Elizabeth Tabor Mullady Intelligence Officer

Elizabeth Tabor Mullady, 91, a retired intelligence specialist with the Defense Department, died April 29…Mrs. Mullady came to Washington in 1939 and began her career as a researcher with the executive office of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She worked briefly at the Office of War Information before joining the office of the Army chief of staff for intelligence in 1943. She transferred to the Defense Intelligence Agency in 1962 and was an intelligence specialist until her retirement in 1980. She helped prepare the Defense Department's daily intelligence report…..(Washington Post,  9 May 08)

Document: Fugitive US financier Robert Vesco died

Robert Vesco, the American fugitive who cooked up moneymaking schemes that allegedly involved everyone from Colombian drug lords to the families of U.S. presidents, died in Cuba and was buried almost six months ago, according to an official document…In his lifetime, Vesco was accused of looting millions from a Swiss mutual fund, attempting to find U.S. planes for Libya and inventing a drug that he claimed could cure AIDS. He was linked to Latin American presidents, Soviet spies, smugglers of high-technology equipment _ even the CIA……(AP, 5 May 08)

Henry Irving Scott Jr. CIA Personnel Officer

Henry Irving Scott Jr., 87, a former personnel officer with the CIA who also owned electronics and office supply businesses, died May 1…He was recruited from that job to be a communications officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, which he joined in 1952. He spent 23 years with the CIA, including tours in Germany and Okinawa, Japan…..(Washington Post, 5 May 07)

James A. Grant, 89; Planner, CIA Officer

James A. Grant, 89, a CIA officer who also was the town of Vienna's planning director, died April 10…Mr. Grant worked for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1947 to 1970, much of the time using his expertise in economics…..(Washington Post, 3 May 07)

George L. Cary Jr. CIA Legislative Counsel

George L. Cary Jr., 85, the CIA's legislative counsel from 1974 to 1978 who served as a liaison between the spy agency and the Senate intelligence oversight committee as well as the White House, died April 20…Mr. Cary spent 27 years with the Central Intelligence Agency before retiring in 1978, initially in human resources before becoming an agency lawyer. After the CIA, he served three years as the Army Department's legislative liaison….(Washington Post, 2 May 08)

April 2008

Bo Yang

Taiwanese essayist Bo Yang, who infuriated both Nationalist and Communist authorities with his tart critiques, has died of lung disease in Taipei. He was 88…He served nine years in prison on charges of being a communist spy _ a government catchall for dealing with troublemakers during the martial law period that only ended in 1987. Bo's provocative writing also led him to be attacked by the Chinese Communists. China briefly banned his 1985 book "The Ugly Chinaman and the Crisis of Chinese Culture" and several other essay collections, claiming they insulted the Chinese people….(AP, 29 Apr 08)

Joseph R. Chapman Computer Information Specialist

Joseph R. Chapman, 61, who worked for the CIA for 17 years before becoming a professor at Strayer University in Alexandria, died of colon cancer April 12 at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, Fla.  Mr. Chapman worked in communications with the Central Intelligence Agency and served at various locations around the world. He retired in 1993 and received several certificates of exceptional achievement and the Career Intelligence Medal….(Washington Post, 27 Apr 08)

Joe Alston, 81, FBI agent and badminton champ

Joe Alston, an FBI agent and badminton champion who was the best player in the U.S. in 1955 when he became the only badminton player featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, has died…From 1967 through 1980, Alston served as the FBI's major case coordinator in Los Angeles. He was the lead Los Angeles agent investigating the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst and was involved in the ongoing investigation of hijacker D.B. Cooper……(AJC, 25 Apr 08)

Spy reeled in untold treasures

JOHN IVAN GUILSHER, COLD WAR SPY
10-7-1930 — 4-4-2008

John Guilsher, the Central Intelligence Agency field officer in Moscow who handled one of the West's greatest espionage coups of the Cold War in the classic traditions of the spy trade, has died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Arlington in the US. He was 77…..(Age, 21 Apr 08)

Albert Materazzi, 92; Served in OSS During World War II

Albert R. Materazzi, 92, a retired graphic arts professional and an Office of Strategic Services commando during World War II, died March 14… Mr. Materazzi was an ideal candidate for one of the Operational Groups of the OSS -- teams of ethnic Americans fluent in their families' native tongues and trained for guerrilla fighting behind enemy lines. With 15 to 30 men in each group, they were forerunners to the Green Berets… Based in Corsica, the young Italian American -- nicknamed "The Brain" for his keen intellect -- planned a number of OG operations to disrupt German battle plans and to provide support for Italian resistance efforts. One of the operations, code-named "Ginny," was to destroy a critical railroad tunnel at Stazione Framura in March 1944. Mr. Materazzi described the operation to O'Donnell for his book "Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of the Men and Women of World War II's OSS" (2004): "I felt we could damage both ends of the tunnel and booby-trap the rail. We could keep it out of operation for maybe a week, and in the meantime our aviation would have a field day because there'd be a lot of traffic backed up in both directions."….(Washington Post, 17 Apr 08)

Loretta R. Vaccarella Executive Assistant

Loretta R. Vaccarella, 81, a former executive assistant with the Central Intelligence Agency, died March 25…She joined the CIA in 1951 and worked in the clandestine service at the agency's headquarters and, from 1956 to 1959, in Germany. She left the agency in 1970……(Washington Post, 16 Apr 08)

