Espionage from 1985 is still affecting ongoing FBI and CIA operations today, and FBI director Kash Patel's latest moves, or lack thereof, could have a ripple effect for generations to come, according to a Politico report.
“There was a gut-wrenching sense of free fall,” Michael Sellers told Politico. In 1985, Sellers was an American diplomat living in the Soviet Union and saw, first-hand, the “bloodbath” that espionage can cause.
In his new book, “Year of the Spy,” Sellers tells of the Cold War battle with the KGB and the hunt for the “fourth man” responsible for the death of the agent code-named “COWL” and many others.
“We didn’t know what had caused this disaster,” Sellers said.
Sellers was on a mission to meet COWL, who was a valuable asset the U.S. had cultivated inside the KGB.
However, when Sellers spotted COWL, he knew something was wrong. COWL “was cowering like a beaten dog,” politico added, the spy had “clearly been arrested and tortured.”
Sellers was arrested and expelled from the Soviet Union. COWL was tried and executed.
Politico noted, “To this day, his fate makes Sellers wonder: How did the KGB unravel the agency’s network of spies in Moscow?”
Called operation “GRAY SUIT,” the idea that the KGB had breached our intelligence ranks presented a national security nightmare – and still does.
“All of the evidence, when taken as a whole picture, leaves too many compromises that can’t be attributed to known spies,” FBI special agent David Szady told the outlet, speaking on COWL’s death. “That’s my opinion, yes, there was a ‘Fourth Man.’”
Szady played a key role in snuffing out three spies who were responsible for the deaths of more than a dozen American assets. But not COWL’s.
40 years after the “Year of the Spy,” the mystery of the “Fourth Man” remains.
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This 1985 espionage still affects ongoing FBI and CIA operations today. They won’t know what damage this spy may have done until they are caught. “That’s why there’s no statute of limitations on espionage,” Szady added.
CIA counterpart Robert Baer believes the hunt for “the fourth man” is still on. Back in 2019, he received a visit from current FBI agents. “What their visit definitely did,” Baer said, “is tell me the FBI’s interest in the ‘Fourth Man’ is ongoing.”
“Or it was,” Politico wrote. “After several months of chaos and trepidation at the bureau, [FBI director Kash] Patel has yet to publicly set a clear course for counterintelligence.”
Patel’s moving the agency to a regional command structure, according to The New York Times. However, he has not announced changes to its capacity to thwart spies.
It’s a move retired FBI agent Frank Montoya Jr. claims “Could be leaving the door wide open.”
“If Patel weakens or cripples the FBI’s counterintelligence capability, he’ll do the same to its ability to recruit, vet and protect such assets,” Politico said.
“[The FBI and CIA] recruit sources all over the world,” former CIA station chief and senior operations official William Murray told the outlet. “They know what the penalty is going to be if they get caught. They’re going to get shot right in the back of the fucking head.”
