WHAT'S THE LURE?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000604920018-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: June 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604920018-5
GE a?ti... ;IOW Y R:{ TIMES
ON PAGE__,_ 2 6 June 1985
s
What's
The Lure:
cBy Amos Perlmutter
WASHINGTON - The more one
learns about the Walker family, the
more one is mystified by this network
of seamen - John, his son Michael,
his brother Arthur and his longtime
friend Jerry A. Whitworth - charged
with selling military secrets. to Mos-
cow. The crucial Question is: Why?
What motivates people to live such
dangerous lives, to risk life imprison-
ment and betray their country?
Surely, in today's world - and in
the Walker case, in particular - it is
unlikely that ideology plays much of a
role in pushing Americans to spy for
the Soviet Union. Virtually no one in
the 1960's seriously admires the
Soviet political system. The Walkers
and their partners were neither ideal-
ists nor true believers. And even If
they were, as would-be revolution-
aries, surely they would be more
drawn to third world causes like that
of Fidel Castro or the Palestine Liber-
ation Organization than to the rigid,
monolithic Soviet system.
Money would seem to be the obvi-
ous motive. To people like the Walk-
ers, spying undoubtedly has much the
same appeal as big-time gambling -
the hope of instant affluence without
years of toil. But money, in and of it-
self, would not be enough to explain
the espionage of a man like John A.
Walker Jr., the alleged mastermind
of the group, who professes to be dedi-
cated to the conservative principles
of Ronald Reagan's America. Much
more likely, I would hazard, he was
Amos Perlmutter is professor of
political science at American Univer-
sity.
drawn to the romantic image of the
superspy: He may have desperately
needed the drama and secrecy, and
even the sinister life - just as some
people need respectability and others
are drawn, often uncontrollably, to
unusual sexual practices.
Spying is, after all, a form of thea-
ter. To become a spy is to take on a
role - often a role that would be im-
possible under normal circum-
stances. In real life, John Walker was
an obscure seaman, without accom-
plishments or distinction. When he
became a spy, he became someone
else and began to lead an altogether
different life - in his mind at least, a
glamorous and dramatic one.
The danger for all: spies, but espe-
cially those who crave a spectacular
double life, is that they come to be.
lieve in the roles they are playing -
and they tend to lose sight of their
own self-interest. Consider the case of
Elie Cohen, another of the countless
modern spies motivated by glory and
excitement.
Elie Cohen's life changed forever in
1956, when the Israelis invaded Port
Said, in northern Egypt, and freed
him along with hundreds of other
Egyptian Jews. The invasion in-
flamed his patriotism and led him to
ask the Israelis to make him a spy.
After some hectoring on his part, the
Mossad gave in and trained him in
Syrian Arabic and the manners of the
Damascus upper-class - trained
him, in effect, to become a Syrian.
After two years, he was sent to
Buenos Aires to assume his role as
the scion of a displaced Syrian land-
owning family. He ingratiated him-
self into the large Arab community
there and - once his "credentials"
were intact - emigrated to Syria. In
Damascus, he set himself up in a
plush apartment across the street
from the Syrian high command and
began hobnobbing with the young
Beath officers. Among his friends
was Col. Amin al-Hafiz, soon to be-
come dictator of Syria.
Firmly entrenched, with friends in
high places, Elie Cohen proved inval-
uable to the Israelis. Among other
things, he sent the Mossad detailed
descriptions and photos of the Golan
Heights - information of critical im-
portance during the Six-Day War. But
before long, he seemed to lose track
of who he really was. In the mid-
1960's, the Mossad became suspicious
and warned him to stop communica-
tions. But he could not - could not
give up his role - and was eventually
caught by the Syrians. Shortly there-
after, he was hanged - an obscure
Egyptian Jew playing out a double
life as an Israeli spy and Syrian play-
boy. He ended up believing in both
roles, and it proved his undoing.
What about John Walker? How else
to explain the contradiction between
belonging to the Ku Klux Klan and the
charges of trafficking with Moscow?
How else to explain his inept detec-
tive business or to reconcile his patri-
otism with his alleged betrayal of his
country? Like other super spies be-
fore him, perhaps he simply needed
the excitement of the role. 0
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604920018-5