Circle of Treason (23 page)

In November 1984, based on defector reporting, the FBI arrested Koecher. He was exchanged in February 1986 and sent back to Czechoslovakia. After the Czech Velvet Revolution in 1989 he visited the West. Dan contacted him and talked to him at some length. Dan's interest in Koecher revolved around the period that Koecher had been assigned to SE Division. Although he worked in a building outside CIA headquarters, he interacted with his fellow transcribers at the same outlying location. Some of them had subsequently moved to sensitive jobs in headquarters. The thinking was that Koecher could have supplied assessment and vulnerability information about his co-workers and that this
information could subsequently have been used in a recruitment approach. Further, the Czechs might have shared this information with the KGB.
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After dealing with these diversions, Dan got back to his investigation of Rick. In January 1991 he did a credit check and found nothing unusual. (We learned later that, as luck would have it, the month that Dan chose for his check was the only month of the year that did not include any extravagant spending.) He also looked into Rick's CIA credit union account. This also did not turn up anything out of the ordinary. What it did reveal lulled us into a false sense of security. Rick had taken out a $25,000 new car loan for his $43,000 Jaguar and was paying it off on a regular basis in amounts commensurate with his CIA salary. Presumably Rick thought that it would be easy for us to check this account so he deliberately made it look innocuous. In fact it took a National Security Letter, signed by the Director of Security, to gain access. At the time this was a very unusual step to take.

As part of his scrutiny, in December 1990 Dan asked the Office of Security to initiate a background investigation of Rick, with a subsequent polygraph. We deliberately delayed requesting this reinvestigation until January 1991 because employees were on a five-year schedule at that time. Had an investigation been launched earlier, it might have aroused Rick's suspicions. Dan also wrote a memorandum to the Office of Security suggesting that the reinvestigation concentrate on Rick's financial situation and spending habits. A personal history form was sent to Rick on 22 January 1991, with a request for updating. He returned it sometime in March.

The Office of Security background investigation was completed on 12 April 1991. It revealed that numerous people knew about Rick's lavish lifestyle. All of those interviewed attributed his wealth to his spouse and her Colombian family. The comments on Rick were generally favorable, and everyone recommended him for continued access to classified information. Some noted that he occasionally drank to excess, but no one saw this as a serious problem. One person did comment that he thought Rick might be a spy, but when asked to explain this statement backed off and said “no, the profile is not right for that.” This particular individual had tangled with Rick over the value and validity of Fedorenko.

Rick was polygraphed in mid-April. Regrettably, the process was flawed in that the polygrapher did not have access to the full memorandum that Dan had written but only to a summary. Also, the background investigation results had not yet made it into Rick's security file. During the polygraph examination, Rick freely discussed his finances. He admitted his wealth, and attributed it to his mother-in-law. He stated that he was the part owner of two pieces of land in Colombia, and was considering going into the import-export business there after retirement. He even cockily said that he was getting a “free ride” on his wife's money.

After the first session, the polygrapher was not quite satisfied with the results pertaining to the question about Rick's foreign contacts. Therefore, he was promptly scheduled for a follow-up session and the subject of his foreign contacts was reviewed with him. Rick explained that he had been introduced to numerous people in Colombia when he and his wife visited her family. He added that he had no idea whether any of them were employed by the Colombian security services, and suggested to the polygrapher that this might explain his reaction to the question. The polygrapher accepted this explanation and Rick was allowed to go. The question of Rick's finances was not explored in any great depth.

In July 1991 we took a new tack. We dispatched an officer to Bogota to brief our chief there and ask him to use his stable of assets to gain further information on Rosario's family. Bogota did what we asked, tasking one of its Colombian agents to find out what he could. A month or so later the agent reported back that the family was indeed wealthy and well connected politically. According to the agent, the family once donated land worth several million dollars for the construction of a soccer field in central Bogota. Furthermore, the extended family was involved in real estate development, and owned a chain of popular ice cream parlors.

Based on the successful polygraph and the seeming corroboration from Bogota that Rosario's family was indeed wealthy, the Office of Security closed its file on Rick. We in the Counterintelligence Center did not follow suit because we still had our suspicions. However, he was only one of the individuals we were looking at closely.

The CIA mole-hunting team (left to right): Sandy Grimes, Paul Redmond, Jeanne Vertefeuille, Diana Worthen, and Dan Payne. (Authors' collections)

Paul Redmond, Deputy Chief of SE Division, later Deputy Chief of the Counterintelligence Center and senior member of the mole-hunting team, Washington, DC, 1988. (Courtesy of Paul Redmond)

Diana Worthen with a photo spread of some of the CIA and FBI sources who were executed as a result of Ames' treachery. (Authors' collections)

Dan Payne with his chart of Ames' monthly bank deposits from unidentified sources during 1985-91. That income totaled $1,326,310. (Authors' collections)

Rick and Rosario Ames on vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 1984. (Courtesy of Diana Worthen)

Walt Lomac, SE Division branch chief, making the most out of his exile to Africa for his defense of General Polyakov, 1969. (Courtesy of Walter Lomac)

Walt Lomac is finally recognized for his stand in the Polyakov case in a 1979 medal presentation ceremony. George Kalaris, Chief of the Counterintelligence Staff 1974–76 and Chief of SE Division 1976–79, is the presenter. (Courtesy of Walter Lomac)