Preklad do cestiny bude brzi
From: "Dick Smith"
To: js322@columbia.edu
Subject: Koecher is no 007, he is more like Dr.No.
Date sent: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 17:08:08 PDT
Gentleman,
I found story about Koecher that was published in B.L. very
interesting but a bit inaccurate.
The Koechers are older than stated. Karl was born on September 21, 1934
in Bratislava and moved to Prague with his parents in 1939. He joined the
Communist Party in 1958 and the Czechoslovak Intelligence Service in 1962.
In 1963, he met Hana Pardamcova (born on January 8, 1944 in Tabor) who
was also member of the Communist Party. They got married few months
later. Early in 1965, Karl and Hana were sent via Austria on their spy
mission. Here they applied for entry to USA and arrived to New York on
December 4, 1965. Karl started to work for Radio Free Europe in 1967
and Hana was employed as a laboratory assistant and later became a diamond
appraisal for a firm that was dealing in precious stones. Karl , while
working for RFE also studied at Columbia University and earned Ph.D. At
the department for Soviet studies, one of his professor was Zbiegniew
Brzezinsky who later became an adviser to President J. Carter. Karl also
worked as an assistant professor at Wagner College.
Karl had a huge ego and spent considerable time in the intellectual circles
of czech émigrés. He also new how to use his jewish heritage by joining
YMHA (Young Men's Hebrew Association) and when he and Hana had difficulties
obtaining US citizenship because of their membership in the Communist Party,
Karl engaged help of Mrs. Bella Abzug. She was a member of U.S.Congress
at that time. In 1973 he passed security test and being fluent in four
languages, he worked as
translator for CIA. His office was in Rosslyn, Virginia and here he came
across documents about A. Ogorodnik which later led o his arrest and
death. Hana as a diamond trader traveled all
over the world and used this as opportunity to pass information gathered by
Karl to the Czechoslovak Intelligence Service.
At his time the Koechers were also very active in the sex clubs of N.Y. and
Washington D.C. In the book "Spy vs. spy ", Ronald Kessler writes in
great details about Koechers sexual activities. Here is an example from
the chapter "The Swinging Mole":
When asked about Koechers, the organizer of the sex parties
said: "I remember them quite well. I found them an interesting couple. He
was a professor. She was a diamond merchant. Strikingly beautiful. Warm,
sweet,ingratiating. Incredibly orgasmic. I went to bed with her several
times. But I thought Karl was a bit strange. I thought he took some kind
of special drug. He was always naked at the parties. Usually people keep
their clothes on at least some of the
time, but he was always walking around naked. And he always had an
erection."
By the end of 1975 Karl got promoted and transferred to CIA office in New
York. In 1976 he was asked by Czech Government to testify against Havel and
other dissidents while he was in Prague under assumed name. Someone at the
CIS thought that he had became a double agent so they wanted him to go
public and accuse the dissidents for being CIA spies. Karl declined, since
he was not ready to give up the good life, he and Hana had in the USA, not
yet. He also assured his superiors that he is a loyal communist and a
month later, he was decorated by the Czechoslovak Government for ten
years of excellent service.
CIA started to suspect Karl for "leaks" and was giving him less and less
important assignments. This is the reason why he had not have a contact
with the Czech headquarters for three years. About that time Karl also
became a regular drug user. In 1982, he met Gunther Russbacher (future
Reyellen husband) who was going to Czechoslovakia to acquire a shipment of
small arms and plastic explosive.
Shortly after, FBI started to watch Karl and Hana. Their apartment was
bugged and telephone tapped. The agents that were listening to their
conversations could not believe the amount of physical and mental abuse
Hana who appeared quite sophisticated, received from Karl. When FBI found
that Koechers sold their apartment and were ready to skip USA, they
apprehended them and told them if they tell the truth, they will be allowed
to leave the country. After confessing the Koechers were let go, however
on November 27 1984 a few hours before their departure for Zurich, Karl
and Hana were arrested and put in jail.
Koecher had a terrible time in prison. Not only he did not like their
cooking but he was afraid for his own life. Twice a black muslim
radical tried to kill him, once with a pair of scissors and the second time
with a knife made from a can opener. Here he also met an old Austrian
hochstapler Oscar LeWinter who was serving time for drug trafficking.
Koecher hired lawyer Robert Fierer, whom he
knew from Bat Mitzvah, to get him and Hana out of jail. Hana was
released on 1.2 million dollars bail, raised by her friends and sex
partners. Karl also told Fierer to go to Prague and talk with Hana's
father, Josef Pardamec, who was a middle ranking aparatchik in the
Communist Party. Pardamec and Fierer together approached president Gustav
Husak for help. They got Husak's promise that
he will personally take up this matter with Konstantin Chernenko and the
whole thing ended up on the desk of Vladimir Kryuchkov, the head of
intelligence at KGB.
Meanwhile U.S lawyer Alan Dershowitz (famous for defending O.J. Simpson)
was working with East German lawyer, Wolfgang Vogel (famous for arranging
switch of the U.S. pilot, Gary Powers with Soviet spy Rudolph Abel) for
a release of Jewish rights activist Anatoly Shcharansky (today Natan
Sharansky) who was in jail. When K. Cernenko had died and M. Gorbachev
came in with "glasnost", things started looking up for refusnik Sharansky.
Soviets finally freed him and to minimize the impact, KGB asked for
the release of spies, Karl and Hana Koecher, one other Czech who was in
U.S. jail for drug trafficking and falsifying immigration papers and one
Russian. With the exemption that the swap took place on the famous
Glienicker Bridge where Powers was exchanged for Abel and that Sharansky,
the human rights activist was finally freed, there was nothing famous
about the other four that entered under the red Soviet flag with hammer and
sickle into East Germany.
Before leaving, Karl and Hana were stripped of their US citizenship and
forbidden to ever enter USA again, he was also given life sentence and she
would be prosecuted for spying if they ever return. In addition, Koechers
spent 200 000 on lawyers and left behind another 200 000 dollars worth of
unpaid legal bills. [CSFR refused to oay on the ground of overcharging - red]
While Sharansky joined his wife, Avital, in Jerusalem,
Karl and Hana got hero's welcome from government officials in Prague.
Koecher got one of senior positions at the Czechoslovak Academy of
Sciences, (CSAV), where he worked with future politicians, Mr.Vaclav Klaus
and Mr.Vladimir Dlouhy. Also for their dedication to the cause of communism
, Karl and Hana got from the Communist Party and the State a brand new
Volvo car and a new villa on outskirts of Prague in which they live happily
ever after.
best regards,
Richard C. Smith
Nezavisle ceske elektronicke noviny ***