OS - KRONTHAL, JAMES SPEYER <SANITIZED>

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06619094
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: February 6, 2020
• Case Number: F-2013-01784
• Publication Date: August 7, 1989

Opproved for Release: 2020/01/15 C06619094
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Approved for Release: 2020/01/15 C06619094
SUBJECT: KRONTHAL, James Speyer
Approved for Release: 2020/01/15 C06619094
Approved for Release: 2020/01/15 C06619094
SECRET
7 August 1989
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: KRONTHAL, James Speyer (U)
1. On 4 August 1989 the undersigned attended a meeting with
representatives of the Office of General Council (OGC) concerning
SAD's planned interview with Samuel Papich, a former FBI employee
and FBI liaison officer to the CIA during the Kronthal period.
Present at the meeting were
all of OGC, and the undersigned. (C)
2. Some concerns were raised that the SAD interview may
violate in the area of criminal investigation or the
gathering of intelligence against domestic targets. It was
explained that the interview would be part of a
counterintelligence investigation and would be background against
the allegations about Subject in the book Widows, Papich's
knowledge of the Agency investigation, or any FBI investigation,
or substantiation of Corson's claim to be an ex-aide to DCI
Dulles. (S)
3. It was agreed that the interview would be within our
purview, but that the FBI liaison officer to SAD should be
informed of the interview as a courtesy. OGC will be sending a
written decision on the matter to SAD for our records. (C)
4. The Papich interview will be scheduled after t e interview
with Bruce Solie, planed around 13 August 1989. C
WARNING NOTICE
INTELLIGENCE SOURCES
OR METHODS INVOLVED
SECRET
Approved for Release: 2020/01/15 C06619094
Ashes
on the
mantel
shelf
Mlles Copeland handles
a hot property
Widows
by William R. Corson. Susan
B. Trento and Joseph J. Trento
Macdonald. 1.14 95
PUBLISHERS, as we all know,
customarily describe even
their tamest properties as
'explosive'', asserting that
they "blow the lid off" some-
thing or other and bare secrets
that governments have tried to
hide. The publishers of Wid-
ows. however, have opted for
understatement. They assert
that their latest product is
merely "the most sensational
and disturbing spy non-fiction
;f3 ..ears" when it is. in fact,
a hot property that it
almost burned a hole in the
wrapper in which they sent it
to me
It has Washington's intelli-
gence community in an uproar,
with a senior member of the
CIA arguing that it has set the
American counter-intelligence
effort back for years.
It claims, for example, that
John Paisley, a top analyst in
the CIA's Office of Scientific
Research. didn't drown in the
Chesapeake but that he was
whisked away by KGB agents
to be now alive and well and
living in Moscow. If also -
asserts that James.Kronthal, a
top CIA official and an old col-
-league of mme. was a .,KGB
"Mole- who might one day
.have become head of the CIA
had his Kc).3 Masters not been
alarmed at signs Of a gnawing-
-:conscience, deciding that they
- had best liquidate him.
The writers support these
claims, and others, with details
resulting from what was
clearly a masterful job of
investigative journalism, and
their findings are endorsed by
William Corson. author of the
best book to date on the Soviet
KGB and no amateur.
No intelligence professional
in his right mind would chal-
lenge the claims without first
checking them with sources
who ought to know. So I did. I
Approved for Release: 2020/01/15 C06619094n""
The Wall ; Journal
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Dalty NOWS
USA Today
The Chicago Tribune
spent an evening calling Wash-
ington insiders on the transat-
lantic telephone to find them
unanimously convinced that
the book's principal claims are
"a lot of rubbish'',,as a mem-
ber of the CIA.'s present
counter-intelligence staff
swore to me.,
There was some mix-up over
Paisley's body, and the CIA's
top brass (contrary to popular
opinion, sticklers to a man) did
indeed toy with the idea of a
cover-up. Being the in-house
machiavellian at the time. I
was appointed to examine the
possibilities: after so doing I
could have taken a polygraph
test and sworn in court that,
whatever the truth about the
body, it was Jack Paisley's
ashes that wound up in a jar on
Mrs Paisley's mantelpiece.
rdidn't investigate the
Krbrithal suicide, but those
who did were the CIA's best.
and any one of them would
hive been delighted to find
,that an Eastern seaboard gay
blade such as Jim Kronthal
Was involved with the KGB in
some way that would have led'
/to his murder by KGB agents.
But. no, -they found that Jim
had swallowed enough- of/the
;CIA's standard-issue-"Kpills
-
.2to have killed every homoSe-xual-
.
in the Agency had Allen
Dulles acted on _a suggestion' I
rmade that this was one way of
-plugging� a particular � holt in
the CIA's security armour.
So what's the verdict on Wid-
ows? I see it as a valuable ency-
clopedia of the mythology that
has grown up around fiascos in
the CIA-KGB cold war. The
investigation that produced it
was a work of consummate
skill, but the conclusions are
those of wide-eyed conspiracy
theorists who've read too
many John le Carre novels. It
is an excellent read, but should
have been clearly Libelled:
"This book may endanger not
only your peace of mind but
also your judgment."
Date
Page
39.
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