Convicted spy buried sensitive U.S defense documents in 19 locations.

The FBI recently discovered thousands of buried documents containing potentially classified information. Convicted U.S. spy Brian Regan devised a sophisticated plot to sell sensitive military secrets by burying documents in 19 locations of rugged terrain across Maryland and Virginia. Law enforcement officials said Regan went to extraordinary lengths to develop a series of codes, marked trees, and carefully buried packages that would allow agents of China, Libya, or Iraq to directly retrieve the materials secretly.

A retired Air Force master sergeant, Regan worked at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), a U.S. government agency that analyzes satellites. He was arrested in August 2001. In February 2003, a federal jury in Virginia found Regan guilty of attempting to sell military secrets to Iraq and China and of gathering national defense information. He was acquitted of attempting to provide U.S. secrets to Libya and the jury concluded that he did not provide Iraq with documents concerning nuclear weapons, military satellites, or war plans. The jury rejected the government's request to impose the death penalty and Regan is now serving a life sentence for attempted espionage.

At the trial, officials displayed piles of boxes marked "top secret" that contained an estimated 10,000-20,000 pages of sensitive material, including documents, slides, and videos, some of which pertain to satellites and early warning systems. They were recovered during four months of difficult digging in locations that include Maryland's massive Patapsco Valley State Park, which covers three counties west of Baltimore, to Virginia's Pocahontas State Park southwest of Richmond.

Last fall, jail deputies in Alexandria, Virginia, stumbled upon the buried documents when they confronted Regan about an odd collection of papers held together by a pen and toilet paper tubes. He quickly flushed the papers, which were written in code, down the toilet. But deputies discovered a map in Regan's cell displaying designated sites.

Since then, the FBI has been hunting for the buried documents and NRO officials have been wondering how Regan got so much material out of government sites.

The discovery of the buried documents raises new questions about whether Regan passed along classified materials.

Regan's case is being reassessed as the NRO conducts investigations into his activities during his employment, the quality of information he compromised, a damage assessment, and determination of security in place at the time Regan breached it. The office says it will publish a report by the end of the year.