THE PSYCHOLOGY OF A MODERN SPY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706200002-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 15, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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p 1l"i c ~A?EARED
WASHINGTON POST
15 June 1985
The Psychology
Of a Modern Spy
Romanticized `James Bond' Image Cited
As More Important Than Money to Some
By Molly Sinclair and Chris Spolar
w~a- P..1 &A Writers
S
He has a romantic "Casablanca"
view of his work and a condescend-
ing vision of others. He wants con-
trol. He wants power. He also
wants money.
He thinks he can have it all by
collecting and selling information.
And even if the payback is a sum
that modern-day drug dealers
would consider small change, he
will steal and deceive for years to
play the role that he finds glamor-
pus and others envy.
No longer is ideology the primary
'force that would drive a man or wo-
man to betray his or her country.
Those who are familiar with the
quirks of behavior of the modern spy,
and those who are close to the inves-
tigation of John Anthony Walker Jr.,
say a decision to commit espionage
today often may be a choice moti-
vated by personal desires.
Walker, 47, is accused of selling
military secrets to the Soviets for
as long as 20 years and luring his
son Michael, his brother Arthur and
his friend Jerry Whitworth into the
alleged scheme.
Why John Walker may have been
'drawn into such a life style cannot
be explained in simplistic terms
such as greed, experts say. The
defendants' limited land holdings,
their modest finances and the So-
viets' reputation as cheapskates in
the shadowy world of counterintel-
ligence-not. to mention Walker's
flamboyant personality-suggest a
more complex motivation.
"Traditionally, the Russians have
been cheap," said one government
official close to the Walker case.
"They have been known to pay
$100,000 to $200,000 to some in-
dividuals for espionage work. But
there is no comparison to the drug
business ... where millions of dol-
tars change hands."
According to Navy records,
Walker was earning about $18,000
a year when he retired in 1976. At
that time, records show he owned a
house, a houseboat, some property
in South Carolina, three undevel-
oped lots in the Bahamas, a water-
>ont lot in North Carolina and an-
other one in Norfolk where he kept
the houseboat.
Most of his holdings were heavily
mortgaged, however, and two busi-
nesses he had recently opened in
Norfolk would ultimately fail.
Walker is accused of receiving
money for his espionage work, al-
though how much he accumulated is
still unclear to investigators who
are piecing together the financial
story. FBI affidavits have alleged
that Walker once received $35,000
for delivering documents. John
~l-alker's former wife, Barbara, has
been quoted as saying he received
$100,000 over 10 years from the
Russians.
Relatively small sums to some
but "a sizeable chunk of money for
him," said one official familiar with
the case. But that same official also
agrees that Walker, if he was a spy,
was probably motivated by desires
stronger than greed.
A self-made private investigator,
Walker had a flashy vision of him-
self that did not go unnoticed by
anyone who knew him. "There is a
James Bond thrill-seeking ... and
unfulfilled ambitions in addition to
the money," a second government
official said.
Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik, a Bethes-
da psychiatrist and a State Depart-
ment consultant with an expertise
in security clearance, said based on
published reports about Walker's
life, the accused spy appeared to
have "a Casablanca, romantic view
. that allows him to enjoy life by
saying he has a secret that you
don't know. There is power in that.
He can control relationships and
apparently did.
"The reason a person goes into
the business of esoionage-wheth-
er they loin an organization like the
CIA or do it on their own in a de-
tective agency-is because he likes
the whole romantic image of what a
s is about," Pieczenik said.
.He lives a life of half-secrets and
half-truths. He can live a life with-
out having to confront reality. He
doesn't have to grow up."
Dr. Louis Jolyon West, a Univer-
sity of California professor of psy-
chiatry ho hat studied intelli-
gende, ainwashing and hostage
manipulation, offered three reasons
why someone would become a spy.
"The first is some kind of loyal-
ty-loyalty to one's own country
for whom one spies or loyalty to an
ideal, which might be outside one's
own country, as was the basis for
people like Kim Philby [a Soviet spy
who operated in the post-war era],"
West said.
"The second motivation is re-
venge ... ' people who have a
grudge against their parent organ-
ization or their country. People do
this primarily to damage those
whose secrets they are selling or
betraying." .
West said the, third category is a
"bag of mixed psychological moti-
vations" that includes spying "for
thrills" as well as for financial gain.
"They often rationalize. If you
interviewed such a man he might
say he was as patriotic as someone
else and that he was no different
from someone selling grain to the
Soviet Union," West said. "I can't
make a diagnosis based on the
newspaper reports but based on
what I have read, I would say that
[ifj Walker was [a spy] ... [he was]
in the third category."
Dr. Murray Miron, a Syracuse
University psychologist who is a
consultant to the FBI in some crim-
inal cases involving espionage, said
that spies can suffer from a para-
noia best defined as "the disorder of
the control and usage of power."
