SEX AND SPIES U.S. NEEDS TO KEEP LIBIDOS IN CHECK.

Byline: Joseph Honig Local View

KEEPING government secrets too often means keeping libidos in check.

Because for all our missile defenses, homeland security measures and vigilant cops, the United States remains terribly vulnerable to sexual sparks between men and women.

Right now, if federal prosecutors are right, a wealthy, connected San Marino matron's alleged 20-year affair with an FBI agent is at the core of yet another sex and espionage scandal.

Accused spy Katrina Leung, ostensibly a federal informant, had access to the classified materials of her bed partner, now-retired Agent James J. Smith, the government claims.

``She stole documents from the FBI,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lornega said plainly.

If she is guilty, Leung's alleged treason - she is a naturalized American citizen born in China - may have been as easy as reaching for the night table.

Thus our own Mata Hari may be an Los Angeles businesswoman who mixed with politicos and schmoozed Southland power-brokers. All this while authorities claim she made pillow talk with Smith - and one more sexually vulnerable FBI man.

You can wonder what her husband thinks - he's not giving interviews - but the 49-year-old Leung must possess certain irresistible charms. How else to explain the almost $2 million she earned as a government informer while allegedly spying on her handlers.

Is there a Chinese word for chutzpah? Well, there ought to be.

Meanwhile, federal agents say they are still investigating the full extent of national security damage from the case. Early reports say Chinese intelligence may have been tipped off to U.S. bugging of China's presidential jet. And it could get worse.

At the moment, Leung and Smith insist they're innocent. The smart money says they're not keeping company anymore.

But when it comes to protecting sensitive information, a few of our weaker guardians are just saps for sex.

Some things just never change.

For the Leung-Smith accusations follow another high-profile L.A. sex- for-secrets case: When the Soviet Union was still in business, FBI Agent Richard Miller was convicted of passing secrets to a slinky Russian agent named Svetlana Ogorodnikov.

Miller, a shambling, overweight FBI bumbler, was no James Bond. Nevertheless, he and Svetlana made a kind of music together.

He did 13 years for his espionage - and his search for romance on company time.

Though if the truth be told, some very smart, very powerful men succumbed to potentially dangerous temptations.

President John F. Kennedy twice bedded suspected spies - accused Nazi sympathizer Inga Arvad and alleged East German operative Ellen Romisch. There is no proof the government was compromised, but Kennedy still fancied dangerous liaisons - mobbed-up girlfriend Judith Exner, for one.

In fact, spy masters around the world train agents to victimize the love- starved. Once upon a time, their efforts rocked a government.

Some 40 years ago, British Cabinet member John Profumo was caught in a love nest with a pair of fancy party girls.

Remember Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies? Now this might have been a bit of innocent fun - the English are known for top-shelf sex scandals - except for the presence of a Russian naval attache. Keeler, it turned out, had been sleeping with both Profumo, the defense minister, and the Russian.

The famous English sense of humor was stretched to the limit. Profumo resigned, Keeler went to prison and, months later, Britain had a new prime minister.

Which brings us back to the astonishing case of Katrina Leung, that stylish hostess on a first-name basis with L.A.'s elite.

Does she have a sultry smile?

Does her voice make men do things they ought to resist?

If those U.S. attorneys prove their case, will we ever find out what made Katrina's boyfriends fools for love?

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LEUNG