Hope Hearst Investigation Opened

Hope Hearst, under investigation as a potential security risk, became a subject of more serious concern when information about her contacting additional subversive poets came to CIA's attention. Up to this point CIA had conducted almost no monitoring of Hearst, believing her to be a negligible risk due to her matter-of-fact attitude during Operation Shift Lock and her straightforward performance of her duties. The needless concern about her "suspect" poems that were penned or typed in Colombia, which were later determined to have a few additional readings that were of interest, but to be void of any cryptographic communicative purpose, may also have deterred Fortan from monitoring her closely.

On the first day of CIA's investigation it was discovered that Hope Hearst had additional affiliations with a number of writers who had been classified by scholar-informants and government agents as subversive. She traveled frequently, and had the previous year visited Chile to attend a meeting of poets, many of whom were known revolutionaries. Further investigation revealed that she was active as a translator, and working on an anthology of Marxist Chilean poetry to be published in English translation with facing Spanish text. This caused further concern for CIA and led CIA to step up their investigation. Translators of Russian-language or Spanish-language poetry have usually been viewed as a potential threat to U.S. security and seen as worthy of investigation on those grounds alone. A translator who had been involved in a sensitive covert operation was a particularly serious concern.

It was on Day 30 of the time period under consideration (beginning with Ed Fluegel's recruitment to serve in Operation Shift Lock) that Hope Hearst was observed to attend a poetry reading given by Adrienne Rich at the University of Cincinnati. Hearst was tailed by Agent Pipe, a recent CIA hire from the campus recruiting program. Agent Pipe was in his early 20s and dressed as a graduate student. He sat a few rows behind Hearst. After the reading, a reception was held at the house of Tom LeClair, a literature professor at the University of Cincinnati. Agent Pipe and one other CIA agent, who was independently tailing Hope Hearst, managed to infiltrate this reception, although the location was not widely advertised.

Tom LeClair was already, at this point, a writer of interest to the CIA. Research he had been doing for a forthcoming novel about the plight of Kurdish refugees had touched on the involvement of CIA and other U.S. intelligence organizations. This brought his activities to the attention of CIA.

At this reception, Hope Hearst's conversations with both Tom LeClair and Adrienne Rich were closely monitored by the agents, positioned nearby.

Hope Hearst and Adrienne Rich were heard to speak at length about a poet named Tory Dent, who was unfamiliar to the CIA agents present, although they were both of rather literary inclination. The three spoke about the restless situation in the Kosovo region of the former Yugoslavia, and Rich expressed concern that the United States not intervene in the region with military force. The three discussed the work and life of Rene Char, a poet who served as a high-ranking officer in the French Resistance.

At this point, a CIA staffer was called on a secure line by agents stationed in a van outside Tom LeClair's house to immediately obtain and read the collected works of Adrienne Rich and Tory Dent. The agent in question was, at the time, struggling through LeClair's Art of Excess, which had been assigned to him earlier. The agent complained about the additional assignment initially, but agreed to persevere after the urgency of the situation was made clear. (see attatched report)

Additionally, a partial recording of the conversation was obtained by a Kel transmitter carried by the second agents inside. This was sent, as a security precaution, to NSA cryptanalysts, since the persons engaged in conversation were considered extremely clever.

The recorded conversation turned out to be of no value, but some time and expense was wasted upon analysis of it. Stylistics enthusiasts at NSA attempted to determine, using the lexical properties of the discourse alone, which of the interlocutors was which, based on prior analysis of their prosodic styles and the lexical properties of their published writing. The analysts involved in this independently-conducted investigation used NSA computer time without prior authorization. They later attempted, in circumvention of NSA regulations on the release of research results to the public, to pseudonymously publish an academic article in a peer-reviewed journal. Fortunately for their careers, the article was rejected and, with the damage from this incident being contained, they were only issued reprimands.

Surveillance of Hope Hearst continued, but no other suspect meetings or other troublesome incidents were reported.

Two days later, on Day 32 of the time period under consideration, Agent Pipe followed Hope Hearst to the home of writer Carol Bly, to whom Hearst was paying a social visit. Agent Pipe, who parked across the street, indicated in his report that he believed she left her car and proceeded immediately into the house. The facts are, Hearst did not do this. It is evident from the course of events that Hearst had not completely overlooked the agents assigned to keep surveillance over her. She acted as if she were going indoors, but, instead, circled the house, and approached the Agent Pipe's car, a Ford Taurus, from behind. Agent Pipe indicated in his report that he was preoccupied with a cup of coffee and a particularly messy sweet roll at this point, and failed to take notice of her approach.

Hope Hearst opened the front driver's-side door through the rolled-down window and dragged Agent Pipe from the car. With skill that came as a complete surprise to Agent Pipe, she disarmed him and forced his head down on the roof of the car. Then, holding his arm behind his back, she withdrew his CIA identification from his inside breast pocket and examined it.

Traumleser report on Hope Hearst
Traumleser report interpreted