CI Centre Perspective: Edmond Pope Case, December 2000

cicentre.com op-ed, 6 December 2000

The Pope Case in Perspective: Initial Observations

Edmond Pope was found guilty of espionage on December 6, 2000 by a Russian court and sentenced to 20 years in jail in a high security labour camp. Mr. Pope, founder of a company specializing in studying foreign maritime equipment, is the first US citizen to stand trial for espionage in Moscow since August 19, 1960, when Francis Gary Powers' U2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union.

Powers, a CIA contract employee, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in jail. In 1962 Mr. Powers was exchanged for Rudolf Abel aka William Fisher, a professional Soviet KGB Illegal intelligence officer who had been the KGB Rezident in New York City up until the time of the his arrest for espionage in 1957. Abel had entered the US in 1948 and was initially involved in the re-activation of Ted Hall in Chicago. Hall had volunteered to work for the Soviet NKGB in October 1944 in New York City. Contact had been lost with Hall in the fall of 1945 when the NKGB broke contact with most of their agents in the US. The NKGB broke contact because Soviet agent Elizabeth Bentley had contacted the FBI and was recruited as a double agent to work back against the Soviet NKGB. Unknown to both Bentley and the FBI is the fact that when the FBI advised British Secret Service (MI-6) in New York of Bentley’s recruitment by the FBI in November 1945, the Station Chief in New York William Stephenson advised London. The man in MI-6 responsible for Soviet counterintelligence who received this notification was none other than Kim Philby. Philby immediately advised the NKGB and the Centre immediately put most NKGB activity in the USA on hold to protect their agents. Ted Hall was one of those agents the NKGB broke contact with and did not reactivate him until Abel did so in 1948.

So what does this have to do with Mr. Pope. He is not a US intelligence professional. He is not a CIA or DoD intelligence officer, he is not a contract employee, he is not a US intelligence agent. He is a US businessman who seems to have unfortunately forgotten that today’s Russia FSB is an extension of the former KGB. Retired KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin's recent speech for a Glasnost Foundation conference and his Capitol Hill testimony explains the current reality of Russian counterintelligence. So what does Russia hope to gain with the conviction of Mr. Pope? Is he to be forgotten in a Russian prison or used by Putin as Mr. Powers and Abel were eventually used in a spy exchange? As we watch this travesty of justice unfold it is possible Mr. Pope’s exchange will become the issue. If this is where this case goes, the question surfaces, who will or might the Russian’s ask for in exchange? Some in Russia media reports have suggested Aldrich Ames! It is important to note that the US Government exchanged Abel for Powers with the understanding that both did work for their respective intelligence services. It is also essential to note that the US has exchanged individuals found guilty of espionage or charged with espionage before but never an American who had committed espionage when the exchanged American had a security clearance. The individuals the US has exchanged have been foreign nationals found guilty of espionage but did not have direct access to classified information themselves. One exception is Karl Koecher, the former CIA employee and contractor who was exchanged in 1986. He and his wife Hana were Czechoslovakian StB agents and had been arrested in 1984. They were not prosecuted and were exchanged because the actions of the US at the time of their arrested precluded their successful prosecution. Exchange was the only remaining option.

It is highly unlikely Rick Ames would even be considered for exchange for Mr. Pope. Ames was a highly damaging spy, Mr. Pope is an innocent man caught up in a world he thought had changed. Clearly his conviction tells us it has not.

Mr. Pope’s arrest and convictions reminds us that counterintelligence and security vigilance is essential. A message has now been sent to foreigners and businessmen visiting the new Russia that the FSB is alive and well.

cicentre.com

December 6, 2000

CI Centre Professor Oleg Kalugin's testimony on Pope case on Capitol Hill