In law, an alien is a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country.^[1]

Categorization[link]

Types of "alien" persons are:

• An alien who is legally permitted to remain in a country which is foreign to him or her. On specified terms, this kind of alien may be called a legal alien of that country. This is a very broad category which includes tourists, guest workers, legal permanent residents and student visa resident aliens.
• An alien who has temporary or permanent residence in a country (which is foreign to him/her) may be called a resident alien of that country. This is a subset of the aforementioned legal alien category.
• An alien who is visiting a country (which is foreign to him/her) may be called a nonresident alien of that country. This is a subset of the aforementioned legal alien category.
• An alien who is present in a country (which is foreign to him/her) unlawfully or without the country's authorization is known as an illegal alien of that country.^[2] An undocumented alien commonly refers to a foreign national who resides in another country unlawfully, either by entering that country at a place other than a designated port-of-entry or as result of the expiration of a non-immigrant visa.
• An enemy alien is an alien who is a national of an enemy country.

Specific jurisdictions[link]

The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (December 2010)

• In Australia, alien status is regarded in relationship to citizenship status. The following documents normally constitute evidence of Australian citizenship:
  • a valid Australian passport
  • a birth certificate issued by or on behalf of an Australian state or territory (only for those born before 20 August 1986)
  • a certificate of evidence of Australian citizenship
  • an Australian naturalisation certificate
  • a certificate of Australian citizenship by descent

Some people who live in Australia are not Australian citizens - they are either permanent residents; temporary residents; or illegal residents (technically called "unlawful-non citizens").^[3] Most non-citizens (i.e. those who lack citizenship documents) travelling to Australia must obtain a visa prior to travel. The only exceptions to this rule are members of the British royal family, and holders of New Zealand passports and citizenships who may apply for visas after travel according to the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement. ^[4]

• In Latvian passports, alien is used for non-citizens (nepilsoņi): former citizens of USSR who don't have voting rights for parliament of Latvia but have specific rights and privileges under Latvian law and international bilateral treaties like they are simultaneously allowed to travel without visas both to EU and Russia, that is not possible for citizens.

• In the United Kingdom, alien means a person who is not:^[5][6]
  • a British citizen
  • a citizen of Ireland,
  • a Commonwealth citizen, or
  • a British protected person.

• In U.S. law, an alien is "any person not a citizen or national of the United States."^[7] The U.S. Government's use of alien dates back to 1798, when it was used in the Alien and Sedition Acts.^[8] U.S. law makes a clear distinction between aliens and immigrants by defining immigrants as a subset of aliens.^[7] Although U.S. law provides no overarching explicit definition of the term "illegal alien," the term is used in many statutes^{[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]} and elsewhere (e.g., court cases, executive orders). U.S. law also uses the term "unauthorized alien."^{[18][19][20][21][22]} U.S. immigration laws do not refer to illegal immigrants, but in common parlance the term "illegal immigrant" is often used to refer to any illegal alien.^[23] Because at law, a corporation is a person, the term alien is not limited to natural humans because what are colloquially called foreign corporations are technically called alien corporations. Because corporations are creations of local state law, a foreign corporation is an out of state corporation.

Etymology[link]

"Alien" is derived from the Latin alienus, meaning stranger, alien, foreign. Similar words in other languages are also derived from it, for example Italian "Aliense". Among others, "Aliense" was the sobriquet of the Sixteenth Century painter Antonio Vassilacchi, (1556 – 1629), who was so named because of being a Greek who spent most of his life and artistic career in Venice.

See also[link]

• Dual citizen
• Enemy alien
• Immigration
• Naturalization
• Gaikokujin
• California Alien Land Law of 1913
• Alien and Sedition Acts
• Non-citizens (Latvia)
• Illegal immigration

References[link]

External links[link]

• Resident Alien Information
• Aliens (Encyclopedic Entry)
• D. C. Earnest Noncitizen Voting Rights: A Survey of an Emerging Democratic Norm, 2003
• University of Minnesota Human Rights Center: Study Guide: The Rights of Non-Citizens, 2003
• UK Aliens' registration cards on The National Archives' website.
• Council of Europe Commission for Democracy through Law Report on noncitizens and minority rights, 2007
• The rights of non-citizens, UN OHCHR, 2006
• http://www.illegalaliennewsupdate.com

Look up alien or aliens in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Alien or Aliens may refer to:

• Alien (law), a non-citizen inhabitant of a country
• Extraterrestrial life, defined as life that does not originate from Earth
• List of alleged alien beings (ufology)
• Any introduced species, a species living outside its native distributional range

Fiction[link]

Film[link]

• Alien (film), a 1979 film directed by Ridley Scott
  • Aliens (film), a 1986 sequel directed by James Cameron
  • Alien (creature in Alien franchise), the titular creatures of the franchise
  • Alien (franchise), the science fiction horror film franchise
• The Alien, an incomplete 1967 Satyajit Ray film
• Monsters vs. Aliens, 2009 computer-animated 3-D science fiction action comedy film

Other fictional works[link]

• Aliens (1902 novel), by Mary Tappan Wright
• Aliens (novel series), based on the Alien franchise characters
• Aliens (comic book), series based on the Alien franchise characters
• Extraterrestrials in fiction
• List of Alien and Predator games, based on the Alien and Predator franchises

Music[link]