S. Paul Kramer, 93; Writer, Secret Agent, Businessman

S. Paul Kramer, 93, who died April 6 at Sibley Memorial Hospital of congestive heart failure, was a secret agent during wartime…Family members and old friends among the Georgetown elite grew accustomed to hearing accounts that featured such real-life characters as Nelson Rockefeller, three American presidents, a would-be Nazi assassin, a Panamanian revolutionary, the last emperor of China and, of course, a suave young secret agent from Cincinnati. He provided details in a lively and engaging memoir called "Memories of a Secret Agent," self-published at age 91. Mr. Kramer began his career in what he called "hugger-muggery" -- clandestine service -- in 1940, at the completion of his studies at Trinity College at Cambridge University.…..(Washington Post, 15 Apr 08)

Milton Copulos Foundation President

Milton Copulos, 60, president of the National Defense Council Foundation and former director of energy studies for the conservative Heritage Foundation, died of septic shock March 11… Mr. Copulos had worked for the National Defense Council Foundation since 1988, often appearing at congressional briefings and speaking out on national security, drug interdiction and energy matters…He was a consultant during the Reagan administration on resource security matters, helping to write a number of reports about critical materials, analysis and assessment of Soviet energy resources. In 1987, Mr. Copulos also worked as a consultant to CIA director Robert M. Gates……(Washington Post, 10 Apr 08)

Harry Hayman Computer Engineer

Harry Hayman, 91, a computer engineer for NASA's Apollo space project, died of respiratory distress March 17… Born in Allentown, Pa., Mr. Hayman grew up in New York and graduated from New York University…The Federal Communications Commission hired him to move to Allegan, Mich., and eavesdrop on spy transmissions in the years before the United States entered World War II. When the United States entered the war, he joined the Navy and served as a radio operator, based in the Washington area…..(Washington Post, 9 Apr 08)

Eddie Willner; With Courage And Luck, He Escaped Nazis

Eddie H. Willner was starving, half-dead and in flight from the Nazi SS in April 1945 when he heard the sound of U.S. artillery and headed toward it. Eighteen years old, he had been forced to spend the past five years digging up unexploded bombs and excavating tunnels for V-2 rockets. Twenty-seven members of his family had died in concentration camps, and he knew a march to Buchenwald would end in his death. He joined an escape with five other Jewish prisoners. Eight days later, two of them found U.S. Army soldiers who saved their lives. That was 63 years ago this week. The 75-pound teenager made himself useful around camp, put on weight and, within months, found a way to come to the United States. He immediately joined the Army, where he served for 21 years in an intelligence division. He retired as a major in 1968. Maj. Willner, 81, died March 30…..(Washington Post, 8 Apr 08)

Lewis Harold Bunker FBI Special Agent

Lewis Harold Bunker, 89, a former FBI special agent and vice president of security for Riggs National Bank, died of cancer April 2… Mr. Bunker was with the FBI for 25 years, working in Newark, Cincinnati and Detroit before moving to Bethesda in 1957. He retired in 1969 and joined Riggs, retiring a second time in 1984……(Washington Post, 6 Apr 08)

Grace A. Rafaj Foreign Service Officer

Grace A. Rafaj, 80, a retired Foreign Service officer, died March 11…Ms. Rafaj was born in Scranton, Pa. She joined the Foreign Service in 1948 and was an administrative officer in overseas postings in Beirut; Moscow; London; Rome; Kabul; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Brussels; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Kinshasa, Zaire; Bogota, Colombia; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; New Delhi; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; and Seoul……(Washington Post, 5 Apr 08)

Robert A. Schutt NSA Employee

Robert A. Schutt, 88, a retired employee of the National Security Agency, died March 22…Mr. Schutt was born in Yonkers, N.Y., and graduated from Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. He served as a Navy communications officer during World War II. He worked at Woodward & Lothrop department store before being recalled to the Navy for the Korean War. He then worked at NSA from the early 1950s until his retirement in 1979……(Washington Post, 5 Apr 08)

David D. Newsom; Diplomat Played Key Role During Iran Hostage Crisis

David D. Newsom, 90, the third-ranking official at the State Department who was a central figure during the Iran hostage crisis of 1980, died March 30… From the first moments after Washington was alerted that the Tehran embassy was being overrun by Islamic fundamentalists, Mr. Newsom orchestrated the behind-the-scenes efforts in the Carter administration to negotiate an end to the 444-day crisis…..(Washington Post, 4 Apr 08)

Richard Charles Schoonover Foreign Service Officer

Richard Charles Schoonover, 70, a retired Foreign Service officer whose postings included several African nations, died March 12… He joined the State Department in 1964, working with the U.S. Information Agency. As a diplomat, he served in Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Tunisia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Belgium…..(Washington Post, 4 Apr 08)

Janet L. Pakidis CIA Executive Secretary

Janet L. Pakidis, 62, a retired executive secretary with an office of the Central Intelligence Agency, died March 4… She joined the CIA in 1985 as an executive secretary in the National Reconnaissance Office. She coordinated liaison efforts involving the CIA, the Defense Department and the private sector. In 2005, when her health began to worsen, she retired.…..(Washington Post, 4 Apr 08)

