Harold James Nicholson
Harold James”Jim” Nicholson is a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer.
In 1990, he was made CIA Chief of Station in Bucharest, Romania. He stayed in this capacity until 1992, after that he was transferred to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where he served as the Deputy Chief of Station/Operations Officer and met with targeted Russian officials whom he looked to recruit. He stayed in this position for two years.
In 1995, Nicholson was subjected to a polygraph test where he failed on the following questions
“Are you hiding involvement with a Foreign Intelligence Service?”
“Have you had unauthorized contact with a Foreign Intelligence Service?”
“Since 1990, have you had contact with a Foreign Intelligence Service that you are trying to hide from the CIA?”
“Are you trying to hide any contact with a Foreign Intelligence Service since 1990?”
The polygraph examiner also had to warn Nicholson to stop taking deep breaths during control questions; a tactic often used to manipulate the test.
Nicholson was convicted of selling US intelligence to Russia for $300,000 and was sentenced to 23 years seven months of imprisonment on June 5, 1997. Prosecutors believed that he had sold the identities of all US intelligence officers stationed in Russia, as well as the identities of his trainees at the CIA school, commonly known as “the farm”.
