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Widow Spy

 Marti’s story - Recent

The Liar, 2022 book by author Ben Cunningham about double-agent Karel Koecher, who passed information to the KGB about the recruitment of Aleksandr Ogorodnik. In spite of the swinging lifestyle of Koecher and his wife Hana, it took the FBI until 1984 to catch him.
1. September 18, 2022 Smithsonian TV Channel: America’s Hidden Stories: CIA Museum Declassified premiered September 18th, 2022 on the Smithsonian Channel, CIA's 75th Anniversary - streaming to be added. Marti tells her story to Iwonka Svenson
 2. October 3, 2022 CBS News Inside the CIA's museum of spycraft - Norah O'Donnell gets a private tour with CIA director William Burns, leading with Marti's story. 
At the Central Intelligence Agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, a newly-redesigned museum – accessible only to authorized persons – chronicles the successes, failures and sacrifices of intelligence operatives through the years. CBS News' Norah O'Donnell gets a private tour with CIA director William Burns and finds out how compromising human intelligence sources can put American security, and the lives of CIA agents, at-risk.
3. Cold War Conversations Part 1  May 2022  The first female CIA officer in Cold War Moscow.  Marti Peterson was the first female CIA operative to be assigned to Moscow, probably the most challenging posting during the Cold War. Don't miss the previous episode here
    Cold War Conversations Part 2  June 2022 Arrested by the KGB and taken to Lubyanka Prison.  This second episode turns to TRIGON, the code name for Alexandr Ogorodnik. He was an official in the Soviet Embassy in Bogota, Columbia recruited by the CIA

4. Interview in French Mediapart:  USA-RUSSIA: THE WAR OF THE SPIES (4/4) Cia's first spy in Moscow: Martha Peterson tells

CIA agents stationed in Moscow during the Cold War knew the "rules." On the spot, they would be constantly followed by the KGB. Like Martha Peterson, the first American woman sent to Soviet ground. For Mediapart, she tells the story behind the scenes. Patricia Neves  August 24, 2022 at 10:53 am

New York, New York (United States) – Martha Peterson, 77, could look like the character of the old lady of the Titanic. The kind to hide behind her glasses and blonde curls, an incredible story. Just listen to the sound of her voice, the excitement palpable even today when she evokes her past. As if everything had happened yesterday: as if the hands of the KGB agents, who grabbed him on July 15, 1977 in a Moscow street, were still placed on his body, on his chest, trying to contain it, tearing off his headset system secretly broadcasting the opponent's radio messages.

Première espionne de la CIA à Moscou : Martha Peterson raconte

TRIGON / TRIANON - ТРИГОН - ТРИАНОН Books and Websites

  1. The Billion Dollar Spy by David Hoffman
  2. Spycraft – The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs by Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton
  3. Spies by Marc Favreau
  4. The Confessions of a Spy: The Story of Aldrich Ames by Peter Early
  5. Secrecy and Democracy:  by Stansfield Turner
  6. The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive by Christopher Andrew
  7. Moscow Rules by Tony Mendez and Jonna Mendez - podcast interview by Greg Myre:
  8. - 'Moscow Rules': How The CIA Operated Under The Watchful Eye Of The KGB NCPR , June 10, 2019 (Morning Edition)
  9. The Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez
  10. Spy Dust by Antonio J. Mendez
  11. The C.I. Desk by Christopher Lynch C-Span podcast
  12. The Book of Honor by Ted Gup
  13. TASS is Authorized to Announce by Julian Semyenov / ТАСС Уполномочен заявить, Юлиан Семенов (in Russian)
  14. Agent Codename TRIANON  by Igor Peretrukhin / Агентурная кличка - ТРИАНОН  Автор - Игорь Перетрухин (in Russian only)
  15. Code Name: TRIGON: The Story of How I Discovered My Father was a CIA Agent by Alejandra Suarez Barcala (in Spanish)
  16. Secret History of a Russian Spy in Bogota by Alberto Donadio; Historia secreta de un espía ruso en Bogotá (in Spanish) 1 January 2014 Article on Donadio / in English
  17. First Directorate, KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin, debriefed Karl Koecher in  Prague and believed he was a double agent.
  18. Special Tasks, Lt. General Pavel A. Sudoplatov / Спецоперации. Лубянка и Кремль 1930-1950 годы, Павел Анатольевич Судоплатов; pg. 263 there is a brief comment about use of toxins, "Agents in the years of the Cold War were often equipped with poisons; Aleksandr D. Ogorodnik, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official who was a CIA agent in Moscow, committed suicide with poison in the course of his arrest in 1977."

