When that kind of thing happens in the real world, not in the movies, the spy has to make some tough choices that impact not only him or her, but their immediate family, their extended family and possibly close personal associates. All of it weighing on the final decision of whether to flee or not.
The spy in the Russian case was extracted and relocated to the U.S., choosing to live under his real name, which caused a fury of media coverage once information about his role had been leaked.
His case is in stark contrast to another U.S. asset, a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA gather information to verify that Osama bin Laden was likely living in a secretive compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan in 2011. In that case, the asset, Dr. Shakil Afridi, decided not to take the CIA up on an offer to get him out of the country. Today, he remains in a Pakistani jail.
Each story of two valuable spies for the U.S. highlights the efforts that the CIA goes to in order to protect an asset once recruited. CIA assets who accept offers of help from the U.S. end up at the CIA’s National Resettlement Operations Center, a section of the Directorate of Operations that rarely appears in headlines, yet consistently interacts with the country’s most valuable spies.
This is part one of a two-part briefing on the NROC (which former Agency officers refer to as the Defector Operations Center) with its former chief, Cipher Brief expert Joseph Augustyn. Augustyn is a 28-year Agency veteran who was responsible for the resettlement of high-level defectors, affording him the unique opportunity to meet and know many of the CIA’s top spies. He worked closely with the U.S. Marshall Service and the FBI and frequently briefed Congress on the status of the program as well as the status of key defectors. In this extensive interview, Augustyn offers TCB readers an insight rarely seen on this most secretive division of the CIA.
The Cipher Brief: Tell us about your role as Chief of the National Resettlement Operations Center.
Augustyn: I took over as Director of the Defector Operations Center in 1999 and I was there until 2001. I was chief of staff to the Deputy Director of Operations and he asked me to move over to the Defector Operations Center (DOC) and let's put it this way, it was a little bit in disarray.
DOC is a very important place in many ways because they have a stable of some of the most impressive, important, influential spies in CIA history. But by the time people reach the DOC, they are viewed by many as being washed up spies who are no longer valuable. We take them through an initial debriefing and then sort out what to do with them.
Joseph Augustyn, Former Director, Defector Operations Center
The stakes are high because if you screw it up or if something goes awry it's a major problem not only for the DOC, but also for the director of CIA, Congress, etc. DOC is a place that may be secret and off the radar but still has the biggest stable of crown jewels that the agency possesses.
The Cipher Brief: How did it get started?
Augustyn: There is something called Public Law 110 that goes back to the CIA Act of 1949. Public Law 110 is important because it allows the United States government to bring into this country, for resettlement purposes, up to 100 people a year. These are people who have, as you might guess, provided exceptional service overseas and have contributed greatly to the security of the United States and so we have this law in essence, to take care of them and to reward them based on the contributions they made to our national security.
The Cipher Brief: Do you ever include extended family, as well? Is it case by case?
Augustyn: It's case by case. Most of the spies, by the way, are male. They often come with their wives and their kids. If they happen to be living with their mother-in-law or other relation, that is considered on a case by case basis as to whether we will bring them in as well. But PL-110 status is not granted to everyone who defects. They have to be people who have contributed significantly to our security. Additionally, all PL-110 cases are not equal.
The Cipher Brief: How do you become a PL-110 defector case?
Augustyn: A case officer might promise this status to a recruited asset. In the case of the recent Russian spy reported on by the media, here's a guy who worked for us for 10 years in place within Putin’s inner circle. Running a spy for 10 years is a long time. In that 10 year period the longer it goes on the greater the chance that he's going to make a mistake, or that we're going to make a mistake, or that he's going to fall under suspicion. When that happens, the CIA is morally responsible to provide for the security of our agents and we exfiltrate them. Sometimes they want to come, sometimes they don't want to come. We cannot force them, by the way, to come into the United States or to accept our offer.
