26-06-2016, 11:40 PM
I watched the first episode of CNN's "Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies" today. It related the story of CIA recruit "Trigon" and apparently the first female Iron Curtain CIA case agent Marti Peterson. You can watch the video of the show here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYBZe5AcEOM
Marti recently wrote a book about her life which includes this incident. You can learn more about her book "The Widow Spy" here:
http://books.blogs.starnewsonline.com/15...widow-spy/
[Full disclosure: I haven't read the book]
Her husband was a CIA guy in Laos in 1971, where he died. She, who was then serving in a clerical position for the CIA, applied for and eventually became a case agent. Her first post was Moscow. This part of the story is inspiring enough in a "glass ceiling" sort of way up to this point.
However, now it gets weird. As a fledgling case agent her first assignment was the "single most important and well placed" CIA asset, Alexsandr Ogorodnick, AKA "Trigon," that the CIA has in place in Moscow. If you believe the show, she was given the opportunity because the KGB would never suspect a woman to be a case agent. [Excuse me? Remember Mata Hari? Virginia Hall? Princess Noor? Violette Szabo? Even if these aren't household names, I bet the KGB has heard of them.]
Long story short: Trigon unexpectedly is "captured" and "commits suicide after arrest." Marti Peterson is arrested (red-handed with spy equipment) and sent to Lubyanka and interrogated for three days. She is then apparently released under diplomatic immunity. [I thought spies weren't covered by diplomatic immunity, remember Gary Powers?]
Here is the CIA's version of events: https://www.cia.gov/news-information/fea...au&src=syn
Here's the kicker that convinced me that this story is 50% hogwash: The CIA agent that initially handled Trigon and gave him that name was none other than Aldritch Ames, the second most successful KGB penetration of the CIA there ever was, now serving a life sentence in an American prison. https://intelnews.org/2012/04/16/01-970/
If Ames recruited this guy in 1973, and he was unexpectedly captured in 1977, then I can't help but wonder if the publicly available story that he started working with the Soviets in the mid 80's is true either. ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldrich_Ames
The TV show and the CIA website just don't happen to mention Ames, which omission I find problematic. Propaganda piece? Almost certainly. The second episode of the show, about Saddam Hussein, airs tonight on CNN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYBZe5AcEOM
Marti recently wrote a book about her life which includes this incident. You can learn more about her book "The Widow Spy" here:
http://books.blogs.starnewsonline.com/15...widow-spy/
[Full disclosure: I haven't read the book]
Her husband was a CIA guy in Laos in 1971, where he died. She, who was then serving in a clerical position for the CIA, applied for and eventually became a case agent. Her first post was Moscow. This part of the story is inspiring enough in a "glass ceiling" sort of way up to this point.
However, now it gets weird. As a fledgling case agent her first assignment was the "single most important and well placed" CIA asset, Alexsandr Ogorodnick, AKA "Trigon," that the CIA has in place in Moscow. If you believe the show, she was given the opportunity because the KGB would never suspect a woman to be a case agent. [Excuse me? Remember Mata Hari? Virginia Hall? Princess Noor? Violette Szabo? Even if these aren't household names, I bet the KGB has heard of them.]
Long story short: Trigon unexpectedly is "captured" and "commits suicide after arrest." Marti Peterson is arrested (red-handed with spy equipment) and sent to Lubyanka and interrogated for three days. She is then apparently released under diplomatic immunity. [I thought spies weren't covered by diplomatic immunity, remember Gary Powers?]
Here is the CIA's version of events: https://www.cia.gov/news-information/fea...au&src=syn
Here's the kicker that convinced me that this story is 50% hogwash: The CIA agent that initially handled Trigon and gave him that name was none other than Aldritch Ames, the second most successful KGB penetration of the CIA there ever was, now serving a life sentence in an American prison. https://intelnews.org/2012/04/16/01-970/
If Ames recruited this guy in 1973, and he was unexpectedly captured in 1977, then I can't help but wonder if the publicly available story that he started working with the Soviets in the mid 80's is true either. ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldrich_Ames
The TV show and the CIA website just don't happen to mention Ames, which omission I find problematic. Propaganda piece? Almost certainly. The second episode of the show, about Saddam Hussein, airs tonight on CNN.
"All that is necessary for tyranny to succeed is for good men to do nothing." (unknown)
James Tracy: "There is sometimes an undue amount of paranoia among some conspiracy researchers that can contribute to flawed observations and analysis."
Gary Cornwell (Dept. Chief Counsel HSCA): "A fact merely marks the point at which we have agreed to let investigation cease."
Alan Ford: "Just because you believe it, that doesn't make it so."
James Tracy: "There is sometimes an undue amount of paranoia among some conspiracy researchers that can contribute to flawed observations and analysis."
Gary Cornwell (Dept. Chief Counsel HSCA): "A fact merely marks the point at which we have agreed to let investigation cease."
Alan Ford: "Just because you believe it, that doesn't make it so."