WHEN CIA SPIES COME IN FROM THE COLD-

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000500150040-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2005
• Sequence Number: 40
• Publication Date: September 28, 1981
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Approved For Release 2006/01/12 : CIA-RDP91-00901
ARTICLE APPEARED
oN PAGE _?
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
28 September 1981
Headlines are focused on mavericks
who train terrorists, spy for hostile
powers, leak vital secrets. But the vast ..
majority of former agents exploit their
unique expertise for different purposes.
When an American spy ends his cloak-ancl-cl'agger work
for Uncle Sam, his life in the shadows may not be over.
A few maverick ex-agents have continued to lead the
covert life even after "coming in from the cold." Often
operating outside the law, these onetime spies cash in on
clandestine skills honed-and secrets learned-as govern-
ment agents. Sometimes earning millions of dollars, they
move in a mysterious, violent world of guns, explosives,
criminals and foreign agents.
Two former operatives of the Central Intelligence Agen-
cy are accused of masterminding a terrorist training school
for Libya's Muammar Qadhafi and supplying him with ex-
plosives and technical expertise. A third has been convicted
of selling secrets to Russia-the only known case of a double
agent in the agency's 34-year history: Some former CIA
contract agents, free-lance operators who undertake specif-
ic contracts from the agency, have been arrested on drug
smuggling charges.
While only a relative few become outlaws, these none-
theless have caused headaches for the vast majority of ex-
spies who go into legitimate work. As a result, sentiment is
building for tighter restraints on all former agents.
Experts agree that those who resort to questionable.activ
ities are rare among the thousands of CIA operatives who
quit the agency during the 1970s because of purges, scan-
dals and disillusionment. Yet the pressures that can create a
rogue are felt by all. Foremost is the difficulty of making a
new life after a career spent spying, often in exotic places
and sometimes amid great darnger. Some say it is an addic-
tive combination.
There are other problems. Many potential employers are
sensitive to public hostility toward the espionage trade and
worry about any CIA ties that may remain. Many agents,
especially those who have spent a long time spying, lack
readily marketable job skills in the business world. And
some spies simply find themselves suited for no other work.
For them, covert activity has become not just a job, but a
wav of life.
For a at what spies do after leaving the government,
U.S.Aletcs & World Report has focused on a score of ex-
agents who have entered private life iii recent years. While
most are respected businessmen, others operate on the
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craft powerful bon
alarm clock to a to
The two recruit
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At one point, si
wrong side of the law. Both are examined in this report. -
Approved For Release 2006/01/12 : C
Global Terrorism: Making It Pay
A few former agents have turned to selling covert skills to
 Approved For Release 2006/01/12 : CIA-RDP91-00901R0005
ATLANTA JOURNAL
20 September 1981
Y Oaniei I3urst+in" "`'
Constitution Special Come pondertt }?,
WASHINGTON . It was a, sun-swept
afternoon,. September.-24,1978: A _ lone
sailor -, middle-aged,-. tanned;: with a
scraggly - beard: -.: allowed. ,.his- 31-foot
sloop, the f3rillig, to drift across the shim-
mering waters-:*of Chesapeake Bay.-;:He
studied some documents from his brief-
case. He switched on.. and off his very. spe=
cial radio. ?He: munched on a. pickle loaf:
: andwich _
Then something extraordinary hap-
pened. Something, violent. Something. that
shook. Americans _natiotaal_.securityWto ritc
fnmrndations and* is still reverberating
around the world in, financial scandals,
rt snurdj.fm and the nuclear brinksmanship of
,.the superpowers.. .
4,x,actly what happened to John Ar-
thur Paisley three years ago is not known
for certain by anyone who will talk about
it The Central .Intelligence Agency,- for
which he worked much of. his life as an ez-
pert on Soviet nuclear. capabilities, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, and. the
Senate Intelligence? Committee may, know'
But their reports remain clamped under a,
Light llid: H o f secrecy: , : ..,~{{ .. e
$,~ .,.
Paisley, 55, never finished +. ?a ~
.rich and never returned from that.day at...
sea. A. bloated, blood-drained corpse with a.1
9tm'bullet lodged" in the, brain was drag- .
ged~ out of the bay a ,week. after, the empty
Brillig ran aground,
Son. thereafter, the Maryland'-State -
Police identified the body as Paisley's and.
the cause of death as suicide. Official ac-
-mints from the police, FBI and.C1A,-pity
'-tared Paisley-as-4-Now-level .analyst'! re,.
UM from the CIA, who committed suicide
in despondency over his estrangement,
from his wife Maryann. .
It took. only a few weft however, for
investigative repoe rinveideli d e o
the. Cltesapeaks- agree to, tear through, all;
tbxee p~uutsainr tbe=official story4with:,a
r.=hr.w{