Victor Norris Hamilton (July 15, 1919 – November 11, 1997) was an American

cryptologist This is a list of cryptographers. Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties called adversaries. Pre twentieth century * Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi: wrote a (now lost) book ...

who defected to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1963. He was discovered in a mental hospital in Russia in 1992, where he had been for 20 years.

Early life

Hamilton was born as Fouzi Demitri Hindaly in

Jaffa Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...

, in the British Mandate of Palestine, in July 1919. He graduated from the

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...

, and married Lilly Bell Drake, an American, in Libya, who persuaded him to go to the United States. By his own account, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen, and was licensed as a teacher in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

but was denied work because he was an Arab. He worked as a doorman until a colonel recruited him to work for the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

(NSA). Hamilton secured employment with the NSA in 1957, and worked there for two years in the "A.L.L.O." (all other countries) unit, assigned to study and break coded communications of Middle Eastern governments, including (but not limited to) those involving the Soviet Union. He suffered a nervous breakdown in February 1959, but was kept on at the NSA as it had few employees competent in Arabic. He was discharged in June 1959 for mental health reasons. He later claimed that he faked the symptoms so he could be allowed to leave the agency.

Defection

In 1963, Hamilton defected to the Soviet Union. In July, ''

Izvestia ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, r=Izvestiya, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in February 1917, ''Izvestia'', which covered foreign relations, was the organ of the Supreme Soviet of th ...

'' published an account by Hamilton of his work at the NSA.

Mental illness and later life

Hamilton was confined for

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

in the USSR, initially at a Kremlin hospital for high officials. In 1971, he was transferred to Special Psychiatric Hospital No. 5 in Troitskoye, about 30 miles south of Moscow. He was rediscovered there in 1992 by the Ark Project, which sought US POWs who might be in Soviet hands once the USSR fell. Hamilton was convinced that the Pentagon was communicating with him through the radio, then later through his television set. When they learned of his whereabouts in 1992 his wife and children, surprised to learn he was still alive, stated that they would seek his repatriation. Hamilton died in November 1997 at the age of 78.Fouzi Demitri Hindaly in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
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Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Victor Norris 1919 births 1997 deaths American intelligence personnel who defected to the Soviet Union American people of Palestinian descent American University of Beirut alumni Analysts of the National Security Agency Emigrants from Mandatory Palestine to the United States People from Jaffa People granted political asylum in the Soviet Union Expatriates in Lebanon Israel–Lebanon relations Mandatory Palestine expatriates