EERIK HEINE A CANADIAN VERSUS THE U.S. SPY MASTERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400180035-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 1999
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: October 15, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

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Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000400180035-7
 elf 1VEit1~'iV T AM
Sanitized - Approved FgrRelea eCIA-
STATINTL.
Eerik Haine
T
of _T '- -:(D, r- fighting the c:LA..
which has bran ded him a ovia- acerbt..
And he h,as launched a slander, suit to s f~ 1,11is name
RGHT
First of Two Parts
By Robert McKeown
JUt.G:, aoszel C. Thomsen, of the 1.':t r..l ials highly critical of the C.I.A.'s claim that it has
..a1;.. Court in Baltimore, Md.. is a grc~ i.ai i tite privilege to commit slander in tF, course of
man with a kindly appearance and a rcputaru? ..s dut). ,
a scholarly and thorough jurist. To him fell the t.sk i It split the Estonian communities in Canada
of making :, decision of international importance :n I ano the U.S. into those who believe firmly that
i a slander cusc that has drawn more comment .;,. a
any he has dealt with.
At issue is whether a Canadian citizen may have
spy ar.1 without having a chance to clear his name r.unwrous occasions In which it has appeared guilty
in court. Of faulty judgment. irresp6nsibility and acting as if
n., #I,- .:A.. :. 0--:L. v....,.. .. 1- I . . J-- 'L- .---.
his ,. ,utation damaged by being branded a Soviet is has also caused critics of the C.I.A. to cite
considered by many Canadians and Americans ul
Estonian origin to be one of Estonia's great anti.
Co.. .,,nist partisans and war heroes.
..,, the other is the United States Central Iwrli,-
'ence Agency (C.I.A.) and its aggent, Juri Raw,,
; .,
Estonian-American who is Heine's accuser,
Heine has asked a judgment of $110,000
Hills for tl,: damage done to his rcputation 1wc
alleged slander, Raus has claimed absolute pri% il, ;_c
to make the statements because he is a C.I.A. ?.; .t. citizen. But a close study of all available documents,
There have been strong comments on the Hone- suirh as I have made, leads to the conclusion that I .,
Raus-C.1.A, case in the Canadian House of Conn ; this case may far be and the 1 u I 't
mobs, the ~-miti p ?t edh~ii4*p,teleeSe.r A-kDP7v_000011 uOu4fuui8u03'
I. end magazines. It has provoked speeches and editor- For one thing, it may involve the long-standing
ir;cina has been falsely accused and those who claim I
the C.I.A. would never make such a charge unless
it has also brought to light Hcinc's personal story i '
of his star against the Soviet Union -a narrative
con have few equals in the annals of World War
lie "t .;k story will be told in Weekend ,Magazine
ne
V ,.,nit a coritplete revelation of the grounds on
;~ . tai,; ,p. charge was made it is impossible to
Mille whether or not the C.I.A. has secret informa-
-7
JSnuad
V
 CPYRGHT
QT 15
vt;stitati.tn (I .i3.l.t. This has bccn %,) .w'!14-ii Times report suggested that the employment of a
tcs t:..., t; is s.iiil ntcmhcrs of ihcw .'ri'a11:1 private detective "raises questions regarding the valid-
SP e'YIitizi2d"'n~tp'bftV@dnF6YiRbw1eas~ ~t lei ~' L~ ~'5~6b R000400f180esc 03p
., wcli. ',, seems certain that the C.I.A. ha: h.: n
fo.-c:J rc' .,.ally into the suit after micjudtan, t..c
outcome ( is decision to have Raus char;c Hcu;e
bcio:e E:..;.aan organizations in the United States
wits bcin': a spy !r; the Russians.
't'here ;ire r.: ;., signs that the C.I.A. has ?
uneasy over th.; c....c. he:.te filed suit for :,:..t...:r in
November, 1964. Yet it was not until late D~cer.,o:r.
1965. that C.I.A. director William, F. Rahorn, now
retired. admitted :n an affidavit that Raus had been
acting on it .: C ..A. 's instructions.
No cause tt.t . c delay has been given. Raus's
lawyers h;,v.; tv!u ,tc court that they wishcd to es-
t.:hlish earlier the C.I.A.'s connections with Raus to
claim abFolutc privilege in the suit, but the C.I.A.
would not agree.
Also, Raus's lawyers have admitted that an effort
was made to settle the case out of court. No cxplan-
ation has been made as to why a man accused of
spying should receive a financial settlement from his
accusers.
Nor has any reason been given for the employ-
ment of private detectives to interview Heine's ac-
quaintances, friends, and relatives. One of these in-
vestiga;r.rs, Thomas W. LaVenia, of Washington,
D.C.. was questioned in court and admitted the aa-
I signment.
However, .,Raus's
vi :1 is a `, r:,S
The case may involve a long rivalry bs:tveen
the F.B.I., headed by J. Edgar Hoover
C.I.A., -led by its director Richard H,-, s (to.
counsel successfully parried of
~t r '?,?'^111.?'
The case is in the hands of Judge Thomsen (L).
F.rcine is seeking $ 110,000 damages 'r.. , Raus
(R) for .t ;.s of reputation to the allc, ad slander.
:J;nz!. is icing, 47, a serious m;;. who confesses,
:..'. much." He also says, "I am not a per-
.0 too easily." He seems to be find-
.-.J-.fac6on in facing his accusers and trying to
oi,ia.n vindication.
tieing (pronounced Hay-neh) emigrated to Can-
ada from Germany in 1957 alter being released r
from a Russian labor camp ti:.: previous year. Ac-
cording to a depta;tion taken o; the lawyers for his
i accuser, he had spent the previous 16 years either
fighting for the liberation of Estonia, or under in-
ccrogation, torture and slave labor in Soviet prisons.