ARTICLES

  1. Soviets Allege In Spy Killing American's Role by Kevin Klose, Washington Post Foreign Service 13 June 1978 also WP
  2. Woman linked to CIA by David Shipler New York Times 13 June 1978
  3. Gromyko Said to Warn U.S. on Russians' Arrest, AP, Washington Post 13 June 1978
  4. Spices Under Glass by Fred Barabash, Washington Post 15 June 1978
  5. Soviet Harassment a Yardstick for Ties by Kevin Klose, Washington Post Foreign Service 15 June 1978
  6. Soviet alleges CIA spies ran operation in Moscow, AP: / Washington Post June 1978
  7. The Girl Next Door Comes in From the Cold Myra MacPherson, Washington Post 21 June 1978
  8. Incredible double-life of the U.S. beauty accused of killing for the CIA, Star June-July 1978
  9. Detente - Damage Control, Newsweek Magazine 26 June 1978
  10. Episodes in a Looking-Glass War, TIME Magazine 26 June 1978
  11. Former CIA spy gives her side of lives on the line, Star News Wilmington 10 Mar 2012
  12. Russian and American spies square off  Adam Goldman, Associated Press May 17, 2013
  13. The Widow Was a Spy, Drew Magazine Spring 2016 
  14. I Work for the CIA - UK Daily Mail 19 June 2016
  15. Mom reveals her secret spy life to kids, CNN, TRIGON
  16. Spies Passing in the Night, CIA News
  17. Ex-CIA officer sheds light on 1977 spy arrests in Moscow, by J Fitsanakis
  18. TRIGON Numbers Station: The Case of Alexandr Ogorodnik by Māris Goldmanis
  19. Secret Victories of the KGB - PBS interview with KGB Colonel Igor Prelin, now author, who has appeared in Russian documentaries and the TV serial on TRIGON and Martha Peterson Shadow Ops, Codename TRIGON. Prelin: "Who told you that the Cold War is over? It is not over, it just has taken new shapes and new forms, and we are still far away, we're still on a long road till we're open to each other-our hearts and all our doors. It's a little bit early to disclose all our secrets, neither Americans nor especially Brits are anxious to do so."

Videos and Podcasts

Video made in Skara, Sweden, featuring Marti on her life in the CIA. 

  1.  The Team House: youtube, The first female CIA case officer in Moscow, Marti Peterson the Widow Spy 16 July 2021. Contains numerous added details of Marti's experiences in Laos and Moscow. Co-hosted by Jack Murphy and Dave Parke, former rangers and military affairs experts

  2. The Team House podcast of above

  3. Shadow Ops: Codename TRIGON on The American Heroes (formerly Military) Channel

  4.  CNN Special Series:  Declassified – Season 1 Episode 1 TRIGON: KGB Chess Game; background interview Marti with Mike Rogers, Wolf Blitzer, Mark Kelton, and KGB General Oleg Kalugin, introduced by Jeff Zucker
  5. The C.I. Desk by Christopher Lynch C-Span podcast
  6. Caught by the KGB, SPYCAST – International Spy Museum podcast archive
  7. SPYTEK: The Deadly Game video - to be added
  8. Inside the KGB video  - to be added
  9. BBC Channel 4 Radio podcast Spies archive
  10. Reel vs Real on The Americans TV Series, at UCLA with producer and actors, article
  11. I Spy podcast on TRIGON Foreign Policy Magazine May 2020
  12. A Female Spy in the Cold War C-Span – University of Florida, Bob Graham Center
  13. Interview PBS – WHQR Coastline Radio Broadcast
  14. SPY: The Exhibit (Interview with Martha Peterson) Franklin Institute, Jun 12, 2013
  15. 'Moscow Rules': How The CIA Operated Under The Watch of the KGB, NPR, 10 June 2019
  16. Discovery Channel 1995 – Top Secret Missions - to be added
  17. Active Measures and political disinformation, Thomas Rid / Активные мероприятия / podcasts parts 1 and 2  /  Wikipedia for Active Measures / Russian википедия Активные мероприятия
  18. TRIGON | Shortfilm | Darmstadt, February 2020 Leopold Hotz: "...this is the one I wrote and directed. It briefly shows the life of Aleksandr Ogorodnik, a Soviet diplomat who worked as a spy for the American and Colombian Government during the Cold War. His codename: TRIGON. Shot on campus of Hochschule Darmstadt Mediencampus Dieburg."
TRIGON Jazz group

Other websites which might be of interest:

Balalaika Anastasia Tyurina

Active Measures and Digital Disinformation podcast parts 1 and 2  Thomas Rid

  • A history of Active Measures with historical examples

Wikipedia - Active Measures:

Википедия - Активные Мероприятия

 

TV documentaries:

Shadow Ops series on the American Heroes Channel AMHC, Covername Trigon

CNN DECLASSIFIED Season 1 Series 1  TRIGON sample