The Dangerous Business of Exfiltrating Spies

The Dangerous Business of Exfiltrating Spies – Part One

Posted: September 17th, 2019

By Joseph W. Augustyn

Joseph W. Augustyn retired from the CIA in 2004 after spending 28 years as a member of the Agency’s clandestine service. Mr. Augustyn served as a Case Officer in several locations, and held numerous senior positions during his career, to include Chief of Station on three occasions while assigned to the National Resources, Near East and East Asia Divisions. Mr. Augustyn was also Deputy Chief of East Asia Division with responsibility for overseeing operational activities throughout the Far East. In addition, he served as Chief of Staff for the Deputy Director for Operations where he monitored and helped manage the CIA’s Covert Action programs. Mr. Augustyn served as Director of the CIA’s defector resettlement center responsible for the resettlement of high-level defectors granted entry into the United States under Public Law 110. Similar to the US Department of Justice’s Witness Protection Program, the CIA center administers all aspects of defector resettlement, affording Mr. Augustyn the unique opportunity to meet and know many of CIA’s top spies. As Director, Mr. Augustyn worked closely with the US Marshall Service and the FBI, and frequently briefed Congress on the status of the program as well as key defectors.

When news broke recently that the U.S. had extracted a high-level Russian official in 2017 who had close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, it was noteworthy to say the least.

The New York Times described the Russian asset’s role as important in helping U.S. officials trace the source of election tampering by Russia in the 2016 election, all the way back to Putin himself. But according to the reporting, when the risks became too great that the spy would be discovered, the U.S. launched a risky extraction operation to move him to the U.S.

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