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N.M. a place for spies
By Kathaleen Roberts
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE — When retired KGB agents visit Santa Fe, they pose for a picture next to the Archbishop Lamy statue at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis.
"Santa Fe is considered sacred ground by the KGB," said E.B. Held, author of the recently published book, "A Spy's Guide to Santa Fe and Albuquerque (University of New Mexico Press, 2011, $19.95).
A retired CIA clandestine operations officer, Held has compiled a history of New Mexico espionage that traces some of the most notorious spying events in U.S. history. He will be in Santa Fe this weekend to discuss his book.
Santa Fe first entered that shadowy world when Zook's drug store, now the Häagen-Dazs on the Plaza, formed the staging ground for the 1940 KGB assassination of Leon Trotsky in Mexico City.
"That was total happenstance," Held said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C., where he now works for the Department of Energy. "The chief of staff of the assassination team was a KGB agent of Lithuanian background. His family was in the drug store business. So when he was looking for a safe place across the border," he went to the pharmacy.
The Zook family was of Lithuanian descent, Held added. "Zook's was the planning venue and the safe haven."
Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: N.M. a place for spies
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state...#ixzz1F1bOCGe4
http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/photo/27551-spy-house.html
By Kathaleen Roberts
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE — When retired KGB agents visit Santa Fe, they pose for a picture next to the Archbishop Lamy statue at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis.
"Santa Fe is considered sacred ground by the KGB," said E.B. Held, author of the recently published book, "A Spy's Guide to Santa Fe and Albuquerque (University of New Mexico Press, 2011, $19.95).
A retired CIA clandestine operations officer, Held has compiled a history of New Mexico espionage that traces some of the most notorious spying events in U.S. history. He will be in Santa Fe this weekend to discuss his book.
Santa Fe first entered that shadowy world when Zook's drug store, now the Häagen-Dazs on the Plaza, formed the staging ground for the 1940 KGB assassination of Leon Trotsky in Mexico City.
"That was total happenstance," Held said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C., where he now works for the Department of Energy. "The chief of staff of the assassination team was a KGB agent of Lithuanian background. His family was in the drug store business. So when he was looking for a safe place across the border," he went to the pharmacy.
The Zook family was of Lithuanian descent, Held added. "Zook's was the planning venue and the safe haven."
Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: N.M. a place for spies
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state...#ixzz1F1bOCGe4
http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/photo/27551-spy-house.html
