Circle of Treason (35 page)

Returning to the positive side, it is not generally known that the FBI let the CIA disseminate reporting from FBI cases to the U.S. intelligence community. Those with a jaundiced view of the FBI might emphasize that the FBI is not an intelligence organization and has never been able to produce polished reporting to pertinent U.S. customers so they had no choice. Those with a more charitable outlook would focus on the fact that the FBI was thereby losing credit for its operational successes, but that in so doing it was adding to the security of its sensitive assets. Although there were a few notable exceptions, in the main the CIA disseminated all of the counterintelligence reporting from both its own and the FBI's sources. With all the reporting lumped together this way, it was much easier to disguise how many sources existed and just what their access was.

On another level, there is a final but difficult story that must be told. Ames has acknowledged the impact of his crime on his own family, and has spoken candidly about his other direct victims including those who lost their lives or were imprisoned. However, there exists yet another group of innocents whose personal losses were enormous and whose futures were irrevocably changed because of Ames' treachery. Who were these people? They were, first of all, the spouses of the condemned, their parents, and their sons and daughters. As is only right, the CIA has made every effort to resettle the families in the United States when they have so wished. We have met some of the sons and daughters. While each victim's story is unique to his father's case, many shared common tragic elements. In several cases their mothers died prematurely and as one son has so poignantly described it, “After the arrest of my father, my mother never smiled again.” Yet some of the younger generation have not only survived, but because of their courage and strength of character have succeeded in their new lives to an astonishing extent.

In the course of the post-arrest investigations, immediate family members were separately interrogated for extended periods at Lefortovo prison. KGB surveillance teams were assigned to each. The KGB conducted numerous and lengthy searches of their homes and apartments. Personal belongings were confiscated and never returned. Repeated requests for visitation were repeatedly denied or were put off for extended periods. Family members were not permitted to attend the trials and were denied any details of the case against their loved one. No pardons were granted. The families were unaware that sentencing had been carried out
until a notice of death arrived in the mailbox. The men were buried in unmarked graves whose location is unknown. One family member was told to consider changing his last name and warned that his life would never be the same. “Some important people will never, ever trust you. Like father, like son, you know.”

The Ames story is only a part of this book. In a broader sense, we feel that we were lucky in that we lived and worked in a simpler world. In the Cold War environment, there was only one main enemy who could harm us—the Soviet Union. Moral ambiguities as to the necessity of neutralizing the USSR to the best of our ability simply did not exist. The target was not amorphous, discrete, or widely scattered. We could concentrate our efforts on one country and one government. Alas, the colleagues who have come after us do not have that luxury.

HONOR ROLL

T
HE FOLLOWING IS OUR HONOR ROLL
of Agency employees either with whom we worked closely over the years or who had a significant impact on our careers. We would like to acknowledge publicly their commitment to the mission. Some rose to high-level positions; some did not; some were maligned; some left the Agency under a cloud; and some died before they could bring their careers to fruition. Some were more intellectually gifted than others; some had more common sense; some were better case officers; some were better analysts; some were better leaders; and some were better teachers. But they all had one thing in common. They were men and women of honor, courage, integrity, and talent. Their names are presented alphabetically. Unfortunately, a few retired under cover or are still active in the Agency. We have had to omit those names.

SELECTED CHRONOLOGY

26 May 1941—Aldrich Hazen “Rick” Ames born in River Falls, Wisconsin

18 Apr 1944—Robert Philip Hanssen born in Chicago, Illinois

Dec 1954—James Jesus Angleton becomes chief of CIA's newly created Counterintelligence Staff

Nov 1961—GRU officer Dmitriy Fedorovich Polyakov volunteers to the U.S. military in New York City. Later backs off, but is brought to recruitment by the FBI.

Dec 1961—KGB CI officer Anatoliy Mikhaylovich Golitsyn defects to CIA in Helsinki

Mar 1962—KGB S&T specialist Aleksey Isidorovich Kulak volunteers to the FBI in New York

Jun 1962—Ames joins the CIA, works part time while completing his college education at George Washington University

Jun 1962—KGB Second Chief Directorate (internal CI) officer Yuriy Ivanovich Nosenko, while on a trip to Bern, makes his first contact with the CIA

Early 1960s—GRU photo technician Nikolay Chernov volunteers to the FBI in New York. Shortly thereafter returns to the USSR. One further contact takes place in the early 1970s while he is on a short trip to the United States.

22 Nov 1963—assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy

Feb 1964—defection of Nosenko

Nov 1965—SB reports officer Len McCoy writes his paper defending Nosenko

May 1966—the East European (EE) Division and the Soviet Russian (SR) Division of the CIA's Directorate of Operations are combined into the Soviet Bloc (SB) Division

Dec 1967—after completing college, Ames applies for the CIA Officer Training Program and is accepted

Summer 1968—Rolfe Kingsley becomes chief, SB, replacing David Murphy

Sep 1969—Ames is assigned to Ankara

May/Jun 1970—Richard Stolz becomes chief, SB/CI

Jul 1970—Burton Gerber becomes chief, SB/CI/I. Cynthia Haussmann is his deputy.

Late spring 1971—David Blee becomes chief, SB, replacing Deputy Chief Stacy Hulse, who served for a short period as acting chief following the departure of Kingsley

Apr 1972—Ames leaves Ankara, is assigned to SE Division

1 May 1972—death of J. Edgar Hoover

1973—academic researcher Sergey Petrovich Fedorenko recruited by the FBI/CIA in New York City. Ames later becomes one of his handlers, traveling from CIA headquarters.

Jan 1973—Ames begins a year of full-time Russian language studies

Summer 1973—John Horton becomes chief of SB Division, changes the name to the Soviet and East European (SE) Division

Dec 1973—Ames finishes Russian language studies, returns to SE Division

1974—Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs official Aleksandr Dmitriyevich Ogorodnik recruited by CIA in Bogota. (Ames was the desk officer responsible for this case.)

1974—KGB officer Leonid Georgiyevich Poleshchuk recruited by CIA in Kathmandu

1974—KGB officer Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky recruited by the British SIS in Copenhagen

31 Dec 1974—Angleton fired from his position as chief of the CI staff by DCI William Colby. Replaced by George Kalaris.

1975—Poleshchuk returns to Moscow with a communications plan, which he never implements

Spring 1975—Stolz becomes chief, SE Division, replacing Horton

12 Jan 1976—Hanssen joins the FBI. After training, he is assigned to Indianapolis/Gary, where he serves on a white-collar crime squad.

Spring 1976—GRU officer Sergey Ivanovich Bokhan recruited by CIA in Athens

Aug 1976—Ames is assigned to New York City. He continues to handle Fedorenko; also is one of the handlers for Soviet UN ambassador Arkadiy Nikolayevich Shevchenko.

Aug 1976—after spending two separate tours in New York, Kulak returns to Moscow preparatory to retirement

1977—Fedorenko returns to the USSR

Jan 1977—Adolf Grigoryevich Tolkachev, a scientific worker in an R&D institution, volunteers to the CIA in Moscow. Regular communications not established until 1979.

Mar 1977—Admiral Stansfield Turner becomes CIA director, replacing George H. W. Bush

Jun 1977—CIA officer Gardner “Gus” Hathaway becomes COS, Moscow, replacing Robert Fulton

Summer 1977—Ogorodnik arrested in Moscow and commits suicide

1978—Shevchenko defects

1978—KGB officer Vladimir Mikhaylovich Piguzov volunteers to the CIA in Jakarta. The same year he returns to Moscow and we lose contact with him.

2 Aug 1978—Hanssen is transferred to New York, where he initially works on accounting matters in the criminal division

Late summer 1978—Bokhan returns to Moscow. He makes one “sign of life” signal, but otherwise we do not hear from him.

Mar 1979—Hanssen is transferred to New York's intelligence division to help establish the office's automated CI database. This was a classified database of information about foreign officials, including intelligence officers, assigned to the United States.

