
Ex CIA Spy Recalls Her Time in Russia - kafkaesq
http://www.wect.com/story/31012495/ex-cia-spy-recalls-her-time-in-russia
======
rdtsc
> I worked my job in the embassy, but nights and weekends, I was out picking
> up and putting out dead drops and looking for new dead drop sites and
> putting markings on bus stops and telephone poles.

That seems pretty routine for running a spy ring. Aside from being apprehended
due to a relatively high profile source, and then that source killing
themselves, it doesn't seem terribly exciting. Perhaps they are not marketing
the book enough.

For tales from the "other" side I would recommend "Spy Handler: Memoir of a
KGB Officer" by
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Cherkashin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Cherkashin).
That was has all kinds of interesting details of general life and spycraft
from the Cold War period, all coming from the handler of both Ames and Hanssen
-- probably two of the highest level traitors from the US side.

~~~
peterbecich
Along the same lines, I thought this was good:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarium_%28Suvorov%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarium_%28Suvorov%29)

~~~
lukasm
This a good read, but keep in my a lot of things are pure propaganda. Soviets
wanted someone to write how scary they are. After all he didn't end up like
Litvinenko.

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pyrophane
Always nice to hear stories about old-school spycraft. As an aside, for a less
romantic view of the agency and its history Legacy of Ashes is a good read.

~~~
Outdoorsman
Legacy of Ashes was indeed a good read...I've made it a point in my life to
read the works of all National Book Award winners, and have not been
disappointed...

World War II essentially brought the CIA into being...I'm sure the thinking at
the time was "we've got to prevent catastrophes like this from ever happening
again"...

Light embassy work, Mrs. Peterson's cover, was typical of that era...easy to
see why the Soviets were on to the game...a nice looking young woman, embassy
employee, out and about just a little more often than chance seemed to call
for...

The denouement--her contact's suicide in the interrogation chair--made me
wonder how often such scenes played out over the years, on both sides, without
the public knowing ...a lonely profession that could end at any moment...

For a nice relaxing look into somewhat-dated spy-craft I usually turn to John
LeCarre...his pace is magnificent, evidence of a writer who nailed the seminal
advice given to all aspiring writers--"find your voice"...informed and superb
characterization separate his works from those in the craft who likely know
much more, but lack his narrative skills...

Thanks for posting...

~~~
rdtsc
> made me wonder how often such scenes played out over the years

I would guess not many. Mainly because the KGB learned their lession. Here is
there video of them apprehending Dmitri Polyakov, a high ranking general
working for the CIA for 25-something years:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0-1ogBb6kg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0-1ogBb6kg)
[warning: man being held and his shirt is taken off]

Notice how they are holding him and what they are doing to him. It is
presumably so he doesn't have a chance to swallow a poision pill or inject
himself. .

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prostoalex
If you enjoyed this story, you'll probably like the book "The Billion Dollar
Spy" [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23463183-the-billion-
dol...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23463183-the-billion-dollar-spy)
that goes deep into the story of Adolf Tolkachev (among others)
[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-
intellig...](https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-
intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol47no3/article02.html)

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beezle
Trigon was in fact already dead well before she was picked up. Peterson was
not a subject of the KGB and had the misfortune of servicing the dead drop of
an exposed asset.

There is a good recounting of this entire event in Spycraft by Wallace and
Melton (a very intersting book with lots of tech material).

------
ommunist
For those interested there is Soviet movie about that agent - "ТАСС
уполномочен заявить" \- popular TV series of 1984. And I just realised that it
was in fact 1984!

------
rrggrr
Books by RJ Hillhouse (Riftzone), Claire Berlinsky (Loose Lips), and Ishmael
Jones (The Human Factor) are as good if not much, much better.

~~~
antoncohen
Thanks for the list, I've added them to my Wish List. But just to be clear,
those three books (Rift Zone, Loose Lips, and The Human Factor) are fictional
novels. The Widow Spy, written by the subject of this news article, is a non-
fiction autobiography by a former CIA officer.

~~~
rrggrr
Nope. Human Factor is non fiction. Hillhouse at times seems to strongly
suggest she worked for the agency. Same with Berlinsky.

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arjn
I'm surprised the Soviets let her go. Wonder why they did that ?

~~~
throwanem
At a high level, because it would have been directly counterproductive; at a
low level, because her cover as an attaché of the US embassy came with
diplomatic immunity. This doesn't leave the host country totally unable to
respond in the case where a foreign intelligence officer is detected, but it
does strictly limit the scope of such response; in practice, the most they can
do, and from the sound of it what they did in this case, is declare the
offender _persona non grata_ , and put her on the next jet out of
Sheremetyevo.

Of course, there's nothing that says the host country _can 't_ put a captured
foreign intelligence officer in prison, or even execute such a person
outright, beyond a simple reciprocal convention that such things aren't done.
The reason why that generally doesn't happen is the same reason why civilized
nations rarely visit atrocities on prisoners of war: a country which
unilaterally abrogates such a convention risks having its own personnel
treated just as badly.

In the case of espionage, there's the further, and major, consideration that
any abrogation of diplomatic immunity risks a general breakdown of diplomatic
relations, a state of affairs which between civilized nations generally
presages the outbreak of warfare. Aside perhaps from a few madmen who never
approached real power, no one on either side of the Cold War ever wanted it to
turn hot, and the entire edifice of Cold War-era espionage existed precisely
to help prevent that misfortune from ever coming to pass. Imprisoning foreign
intelligence officers would, therefore, have been actively detrimental to the
purposes of the nations which might have done so.

~~~
mseebach
> there's nothing that says the host country can't put a captured foreign
> intelligence officer in prison

There is something that literally says that, which is article 29 of the Vienna
Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Diplomati...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Diplomatic_Relations)

So, the way we as citizens are subject to the law of our respective
governments, is the monopoly of violence. Obviously, a similar mechanism
doesn't exist for international law[1], but violating a diplomat is
technically casus belli.

Anyway, you're right in that the main sanction is the breakdown of diplomatic
relations, but that doesn't mean that the ground rules are vague gentlemen's
agreements and handshakes.

1: at least formally -- only a few countries would be able to get away with
executing US diplomats without being treated to something resembling a
monopoly on violence, yet the Vienna Convention is also respected among
countries that could not do that

