Too Tender

"Physically, he is a man of iron, steel. Inside, he's as a child."

In such terms did the defense attorney for Irvin C. Scarbeck, 41, a former U.S. embassy official in Poland, describe his client last week. Scarbeck's inner softness led him to lift thin, black-haired Urszula Discher, 22, "up from the gutter," take her as his mistress and then protect her from public disclosure by feeding secrets to Communist agents who had photographed them in bed together.

But the Washington jury was more concerned with Scarbeck's confessions, found him guilty of passing classified information to Polish agents. Scarbeck's wife stayed loyal: "I plan to stick by him." Sentencing was deferred, but Karen Scar-beck's wait may be ten years long.

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