Spies more common than we likely know

This is in response to the Jan. 3 article, “Why did Russia detain former US Marine?” While I was never in the CIA, over the years, I’ve had many interactions with CIA people and even a few KGB folks. I’m a physicist, retired after 38 years from Los Alamos National Laboratory; my field is nuclear safeguards and nonproliferation. Most of my work was for and with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that’s headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

On a change of station to DOE in Washington, I learned that many federal workers in DOE and DOS had also worked at the CIA; some had even been detailed anonymously to State from the CIA. It was common for anyone associated with the IAEA to refer to it as The Agency. After arriving at DOE, I learned that, in Washington, The Agency was always assumed to be the CIA.

I lived, worked and traveled in over 50 countries; returning to LANL, I was usually questioned officially about my experiences as to whether I’d been asked strange questions about U.S. policy or my work. Occasionally, these were persons I knew to be CIA people working at LANL. I’ve no doubt the CIA interviews U.S. business persons and reporters working in other countries for information and possible assistance.

I developed and directed training courses for nuclear facility and governmental organizations on IAEA and Nonproliferation Treaty Safeguards. These were 3-week affairs with 30+ participants from almost as many countries. I realized there were always persons following our group who were in some way related to the CIA. The first time I was aware of this, I asked a colleague who’d run earlier courses about it. His advice was “Doug, let them do their job and you do yours.”

The pervasiveness of the CIA and its assets in the U.S. and around the world is vast. The statement that Mr. Whelan “would be a likely spy” might well be correct; of course, it may not be so.

DR. T. DOUGLAS REILLY LOS ALAMOS