Question:
James Jesus Angleton once suggested that
whereas a common thug could kill a person, it took the
talents of an intelligence services to make a murder
appear to be a suicide. Under this precept, which "apparent
suicides" of intelligence officers merit re-examination?
Answer:
Apparent suicides, without suicide notes, of suspected
moles whose trials (or cases) would be potentially embarrassing
to intelligence services. Here are ten examples:
In Germany 6 apparent suicides in same case, Hermann Ludke,
a rear admiral in the west German Navy and the deputy
chief of logistics for the NATO command, was identified
by West German security police as a KGB spy.
Two weeks later, Admiral Ludke was found shot to death
with a rifle, an apparent suicide. The same day that Ludke
died, General Holt Wendland, the deputy director of west
German intelligence, who had also been named as a Soviet
mole, was found shot to death in his headquarters, an
alleged suicide.
Within two weeks, four other German officials, who were
reported to be suspects in the Ludke-Wendland cases, died
violently, all alleged suicides.
In France, Georges Paques, who flew out a window, an apparent
self-defenestration. Paques had been an aide to nine French
ministers while spying for the Soviet union for some 20
years. His trial would have been potentially embarrassing.
In the US, Jack E. Dunlap, an employee of the NSA 1958,
was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning - an apparent
suicide (See Photo) . He also was a Soviet penetration
agent, who had concealed in the attic his house a treasure
trove of sealed packets of classified NSA documents bearing
on its most secret deciphering and interception operation.
There were many reasons why it would have been inconvenient
to arrest and Jack Dunlap. For one thing, he was a liaison
with "Staff D" in the CIA, and could expose areas of CIA-NSA
cooperation in domestic interceptions that might be deemed
illegal. For another, he had been the personal drive,
and aide, to Major General Garrison Coverdale the chief
of staff of the NSA. General Coverdale, and after Coverdale
left in August 1959, Dunlap to the new NSA. chief of staff,
General Watlington. As such, he had top-secret clearance
and a "no inspection" status, which meant he could drive
off the base with documents hidden in the car and then
return without anyone knowing that the material had been
removed from the base. Moreover, Dunlap had other high-level
connections in the NSA. According to the Carroll Report,
which investigated the Dunlap breach, he had helped a
ring of officers at NSA pilfer some government property.
Dunlap was under interrogation just before he died. His
apparent suicide ended the investigation.
John Paisley, an ex-CIA officer, and liaison was the "B"
team (which reassessed US intelligence) had been suspected
of being a Soviet mole. He was found in the Chesapeake
Bay, shot to death and weighed down with weights— an apparent
suicide.
Waldo Dubberstein, a CIA and DOD intelligence analyst,
who admitted espionage activities, died of gunshot wounds,
an apparent suicide.
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