31 Oct 1979—KGB communications specialist Viktor Ivanovich Sheymov volunteers to the CIA in Warsaw

Nov 1979—Hanssen volunteers (anonymously) to the GRU

1979—KGB officer Boris Nikolayevich Yuzhin recruited by the FBI in San Francisco

1980—beginning of the GTTAW technical operation in Moscow. This operation involved CIA officers going down a manhole to tap into classified communications.

Jan 1980—Burton Gerber becomes COS, Moscow, replacing Gus Hathaway

Spring 1980—Sheymov is exfiltrated from the Soviet Union

May 1980—Polyakov summoned to Moscow from New Delhi, ostensibly to attend a conference. He does not return to India and we never have contact with him again.

20 Oct 1980—Harold James Nicholson joins the CIA

Nov 1980—KGB S&T officer Vladimir Ippolitovich Vetrov (“Farewell”) makes his first overtures to a French businessman

Early 1980s—Kulak dies of natural causes

1981—IUSAC official Vladimir Viktorovich Potashov volunteers to the U.S. defense secretary in Washington. Subsequently handled by the CIA and FBI.

Jan 1981—Edward Lee Howard joins the CIA

12 Jan 1981—Hanssen is transferred to FBI headquarters. At first he is assigned to the budget unit of the intelligence division, which, per the affidavit issued at the time of his arrest, “had access to the full range of information concerning intelligence and counterintelligence activities involving FBI resources.”

28 Jan 1981—William J. Casey becomes CIA director, replacing Turner

Spring 1981—Hanssen drops contact with the GRU

14 Jul 1981—John H. Stein becomes DDO, replacing Max Hugel

Sep 1981—Ames transfers from New York to Mexico City

1982—GRU officer Vladimir Mikhaylovich Vasilyev volunteers to the U.S. military in Budapest. Subsequently handled by the CIA.

1982—Yuzhin returns to Moscow

1982—Bokhan returns to Athens for a second tour and resumes contact with the CIA

Feb 1982—Howard begins to work in SE Division

Early 1982—KGB officer Valeriy Fedorovich Martynov recruited by an FBI officer in Washington, DC. Subsequently handled as a joint FBI/CIA asset.

Sep 1982—CIA officer Carl G becomes COS, Moscow, replacing Burton Gerber

1983—the GTABSORB technical operation is run by the CIA in the USSR. This operation involved the shipment of concealed sensors on the Trans-Siberian railroad.

Jan 1983—KGB officer Sergey Mikhaylovich Motorin recruited by the FBI in Washington, DC. The CIA apprised and disseminates his CI production.

Early 1983—Vetrov tried for espionage and executed

2 May 1983—Howard is forced out of the CIA

Aug 1983—Hanssen is transferred to the Soviet analytical unit, which supported FBI operations and investigations involving the Soviet intelligence services and provided analytical support to senior FBI management and the intelligence community. He also serves on the FBI's foreign CI technical committee, which was responsible for coordinating technical projects relating to FCI (foreign counterintelligence) operations.

Summer 1983—Rod Carlson becomes chief of SE/ORP

Sep 1983—Ames leaves Mexico City and is assigned to SE/ORP Soviet Branch at headquarters, where his job is to monitor worldwide CIA operations against the Soviet target from a CI viewpoint

18 Sep 1983—Earl Edwin Pitts joins the FBI

Late 1983—GRU officer Gennadiy Aleksandrovich Smetanin volunteers to the CIA in Lisbon

1984—Moscow City Directorate KGB officer Sergey Yuryevich Vorontsov volunteers to the CIA in Moscow

1984—USMC sergeant Clayton Lonetree arrives in Moscow to serve as a Marine guard at the U.S. embassy

1 Jul 1984—Clair George becomes DDO, replacing Stein

16 Jul 1984—Burton Gerber becomes chief of SE Division, replacing Dave Forden. Gerber's deputy is Ken Wesolik.

Sep 1984—Paul Redmond becomes chief of SE/USSR

ca. Sep 1984—Murat N becomes COS, Moscow, replacing Carl G