Spring Break
Ex-FBI agent, lecturer plans to finish semester
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Tony Burchyns, Daily Staff Writer
"That is my intention, unless I hear otherwise (from SJSU)," Cleveland said.
Cleveland, who teaches two classes at SJSU, resigned from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore Thursday after being placed on investigatory leave pending an FBI investigation of possible security leaks, according to a lab statement.
Inger Sagatun-Edwards, chair of the administration of justice department in which Cleveland teaches, said Monday Cleveland would not be suspended or terminated by SJSU without first being charged with a criminal offense.
"I imagine he will stay (at SJSU)," Sagatun-Edwards said.
Unlike Cleveland's counterintelligence post at Livermore, Sagatun-Edwards said Cleveland's intelligence and justice management courses at SJSU are not "relevant" to the FBI's on going espionage investigation.
FBI spokeswoman Larae Quy said Monday that Cleveland has not been charged with a crime.
Quy said she could not confirm or deny reports that Cleveland is referred to in FBI affidavits as a "former agent" with romantic ties to indicted Chinese double agent Katrina Leung.
"It (Cleveland's name) was probably leaked by non-FBI law enforcement officials in Los Angeles," Quy said.
Quy said she would not speculate further about the source of the leaks. She did say that those involved in the investigation were cooperating.
Cleveland said Monday he is in no position to comment on his alleged involvement in the FBI's investigation of Leung and former FBI agent James J. Smith, both of whom were arrested Wednesday in southern California, according to a statement issued by U.S. Attorney Debra W. Yang.
Cleveland, who is married, said he would not comment about his alleged affair with Leung.
Leung faces preliminary charges of unauthorized copying of national defense information, and Smith faces preliminary charges of gross negligence in the handling of documents relating to national defense, according to Yang's statement.
Leung, 49, was acting as an "asset" of the United States, providing information on the People's Republic of China for nearly two decades, according to the statement.
During that time, a colleague - purported to be Cleveland - warned Smith, who was Leung's "handler," that Leung was having unauthorized contacts with Chinese intelligence officials, according to Yang's statement.
Students filing out of Cleveland's intelligence course Monday would not comment on their instructor's predicament.
Quy said Cleveland, 60, worked at the San Francisco office of the FBI from 1967 to 1993.
