How The Stories of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss pt. 7

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How The Stories of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss pt. 7

With the passing of nineteen sixty-six the hunt for traitors within the Central Intelligence Agency continued rapidly expanding. Greater targets brought a renewed vigor to assess each in a growing pool of potential victims chosen using the loose parameters set by prized KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn. The desperate search undertaken by the Counterintelligence Staff Special Investigations Group (CISIG) had now consumed significant Agency resources for years while displacing and ending the careers of multiple loyal officers. Several instances of contrived guilt were feasibly due to CISIG gazing too long at the shadows cast by legitimate defectors, employees, and officers. When a detail struck investigators as relevant they often became convinced of deviltry at work in spite of the contrary facts. All this occurred in the name of a hunt unleashed by James Angleton and his subordinates many years earlier for a forever elusive penetration agent…

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How The Stories Of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss pt. 6

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How The Stories Of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss pt. 6

Within the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination the Central Intelligence Agency had internally declared Lee Harvey Oswald guilty within forty-eight hours.i The Federal Bureau of Investigation granted the alleged shooter seventy-two hours before its determination of guilt the same day Jack Ruby shot Oswald. American intelligence groups were desperate to find an expedient solution and their suspect’s inability to defend himself was ideal. However, some within the CIA’s leadership believed this had to be another Soviet plot and Oswald was cast in the role of Soviet agent. Such ideas endangered the US government’s allegations that Oswald acted by himself but those not privately endorsing this idea became suspects in Central Intelligence Agency’s hunt for traitors…

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How The Stories Of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss pt. 5

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How The Stories Of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss pt. 5

As the calendar fell upon the days of late 1962, the mole hunt inside Western intelligence began to expand within the United States. Fears of disinformation, false defectors, and the assumption of a traitor within its ranks began to internally damage the Central Intelligence Agency. Official attempts to discover and track disloyal intelligence employees had yet to render any solid leads or suspects. The effort to seek turncoats within the US intelligence community gained momentum with each new accusation and it began to spread. Other nations soon would be influenced by America’s search for penetration agents based upon the claims of a single defector…

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How The Stories Of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss pt. 4

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How The Stories Of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss pt. 4

The endless accusations of moles being present in most of Western intelligence services by Soviet defector Anatoliy Golitsyn was like a supernova but was unseen or heard by most in related intelligence groups. Much like the subsequent events that may follow a supernova, Golitsyn’s mole claims backed with the power of the CIA’s Counterintelligence leadership and staff formed a proverbial black hole. This became another part of the vast intelligence abyss, and its pull on the careers and lives of many people would slowly be felt and most were unable to escape the tendrils of this massive investigation for traitors. As 1961 passed Golitsyn would accurately describe some details of yet unknown betrayers within British intelligence and this information when added to later revelations added to the weight of the mole hunt. Yet this larger hunt for CIA moles was precipitated upon ideas that were unproven and relied largely upon a single defector and his supporters…

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How The Stories Of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss pt. 3

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How The Stories Of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss pt. 3

The proverbial intelligence abyss expanded with the revelations of each new defector, exposure of double agents, and fed a growing suspicion of hidden moles within Western clandestine groups. Due to a nearly perfect storm of facts mixed with paranoid speculations a significant expansion in hunting for such agents would commence following the appearance of two final related defectors. As familiar intelligence officers dealt with the latest defectors and longstanding suspicions mounted over the prior years, it was a matter of time before the right defector and claims inspired certain intelligence leaders to adopt the belief that a hidden traitor likely existed within their own group. The 1960s had just begun and before that decade ended several careers, some lives, and multiple intelligence group operations would lay in shambles…

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How The Stories Of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss pt. 2

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How The Stories Of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss pt. 2

Within the murky depths of the historical intelligence abyss lies a nearly ceaseless array of unanswered questions and varying accusations, some affirm or deny the credibility of several figures related to unresolved historical mysteries. The last article in this series began a descent into reviewing the valuable but often inconsistent nature of multiple defectors that dealt with intelligence groups. From Pyotr Popov, a reliable double agent that was later exposed and executed, to Peter Deriabin a source of valuable intelligence who later offered less reliable claims regarding significant world events based on mere postulations are just two varying historic tales. Defectors can each offer vital intelligence, but they simultaneously might also render consequential negative effects for those dealing with them. The question is how much weight the claims of a defector should be given, at what point could they be wrong, and even if they are false defectors or moles intent on misinforming the very people they claim to aid. Defectors and moles can both appear nearly the same in the vastness of historical intelligence and in rare cases are precisely that…

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How The Stories Of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss

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How The Stories Of These Soviet Cold War Defectors Reveal The Intelligence Abyss

