Subsequently, the United States viewed the ICJ with active hostil-
ity and distrust and has never reinstated its acceptance of the optional
clause. After the civil war, Nicaragua formally withdrew its ICJ case
in 1991, thereby abandoning all claims to the judgment. It did so only
under intense pressure from the George H. W. Bushadministration,
which made future U.S. aid to Nicaragua contingent on renunciation
of the case. See alsoNATIONALSECURITYDECISION DIREC-
TIVE 17.NICHOLSON, HAROLD (1950– ).Harold Nicholson was an officer
of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) arrested by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on 16 November 1996 for spying for
Russia. Nicholson is reputed to be the highest ranking CIA officer
charged with espionageto date. During the period of his espionage,
he passed a wide range of highly classified information to Russia, in-
cluding biographic information on every CIAcase officer trained be-
tween 1994 and 1996 and highly sensitive counterintelligencein-
formation that included a summary report of interviews with Aldrich
Ames, another CIAemployee who spied for the Russians. He also
compromised the identities of U.S. and foreign businesspeople who
provided information to the CIA.
According to investigators, he “hacked” into the CIA computer
system and provided the Russians with every secret that he could
steal. Nicholson received approximately $120,000 from Russian in-
telligence. On 3 March 1997, Nicholson pleaded guilty, admitting he
had been a Russian spy. On 6 June 1997, he was sentenced to 23
years and seven months, a much reduced sentence because of his co-
operation with the investigators regarding the material he had com-
promised.9/11 ATTACKS.See TERRORIST ATTACKS OF 11 SEPTEMBER
2001.9/11 COMMISSION.See NATIONALCOMMISSION ON TERROR-
ISTATTACKS UPON THE UNITED STATES.NIXON, RICHARD MILHOUS (1913–1994).The 34th president of
the United States between 1969 and 1974. Acontroversial politicianNIXON, RICHARD MILHOUS• 14305-398 (2) Dictionary.qxd 10/20/05 6:27 AM Page 143