March 31

Violet Coffin, OSS, Foreign Correspondent

Violet Coffin, who led Democratic delegations to two national nominating conventions and who once wrote for Time magazine, died Monday…Coffin graduated from Smith College in 1942. She served with the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency, in Washington and London and became a foreign correspondent for Time in Cairo and a journalist with Fortune and the Toledo Blade……(AP 31 Mar 08)

William Hyland, Who Guided Foreign Policy, Dies at 79

William G. Hyland, who helped shape United States foreign policy, particularly toward the Soviet Union, as a top-level bureaucrat and then became editor of the influential journal Foreign Affairs, died on March 25…Mr. Hyland, who lived in Vienna, Va., held high posts in the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department and the White House. President Gerald R. Ford named him to a top-level panel to coordinate the intelligence community, and President Jimmy Carter chose him to represent the National Security Council on an interagency committee to guide relations with the Soviet Union…..(New York Times, 29 Mar 08)

Alice K. Sachaklian NSA Crypto-Linguist

Alice K. Sachaklian, 87, a retired crypto-linguist at the National Security Agency, died March 13…She moved to the Washington area in 1947 and began her career as a crypto-linguist and crypto-analyst at the NSA, holding positions in postwar Germany and in Washington. She achieved the rank of GS-15 Division Chief. At her retirement in 1978, she received the Department of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award, the highest honor for a civilian. She was a life member of the Phoenix Society, an organization of retired NSA professionals……(Washington Post, 25 Mar 08)

L. Garry Coit CIA Officer

L. Garry Coit, 81, a former CIA officer, died of pneumonia Feb. 29 at Memorial Hospital in Easton, Md. He lived in Oxford and had dementia. Mr. Coit worked for the CIA for 26 years, starting as a French translator for Vietnamese trainees in Guam and spending four years at the U.S. Embassy in Paris and four years in London……(Washington Post, 22 Mar 08)

Helene Shepanek; German Teacher, CIA Translator

Helene A. Shepanek, 78, professor emeritus of German studies at American University and a former French and German teacher and translator for the CIA, died March 17 of complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at Inova Fairfax Hospital. She lived in McLean. Mrs. Shepanek, who taught at American University from 1972 until retiring in 1992, brought to the classroom the richness of her experiences as a German native, underground fighter during World War II and translator for the CIA in the 1950s and 1960s…..(Washington Post, 21 Mar 08)

Richard D. Wagner CIA Officer, Stockbroker

Richard D. Wagner, 82, a retired CIA officer and later a stockbroker, died March 7 of complications of Alzheimer's disease at the Rebecca House assisted-living facility in Potomac. He was a longtime Vienna resident. Mr. Wagner was born in Mehama, Ore., and served in Army intelligence in Germany during World War II. After his discharge, he remained in Germany with the Office of Special Services, forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency, and continued to serve with the CIA for 35 years……(Washington Post, 18 Mar 08)

Oscar E. Collins Jr., NSA Official

Oscar E. Collins Jr., 79, a retired official with the National Security Agency, died Feb. 17 of kidney failure at Genesis ElderCare rehabilitation center in Randallstown, Md. He lived in Severn…….He served in the Army, then worked in a classified capacity with NSA for 41 years until his retirement in 1994.……..(Washington Post, 16 Mar 08)

Charles T. Jacobs, CIA Officer

Charles T. Jacobs, 81, a retired intelligence officer for the Central Intelligence Agency, died Feb. 22 of cancer at Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg. Mr. Jacobs was born in Gaithersburg and graduated from the Charlotte Hall School, a military school in St. Mary's County that closed in 1976. After serving in the Army in Japan, he graduated from the University of Maryland in 1976. He then joined the CIA and served in the Washington area and Frankfurt, Germany. He was an authority on overhead reconnaissance systems and retired as a senior intelligence officer in 1988. He received the Intelligence Medal of Merit……..(Washington Post, 16 Mar 08)

Samuel Hamrick Jr.; Diplomat Wrote Popular Spy Novels

Samuel Hamrick Jr., 78, a retired Foreign Service officer who wrote thoughtful and engaging spy thrillers that critics occasionally ranked alongside the best of Graham Greene and John Le Carre’, died Feb. 29… Mr. Hamrick, who wrote under the name W.T. Tyler, drew on 20 years of experience as a State Department analyst in Africa and the Middle East……(Washington Post, 12 Mar 08)

Walter Solomon Rothschild, CIA Intelligence Officer

Walter Solomon Rothschild, 81, a Jewish refugee from prewar Germany who became a CIA agent, died of lung cancer March 8…He joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1951 and, fluent in German, worked as an intelligence officer in Germany and the United States. He retired in 1968……(Washington Post, 10 Mar 08)

Vitaly Fedorchuk, 89, of K.G.B., Dies

Vitaly V. Fedorchuk, who rose through the Soviet intelligence and police services to become the leader of the K.G.B. and then the country’s hard-nosed chief law enforcement officer, died Feb. 29 in Moscow…From late 1982 to early 1986, General Fedorchuk was Interior minister, making him the Soviet Union’s top police officer, in charge of uniformed officers from detectives to game wardens. The job’s high visibility contrasted with his covert past…….(New York Times, 9 Mar 08)

