Military spy given life in prison

TAMPA, Fla. -- The highest-ranking military man ever accused of spying was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.

George Trofimoff, 75, showed no reaction as U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew handed down the sentence. Trofimoff, a retired Army Reserve colonel, was a civilian intelligence chief for the Army in Germany at the height of the Cold War.

He had faced at least 27 years in prison. Assistant Secretary of Defense John P. Stenbit told the judge in a letter that anything less than a life term would be neither adequate punishment for him nor a deterrent to others.

Trofimoff was convicted of a single espionage count in June following a four-week trial that produced a parade of former KGB officials and international intelligence experts.

Trofimoff's spying career is believed to have spanned decades, beginning in the late 1960s or early 1970s and ending with the fall of the Soviet Union.