THE NIGHT JOHN PAISLEY DISAPPEARED FROM HIS SAILBOAT ON THE CHESAPEAKE BAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100180015-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 20, 2007
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: November 18, 1979
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/20: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100180015-9
STAT
AR_'ICr,F, APPEARED
OJV PRIG[, / d
WAS-iINGTON -The night John,
Paisley disappeared from. his sail-:
boat on the Chesapeake. Bay, says
his estranged?wife, he was "a stone's
throw" from the CIA hideaway he
had been spying on. ?;.'... ,
It may have been a coincidence,
but the mystery surrounding John
Paisley's last known voyage on the
sloop Brillig and the unanswered
questions about his relationship
with the Central. Intelligence
Agency have left his wife Maryann
embittered and frustrated. .
For the first time since her hus-
band vanished more than a year
no, Mrs Paisley-is talking about:
the case. And for the first time,
people who knew John Paisley are
saying he was a spy - not the "ordi-
nary analyst" the CIA still claims be
was. =
His wife, colleagues-at the CIA,
FBI officials and eyewitnesses
paint a picture of Paisley directing
.a secret operation to track down the
theft of American .spy satellite
secrets in the final days before he
disappeared. :
The CIA, for the most part, has
been silent on the Paisley. case, and
understandably so. If the final mis-
sion given 55-year-old. John Paisley
was to find out whatethe Russians
were doing with U.S. satellite
secrets, then the 'CIA would hardly.
want to discuss it or the dangers. it
posed to those involved.-
Paisley was last' seen. Sept. 24,
1973, sailing alone' on the Chesa-
peake Bay near a CIA "safehouse":
he suspected was used by- a double
agent to transmit information to a
Soviet compound 60 miles up the
bay..
To support her contention that her I
husband was a spy.-Mrs. Paisley
gave the Sunday News Journal a:
number of" files she recently
'obtained under the Freedom of
Information Act The files listing
Paisley's activities during his 21
years with the CIA are not complete;
15 years are blacked-out-
18 November 1979
Further, Mrs. Paisley says shel
believes the CIA is lying about her
husband's retirement. She is angry
that the true story of what-John
Paisley really dial for his country ist
not being told. -.
'the CIA contends that Paisley,
-retired in 1974 and never did anyI
spying. After he left, the agencyI
says, Paisley did some"routine con-
sulting work off and on until he dis-
appeared-Mrs. Paisley said that her own
experience as a CIA employee- and
her relationship with John gave her
"many people to go-to for informa--
tion." She says those sources told
her Paisley. "retired 'from overt,!
work in 1974 but was continued on'
the covert (spy) payroll." . _~ . ;
The Sunday News Journal was
able to.confirm Paisley's covert
role with two of his colleagues. Both . ,
men asked not to be identified. They
said they were compelled to come
forward because of damage done to
Paisley's reputation by the CIA's
.lies about what he did for the.:-
agency.::
"It is true John Paisley was an 1
expert on strategic weapons and.,
the Soviets, but his expertise was
used to.plug leaks, prevent security--
violations. John was a spook. He-
spied on his colleagues," said one of
his former assistants inthe Office of
Strategic Research.
Mrs. Paisley said a close friend of
her husband's in the agency told her;
that "John was-made' for covert..
work. He loved it:"-..
Interviews with Mrs. Paisley and. her husband's colleagues and.;
searches of documents suggest that .1
Paisley's final CIA assignment was]
not the benign contractual arrange-?''
meet the agency makes it out to be-
Pieced together, those bits of
information tell a story of espio- i
nage and intrigue.
it
C
7r
STAT
in the security guarding the U.S. spy.
satellite program.. The assignment-.
was a direct result of the arrests. of -
Christopher- John .Boyce, and:!
Andrew Daulton Lee, who sold thou-, 'I
sands of pages of satellite secrets to- I
the Soviet KGB between 1975. and ,i
.1977. When the' two men were
arrested in early 1977, the CIA,
National Security Agency and the.
Air Force realized they had lost
almost all ability to-find out-what
was going on in Soviet strategic
weapons research because the Rus-
sians had" the ability to avoid the.
prying satellite sensors.
Boyce and. Lee were sent to jail,:'
and Paisley was given full authority
to investigate the damage done. to, j
satellite secrecy. He was given por- J
table equipment to detect intercep-
tion of U.S. satellite transmissions_:`.i
In the spring of 1978, he was
assigned to Mitre Corp., a think tank
trying to determine if the Russians
had been able to crack the satellite
secrets lost through Boyce and Lee.
At Mitre, Paisley learned that the' .~
Soviets needed more information to.
.''
make use of what they already had.
According to his colleagues, Paisley.-.
thought there had to be'another-
.leak.
Paisley- was issued- moreblec-
tronic.equipment and began-work-
ing in May 1978 under a new cover-}
at the W ashington? office of Coopers '~
Lybrand, a large accounting firm l
that had longtime,CIA:contacts_
Paisley's friends found itlaughablef
A hat he worked for an accounting:
firm: "John couldn't balance a
checkbook," one said.' - - :
Paisley wasn't balancing check-i
books. He was looking for ways sat-
ellite secrets might have been}
removed from the CIA and what-
was was being done with. them.
Working with the FBI, Paisley],.
took an apartment at 1500 Massa-.E
chusetts Ave., to monitor, the KGB
agents who lived on the eighth floor..
*- - - in elabo
Approved For Release 2007/06/20: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100180015-9 ..._,r.,T.nrn7,