William C. Stewart CIA Officer

William C. Stewart, 86, a CIA officer for 25 years who later taught English as a second language in Arlington, died of congestive heart failure Feb. 14… Mr. Stewart, who was known as Bill, had overseas assignments in Germany and Vietnam for the CIA before retiring in 1976…..(Washington Post, 4 Mar 08)

John Ritzert, 89; Longtime Defense Official

John Edward "Jack" Ritzert, 89, a Defense Department division chief who was knowledgeable about federal and defense information security programs, died of congestive heart failure Feb. 4…Mr. Ritzert's career with the federal government began in 1943, when he joined the Office of Strategic Services. He remained with the successor of the OSS, the Central Intelligence Agency, until 1961, when he began working for the Air Force…..(Washington Post, 4 Mar 08)

Vitaly Fedorchuk

Vitaly Fedorchuk, who briefly headed the KGB and served as Soviet interior minister in the 1980s, has died…Fedorchuk, who was born to a farmer's family in Ukraine, joined the Soviet secret police in 1939 and worked in the SMERSH counterintelligence agency during World War II. He steadily rose through the ranks, becoming chief of the KGB's Ukraine branch in 1970. In May 1982, he was named KGB chief to succeed his patron, Yuri Andropov, and stayed on the job through December that year…..(Washington Post, 4 Mar 08)

Elizabeth Spencer Roach Health Writer, CIA Official

Elizabeth Cass Spencer Roach, 90, who co-wrote a medical book for the National Institutes of Health and later worked at the Central Intelligence Agency, died Feb. 19… In the late 1940s, she began working at NIH and was the co-author of "A Dictionary of Antibiosis," published in 1951. She then became an official with the CIA……(Washington Post, 2 Mar 08)

February 2008

J. Allison Conley, 84; FBI Official, Consultant

J. Allison Conley, a retired FBI inspector and deputy assistant director who worked on several famous kidnapping cases in the 1960s and 1970s, died Feb. 21…Mr. Conley, who was active in the Society of Former Special Agents, worked on the defense teams of high-ranking FBI officials W. Mark Felt and Edward S. Miller in 1980. Both agents were convicted of violating the civil rights of innocent citizens by authorizing secret break-ins into houses during the Nixon years. Former agents raised more than $1 million for the duo's legal defense…..(Washington Post, 29 Feb 08)

Erudite Voice of the Conservative Movement

William F. Buckley Jr., 82, the intellectual father of the modern American conservative movement, who helped define its doctrines of anti-communism, military strength, social order and a capitalist economy, died yesterday at his desk in his Stamford, Conn., home…He had been an operative of the Central Intelligence Agency…During Buckley's year as a CIA agent in Mexico, he had for a case officer E. Howard Hunt, who decades later was convicted of burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping in connection with the Watergate break-in. Buckley helped pay his legal expenses…..(Washington Post, 28 Feb 08)

George Grau III, 69; CIA Security Officer, D.C. Tour Guide

George Peter Grau III, 69, a retired security officer with the CIA, died Feb. 19…He joined the CIA in 1963, working as a security officer in Washington except for two years in Alice Springs, Australia. He received a number of exceptional service awards, culminating in the Career Intelligence Medal when he retired in 1995……(Washington Post, 25 Feb 08)

Richard P. Peat Geodesist

Richard P. Peat, 87, a retired employee of the Army Map Service, died Jan. 25… in 1958 to take a position with the agency now known as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He served as chief of the Geodesy Department and chief of the Department of Computer Services before retiring in 1986…..(Washington Post, 20 Feb 08)

Valerio R. 'Val' Hunt FAA Engineer

Valerio R. "Val" Hunt, 87, a retired Federal Aviation Administration engineer and physicist, died of pneumonia Jan. 28… Later, he was vice president of engineering at Computer Sciences Corp. in Silver Spring, directing the program for the Navy's acoustics intelligence data system. He worked on the development of computer systems for national defense and national security, including those for the CIA……(Washington Post, 13 Feb 08)

A Tribute to Rep. Tom Lantos, Champion of Terrorism Victims

Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and a champion in the fight against terrorism, died earlier today. Rep. Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to win a seat in Congress, was a consistent supporter of counterterrorism efforts and the victims of terrorism……(Counterterrorism Blog, 11 Feb 08)

Rep. Tom Lantos dead at 80

…Lantos, who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was serving his 14th term in Congress. He had said he would not seek re-election in his Northern California district, which takes in the southwest portion of San Francisco and suburbs to the south….(AP, 11 Feb 08)

Lev E. Dobriansky, 89; Professor and Foe of Communism

Lev E. Dobriansky, 89, an ambassador to the Bahamas, a professor of economics at Georgetown University and an anti- communist activist, died of a heart attack Jan. 30… Dr. Dobriansky was the author of numerous books and articles on foreign policy, national security and economic issues. He was involved in establishing the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation; the Capitol Hill memorial was dedicated June 12….(Washington Post, 6 Feb 08)

Walter A. Douglass Sr. Air Force Colonel

Walter Alexander Douglass Sr., 86, a retired Air Force colonel, died of congestive heart failure Jan. 4… He transferred to the Air Force when it was formed and flew in the military airlift and air intelligence commands, with assignments in Washington, Florida, Hawaii and Japan. At Andrews Air Force Base, he was with the 89th Airlift Wing's Special Air Mission as director of personnel in the presidential wing. At the Pentagon, he was group commander for military personnel in the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence……(Washington Post, 1 Feb 08)

