120 AMERICAN SPYManuel often requested an advance on his salary, a clear warning sign that
money was maybe too much of an incentive. When I refused his requests for
a pay advance, I’d tell him, “Un mariachi pagado toca mal,” meaning “A prepaid
mariachi plays badly.” Although the expression is Mexican, Manuel under-
stood my point. The folk song “Guantanamera” is less likely to disappoint if
you wait to pay until after the job is done. I wasn’t going to play along with
his wishful interpretation of the CIA acronym: Cash in Advance.
Always wearing my “CI hat,” just as we had been instructed during
training at the Farm, I continued to vet Manuel. I arranged a rather hostile
polygraph session in order to pressure him to admit the truth about a
number of things he had reported over the years. I did not and do not
believe in the magical powers of the polygraph, particularly with a patho-
logical liar—or trained agent, like those from Cuba and East Germany
who passed CIA polygraph exams—but “the box” can be a useful tool
with someone who believes it actually works. During the polygraph exam,
I truthfully told Manuel I knew he had just lied about a particular question,
and so he admitted he had lied about that particular report. But to my sur-
prise, when asked, he also admitted making up the entire Arabs-casing-of-
the-embassy story. It never happened. Manuel knew tensions between the
United States and Libya were high, and he correctly surmised that a report
like this would be well received and well compensated.
I met Manuel a few days later on the street and terminated him as an
agent. Unhappy with him for so many reasons, I also took an unorthodox
and unsanctioned measure to ensure he never wasted the CIA’s time again.
Although I had not recruited him, I had handled him for over a year, and
we had a good relationship. Manuel had his hand in a number of impor-
tant station operations, so I was very pissed off. I had him sign a statement
that I’d typed up in Spanish, in which he agreed that he would not reveal
his relationship with the CIA to anyone, ever. Moreover, he would never
contact the CIA again in the future, for any reason. I told him that I would
know if he did either, no matter how far in the future it may be. Finally, the
document said that if Manuel ever violated this agreement, the CIA would
take extreme measures against him and his wife and children. A visibly
shaken Manuel signed the agreement, and we shook hands and said adios.
The agreement, of course, was completely bogus and unauthorized. It
was something I came up with on my own as a means of ensuring Manuel