Spy Conference to Present Tragic Story of an American Double Agent

Raleigh, NC, February 16, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Double agents are a staple of classic counterintelligence offensive operations. Having an intelligence service believe that it has successfully recruited a spy within the ranks of its targeted adversary allows the controlling service to manipulate the double agent in support of a myriad of operational objectives. A well designed and run double-agent operation morphs into the spy versus spy drama played out within the proverbial wilderness of mirrors.

Brian Kelley, who spent more than four decades as an operative working inside US counterintelligence, played the double agent game against America’s adversary services for most of his career. He became aware of a tragic story involving a former high-ranking Soviet defector who became a successful, decade long, American-run double agent targeted against the KGB.

While on a sanctioned operational mission outside the United States, the double agent was accidentally killed by KGB kidnappers. Using recently released information, Kelley has pieced together the incredible story of this American patriot, re-creating the role he played as a double agent and how this operation played against the backdrop of the period and the involvement of many of the key intelligence personalities, which he will discuss during the Fifth Annual Raleigh Spy Conference March 26-28, 2008 at the North Carolina Museum of History in downtown Raleigh (www.raleighspyconference.com).

The highly controversial operation involved both the CIA and the FBI; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP); touched on American in-place recruited Soviet Intelligence Officers codenamed “Top Hat”, “Fedora”, and “Kitty Hawk”; and involved Presidents Ford and Carter along with Henry Kissinger. The 10-year-old mystery was finally unlocked through information obtained from a prominent KGB defector. To conclude the presentation, Kelley will identify the American official who turned out to be the final player in this amazing story. Just who this US official was will come as a stunning surprise.

To augment Kelley’s presentation, retired RCMP officer Dan Mulvenna will present the Canadian side of the story. Mulvenna was a Mountie during the time that the double agent traveled to Canada to meet his KGB handler. He will provide the inside details of what transpired on the Canadian side, and will demonstrate the link between this case and one of the biggest mole hunts in the history of the RCMP.

This classic double-agent operation will cover all aspects of the counterintelligence discipline, including the application of classic tradecraft, the projected role of a deep cover spy operating as an “illegal,” and creative examples of operational deception.

For more information, visit www.raleighspyconference.com.

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