January 2008

Frank Anton Levy CIA Operations Officer

Frank Anton Levy, 88, a retired Navy captain and former CIA operations officer, died of complications from a stroke Jan. 22…Capt. Levy began working for the CIA in 1952 as an operations officer assigned to the clandestine service, and he left in 1975 in the wake of the Church Committee hearings into intelligence-gathering activities by the agency. He returned as a contract employee for the agency, working for 20 years….(Washington Post, 27 Jan 07)

Mary-Ann S. Rozbicki CIA Senior Executive

Mary-Ann Spodnick Rozbicki, 77, a specialist in international economics who became a senior manager in the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Intelligence, died Jan. 13…Mrs. Rozbicki worked for the CIA from 1951 to 1988 and was among the first women to earn a senior intelligence ranking. In the early 1980s, she was director of the European analysis office. Her final assignment was Directorate of Intelligence senior representative to the CIA's London office….(Washington Post, 27 Jan 07)

Charles Francis Lombard Congressional Assistant

Charles Francis Lombard, 78, a congressional assistant in the 1960s and 1970s, died Jan. 18…After serving in the Army during the Korean War, he received a master's degree in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University in 1955. He was an officer with the CIA for two years before becoming an administrative assistant on Capitol Hill……(Washington Post, 25 Jan 08)

MI5 man broke island spy ring

…Charles Elwell played a crucial part in exposing five KGB agents who were leaking secret information to Moscow from the island. He was a master spycatcher and a colourful officer who made his name by targeting Russian agents during the Cold War. Mr Elwell achieved his greatest success when the KGB posed the gravest threat to Britain by trying to acquire military and technology secrets….(This is Dorset, 22 Jan 08)

Charles Elwell

Charles Elwell, who died on January 11 aged 88, was the MI5 officer responsible in 1961 for breaking the Portland spy ring, run by the KGB officer Konon Molody (Gordon Lonsdale), which passed naval secrets to the Russians. A year later Elwell had similar success with John Vassall, the KGB spy at the Admiralty who was blackmailed into passing secrets after taking part in a homosexual orgy in Moscow. Both cases enhanced his status within the Security Service as one of its most skilful and successful counter-espionage officers…..(Telegraph, 22 Jan 08)

John E. Bacon DEA Official

John E. Bacon, 79, who retired from the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1985 and later ran an antiques business, died Jan. 6…He received a master's degree in history from Georgetown University and began working for the State Department in the 1950s. He later worked for the CIA in South America and was an analyst, writer and editor…..(Washington Post, 21 Jan 08)

Theresa R. Wurmlinger CIA Security Officer

Theresa Romo Wurmlinger, 50, who had been a Central Intelligence Agency security officer since 1980 and co-owned an antiques business, died Jan. 8…Mrs. Wurmlinger, a member of the Senior Intelligence Service, was assigned to various parts of the CIA, including the Office of the Director of Central Intelligence.…..(Washington Post, 21 Jan 08)

Charles Elwell

Charles Elwell, who has died aged 88, was one of MI5's more controversial - and colorful - officers of the cold war…It was in this counter-espionage role that Elwell listened to Josef Frolik, a low-grade Czech intelligence officer who defected in 1969 armed with claims based on little more than gossip…..(Guardian, 21 Jan 08)

Charles Elwell

Charles Elwell, a charming and engaging member of the Security Service (MI5), was a master spycatcher who made his name inside the agency for exposing some of the most significant Soviet-era “illegals” - Russian agents living in Britain under false identities - during the fiercely competitive espionage battles of the Cold War. A distinguished-looking man, Elwell achieved his greatest success with the crucial part he played in unmasking the Portland spy ring in the 1960s when five KGB agents, led by Konon Molody, posing as a Canadian running a jukebox leasing business under the name of Gordon Lonsdale, were arrested and charged with espionage...The illegals were among the most dedicated and professional spies who wove “legends” around their lives to evade the snooping counter-espionage officers of MI5. Lonsdale had buried his real identity so effectively that it was several years before MI5 learnt, after he was swapped in a spy exchange with the British businessman and secret agent, Greville Wynne, in 1964, that the ubiquitous, good-looking, playboy-style “Canadian” was in fact Konon Trofimovich Molody….(Times Online, 21 Jan 08)

Harold K. Light; FBI Agent and A Crack Shot

Harold Kenneth "Hal" Light, 86, a retired FBI special agent who oversaw construction of the FBI Academy at Quantico, died Dec. 18…A former Fairfax resident, he also was the agent tapped by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to manage the extradition of James Earl Ray to the United States from London, where he had been arrested as the alleged assassin of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr……(Washington Post, 18 Jan 08)

Martin John Riordan White House Police Officer

Martin John Riordan, 82, a retired officer with the White House Police, died Jan. 6…Mr. Riordan was a D.C. police officer for five years before joining the White House Police, now called the Uniformed Division of the U.S. Secret Service, in 1956. He became the agency's deputy chief of operations and worked primarily at the White House…..(Washington Post, 14 Jan 08)

