Karl Koecher
Karl Koecher | |
---|---|
Spouse | Hana Koecher |
Espionage activity | |
Allegiance | Czechoslovakia Soviet Union |
Agency | StB KGB |
Service years | 1962–1983 |
Codename | Turian, Rino[1] |
Karl František Koecher (born 21 September 1934 in
Early life
Born in
As remembered by some of his classmates, from early age he showed strong analytical capabilities, high intelligence and individualistic nature. Due to his unlikeable character, in later years, his former classmates would not invite him on annual class meetings.
After university he tried a few jobs including a teacher, a reporter for state television, and a radio comedy writer.[1] He became a radio comedy writer and was allegedly frequently scrutinized by the Communist security forces for his satire that mocked the regime (this turned out to be a pre-planned "cover story").[citation needed] He joined the Communist Party in 1960,[4] and the Czechoslovak intelligence service in 1962 using the codename Pedro.[5][6]
Czechoslovakia State Security (StB) career
Koecher claimed that constant harassment from the Czechoslovakia State Security (StB) due to his history of anti-state and anti-social behavior, ruined his different careers and in order to end the harassment, he decided to join the StB. With the help of a friend within the StB and his language skills, he was recruited into the intelligence service.[1]
Koecher's first two years were devoted to training and counter-intelligence work against West Germans in Prague.[1]
Koecher was selected to become a mole in the West working with the first directorate in the Stb because of his English language skills.[7]
- Immigration to the United States
In 1965 he and his wife, Hana Koecher (the daughter of a Communist Party official),[8] seemingly emigrated to the United States via Austria posing as defecting dissidents.[9][1]
His language skills and status as a defector aided Koecher in gaining employment at
He returned to New York in 1967 and he gained a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University,[10][1] and became an American citizen in 1971.[4][11]
- CIA work
With the purge of his superiors at the StB during the aftermath of the 1968 Soviet Union led invasion of Czechoslovakia, he found himself out of touch with the service and approached the FBI instead in an attempt to defect and use his knowledge against the Soviets but they were not interested.[1]
His supply of information to the StB dwindled from 1969 until 1971, but he continued to integrate himself in American society.[1]
Taking a CIA prescreening employment exam in November 1972, he passed and was employed.
He quickly became one of the USSR's best sources of information, allowing them to mount an effective defense against CIA covert actions. He translated documents from a key CIA asset in Moscow,
- KGB death threat and CIA retirement
In September 1976, however, Koecher was summoned back to Prague to a meeting with
After seven days of interrogation, Koecher returned to New York and retired, leaving the CIA for a post in
- Reactivation
By 1982, Koecher was rehabilitated by the KGB after Kalugin was demoted from chief of foreign counterintelligence and Koecher's past intelligence had been reassessed.
To this day, neither the FBI nor the CIA will reveal what alerted them to Koecher's treachery. Koecher and other KGB officials claim it was Kalugin.[14] Another suggestion by a CIA historian, is that it was the StB intelligence officer, Jan Fila, who betrayed him with the latter disappearing in December 1989, a month after the Czechoslovakian Velvet Revolution.[1]
Apprehension
The FBI apprehended Koecher on 27 November 1984, outside
However, it was then decided that Koecher was not reliable enough to be a triple agent and was likely to defect and return to Czechoslovakia.[
It soon emerged that the FBI had badly blundered. Koecher's confession was given only after his interrogators promised him immunity as a ruse, and was thus invalid.[8][16] His wife had been denied access to a lawyer despite frequent requests for one,[15] which reportedly caused Justice Department officials to refuse to charge her.[17] She refused to testify against Karl, asserting spousal privilege, though prosecutors argued this did not apply given the two had been partners in crime.[18] With little concrete evidence, it appeared that Koecher had a good chance of being acquitted.[19] The issue of whether or not Hana Koecher could be compelled to testify against her husband went before the US Supreme Court but the fact that both spouses were returned to Czechoslovakia in a prisoner exchange before the court's opinion was published rendered the case moot.[20] According to Koecher, Rudy Giuliani, as a prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, had bungled the case and was unable to gain enough evidence to convict Koecher after Koecher's arrest and instead offered immunity to Koecher in exchange for more information.[21]
Koecher was the victim of an attempted stabbing by an unnamed inmate while in prison.[1][21] The inmate supposedly lunged at Koecher with a pair of scissors in an attack Koecher said was foiled by a Hells Angels member, Sandy Alexander.[1][21] Koecher claims the inmate was moved to another prison, and could not be located years later, which he says is proof of an attempt by US intelligence agencies to assassinate him.[21]
Koecher, worrying about his own safety, sent through his lawyer and his spouse's father, a request to the KGB chairman that he be part of a
Return
Koecher returned to Czechoslovakia to a hero's welcome and was given a house and a Volvo car as a reward for his services.
