AGENCY TSD OFFICER Serge PETER KARLOW

SERGE PETER KARLOW
Sergei Klibansky was born during nineteen twenty-one with a mother hailing from a rich family in Silesia and his father was a vocal performer whose career brought the Klibansky family to Germany repeatedly during Sergei’s youth. Subsequently his father committed suicide from an unexpected financial loss but the family was still able to survive and provide Sergei with an education. He would later graduate from a Manhattan preparatory school when the family decided to change its name and Sergei Klibansky became Serge Peter Karlow. During the nineteen forties Karlow attended but left Swarthmore College and enlisted with the United States Navy intending to join the intelligence community. Serge was recruited into the Office of Strategic Services and organized minor naval squadrons within Europe. Karlow lost a leg following the destruction of a boat his allies were navigating from a base in Corsica and this episode gained the notice of the OSS leader William J. Donovan. Following his recovery Serge was awarded the Bronze Medal for heroics and Donovan later promoted Karlow to serve on his wartime staff. His technical expertise led Serge to the recently formed CIA and by the nineteen fifties he was in Europe developing equipment for its Technical Services Division (TSD).

Amid nineteen sixty-one Karlow sought to lead the TSD and informed Deputy Director for Plans Richard Helms but he was instead sent to represent the Agency at the US State Department. This was due to Karlow being reviewed by the Agency’s Office of Security with Federal Bureau of Investigation aid because he was the unknowing prime suspect in a mole hunt. During nineteen sixty-two, FBI agents repeatedly approached Karlow under false premises to aid them in supposed local investigations by installing surveillance equipment near and in his residence. Serge believed these were perhaps tests after his earlier development of surveillance devices for the CIA and because he repeatedly sought to lead the Technical Services Division. When the summer of nineteen sixty-two passed Serge inquired again with the Deputy Director regarding TSD’s lead position, but he was assigned elsewhere again to the Economic Services Division.

Karlow was later formally accused by the FBI and CIA of being a Soviet mole but the two groups in time came to far different conclusions. Serge left the Agency following the aftermath of the Soviet mole accusations and pursued a career in the private sector but never stopped attempting to clear his name. Years later it was revealed the FBI had prior cleared him of all disloyalty and eventually Karlow petitioned multiple Agency directors until the CIA itself cleared him as well. Serge Peter Karlow was compensated, given an apology for his ordeal, and presented a medal for service during the nineteen eighties.