Mixon said paranoia and espio-
nage are, linked in the sense that
"there is power in information, in
intelligence ... while the paranoiac
typically lives inca fearful state of
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discovery of hidden, ; sometimes
erotic impulses and other hidden
aspects of his character that he
must protect."
One way that a paranoid person
may try to protect himself, Miron
said, is to lead a life of secrecy.
"But in order to maintain the se-
crecy, he may want to turn the psy-
chological quirk of specializing in
information and intelligence that
others aren't privy to. In so doing,
that gives a person power over oth-
ers, that gives an elevated self-ag-
grandizement over others who
don't share those secrets."
Miron said that "dealing in secre-
cy can be an almost drug-like nur-
turance of paranoiac impulses."
And, he said, because those im-
pulses are contagious, "it is not dif-
ficult to understand that someone's
paranoia can be used to nurture and
to exacerbate the paranoia of oth-
ers. You need only say to someone
who is undergoing stress something
like,'Did you hear that click on the
phone just now?' and suddenly all
the impulses come pouring out."
The defense against that, Miron
said, is to have the knowledge that
"you are the one who is doing the
recording, who is in control, who is
not vulnerable to the surprise at-
tack of someone else."
Pieczenik pointed to general be-
havior theories to explain how spies
recruit other spies. Allegations that
Walker lured his closest associ-
ates-his adoring son, his quiet
brother and his studious friend-in-
to spying could be explained by
looking at how people manipulate,
he said.
For example, a spy recruiter
might enlist others by "promising
them money, by promising them a
more exciting life, by suggesting
that they could have a glamorous
life like his compared to the boring
fives they had," Pieczenik said. Of-
ten that is how a powerful person
controls others, he said.
A spy recruiter also might con-
vince others to join by telling "them
that it was a low-risk option," Piec-
zenik said. "He could say he had
been doing this for years and hadn't
been caught and wasn't likely to be
caught. And to validate his point, he
could point to others who are drug
addicts and alcoholics and who have
security clearance anyway."
American society has tolerated
manAchanges in its mores since the
1960s, Miron added. That tolerance
for a wider range of behavior-"we,
unlike Russia, have bag ladies ...
Hollywood stars with six to 10 mar-
riages ... and the Amish"-can pro-
duce spies, he said.
Pieczenik said a spy may insinuate
to his accomplices that, if they co-
operate, they will be able to have
better and more glamorous lives.
The accomplices live "rather quiet
lives while accruing assets for the
glamorous life that they might have"
later on, he said.
But that theory doesn't always
work the way the accomplice might
think, experts say. Persons who get
lured into spying with the idea of
making some extra money for a cer-
tain period of time often cannot stop.
"Anyone who thinks he can sell
low-level information and make a few
bucks and get out is fooling only him-
self," one government official said.
"Once [the Soviets] get hold of you,
they have a voracious appetite-for
high-tech information, computer
technology, military applications of
research and development, anything
at all that they can get."
Those who recruit spies are pro-
fessionals at the game of espionage,
West added. "They are very smart,"
he said. "They know how to get
their subject involved just a little
bit, doing something that seems
harmless, then they get them to do
a little more.
"They use the carrot-and-stick
approach," he said. "The carrot is
more money for doing more and the
stick is that they will expose you if
you stop.
"The bottom line is that you work
for them forever."
GuIL'.1LeJ
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A LOOK AT JOHN A. WALKER JR.'S FINANCIAL HISTORY
1966: John Anthony Walker Jr. serves as a radioman
on the USS Simon Bolivar, a nuclear submarine; he
earns $6,720 a year.
July 6, 1966: Walker buys 4.87 acres of land for
$16,025 in Ladson, S.C., a rural community about 14
miles north of Charleston, according to local court
records. Walker takes out a first mortgage of $15,400.
He also takes out a second mortgage of $4,250,
apparently to finance construction of a one-story
concrete block building that first houses a sandwich
shop, then a bar and now is headquarters for VFW Post
3433. Today the land and building have a combined
assessed value of $49,100. In a financial statement
Walker files in federal court,Walker says he still owes
$10,000 on the property and his monthly payments are
$110. VFW Post Commander Glen Houck says the post
had rented the building from Walker since 1982.
Previously it was a "rundown red-neck bar,' he adds.
1968: Walker's estimated annual salary is now $8,700
July 1968: Walker buys two lots in the Bahamas,
according to Vernon Curtis, a real estate agent in
GeorgeTown, a settlement on the island of Exuma
northwest of Nassau. Curtis gives this account of
Walker's transactions: Walker purchases the land sight
unseen for about $1,200 per lot. After personally
inspecting the properties in November 1968 he swaps
them for two others in the same area. The price for the
new lots is $2,995 each. Walker makes a small down
payment on the lots and pays them off in about 10
years. Today the lots, still undeveloped, would sell for
about $10,000 each. Says Curtis: "It was a good
investment."
June 23, 1975: Walker
Enterprises of Virginia
Beach is incorporated with
Arthur Walker as president
and John Walker as
secretary-treasurer. The
brothers have an
arrangement with local car
dealers to install radios and
stereo equipment in cars.
But the business doesn't do
well, and the IRS places a
$28,207 lien against the
firm for failure to pay its
1979 taxes. The charter is
dissolved in 1983.
July 15, 1975: Walker
buys a third lot in Exumas
in the Bahamas for $5,393,
according to records there.
July 21, 1975: VValker buys a canal-front lot in
Colington Harbour, a development in North Carolina's
Outer Banks area. Court records suggest Walker pays
$5.500 in cash for the undeveloped lot. Current
assessed value for the lot is $6,500. Walker pays an
annual membership fee of $75.
president and Arthur Walker as secretary-treasury
Laurie Robinson, his former partner and now full owner
says the business now grosses about $120,000 a year
Jan. 30, 1981. Associated Agents is incorporated with
John Walker as president and Arthur Walker as
secretary-treasurer The company also operates as
Electronic Counter-Spy, court records show. Walker,
through Associated Agents and Counter-Spy, helps
companies guard against industrial espionage
1982: John Walker pays Arthur Walker $12,000 cash
for classified material relating to national defense,
according to Arthur Walker's statement to the FBI
Arthur had obtained the papers from the VSE Corp , a
Norfolk defense contractor, where he had been working
since Februrary, 1980, according to an FBI affidavit
1983: Walker borrows money from the Navy Federal
Credit Union to buy a 1980 Chrysler New Yorker,
according to court records. Today he owes $800 on the
car, which is assessed at $6,500.
John Walker gives his son, Michael, $1.000 in
exPI1nge for documents received earlier, according to
an FBI affidavit.
May 20, 1985: John
Walker is arrest
d
d h
e
, an
is
February 25, 1976: Walker borrows $6,400 from the son, Michael, is arrested
Navy Federal Credit Union, Norfolk, to buy a $8,900 two days later. Brother,
houseboat with a 250-horsepower engine. Walker pays Arthur, is arrested May 29,
off his four-year loan in two. On the loan application and friend, Jerry Whitworth,
W
lk
li
0
0
a
er
sts $1
8,
00 in assets, including 10 is arrested June 3. All are
100-ounce bars of silver, the Norfolk house, the South charged with espionage.
Carolina property and the North Carolina lot, and debts
of $117,000. June 4-5, 1985: IRS seizes
seizes all of Walker's
March 3, 1976: Walker buys a ocean-front lot in property to satisfy tax lien
Norfolk a short distance from his home. Court records for $252,488 for
indicate the property costs $52,700 and he takes out a unreported income since
$30,000 mortgage. The mortgage is satisfied August 1979.
13, 1981 The property is now assessed at $52,000.
Walker's houseboat is kept at the lot. John A. Walker Jr.
June 22, 1976: Barbara and John Walker divorce; the
agreement calls for Walker to pay his ex-wife a $10,000
cash settlement and $500 a month in child support.
She also receives some property in Florida which the
y
1969-1971: According to an FBI affidavit, Walker takes jointly owned while he receives the South Carolina and
several trips to the Washington D.C. area and drops a North Carolina properties.
paper bag containing what is believed to be classified
documents. On one trip he collects a paper bag
containing $35,000, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit said this information was provided by a
Nov. 5, 1974: Walker and his wife buy a house at
8524 Old Ocean View Rd., Norfolk, assuming a
$45,000 loan. The balance on the loan today is
$40,194 and monthly payments are $440. After the
couple divorces in 1976, the house is conveyed to John
Walker. The house is now assessed at $80,000.
Feb. 25, 1975: A business started by Walker, the
American Association of Professional Sales Persons, is
incorporated. The business is dissolved on June 1,
1979.
July 1976: Walker retires from the Navy after 21 years
with an annual salary of about $18,000. He now
receives retirement pay of about $14,500 annually.
May 12, 1977: Walker borrows money from the Navy
Federal Credit Union to buy a new single-engine
Grumman American aircraft. Today, Walker still owes
about $11,000 on the plane, which is assessed at
$16,500. The plane is kept at Norfolk International
Airport
Nov. 7, 1977: Walker borrows money from the Bank of
Virginia-Eastern to buy two outboard motors. The loan is
paid off Feb. 2, 1979, court records show.
Oct. 21, 1980: Confidential Reports, a private detective
firm, is incorporated; John Walker is named as
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