Christopher G. Turoff Air Force Colonel

Christopher G. Turoff, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who had a second career in real estate, died of pulmonary failure Dec. 11…In the 1960s, he was based in the San Francisco area as a CIA officer and worked with scientists, academics and other notables to gather information and school them in Cold War intelligence practices…..(Washington Post, 10 Jan 08)

Philip Agee, 72; Agent Who Turned Against CIA

Philip Agee, 72, a former undercover officer with the Central Intelligence Agency whose disillusionment with U.S. policy in support of dictatorial regimes prompted him to name names and reveal CIA secrets, died Jan. 7 in Havana…..(Washington Post, 10 Jan 08)

Philip Agee, ex spy who exposed CIA, dies in Havana

…Agee, 72, died on Monday, the newspaper said, calling him a "loyal friend of Cuba and staunch defender of the people's struggle for a better world." Agee worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for 12 years in Washington, Ecuador, Uruguay and Mexico. He resigned in 1968 in disagreement with U.S. support for military dictatorships in Latin America and became one of the first to blow the whistle on the CIA's activities around the world....(Reuters, 9 Jan 08)

Ex-CIA Agent Philip Agee Dead in Cuba

Philip Agee, a former CIA agent who became an outspoken critic of Washington's Cuba policy, has died in a Havana hospital following ulcer surgery, state media reported Wednesday. He was 72. Agee quit the CIA in 1969 after 12 years working mostly in Latin America at a time when leftist movements were gaining prominence and sympathizers. His 1975 book "Inside the Company: CIA Diary," cited alleged CIA misdeeds against leftists in the region that included a 22-page list of purported agency operatives.....(AP, 9 Jan 08)

NSA Analyst Stanley Coffin, 91

Stanley Edward Coffin, 91, a retired analyst with the National Security Agency, died of respiratory failure Dec. 18…He dropped out of Columbia and went to work at the NSA's Arlington Hall headquarters, where he was put in charge of a 26-person section. He trained the group in code breaking and also received a bachelor's degree from American University in the late 1940s……(Washington Post, 7 Jan 08)

Philip N. Bridges NSA Code-Breaker

Philip Newell Bridges, 92, a code-breaker for the National Security Agency and predecessor agencies for 30 years, died Dec. 7…During World War II, he was recruited by the Navy as a civilian cryptanalyst and continued in that profession until retirement……(Washington Post, 6 Jan 08)

Stephen Michael Shaffer State Department Official

Stephen Michael Shaffer, 61, who directed the State Department's Office of Research, died Dec. 11…Dr. Shaffer worked briefly at the Defense Department before joining the Office of Research at the U.S. Information Agency in 1980. He was an analyst and division chief in the office's European division before being named deputy director in 1991. In 1999, USIA merged with the State Department……(Washington Post, 6 Jan 08)

Mary Chave Manley Technical Editor

Mary Chave Manley, 92, a former Defense Department technical editor, died Dec. 28… Mrs. Manley settled in the Washington area in 1965 and was a technical editor with the Army intelligence service for more than a decade….(Washington Post, 6 Jan 08)

Margaret Anita Williams CIA Finance Officer

Margaret Anita Williams, 71, who retired from the CIA as a finance officer in 1994, died Dec. 14… Mrs. Williams was born in Lansing, Mich., and served in the Air Force as a supply management specialist from 1960 to 1963. She moved to the Washington area in 1970 and worked for the CIA for 20 years….(Washington Post, 1 Jan 08)

December 2007

Samuel Snyder, 96; Broke Codes And Designed Early Computers

Samuel S. Snyder, 96, who was honored this year for his contributions to code breaking during the 1940s and the conceptualization and design of computers in the 1950s at the National Security Agency and its predecessors, died Dec. 28…In October, Mr. Snyder was inducted into the National Security Agency-Central Security Service hall of honor for his work, which began in 1936 with the U.S. Army's Signal Intelligence Service. He was among the first 10 employees of the Signal Intelligence Service and became part of the inner circle of William Friedman, the dominant figure in U.S. code breaking. During World War II, Mr. Snyder led teams that successfully broke codes for the Japanese military attache system. After the war, he was credited with having a major role in designing and building Abner, a massive computing system for breaking codes. It was named after the comics character Li'l Abner, "a big strong guy that didn't know anything," Mr. Snyder told the Baltimore Sun in 1995……(Washington Post, 31 Dec 07)

Donald James Fitzgerald FBI Agent

Donald James Fitzgerald, 77, an FBI agent for 28 years, died of cancer Dec. 25… Mr. Fitzgerald was one of the first FBI agents at the scene of the 1972 burglary of the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate complex… He was an FBI linguist during the Cuban missile crisis and often worked in Puerto Rico for the bureau. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, he was the FBI's liaison to Capitol Hill. He retired in 1981…..(Washington Post, 30 Dec 07)

Samuel Belk; CIA Expert On Soviet Foreign Policy

Samuel Ellison Belk III, 87, a retired Soviet foreign policy expert with the CIA and a former member of the National Security Council staff, died Dec. 23…Mr. Belk joined the CIA in 1951 and for the next eight years monitored Soviet external policy toward the Middle East and Africa. In 1959, he became a member of the staff of the National Security Council during the Eisenhower administration and stayed on during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations…..(Washington Post, 28 Dec 07)

