Summary Of Spy Handler

On February 26, 1984, Howard was arrested after getting into a drunken altercation with a few strangers involving his Smith and Wesson .44 Magnum outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. (Hoffman, 2015) Charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon he pleaded guilty and fined $7,500, ordered to see a psychiatrist and given five year probation. In late May 1984, Howard showed up to Mills house and begged him to reverse the CIA’s decision, Mills told Howard he could not speak to him. (Hoffman, 2015) Howard yelled at Mills “the CIA fucked me!” and left his house. Months after the incident at Mills’ house, Mills and Bernard Malloy, the agency psychiatrist, flew to Santa Fe to setup a breakfast meeting with Howard at a local motel. Howard

The KGB picked him up in front of a theater and drove around Vienna for an hour attempting to detect surveillance. (Hoffman, 2015) The KGB took Howard to the Russian Embassy and brought him in through the back door, where two KGB officers debriefed Howard. Howard only knew the two officers as Victor and Boris, in which they debriefed Howard for three to four hours. Boris’ was never fully identified but Victor Cherkashin wrote in his book Spy Handler, he made the call to Howard. (Cherkashin, 2005) Cherkashin also identified himself in his book as Aldrich Ames’ and Robert Hanssen’s handler. (Cherkashin, 2005) During the debrief, Howard divulged the presence of a spy within Russia, the wiretap in Russia’s most sensitive underground communication line, CKELBOW. (Hoffman, 2015) He also explained to the KGB officers he was trained at the CIA for both operations, and he knew much of the CIA’s tradecraft and technology to include: tiny radios, disguises, surveillance detection runs and the Jack-in-the-Box method. (Hoffman, 2015) The Jack-in-the-Box method that involved a device shaped as a head in a vehicle to fool surveillance. At the end of his debrief, the Howard had not convinced the KGB officers yet of the information he provided. They explained to Howard they were unable to verify the information yet. (Hoffman, 2015) Howard traveled to Vienna a second time in April 1985, this time with his wife. He

(Hoffman, 2015) The CIA quietly brought Yurchenko into the US Embassy and debriefed him before flying him to the US. During the debrief, Yurchenko said the KGB had a very reliable source by the code-name ROBERT. (Hoffman, 2015) He described ROBERT has a “disgruntled former CIA trainee who was in the pipeline for the Moscow station and who was subsequently fired.” (Hoffman, 2015) Once the news reached CIA headquarters, an internal meeting took place, and the CIA put the pieces together and the description matched Howard’s. The CIA informed the FBI about Howard’s actions and on August 6, 1985, the FBI formally opened an investigation on Howard. (Hoffman,