Epstein Secrets

intelligence coups through the eyes, and mind-set, of their KGB handler might provide some historical context for the Snowden defection. So I invited Cherkashin to lunch at Gusto, a quiet Italian restaurant, located near the Chekhov Theater in Moscow. Cherkashin, a tall thin man with silver hair, showed up p

ontext for the Snowden defection. So I invited Cherkashin to lunch at Gusto, a quiet Italian restaurant, located near the Chekhov Theater in Moscow. Cherkashin, a tall thin man with silver hair, showed up promptly at 1:00 p.m., wearing an elegant gray suit and dark tie. He walked with a spry step. Because he

uited after he retired from the NSA. After he was betrayed by a KGB double agent in 1985, he was sentenced to life imprison- ment. Finally, there was David Sheldon Boone, an NSA code clerk, who between 1988 and 1992 provided the KGB with NSA docu- ments in return for $60,000. Boone, sentenced to twenty-four years in p

then cited the signature line from the movie Zhe Usual Suspects “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.” Cherkashin thinly smiled and said “CIA denial [of moles] certainly helped.” HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020275 124 In view of such past successes of the Russian intellig

mous spy delivered 27 computer discs containing hundreds of secret documents revealing the sources and methods of American intelligence. According to Cherkashin, it was the largest haul of top secrets documents ever obtained by the KGB (although it was only a small fraction of the number of top secret NSA, De

recruited after he retired from the NSA. After he was betrayed by a KGB double agent in 1985, was sentenced to life imprisonment, Finally, there was David Sheldon Boone, a NSA code clerk, who between 1988 and 1992, provided the KGB with NSA documents in return for $60,000. Boone, sentenced to 24 years in prison, was

201 “Tt was the information in his head that we wanted.” Cherkashin said that as KGB rarely got access to any NSA officer, it was worth the risk. So he was given $5,000 in cash and a plane ticket to Vienna, where he w

the NSA would have received its full attention after he contacted Russian officials in Hong Kong. While the tactics of the SVR may have changed since Cherkashin retired, its objectives remained the same. And the NSA remained its principal target. Nor is there any reason to doubt that it still measures success

found dead of...” Edward Jay Epstein, “The Spy Wars,” New York Times, September 28, 1980 . “Robert Lipka, a clerk...”—See Robert Lipka Appendix A “ David Sheldon Boone...”—See David Boone, Appendix A “Harold Nicholson, the CIA’s deputy...”— Elizabeth Farnsworth, “Update on the Case of CIA Agent Harold Nicholson,” P

then cited the signature line from the movie The Usual Suspects, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist,” Cherkashin thinly smiled and said, “CIA denial [of moles] certainly helped.” In view of such past successes of the Russian intelligence services, it cannot be

iferation. The Snowden breach was not without precedent at the NSA. There had been two Russian spies at the NSA during the Cold War, Jack Dunlap and David Sheldon Boone, who took a limited number of documents, but no one since the end of the Cold War is known to have taken a single NSA classified document. Now an ins