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Cryptonym: AEASPIC

Definition:

David Tzitzichvili aka David de Panaskhet was a surveillance and sabotage agent and included in the planning stages of at least one unfinished plot for assassination in the Congo.

Status:

Documented

Discussion:

He is a stateless former citizen of the USSR also known under the cryptonym WIROGUE. The Central Intelligence Agency first contacted Tzitzichvili in 1958 after he was a lead regarding him was developed. The Agency Station in Frankfurt, Germany recruited him in 1959 for use in their REDSOX program targeting the Soviet Union with illegal operations. He later serves the CIA's Technical Services and African Divisions and eventually William Harvey borrows him for sabotage operations in the Congo.

Sources:

104-10182-10057: WIROGUE, Subject: David, Jan 8-10, 1959

An extensive psychological profile that provides information gathered during interviews of David Tzitzichvili. He was born in Georgia on 7/12/18 within a family of noble blood. They had to flee when the Bolsheviks took over. Paragraph 34 describes him as a "con man" that is imaginatively capable of talking himself out of tight situations.

104-10182-10057: WIROGUE, (VOL III).

3/25/59 REDSOX Spotting and Assessment Report reviews AMASPIC/David Tzitzichvili, puts him through a polygraph/LCFLUTTER procedures and determines he is not lying on any matters of importance.

104-10182-10057: WIROGUE, Project Outline WIROGUE/1

The referenced document states, "He was recruited in April 1959 by the Frankfurt Station, for a REDSOX operation...He was assigned the crypto AEASPIC."

104-10182-10052: CIA File on WIROGUE, Cable to Director, September 20, 1961

The cable offers that ex-REDSOX candidate AEASPIC met with an Agency source on his return from Brussels to France, it also reveals Georg Reiner, one of the false names used by Tzitzichvili. The lower portion of the document states David Tzitzichvili, his biographical information, and further confirms the identity of AEASPIC.

104-10182-10004: CIA FILE ON WIROGUE

1959: "David" is identified as cryptonym AEASPIC, and a faintly depicts his pseudonym as Ernest O. Maycrink - this name is reprinted on page 90, next to the date 8/20/59. Page 86 indicates that his employment in France was as a auto mechanic assistant, a nightwatchman, a welder and a lathe operator. His languages were native French, "well" in German, good in Georgian, and fair in English and Spanish (p. 83).

104-10182-10057: WIROGUE, (VOL III).

1959-1960: In April 1959, AEASPIC (later WIROGUE-1) was recruited by the Frankfurt Station for a REDSOX operation. He was brought to the DOB (in the USA) via a HBRAINBOW flight. "Subject was trained in the AESENTINEL project for a black mission into the USSR as a member of a REDSOX team. This project was postponed for a year. In the interim, he was assigned to TSD (Technical Services Division), where he was employed at a covert site, involving the cataloguing of specific information from East German documents, and developing and/or improving tools and methods for picking locks. On 17 June 1960, it was decided that Project AESENTINEL would not be carried out."