Ostensibly, Nosenko's greatest value to United States intelligence was to provide information on Soviet counterintelligence agents operating at home and abroad.
[4] Paisley retired as deputy director in the Office of Strategic Research,[1][2][nb 1] the branch that monitored Soviet military movements and nuclear capabilities.
[5] On October 1, a body claimed to be his was found floating in the Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent River with a gunshot wound to his head and a weighted dive belt around his waist.
Shortly after his presumed death, the psychiatrist stated Paisley was to attend a group therapy session in Chevy Chase, Maryland on September 26 with his estranged wife to discuss the failure of their marriage.
[3] After a two year investigation and three public statements, the SSCI reported that it "found no information to support the allegations that Mr. Paisley's death was connected in some way to involvement in foreign intelligence or counterintelligence matters.
[6] In 2022, Harper published "The Spy who Knew Too Much", by Howard Blum, in which the author maintains that Paisley, working as a double agent, and at his request, was exfiltrated by the USSR and his death in the US was staged, presumably by the KGB Counterintelligence.