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177. Traitor or CIA Double Agent? The Richard Craig Smith Story

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Manage episode 458160857 series 2926123
Content provided by Justin Black. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Justin Black or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://ppacc.player.fm/legal.

In this solo episode, Justin share some of his own research. Today he discusses the very unusual case of Richard Craig Smith. Craig was a former army counterintelligence agent who was arrested in April, 1984 for passing classified information to a KGB officer in Japan on several occasions. There are two very different versions of Craig's story. He did meet with a Soviet intelligence agent. He did give him information on American double agents and he was paid for this information. Craig did not dispute this during the trial, but his defense was that he'd done it at the behest of case officers from the CIA who had approached him and recruited him as a double agent against the KGB. If that was so, why was he ever brought to trial in the first place? Because the CIA did not claim him as one of their recruited agents. So, either he was a spy and a traitor... or he was a double agent left out in the cold by his own country.
Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101
Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Grayman Briefing Classified
Use code GBCSpycraft to save 20% on your subscription.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Support the show

  continue reading

204 episodes

Artwork
iconShare
 
Manage episode 458160857 series 2926123
Content provided by Justin Black. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Justin Black or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://ppacc.player.fm/legal.

In this solo episode, Justin share some of his own research. Today he discusses the very unusual case of Richard Craig Smith. Craig was a former army counterintelligence agent who was arrested in April, 1984 for passing classified information to a KGB officer in Japan on several occasions. There are two very different versions of Craig's story. He did meet with a Soviet intelligence agent. He did give him information on American double agents and he was paid for this information. Craig did not dispute this during the trial, but his defense was that he'd done it at the behest of case officers from the CIA who had approached him and recruited him as a double agent against the KGB. If that was so, why was he ever brought to trial in the first place? Because the CIA did not claim him as one of their recruited agents. So, either he was a spy and a traitor... or he was a double agent left out in the cold by his own country.
Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101
Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Grayman Briefing Classified
Use code GBCSpycraft to save 20% on your subscription.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Support the show

  continue reading

204 episodes

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