• Alien (album), by Strapping Young Lad
• Alien (band), Swedish rock band
• The Aliens, Scottish rock band
• The Aliens (Australian band), a 1970s new wave band from Australia
• "Alien", song by Nerina Pallot from the album Dear Frustrated Superstar
• "Alien", song by Tokio Hotel from the album Humanoid
• "Alien", song by Pennywise from the album Straight Ahead
• "Alien", song by Erasure from the album Loveboat
• "Alien", song by Lamb from the album Fear of Fours
• "Alien", song by Bush from the album Sixteen Stone
• "Alien", song by Thriving Ivory from their self-titled debut album
• "Aliens Exist", song by Blink 182 from the album Enema of the State

Technology[link]

• Alien (software), a computer program
• Alien Technology, manufacturer of RFID technology
• AliEn (ALICE Environment), lightweight Grid framework developed by CERN
• Alienware, a division of Dell

Other[link]

• Aliens, the newsletter of the Invasive Species Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature
• Alien (ship owner), company in Saint Petersburg, Russia
• Alien (signifier), term used in literature and criticism
• Alien Sun (born 1974), Singapore-born actress and Miss Singapore of 1994
• Alien, a line of perfumes by Thierry Mugler

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Alien"
• All pages with titles containing "Alien"
• Alians (band), Polish rock band
• ATLiens, 1996 album by OutKast

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This article describes Earl Pitts, the Russian spy. For the radio character, see Earl Pitts (radio character).

Earl Edwin Pitts (born September 23, 1953) is a former FBI special agent who, in 1996, was arrested at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Pitts was charged with several offenses, including spying for the Soviet Union and Russia. In February 1997, he pled guilty to conspiring and attempting to commit espionage in exchange for a reduced prison sentence.^[1]

History[link]

On June 27, 1997, Earl Pitts was sentenced by a federal judge to 27 years in prison for spying for Moscow both before and after the fall of the Soviet Union. Prosecutors had requested only 24½ years. A former FBI agent, Pitts had been charged with selling U.S. intelligence secrets to the Russians for payments in excess of $224,000 from 1987 to 1992. The FBI gained knowledge of Pitts as a Soviet spy through the use of human intelligence. His KGB handler, Alexsandr Karpov, later defected to the United States and named Pitts as a Soviet mole in the FBI during his debriefings. Pitts was snared in a 16-month FBI sting that ended with his arrest while he was stationed at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. The FBI caught Pitts by convincing him that the Russian government wanted to reactivate him as a spy. Pitts offered his services to the Soviets in 1987 while he was assigned to the FBI's New York office where he was assigned to hunt and recruit KGB officers.

While working in the FBI New York office, Pitts had access to "a wide range of sensitive and highly classified operations" that included "recruitment operations involving Russian intelligence officers, double agent operations, operations targeting Russian intelligence officers, true identities of human assets, operations against Russian illegals, defector sources, surveillance schedules of known meet sites, internal policies, documents, and procedures concerning surveillance of Russian intelligence officers, and the identification, targeting, and reporting on known and suspected KGB intelligence officers in the New York area."^[2]

During the late 1980s, Pitts met with a KGB source in multiple locations throughout New York City, including an airport and a public library. His relationship with the Russians lasted for five years. During this time period, he turned over information that included the name of an FBI agent who was working covertly on Russian intelligence matters. According to the FBI, Pitts received over $224,000 in income from KGB and SVR sources.^[3]

The FBI said Pitts also turned over a secret computerized FBI list of all Soviet officials in the United States with their known or suspected posts in Soviet Spy agencies. Pitts was discovered after a Soviet defector identified him to the FBI and assisted the FBI in their sting operation. After the sting began, Pitts' ex-wife, Mary Columbaro Pitts, also a former FBI employee, told the FBI that she suspected her husband was a spy, though he never disclosed his status as a double agent to her. When he was convicted of espionage and asked why he engaged in that act, Pitts cited numerous grievances with the FBI and said he wanted to "pay them back". Pitts' plea bargain required him to submit to FBI debriefings. During one such debriefing in 1997, Pitts stated that he was not aware of any additional spies within the FBI, but he was suspicious of Robert Hanssen. The FBI did not act on Pitts' warning and Hanssen's espionage continued until 2001.

He is now at the Federal correctional institution near Ashland, KY

Other notable American moles[link]

Other Agents in place in the US Government or Military who worked as a Mole for either the KGB or the SVR, include:

• James Hall III - An Army warrant officer and intelligence analyst in Germany who sold eavesdropping and code secrets to East Germany and the Soviet Union from 1983 to 1988.
• Aldrich Ames - A CIA mole charged with providing highly classified information since 1985 to the Soviet Union and then Russia.
• Robert Hanssen - Arrested for spying for the Soviet Union and Russia for more than 15 years of his 27 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
• Harold James Nicholson - A senior-ranking Central Intelligence Agency officer arrested while attempting to take Top Secret documents out of the country. He began spying for Russia in 1994.
• George Trofimoff - a retired Army Reserve Lt. Colonel, charged in June 2000 of spying for the KGB and the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (or SVR) for over 25 years.
• John Walker - Arrested for spying for the Soviet Union during the last eight years of his career with the US Navy, and assembling a spy ring to continue espionage following his retirement.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Los Angeles Times; June 24, 1997

External links[link]

• Copy of FBI Press Release
• CNN news account of his sentencing
• Affidavit