Suspect Seen as ‘Amazing’ Risk-Taker

In early 1994, as U.S. intelligence agencies reacted to the Aldrich H. Ames spy case with a massive housecleaning, a well-regarded American agent allegedly approached the Russians to offer his services--just as Ames had done.

Authorities allege that in the two years that followed, while the security clampdown intensified, Harold J. Nicholson photographed secret U.S. documents, searched classified computer files, crisscrossed the globe with wads of cash and turned over reams of information to his Russian counterparts.

As described in government documents filed in court on Monday, it was about the most brazen treason imaginable--or perhaps just the dumbest.

“It’s the stupidity of this that’s so amazing,” said Vincent Cannistraro, a former U.S. intelligence official. “It’s unbelievable that he would set out to do this just as the CIA was tightening up, and for such small sums--and to a second-rate power.”

Yet, according to the court papers, Nicholson never shied from taking on more risks, even as the agency redoubled its efforts--from polygraph tests to photographic surveillance and wiretaps--to find internal spies.

Four months after the FBI raided Ames’ Arlington, Va., home, Nicholson--then deputy chief of station in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia--went to the Russian Embassy there, ostensibly to persuade a Russian agent to become a U.S. asset. Instead, authorities said, the opposite occurred.

One day after Nicholson’s first meeting with the Russians, $12,000 was wired to his credit union account in his home state of Oregon.

Authorities say Nicholson then began a pattern of meeting with the Russians twice a year on overseas trips, during which he allegedly passed on information he had gathered on the identities of CIA agents, U.S. reports of Russian military readiness, accounts of the CIA’s interrogation of Ames and even on the polygraph test of Nicholson that had first aroused the CIA’s suspicions about his loyalty.

After his foreign trips, authorities said, they often found wire transfers of money to Nicholson’s credit union and mutual fund accounts. On other occasions, he allegedly brought home the loot himself, as in December 1994, when he reportedly showed up in Eugene, Ore., with a roll of 130 $100 bills, paying off a $3,000 auto loan and a $10,019 Visa credit card bill.

Nicholson’s government salary was $73,000 a year, but he was able to take at least one expensive personal trip abroad.

In a visit to Singapore in June 1996, he checked into the Shangri La Hotel, where rooms cost more than $300 a night. On that trip, Nicholson took elaborate steps to find out whether he was under surveillance by U.S. officials, investigators say. One morning, he set out on a “surveillance detection” trip to flush out pursuers.

According to government investigators, he backtracked to cover his trail, scanned shop windows in hopes of catching the reflection of pursuers, and hastily entered and left subway stations in apparent hopes of losing any tracker.

The evening of the same day, carrying a camera bag, he went to a crowded subway station. After a few minutes of mingling with the crowd, he met a man, investigators say.

Before long, the pair got into a limousine with diplomatic plates registered to the Russian Embassy.

The next day, authorities say, Nicholson made an $8,300 cash payment to his American Express account. After the trip, court documents showed, he shelled out $20,000 for purchases, deposits and various payments. A few days later, he gave his son about $12,000 cash to buy a new car.

Sometimes, investigators alleged, Nicholson used a system of postcards to communicate his plans to the Russians.

Government agents say they saw Nicholson dropping off a sealed Hallmark card addressed to an undisclosed overseas post office, with a fake return address in Falls Church, Va.

Although the card was signed “Nevil R. Strachey,” authorities believe it was written to let the Russians know that Nicholson hadn’t succeeded in landing a posting as a CIA station chief in a country near Russia.

“Just want to let you know that unfortunately I will not be your neighbor, as expected,” the letter said.

Only last month, Nicholson was seen sending a similar postcard in an airmail envelope to the same address, authorities said. This time apparently to set up a meeting in Switzerland on Nov. 23 and 24.

“Hello Old Friend,” the letter reportedly said. “I hope it is possible that you will be my guest for a ski holiday this year on 23-24 November.”

It added a postscript: “P.S.: The snow will be fine by then.”

In his offices at the CIA, authorities said, Nicholson went about gathering secrets with more boldness than subtlety.

Only last week, he requisitioned a special document camera from the spy agency’s technical services office. A camera hidden in his office caught him kneeling down on the floor and snapping pictures of a series of secret documents relating to Russia, authorities said.

On another occasion, he requisitioned a special camera that collapsed into a briefcase. This type of camera is most often used for making pictures of documents, the government contended.

Last July, an audit of the CIA computer system allegedly found that Nicholson had conducted computer searches of classified databases using the search words “Russia[n]” and “Chechnya.”

A secret search of his offices just two weeks ago found that Nicholson had left his desk piled with 40 secret documents about Russia, according to the government. In his latest CIA assignment, Nicholson had been working on counter-terrorism and had no reason to be gathering information on Russia.

A search of Nicholson’s van last summer found a personal computer with a hard disk containing a long list of secret CIA documents on Russia, authorities allege.