A former uncover CIA officer has launched a $ 25 million lawsuit against the spy agency in federal court , claiming he was wrongly fired after a senior manager fabricated allegations to tarnish his career , have him sacked and keep him from marrying the woman he loves . The officer filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia under the pseudonym Mack L. Charles in January . Charles ' lawsuit alleges that he had a solid record as a CIA officer , reaching the bureaucratic equivalent of a lieutenant colonel in the military . He served in a war zone , won awards and received good ratings , the lawsuit says . A former uncover CIA officer has launched a $ 25 million lawsuit claiming he was fired after a senior manager tarnished his record and prevented him from marrying the woman he loves . But he ran afoul of his bosses after he filed an age discrimination complaint in 2009 , the lawsuit says . His complaint asserted that managers sought to impede his romantic relationship with another CIA non-official cover officer - 21 years his junior - who became his fiancee , the suit says . The pair had planned to spy overseas together as a 'tandem couple , ' but have n't spoken to her since his firing , the lawsuit says . In March 2011 , Charles claims that a senior manager 'took the monstrous step ' of ordering the woman to cease all contact with him , threatening her with an assignment at CIA headquarters in Washington if she disobeyed , effectively an end to her career overseas , reports the Daily Beast . Charles says he is suffering depression as a result of having no contact with his fiancée who he 'thinks about [ her ] every day and misses her as much today as on the first day of his forced separation from her . ' The suit also accuses the CIA of illegally barring the former officer from publishing his novel , tentatively titled Madhouse : A Forbidden Novel of The CIA . The CIA allocated billions of dollars to expanding the NOC program after 9/11 , but the effort was largely a failure , claims Mack Charles in his lawsuit . The CIA faces occasional employment lawsuits like any other government agency , but this one is unusual because of the plaintiff 's claim to have been a non-official cover officer , or NOC , in CIA parlance . Most CIA case officers work out of embassies posing as diplomats , giving them a level of protection should they be arrested while committing espionage . NOCs pose as businessmen , scholars or scientists in an effort to distance them from the U.S. government and afford them access to people who would never set foot in a U.S. embassy . If caught spying overseas , they could be jailed . The NOC program is even more secretive than traditional espionage , and officers who participate often operate using their real names instead of aliases . The CIA allocated billions of dollars to expanding the NOC program after 9/11 , but the effort was largely a failure , former officers have said — a charge Charles repeats in his lawsuit . The suit says the leader of the CIA 's Global Deployment Initiative — its main non-official cover program — tried to get Charles fired in 2009 , but a CIA board declined to take that step . Mack Charles filed his $ 25 million lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in January . Charles claims that another former agent Ishmael Jones was able to publish their book about life as a NOC . After that , the lawsuit says , another senior officer , who headed the Special Activities Division — the CIA 's paramilitary arm — wrote a memo alleging that Charles had in the past fudged expense accounts . That allegation is false , the lawsuit claims , but it says the allegation led to Charles ' termination in December 2010 . The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled against Charles ' discrimination complaint . The lawsuit alleges that the officer who wrote the memo , who is not identified by name , had a 'checkered career ' that included a drinking problem , and was asked to retire amid sexual harassment allegations . The head of the Global Deployment Initiative was a subpar officer who also abused alcohol , the lawsuit alleges , claiming that the 'multibillion-dollar ' NOC program 'was shot through with waste , fraud , and abuse . ' When he submitted his novel to the CIA 's Publication Review Board , the lawsuit says , Charles was told he could not publish any of it for fear his true name , which he used while working undercover for the CIA , would be revealed . The suit notes that at least one other former NOC has published a book under a pseudonym , Ishmael Jones , while keeping his true name a secret . Jones did so without seeking permission from the CIA , leading the agency to obtain a court ruling in 2012 seizing the proceeds . Charles and his supporters are asking the public for financial donations to help fund his legal battle and have setup a GoFundMe.com page .
The former uncover ##ing officer claims he was fired after a senior manager broke his record and prevented him from marrying the woman he dated . He filed the lawsuit under the pseudonym Mack L. Charles in January . Charles says he has developed depression as a result of being prevented from contact with his fiancée . Lawsuit also accuses the CIA of illegally barring his novel , tentatively titled alias : A Forbidden Novel of The CIA .