Barbara Neal Ziems CIA Employee

Barbara Neal Ziems, 74, who worked for the CIA for 21 years, died Dec. 13… At the Central Intelligence Agency, she worked in counternarcotics and counterterrorism and on special projects before retiring in 2003…..(Washington Post, 28 Dec 07)

Obituary: Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto followed her father into politics, and both of them died because of it - he was executed in 1979, she fell victim to an apparent suicide bomb attack. Her two brothers also suffered violent deaths. Like the Nehru-Gandhi family in India, the Bhuttos of Pakistan are one of the world's most famous political dynasties. Benazir's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was prime minister of Pakistan in the early 1970s……(BBC, 27 Dec 07)

Intelligence Analyst Paul S. McPherson, 87

Paul Shedd McPherson, 87, a retired official with the Foreign Broadcast Information Service and an ardent Anglophile, died of emphysema Dec. 17… The service at the time monitored Soviet, Chinese and East European radio broadcasts and other media for the CIA and other national security agencies……(Washington Post, 26 Dec 07)

George C. Benson  Army Colonel, Oil Official

George Charles Benson, 84, a highly decorated Army colonel and military attache in Indonesia who spent 19 years as Washington representative for Pertamina, Indonesia's state oil company, died Dec. 16…In 1990, he was inducted into the Defense Intelligence Agency's hall of fame for defense attaches for his work in Indonesia……(Washington Post, 27 Dec 07)

Harold B. Penne Marine Corps Officer

Harold B. Penne, 90, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who was a pilot in World War II and the Korean War, died of pneumonia Dec. 21… Lt. Col. Penne retired from the Marine Corps in 1962 and joined the Naval Intelligence Command, where he participated in the production of equipment that supported aircraft and weapons research and development. He also participated in the production of National Intelligence Estimates……(Washington Post, 26 Dec 07)

Haig K. Tufenk Tennis Umpire

Haig K. Tufenk, 78, a retired National Security Agency employee and a professional tennis umpire for 35 years, died Nov. 21…, he joined the Army Air Forces in 1946 and served in what became the Air Force until 1949. He graduated in political science from the University of Minnesota in 1957 and then joined NSA. He retired in 1988.….(Washington Post, 21 Dec 07)

Thomas B. Ellsworth Naval Officer

Thomas B. Ellsworth Jr., 68, a retired naval officer and business executive, died of respiratory failure Dec. 16… He served as an intelligence adviser in Vietnam, as an assistant naval attache in Moscow, deputy director of intelligence at the U.S. European Command Center in Stuttgart, and many other posts….(Washington Post, 21 Dec 07)

John Hugh Crimmins, 88; Career U.S. Diplomat

John Hugh Crimmins, 88, a career U.S. diplomat who specialized in Latin America and served as ambassador to the Dominican Republic and Brazil before retiring in 1978, died Dec. 12…Mr. Crimmins began his State Department career after World War II as an intelligence specialist on Latin America and Western Europe…..(Washington Post, 15 Dec 07)

Gerald L. Heatley CIA Officer

Gerald L. Heatley, 80, a retired CIA counterintelligence officer and a former Manassas resident, died Nov. 11… He was an assistant hearing examiner for the International Organizations Employees Loyalty Board and an investigator for the U.S. Civil Service Commission before joining the CIA in 1953. His 25-year career as a counterintelligence officer included a five-year assignment in the Far East…..(Washington Post, 12 Dec 07)

Michael Shaheen Jr., Top Justice Dept. Official, Dies at 67

Michael E. Shaheen Jr., who spent 22 years as head of the Justice Department’s internal investigations office, sometimes issuing rebukes of perceived ethical lapses by the nation’s highest officials, died Nov. 29… Under eight attorneys general in both Democratic and Republican administrations, Mr. Shaheen was director of the Office of Professional Responsibility, from its start in 1975 until his retirement in 1997…..(New York Times, 11 Dec 07)

Maresa B. Arrington Defense Department Auditor

Maresa Burris Arrington, 50, an auditor in the Defense Department's inspector general's office whose career ended after a stroke in 1995, died Nov. 10….(Washington Post, 11 Dec 07)

Dillard A. Stradley NSA Official

Dillard A. Stradley, 84, a former telecommunications officer with the National Security Agency, died Nov. 27… Mr. Stradley was born in Seymour, Ind., and served in the Army during World War II. After the war, he settled in Washington and worked for a Defense Department agency that evolved into the NSA. He became a chief officer in the telecommunications branch before his retirement in 1976….(Washington Post, 9 Dec 07)

Herbert Victor Juul CIA Official, Real Estate Executive

Herbert Victor Juul, 81, an executive with several Washington area real estate agencies, died Nov. 30…Mr. Juul worked with Sears and New York Life Insurance Co. before joining the CIA in 1951. He held positions in logistics and personnel until leaving the agency in 1965……(Washington Post, 9 Dec 07)

Silvio A. Bedini; Historian Emeritus for Smithsonian

Silvio A. Bedini, 90, historian emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution and an expert on timekeeping and the history of early American scientific instruments, died of pneumonia Nov. 14…Mr. Bedini was born in Ridgefield, Conn., and attended Columbia University before joining the Army Air Forces during World War II. He served in Army intelligence at Fort Hunt, Va., part of a top-secret interrogation center for German prisoners of war…..(Washington Post, 7 Dec 07)

