Palevich revealed his real passport (he’d used at least six others during his career) and home phone number and proposed a meeting between the C.I.A. On March 1, 1990, he rang the bell at the Polish Embassy in Lisbon and talked his way into an audience with the station chief. Palevich got his chance after semidemocratic elections in 1989 ushered in a government led by activists from the Solidarity trade union. Zacharski’s tradecraft that he promised himself one day he’d work with, not against, the likes of that Polish spy. Zacharski to Berlin in 1985 for a prisoner exchange - remembers being so impressed with Mr. He was ultimately captured and convicted. Zacharski transmitted to Warsaw reams of classified documents. on a cat-and-mouse chase for months in Los Angeles. It started in the early 1980s, when a Polish spy named Marian Zacharski led the F.B.I. Poland gained the opportunity to rid itself of the Soviet yoke and integrate into the Western bloc. For the United States, the alliance gave it a loyal ally with assets in some of the world’s most dangerous places. It’s a story of bravery, blood bonds and, of course, betrayal. The roots of this close relationship stretch back to the Cold War. official once recalled James Pavitt, a former director of the C.I.A.’s clandestine service, as saying. Out of the way, under the radar, the officers from this nation have functioned for decades almost as an adjunct to the agency. officer Felix Leiter, who returns in the latest Bond thriller, “No Time to Die.”īut a hugely important intelligence relationship is with another country: Poland. James Bond’s compadre is none other than the C.I.A. Even make-believe American and British operatives are thick as thieves. So close that their alliance is named the Five Eyes. has the closest relationships with the intelligence services from other English-speaking democracies - Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.