The
An episode of the 2004 Canadian documentary series Betrayal! covered the Koecher case.[35]
See also
- Larry Wu-Tai Chin
- Sexpionage
- Wolfgang Vogel
Notes
- ^ Zbigniew Brzezinski was one of his professors.[2]
- ^ Ogorodnik's CIA case officer, Aldrich Ames, had given Ogorodnik the codename Trigon.[13]
- ^ Many believe that Fila was working for the United States.[1]
- ^ According to Koecher, the United States prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, Rudy Giuliani, who had ambitions to become a mayor of New York City, did not want an acquittal because it would hurt Giuliani politically.[21]
- ^ During their United States incarceration in the 1980s, Oswald LeWinter and Karl Koecher were only a few cells apart from each other and maintained a relationship.[26][27]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Cunningham, Benjamin (30 June 2016). "How a Czech 'super-spy' infiltrated CIA". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ Washington Post. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-80-7260-320-6.
- ^ ISBN 1-931868-97-2.
- ^ Time Magazine. 10 December 1984. Archived from the originalon 13 July 2010.
- ^ a b redakce (13 February 2012). "Svědectví špióna: Učinit Havla známého a pak prezidentem. Tuto operaci řídil důstojník CIA Pavel Tigrid" [Spy testimony: Make Havel acquainted and then president. This operation was led by CIA officer Pavel Tigrid]. freeglobe.cz (in Czech). Archived from the original on 8 July 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
- ^ Harding, Luke (29 October 2018). "'A very different world' - inside the Czech spying operation on Trump. Exclusive: files reveal Trump was the target of an extensive spying operation in the late 1980s by the country's intelligence service, with 'friends' from the KGB". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- ^ a b c "Accused spy couple awaiting trial". The Day (New London). N.Y. Times News Service. 13 January 1985. p. D-10.
- ^ a b c "Lawyer calls accused spy double agent". Eugene Register-Guard. 30 November 1984.
- ^ "Czech spy to plead innocent". Prescott Daily Courier. New York. UPI. 29 November 1984. p. 2A.
- ^ "ALERT". www.dhra.mil. Archived from the original on 2016-08-09. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
- ^ Cleveland C. Cram (October 1993), Of Moles and Molehunters: A Review of Counterintelligence Literature, 1977-92 (PDF), The Center for the Study of Intelligence, p. 58, archived from the original (PDF) on December 24, 2011
- ^ a b Fitsanakis, Joseph (16 April 2012). "Ex-CIA officer sheds light on 1977 spy arrests in Moscow". intelnews.org. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
- ^ "Newyorske listy". www.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
- ^ a b c d "Wife of suspected spy not charged". The Pittsburgh Press. 29 November 1984. p. A15.
- ISBN 0-399-14188-X.
his statement was inadmissible in court because the two FBI agents and the CIA officer who had interrogated him made promises that they never intended to keep.
- ^ Ronald Ostrow (Los Angeles Times) (8 February 1986). "U.S. includes Czech couple in spy swap". Anchorage Daily News. p. a-8.
