Karl František Koecher (21 September 1934 in Bratislava) is a Czech mole known to have penetrated the CIA during the Cold War. Early life Born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, his father was a Viennese-born Czech and his mother Irena, a Slovak Jew. As the son of an Anglophile, Koecher gained his language skills from an early age attending an English grammar school and later French lyceum before the war. Prior to his entry to university, his anti-state activities in his teen years attracted the attention of the Czechoslovakia State Security after the Communists took over in Czechoslovakia in 1948. As remembered by some of his classmates, from early age he showed strong analytical capabilities, high intelligence and individualistic nature. Due to his unlikeable character, in later years, his former classmates would not invite him on annual class meetings. He studied physics and mathematics at Charles University as well as film at the Academy of Performing Arts. After university he tried a few jobs including a teacher, a reporter for state television, and a radio comedy writer. He became a radio comedy writer and was allegedly frequently scrutinized by the Communist security forces for his satire that mocked the regime (this turned out to be a pre-planned "cover story"). He joined the Communist Party in 1960, and the Czechoslovak intelligence service in 1962 using the codename Pedro. Czechoslovakia State Security (StB) career Koecher claimed that constant harassment from the Czechoslovakia State Security (StB) due to his history of anti-state and anti-social behavior, ruined his different careers and in order to end the harassment, he decided to join the StB. With the help of a friend within the StB and his language skills, he was recruited into the intelligence service. Koecher's first two years were devoted to training and counter-intelligence work against West Germans in Prague. Koecher was selected to become a mole in the West working with the first directorate in the Stb because of his English language skills. Immigration to the United States In 1965 he and his wife, Hana Koecher (the daughter of a Communist Party official), seemingly emigrated to the United States via Austria posing as defecting dissidents. His language skills and status as a defector aided Koecher in gaining employment at Radio Free Europe and a year long fellowship at Indiana University. He returned to New York in 1967 and he gained a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia