Cryptonym: AEMUSICAL-1
A memo in November, 1961, mentioned that AEMUSICAL was formerly TIDRAMA-1. The Chief, FI/Division D, William K. Harvey, and Anita Potocki, also FI/D, were involved in investigating the defections of Mitchell and Martin.
104-10219-10122: MEMO-MICHAEL SUMAN.
10/27/59-11/59: TIDRAMA-1 (later AEMUSICAL) had a prolonged visit to Michael Suman at his LA home. Michael Suman and TIDRAMA-1 went to school together at Sierra Madre. Suman and professor Earl Jacobs were working on "vacuum equipment" that the Air Force was interested in.
10/29/59 memo: Grandquist writes that Jane Roman called him as she was trying to find out TIDRAMA's addresses in the US. Among those listed as being the people TIDRAMA-1 expected to see on the U.S. west coast in late October, early November of 1959 were Grace Blair, a cousin, and Mrs. Alice Floyd, his mother.
104-10219-10130: EXTRACTS FROM MEETING- (CONSISTS OF CONTACT REPORT PREPARED BY LESLIE RATY, C/WE/1.
09/06/61: Attachment to Memo of 13 Oct. 1961 from Mr. James R. Hunt, DC/CI to Chief, FI/Div. D.: ..."The material comes from a single source, my close friend, M. C. Suman. Suman served with NSA at Far East Headquarters as a crypto clerk during 1953-54. During that time he became closely associated with Bernon F. Mitchell and William Martin, especially with Martin who was rather a good friend of his. You will recall that Martin and Mitchell, later employed as statisticians with NSA, fled to the Soviet Union in June of 1960 and in September of 1960 appeared in Moscow to denounce the U.S...Suman was recently contacted by ONI and interviewed several times by their agents regarding his knowledge of Martin and Mitchell...He has confided to me several interesting facts regarding these interviews. ONI admitted to him that their main interest in continuing to investigate the case was to uncover possible contacts with the Soviets or others in the U.S. before they fled to Russia. They have been unable to determine whether or not the men had passed secrets to Soviet agents in the U.S. while they were still employed by NSA and do not know exactly where or how they arranged for their escape from the U.S., other than that they made a clandestine trip to Mexico during the winter of 1959 at which time the arrangements may have been made through intermediaries there. Furthermore, they had no proof that either of the men were actually communist sympathizers...ONI explained to Suman that they believed Mitchell to have been primarily involved and that Martin had been drawn along with him because of his close association and perhaps blackmail. ONI took a series of letters which Suman had received from Martin and eventually returned them after study..."
104-10219-10130: EXTRACTS FROM MEETING- (CONSISTS OF CONTACT REPORT PREPARED BY LESLIE RATY, C/WE/1.
09/06/61: Attachment to Memo of 13 Oct. 1961 from Mr. James R. Hunt, DC/CI to Chief, FI/Div. D.: Memo for the record: Subject: Meeting with AEMUSICAL/1: "(Consists of Contact Report prepared by Leslie Raty, C/WE/1 - Sweden, covering his trip to New York on 28 August 1961 and contact at 10 a.m...to see Mr. Schmidt for take over from the FBI of agent AEMUSICAL...I was introduced to A/1 as Mr. Ryman from another government agency in Washington, who would be taking over the case now that A/1 was going abroad for an extended period...I told him that we were sorry to hear about the death of his mother...He said he was leaving...31 August...for Copenhagen...In Copenhagen, he was going to meet with a Mr. Sidney Glasier, an American who is serving as Director of the Eleanor Roosevelt Cancer Foundation and who is going to put up most of the money for the production of the film 'Hamlet' which A/1 expects to make while in Denmark. A/1, Glasier and Robert Breen...have formed a financial corporation to provide the money to back the film...A/1 intends to go to Stockholm where his girlfriend, Yvonne Anderson, is arranging an apartment for him...A/1 states that Yvonne Anderson is now working in the Swedish Foreign Ministry at a classified job dealing with the case of Swedes who have been trapped in East Germany...I then went with him over the report that he had previously given the FBI on the Martin and Mitchell case. This report had come from Michael Krepin Suman, address 2248 Highbury Avenue, East Los Angeles, California, who is presently a physics teacher at Los Angeles State University...The report is attached..." (CONTINUED BELOW).
