

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