From a prison cell in Sheridan, Ore., one of the highest-rankingCIA officials ever to plead guilty to espionage allegedly tried topull off another daring feat of tradecraft.
Through a series of meetings, phone calls and letters filled withencouraging words, Harold J. Nicholson enlisted his youngest son totravel the world and collect cash from Russian agents as a "pension"for his past services, federal officials said yesterday.
A former instructor at the agency's Northern Virginia-basedtraining school, known as "the farm," Nicholson already had admittedto giving the Russians the identities of some of his CIA pupils andthe station chief in Moscow in the 1990s in exchange for $300,000.
But even after Nicholson reported to prison in 1997, the formerCIA operative allegedly kept up his clandestine activities,attempting to recruit inmates and their friends to serve as go-betweens with Russian officials. Nicholson apparently was after a"kind of retirement 'pension' available to him in Russia," accordingto court papers filed by the FBI.
Those allegations helped lead to new criminal charges againstNicholson and his son Nathaniel of conspiracy, money laundering andacting as a foreign agent, in what Oregon U.S. Attorney Karin J.Immergut called "a sinister and continuing scheme."
Harold and Nathaniel Nicholson pleaded not guilty in a briefcourt appearance yesterday and were held pending further courtproceedings.
Nathaniel Nicholson, now 24, once served in the U.S. Army andworked part time at a saw company and a Pizza Hut restaurant. Heallegedly met with Russian representatives in San Francisco, MexicoCity and Lima, Peru.
Last month, he traveled to Cyprus, where he rendezvoused withforeign agents at a T.G.I. Friday's restaurant, according to theindictment unsealed yesterday. He arranged the Dec. 10, 2008,meeting through coded e-mail messages, investigators said.
As part of the plot, the FBI said, he pretended to write to agirlfriend, "Nancy," saying "It looks like I will still be able togo on that vacation! . . . Well hon, I just thought I'd say 'hi'since I had the time!"
Nathaniel collected $35,000, which he distributed to his siblingsand grandparents to help cover car repairs and household needs,according to instructions from his father, government filingsreported.
FBI agents won court approval to listen in on Nathaniel'scellphone, to intercept Internet searches and e-mail messages, toplace a tracker on his 2005 Chevrolet Cavalier and to surveil hisapartment in Eugene, Ore. They also said they watched him at theHouston airport in December 2007, while Customs and BorderProtection inspectors searched him upon his arrival from Peru.
Authorities secretly photocopied the contents of his notebook andbusiness cards at the airport, uncovering handwritten notes thatmentioned the address of the Russian embassy in Mexico City, the FBIaffidavit said. The composition book also contained explanations forthe code he used to communicate with the foreign officials,including entries that read "Friends -- Nancy" and "My name -- Dick," as well as a question about his father's capture that wouldallegedly interest the Russians, "What hints were given showing thatthe interrogators-knew about the relations before theinterrogations?"
More notes said that "Grandparents know the situation. They aretrustworthy, and will help-w/cover up."
Among the information that Nathaniel shared with Russianintelligence figures were detailed family histories and clues thathelped the FBI catch his father in 1996. His father was arrestedwhile attempting to board a flight to Zurich, where he planned tomeet a Russian agent, according to a sworn statement by FBI caseagent Jared J. Garth.
Father and son communicated frequently, in writing and in person,authorities said.
Nicholson also referred to the Second Chance Act, signed into lawin April 2008, and two other laws that could shorten his 23-yearprison sentence, in correspondence that the FBI said was intendedfor Russian handlers. Prosecutors said they suspect Nicholson, 58,was trying to arrange for a passport in the event he won earlyrelease from prison.
Nicholson turned to his son after attempts to recruit prisoninmates and their relatives failed, government officials said.Authorities reported yesterday that they had focused intensely onthe former CIA agent since 2002, when he tried to get someone withties to an Oregon inmate to communicate with Russian operatives.
Separately, Nicholson's former cellmate said that he was asked todeliver a manila envelope to Nicholson's parents upon the cellmate'srelease from prison. Nicholson took great care with the project,according to the FBI affidavit. He typed the contents of the packagethen "ripped or tore up the ribbon into small pieces and flushed itdown the cell toilet," which the cellmate said he vividly rememberedbecause he had to unclog the commode.
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