- ^ a b Aaron Epstein (11 February 1986). "Czech Infiltrator Part Of Planned Spy Swap, A Justice Official Says". Philadelphia Inquirer.
- ^ a b c "East, West exchange spies, Shcharansky". Houston Chronicle. 11 February 1986. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012.
- ^ "United States v. Hana Koecher, 475 U.S. 133". 25 February 1986.
- ^ a b c d e Rosenzweig, Alexis (15 August 2008). "Radio Prague - Köcher, espion tchécoslovaque à la CIA, échangé par les Soviétiques contre Sharansky (2e partie)" [Köcher, Czechoslovakian spy at the CIA, exchanged by the Soviets for Sharansky (part 2)]. www.radio.cz (in French). Retrieved 18 June 2016.
- ^ "AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes". www.afio.com. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
- ^ a b Jeff Stein (8 July 2010). "Past Russian spies have found post-swap life gets a bit sticky". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012.
- ^ a b Jan Culik (2 August 1999), "Princess Diana, Al Fayed, the CIA and a Czech Spook", Central Europe Review, archived from the original on 11 August 2007, retrieved 11 May 2006
- . Retrieved 9 March 2020.
- ^ Loeb, Vernon; Bill Miller (February 15, 2001). "Tinker, Tailor, Poet, Spy?; He's Played the Part of an Ex-CIA Agent for Years Now. It's a Convincing Act". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. p. C1. Archived from the original on 10 April 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
- ^ Čulík, Jan (26 July 1999). "Princezna Diana, milionář Fayed, CIA a český rozvědčík" [Princess Diana, millionaire Fayed, CIA and Czech intelligence]. Britské listy (in Czech). Archived from the original on 16 November 1999. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
- ^ Anjali Mody (24 July 1999). "Dodi Fayed takes scriptwriters of Di's 'assassination' to court". Indian Express.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Peter Koenig (3 May 1998). "Al Fayed and the CIA conman". The Independent. London.
- ^ Koecher, Karl (27 July 1999). "Západní rozvědky asi skutečně zatajují případ Diana. Já s ním neměl nic společného" [Western intelligence may actually hide the Diana case. I had nothing to do with him]. Britské listy (in Czech). Archived from the original on 18 January 2000. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
- ^ Richter, Jaroslav (1 March 2007). "Karel Köcher (* 1934): Nesloužil jsem nikomu jinému než sobě samému, svým hodnotám" [Karel Köcher (* 1934): I served no one but myself, my values]. memoryofnations.eu website (in Czech). Archived from the original on 18 September 2023. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
- ^ Šťastná, Barbora (14 December 2020). "Karel Köcher (* 1934): Nesloužil jsem nikomu jinému než sobě samému, svým hodnotám" [Karel Köcher (* 1934): I served no one but myself, my values]. memoryofnations.eu website (in Czech). Archived from the original on 18 September 2023. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
- ^ "Karl Koecher". spiritus-temporis.com. 6 December 2014. Archived from the original on 6 December 2014. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
- ^ "A WOMAN TRANSLATOR'S DARK PAST - Intelligence Online". www.intelligenceonline.com. March 1995. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
- ^ "Betrayal! - Associated Producers Ltd". www.apltd.ca. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
External links
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-312-31933-9.
- Ronald Kessler: The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI, 2003, ISBN 0-312-98977-6.
- Ronald Kessler: The FBI: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency, 1994, ISBN 0-671-78658-X.
- Ronald Kessler: Inside the CIA, 1994, ISBN 0-671-73458-X.
- Ronald Kessler: Escape from the CIA: How the CIA Won and Lost the Most Important KGB Spy Ever to Defect to the U.S., 1991, ISBN 0-671-72664-1.
- Ronald Kessler: The Spy In The Russian Club, 1990, ISBN 978-0-684-19116-4.
- Ronald Kessler: Spy Vs Spy: Stalking Soviet Spies in America, 1988, ISBN 0-7153-9337-5.