Among the most desired agents related to the ceaseless game of global historical intelligence is a defector. Every related organization from the Soviet Komitet Gosudarstevnnoi Bezopasnasti (KGB) to the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sought foreign traitors who could provide damaging information concerning enemy agents, operations, and clandestine services. A defector can emerge for numerous reasons, some have opposed their government’s practices, others desire more plentiful foreign resources after living in relatively meager conditions, and rarer cases are those seeking to become important historical figures by using the intelligence field to gain power and influence. However, a defector’s usage is limited to their prior access, knowledge, and with the passage of time classified information becomes less valuable as security measures are undertaken to prevent further damage. Defection is treason and cuts off those who undertake it from their family, homeland, and the society in which to which they were accustomed. Intelligence groups utilizing a defector often provide them with some temporary financial arrangements (a stipend or employment), housing relocation, and other potential benefits. Nevertheless, rarely do such arrangements last forever, unlike the desire for retribution many betrayed groups harbor toward defectors…

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Anxiety and Fear of the Unknown

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Anxiety and Fear of the Unknown

C.A.A. Savastano joins Mike Swanson on the Wall Street Window Podcast to address some of the many scientific, economic, and political unknowns that exist among ongoing health crisis. They further address disinformation and myths being spread by some who seek to benefit from the resulting public anxiety.

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Non-fiction Double Feature

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Non-fiction Double Feature

The Wall Street Window Podcast presents a discussion of the new book “Human Time Bomb: The Violence Within Our Nature” joined by its author Carmine Savastano. Mike Swanson and Savastano discuss the growing societal issues of aggression, violence, and lacking coping skills in the face of gradual evolutions in biology and increasingly faster advancements in technology.

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Other Men in Mexico City II

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Other Men in Mexico City II

According to United States officials just months before they accused Lee Harvey Oswald of assassinating President John F. Kennedy he went to Mexico during the end of September. Intelligence leaders would assume these purported visits were connected to later events, despite that Oswald did not yet work at the Texas Schoolbook Depository and they neglected to account for the parade route not being established until mid-November. Without that foreknowledge provided by another party Oswald cannot perceive the endgame of all these various actions occurring later. Taken by itself the incidents in Mexico City attributed to Lee Harvey Oswald are without direct connective evidence a possible occurrence unto themselves without links to subsequent events beyond Oswald’s alleged visits. The focus of US intelligence regarding Oswald reasonably dominates most inspections but the actions of Soviet and Cuba groups regarding this peculiar historical figure are often less reviewed…

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September 29 and The Blond Man

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September 29 and The Blond Man

The Wall Street Window Podcast returns! Join your host Mike Swanson and his guest Carmine Savastano as they review new information regarding the JFK assassination timeline and a KGB figure that was suppressed by officials likely due to the questions his behavior and statements created.

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September 29th and Another Man in Mexico City

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Oswald and Mex City II.png

Join historian Larry Hancock, author Carmine Savastano, and your host Chuck Ochelli as they discuss new research, evidence, and KGB officer Nikolai Leonov who has offered a dramatic story involving Lee Harvey Oswald, a gun, and the Soviet Embassy on a day the CIA lacked photo coverage. The same KGB officer additionally closely resembles the description of a yet unknown figure that seemingly caused Oswald enough trouble to prevent him from traveling and could have resulted in his arrest.

Other Men In Mexico City

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Other Men In Mexico City

Despite the extensive reviews of governments, legal experts, researchers, and members of the public some controversial topics of discussion still lay entangled within historical shadows. The scene and occurrence of the crime is of primary concern but in some cases the crucial related events span not just a given time and place but great distances that add further problems to discerning verifiable facts. A different nation, different cultures, and languages can provide almost insurmountable challenges to investigators who are unprepared for them. In some cases, it may be that certain groups and leaders counted on this fact to occlude a complete accounting and spare mistakes or deception from being revealed. While officials might currently discount and reproach members of the public for spurring on myths or rumors, these lies are within the very tools of the intelligence trade. Such means were repeatedly utilized by several intelligence groups and in Mexico City during the nineteen sixties and some of those deceptions persist…

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Note the Chain

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Note the Chain

All humans are pattern-seeking creatures because the recognition of valid patterns is an evolutionary mechanism in the human brain. While indeed overreliance on seeking just self-gratifying patterns can lead to false connections and incorrect speculations, patterns based on verifiable evidence do not often suffer from these pitfalls. When a chain of events occurs with a pattern established in evidence, it feasibly leads to reasonable questions and new facts. The chain of historical events if studied closely might reveal the yet unseen connections and present that what once is dismissed with scorn can still be true…

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A Fellow Traveler

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A Fellow Traveler

A "traveler" holds special meaning to people associated with intelligence and national security. This does not simply indicate a person on a journey but someone who holds unseen loyalties to group without being an official member. The Central Intelligence Agency used the term referring to Communist sympathizers during the Cold War...

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