In this most recent case, the spy was approached twice. The first time he didn't want to come. The second time, as more and more things came out in the press, he thought he was vulnerable and he came out. We exfiltrated them.
Sometimes the case officer will promise PL-110 resettlement status as a way to recruit someone. It’s important to remember that nobody defects because they're happy. Most of these defectors and most of these agents are not ordinary people. Most of the defectors almost without exception, are Type A personalities. They're intelligent, oftentimes egotistical, and they maintain important positions in their own government, whether as an intelligence officer or a military officer or a scientist. These people have status or hold important positions to the point where we think it's worth recruiting them.
Joseph Augustyn, Former Director, Defector Operations Center
Generally, the asset has not told his or her spouse what they’re doing. So, it's pretty dramatic when we say to them, "We're packing you up and we're moving you to the United States. We're going to take care of you." You can imagine there is already tension when the CIA brings a family to the United States. When you pack up a couple of teenagers and a wife or a husband and a mother-in-law when they're not expecting to do that, it's already problematic.
Once in the U.S. we give them new identities. We haven't done it in all cases, but we give them new identities. In some cases, we teach them English. That gets particularly difficult with kids who haven't known anything other than Russian or Chinese or Korean or whatever. Then we tell them that we're going to teach them English and we're going to put them in a new school and they’re going to have to assimilate into the American system. And by the way, the job they had in Russia or China or North Korea is not going to be like the job we get them here because it just doesn't transfer.
We give them a pretty good stipend and a nice house. After we’re done debriefing them, we move them into a new place. They get some say in where.
The Cipher Brief: Is it more complicated to relocate a defector in today’s social media age?
Augustyn: Yes. We tell the kids not to contact anybody because it's a security issue that could cost them their life. We sometimes tell a mother or husband not to contact their mother or brother back home. That life, effectively, is gone. Think about how traumatic that is.
The Cipher Brief: What do people choose more often, to relocate under a new name, or their real one and just risk being discovered?
Augustyn: Frankly, they don't have a lot of options because by the time we're ready to exfil someone it's usually to the point where they are in danger. It's a matter of talking sense to them in a way that suggests if they don't come, they could lose their lives and so could their families. It's oftentimes not much of a choice.
Some welcome it. They think they'll do well and there's always a sense of euphoria when defectors first come to the U.S. because they're still important. But after a while, reality sets in and they realize they’re in the middle of Stafford, Virginia, and they're no longer as important as they were in their own country. That sense of euphoria seems to erode. That said - and this is important - CIA is responsible for these people for the rest of their lives.
The Cipher Brief: For all of them?
Augustyn: For all of them for the rest of their lives.
The Cipher Brief: What does that mean? Does that mean mental health? Keeping them working?
Augustyn: Yes. We have several hundred open cases in the United States. There's the witness protection program in the US Marshall service where they take in a bunch of thugs and they take in the mafia types. You can get thrown out of that system if you don't comply or you don't follow the rules. That's not the case with agency defectors. When we take them, we take them for life. What that means is that DOC officers will, depending on the need, keep them as happy and as well adjusted for the rest of their lives as we possibly can.
Joseph Augustyn, Former Director, Defector Operations Center
Early on, when we bring in a high-level defector like any of those we've been reading about lately, it's a security issue. We know, for example, that Putin is very vengeful and resentful. He's coming after what he calls, "traitors." He did it with Sergei Skripal in March of 2018 when he tried to poison him. He sent people to kill Alexander Litvinenko with Polonium. Putin has a traitor list and one thing he resents, in my mind, more than anything else, is someone who he deems a traitor.
But what happens when Putin is determined to seek revenge? Or when defectors decide this wasn’t the life they wanted and want to leave the program? Read part two of our conversation with Joseph Augustyn in tomorrow’s Cipher Brief.
Read also, Dr. Shakil Afridi: How a Valuable U.S. Intelligence Asset Became a Liability only in The Cipher Brief
