By Hugh Davies in Washington
THE disappearance of Cold-War spy William Colby, 76, from his country retreat outside Washington a week ago is becoming as spooky as his life in the CIA.
His wife is convinced that he is alive, and some of his old intelligence colleagues wonder if he may have suffered the fate of Jack Paisley, another retired United States intelligence agent, who also vanished on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland in 1978.
Mr Paisley, the CIA's leading Soviet expert, was found a week later, dead from a gunshot wound.
All police looking for Mr Colby have as evidence is his green canoe which was capsized near the dock of his waterfront house at Cobb Neck, 15 miles from the spot where the floating body of Mr Paisley turned up.
The last time anyone spoke to him was 7pm on Saturday when his wife Sally, 51, phoned from Houston where she was visiting her mother. It was a brief conversation, she said. He sounded "absolutely super".
He talked of "a great day" working on his boat. "He had bought a dozen clams for dinner, and he said he was going to take a hot shower and go to bed." She said that he had made no mention of an evening canoe outing.
The media in Washington has been inundated with calls from former CIA agents who sniff a conspiracy
Mrs Colby, a former US ambassador to Barbados, now high up in the US Agency for International Development, denied a claim by a local sheriff that her husband had said he had been feeling unwell.Married in 1984, the couple live in Georgetown, Washington. She firmly rejected any suggestion that he had taken his life. He had been "ebullient, happy".
Police say they believe Mr Colby ate his meal, clam shells were left on his plate, and then worked on his computer, which was still on when officers were called by worried neighbours on Sunday afternoon.
The speculation is that he took out the canoe and it overturned. At the time, a chilly wind was gusting at 25mph, whipping up two-foot high waves. But the paddle he usually used is still missing. So is the life-jacket he always wore when sailing. Even US navy divers using sonar have found nothing in the area. Locals say a body would surface after about a week underwater.
The media in Washington has been inundated with calls from former CIA agents who sniff a conspiracy. Mrs Colby said she was aware that her husband had acquired foes during his three decades with the CIA.
Conspiracy-minded observers of the CIA say that he may have died in the same way that Mr Paisley met his end
"Bill had his detractors. He made some enemies, but there is no evidence of foul play." She acknowledged that many Vietnamese disliked him "for trying to promote human rights and democracy."A former CIA station chief in Saigon, he was in charge of the agency's clandestine Operation Phoenix to neutralise the Viet Cong, a programme that undoubtedly included assassinations.
Conspiracy-minded observers of the CIA say that he may have died in the same way that Mr Paisley met his end. Both met as agents of the Office of Strategic Services, the CIA's precursor.
A retired official, living in Europe, says that Mr Paisley was a key undercover agent based at Archangel in Russia while Mr Colby was working clandestinely in Europe, posing as a businessman from San Francisco.
Mr Paisley was found dead a week after his boat ran aground. He had 40lb of diving belts strapped to his waist and chest, and had been killed by a single shot above and behind his left ear.
A Senate committee ruled that it was suicide, although Mr Paisley was right-handed and no blood or spent bullets were found on the boat.
This article appeared in Saturday's edition of the Daily Telegraph
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