104-10219-10117: MICHAEL C. SUMAN-MUTUAL CONTACT OF WILLIAM HAMILTON MARTIN AND OF= = = = =.
11/03/61: Memo from William K. Harvey, Chief, FI/Division D to James R. Hunt, Jr., Deputy Chief, CI Staff: Subject: Michael C. Suman (201-308566) Mutual Contact of William Hamilton and of AEMUSICAL: ..."Neither the biographic data on Suman contained therein, nor his close association with both Martin and Bernon Ferguson Mitchell were known to us hitherto. Neither were we aware of his apparently extensive correspondence with Martin...We see little point in attempting to discourage AEMUSICAL from passing this information to the Soviets, both on basis of his past performance in reporting, and because the KGB undoubtedly already is aware of Suman's relationship to Martin, Mitchell and AEMUSICAL...3. For your convenience we are forwarding for your information as Enclosure A, herewith, a reconstructed chronological outline of the KGB knowledge of the relationship between AEMUSICAL - Subject - Martin and Mitchell. Enclosure A is based upon information contained in those documents on the case, which were made physically available to this office for review through the efforts of Mr. Hal Granquist, WE/CE, who holds the actual 201 file on this case, including all operational reporting beginning with January 1961. Our review, therefore, was limited to the three-volume TIDRAMA Operational Files, covering the period 1957 through December 1960, which files were found in the custody of Mrs. Gertrude Wacker of SR/CI/RED...4. Your particular attention is invited to the fact that review of the TIDRAMA Operational Files revealed that the bulk of the reporting on this case, including the identities of TIDRAMA-1/AEMUSICAL's personal acquaintances, contacts, and operational reporting targets on whom he has passed information to the KGB, have never been indexed into RID indices..." (CONTINUED BELOW).
104-10219-10117: MICHAEL C. SUMAN-MUTUAL CONTACT OF WILLIAM HAMILTON MARTIN AND OF= = = = =.
11/03/61: Memo from William K. Harvey, Chief, FI/Division D to James R. Hunt, Jr., Deputy Chief, CI Staff: "5. It is obvious from even a relatively superficial review of these materials, that AEMUSICAL has never been questioned in detail by his CIA case officers on his relationship with or to Suman and a number of other individuals, whose names appear throughout this correspondence. Neither does he appear to have been debriefed in depth on the substance of the information he passed to the Soviets on such persons during the individual meetings he had with the KGB, much less regarding the reaction of the KGB handler to any of the names, or the follow-up queries put to him by the Soviet Case Officer orally during the course of any particular meeting when such information was passed...Under the circumstances, you may wish to consider undertaking a thorough CE review of the entire AEMUSICAL case, in order that a detailed debriefing of the agent may be undertaken upon his return to the United States, and prior to his re-transfer to the control of the FBI. We note that despite indications to the field that the desk was preparing traces on AEMUSICAL's multitudinous contacts, the files reviewed reflect the results of such tracing efforts on only a small proportion of the agent's associates and contacts..." - - - Pages 5-8: Enclosure A: Reconstructed Chronology of KGB Knowledge of Michael C. Suman's Connection with AEMUSICAL and with ZRGRACE Principals: AEMUSICAL's KGB handler was Slabov. CIA case officer was Timothy F. Noggle. Mention of TIDRAMA-3. AEMUSICAL was previously TIDRAMA-1. Was in contact with Ivan Borisov, KGB resident of Stockholm, in 1957. TIDRAMA/AEMUSICAL's trip to California in October-November 1959. Mention of contacts in California.
01/01/64: Note from WE/1/CE-Granquist to Mrs. Potocki, FI/D: "Anita: In view of arrival of recent correspondence on the AEMUSICAL case, I think it would be best if we retained the current files here at all times. However, I have made extracts from the only documents in my files which refer to Suman, and have included enough to make the extracts intelligible. Hope they are satisfactory. I would suggest that you try to get a look at Subject's file (i.e. AEMUSICAL/1's file) in CI/OA. The investigative reports may have something on Suman. The investigative material I have does not mention him except in one fleeting context: A psychological assessment we made on A/1 mentioned that among the people with whom A/1 had been particularly closely associated during his past was Suman. Merely mentions the name. No info on Suman. If you need additional support, suggest you check with Les Raty, Swedish Desk, 1612 I, I-2619."