HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019711.jpg

The Russians Are Coming | 223 1960, at the Hall of Journalists and invited all the foreign correspon- dents in Moscow. Before television cameras, the defectors denounced the NSA’s activities. Martin told how the NSA breached interna- tional laws by spying on Germany, Britain, and other NATO allies. Mitchell, for his part, suggested that the NSA’s practice of break- ing international laws could ignite a nuclear war. Indeed, he justi- fied their joint defection to Russia in heroic whistle-blowing terms, saying, “We would attempt to crawl to the moon if we thought it would lessen the threat of an atomic war.” The NSA review of the case, however, assessed that little damage had been done, because the NSA quickly changed the codes they had compromised. It noted, “The Communist spymasters would undoubtedly have preferred Martin and Mitchell to remain in place as moles, since their infor- mation was dated as of the moment they left NSA.” The next NSA defector was Victor Norris Hamilton, a translator and analyst at the NSA. He arrived in Moscow in 1962, and like Mitchell and Martin he claimed the status of a whistle-blower. This time, the KGB provided a newspaper platform. Writing in the Rus- ) sian newspaper Izvestia, Hamilton revealed the extent of U.S. spying © on its allies in the Middle East. None of these three 1960s defectors revealed what, if any, NSA secret documents they had compromised. Nor did any of them ever return to the United States. Martin changed his name to Vladimir Sokolodsky, married a Russian woman, and died in Mexico City on January 17, 1987. Mitchell vanished from sight and was reported to have died in St. Petersburg on November 12, 2001. Hamilton, after telling Russian authorities stories about hearing voices in his head because of an NSA device implanted in his brain, was consigned to Special Psychiatric Hospital No. 5 outside Moscow. There were also KGB spies in the NSA who were caught or died before they could defect. One of them was Sergeant Jack Dunlap. He was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage on July 23, 1963. Although there was no suicide note, his death was ruled an apparent suicide. NSA classified documents were later dis- covered in his house. After that, NSA investigators unraveled his decade-long career as a KGB mole. Dunlap had been recruited by the KGB in Turkey in 1952. The standard KGB tool kit for recruitment | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r.indd 223 ® 9/3016 8:13AM | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019711