Willard Sweetser Retired Rear Admiral

Willard Sweetser, a retired Navy rear admiral who commanded destroyers in combat in World War II, died Nov. 30… After World War II, the elder Sweetser served as naval attache at U.S. embassies in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, postings that involved the gathering of intelligence on the communist governments then in power……(Washington Post, 5 Dec 07)

Charles Stearns Hall, CIA Officer

Charles Stearns Hall, 85, an operations officer with the CIA for 28 years, died Nov. 25… Mr. Hall, who was fluent in Mandarin Chinese, worked about 12 years in Taipei before retiring in 1980…..(Washington Post, 4 Dec 07)

Richard Henry Webster CIA Operations Officer

Richard Henry Webster, 82, a retired CIA operations officer, died of respiratory failure Nov. 24…Mr. Webster worked for the CIA from 1949 until he retired in 1973, after tours in Madrid, London, Rhodesia and the Netherlands. Much of his work was in liaison with foreign intelligence services……(Washington Post, 2 Dec 07)

November 2007

Vladimir Kryuchkov; KGB Chief Led Coup Against Gorbachev

Vladimir Kryuchkov, 83, the former KGB chief who spearheaded a failed coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, died Nov. 23…When Andropov became KGB chief in 1967, he took Mr. Kryuchkov along and helped him rise through the ranks. In 1974, Mr. Kryuchkov was named chief of the KGB's First Main Directorate, in charge of spying abroad. In 1988, Gorbachev appointed him KGB chief……(AP, 26 Nov 07)

Leftist Lawyer Victor Rabinowitz Dies

Victor Rabinowitz, a lawyer who represented leftist causes and clients such as Alger Hiss, the Black Panthers, Fidel Castro and Weather Underground member Kathy Boudin, has died. He was 96……(AP, 21 Nov 07)

Milo Radulovich, 81, Dies; Symbol of ’50s Red Scare

Milo Radulovich, who became a searing symbol of the excesses of anti-Communism in the 1950s when Edward R. Murrow broadcast an account of his firing as an Air Force reserve officer because of his relatives’ associations, died Monday…The case raised questions about balancing national security concerns and citizens’ rights after Mr. Murrow broadcast a report on Oct. 20, 1953….(New York Times, 21 Nov 07)

Lester Ziffren; Broke News of War in Spain

Lester Ziffren, 101, who broke news of the Spanish Civil War as a young U.S. reporter in Madrid and whose subsequent career took him to Hollywood as a movie writer, South America as a diplomat and New York as a public relations executive, died Nov. 12…On July 17, 1936, he used a simple code to defy censors and get word to his editors in London…..(Washington Post, 20 Nov 07)

James P. Green CIA Specialist

James P. Green, 83, a retired CIA specialist, died Nov. 8…He was an FBI agent for four years before joining the CIA, where he worked for 36 years……(Washington Post, 18 Nov 07)

Diana Lin Durand CIA Planning Officer

Orvis J. Auerswald FBI Agent

Orvis J. Auerswald, 88, who served in the FBI for 35 years, died Nov. 9… Mr. Auerswald joined the FBI in 1941 and was assigned to offices in Savannah, Ga., Detroit and Tucson before moving to Washington in the late 1940s…..(Washington Post, 13 Nov 07)

Harvey Gerald Miller CIA Analyst

Harvey Gerald Miller, 81, a former senior analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency, died Oct. 25…joined the CIA in 1956 and spent 12 years, including several as chief, with the agency's East Asian staff in the old Office of National Estimates…..(Washington Post, 5 Nov 07)

Mary M. Halpin CIA Employee

Mary McKenna Halpin, 83, who did communications work for the CIA from 1975 to 1989, died Oct. 23…..(Washington Post, 4 Nov 07)

October 2007

Ervin Willis Stone CIA Agent

Ervin Willis Stone, 79, a retired CIA agent and American Red Cross employee, died of cancer Oct. 8…..(Washington Post, 30 Oct 07)

Anne P. Hatziolos NSA Analyst

Anne Patsourakos Hatziolos, 85, a longtime research analyst with the National Security Agency, died of pancreatic cancer Oct. 19….(Washington Post, 27 Oct 07)

CIA Official Francis Ambrose Gallagher III

Francis Ambrose Gallagher III, 97, a former official of the Central Intelligence Agency and a onetime adviser to Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur, died Oct. 14…..(Washington Post, 24 Oct 07)

Helen C. Eagleson, 92, one of the first African American women to hold a management position at the National Security Agency, died Oct. 10. Mrs. Eagleson joined the NSA as a mathematician and cryptographer in 1952 and held management positions until her retirement in 1971. She helped lead other minority workers into supervisory positions at the agency……(Washington Post, 19 Oct 07)

Andrée de Jongh, 90, Legend of Belgian Resistance, Dies

Andrée de Jongh, whose youth and even younger appearance belied her courage and ingenuity when she became a World War II legend ushering many downed Allied airmen on a treacherous, 1,000-mile path from occupied Belgium to safety, died Saturday in Brussels. She was 90…..(New York Times, 18 Oct 07)