Today he has the scam of wounds on his body.
He has lost all ;,lit five of i:;% teeth as a result of
beatings and n ::.tutr.i vii. t
t
ttrst coming to Can-
ad:. he had a c. t :
, .
nip
;i,
'.:;ich delayed him
in obtaining I;t;.
t?
;~s
Wily?
Though some Estonian-Canadians believe
that "where there is smoke there is fire",
of^crs hold that Heine is the victim of some
terrible mistake or plot. Here are some of
the theories given to explain why a man
believed to be an ardent patriot, has been
called a spy:
? The C.I.A. has made a gross error and now
is trying to cover up.
? Some of the details of Heine's story do
not check with the Infotmation on the
C.I.A.'s files, therefore the C.I.A. assumes
that Heine is lying.
? Heine's Personal story is so amazing that
the C.I.A. has decided it is untrue and
roust have been fabricated for some sin-
ist.r purpose.
Sov;at inte!!igence is expert at planting
information for its own purposes.
in in:s case it has set up a situation whicn
p,is two anti-Communist organizations,
ti?.t: C.I.A. and the Estonian liberation
fcc;'c' s, against each other. Whatever the
outcome, it stands to gain.
cats secretly with some of the former
guerillas, still in Estonia, with whom he
fcurjht in 1946-50. His messages have been
intercepted by the C.I.A. and their purpose
h,is been misinterpreted.
a r.i a'na's efforts aimed at the liberation of
r.;tcnia are opposed to Ideas, of peaceful
coexistence, officially sancl{ioned by the
governments of the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
lccordingiy this means has been used to
Iry to silence him.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000400180-035-3
66 Cont'iuail
 o A,
CPYRGHT
Aatpoved For Release : CIA-RDp75.0000~-R000406- 035-7
1 ? -
4k. ~7
ham... '~:'~. ? ,1 : ? L,'. !~s.,, } ~?-._ ,,
After rcachin`, 'Toronto in April, 1957, he lived ! f'.f ,.or,!a and on the farm of an Estonian-Cana-f
with his mother, who had come to Canada with her] d. .:;;loor scenes were taken in the tarneraman's '
husband, now dead, in 1952. He first worked as a basement, The total. cost was between $9,000 and
l
b
f
a
orer
or a firm making bottoms for chairs, later I $10,000, of which Heine still owes some $1,900.
became factory foreman for a Toronto woodworking J Heine took his film on cross-country lecture tours
com
L
h
pany.
ate t
at year he married Elsa Varrcs
whom he had known at school in Estonia.
Canadians of Estonian origin are not split into
anti-Communist and pro-Communist organizations.
Estonia was twice invaded by the Russians in World
War :I and is today part of the Soviet Union. Be-
cause of the jailings, deportations and executions of
patriots which are known to all Estonians it is
here and in the U.S.. partially defraying the cost by ,
admission fees, though the bulk of the money raised
went to Estonian charities. Finally he ;.i. atcd the ''.
filrfl to the Estonian War Veterans' A:;3ociation in
Garin;in}'. But first he sent it to, be used by Eston-
ianc in S %eden to act as counter-propaganda during
a visit there by Nikita Khrushchev, then Soviet
Premier.
nearly impossible to find a Communist among Ileine was one of the foremost conservatives in
jJbem. _ the l:ktonia community. He has been quoted as call-
f Trine', rabidly anti-Communist views soon becam
V .
"
e
n;: himself
a Goldwater man."
?.cld known. He became active in the Estonian War' Ile hcltlcll raise money for Radio Free Europe
Veterans' Association and was its chairman in 1960. Mid t,r publish books on the perils and dancers of l
' Mid
In 1259 he became a member of the Estoni
C
an
en-
tr,,l council. elected from all Canada; in 1963 he
headed the council poll and was elected vice-chair-
.'nan. Ile was active, in the Estonian Boy Scouts,
where he was a member of a group that built camp-
sites for younger boys. And he was in demand as a
speaker.
Word spread of Heine's accounts of guerilla activi-
e
a,
s. United States government agents
ties in Estonia between 1946 and 1950, in which he whom Heine's correspondent assumed to be from
was a Ieade,. He also told of the bleak life he had the F.B.I., had been in the area asking questions
led in Russian labor camps-between 1950 and 1956., about him.
lie was invited to speak to many groups in Canada As time went by the rumors became more fre-
and the United States.' quent. He heard them in almost every city he visited. i
Using his savings and borrowing' from his mother. But it was during a visit to Los Angeles that Heine
and the Estonian Credit Union, he made a 2!h-hour ' learned that Raus, chairman of the United States
film dcpictir.g the'guerilla's life. The film was snot Commit,e f
h
Heine and his wife and
mother relax on the
patio of his home
in Toronto suburb of
Etobicoke. Heine says
', he doesn't frighten, .
very easuy,,
t
using amateur actors, at locations in o e Legion of Estonian Liberation,
.9ntario's? Mus? L was connected with -the statements-being made about
hhn
OCT 1 .
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conttnuaA
r ? ~r 1 i %?.-
- r
l S.,
Communism. He tried to get backing for his net
project - the' floating of propaganda balloons into
Estonia from Sweden.
It was during his visits to the United States in 1963
that Heine started to hear rumors that he was being
called a spy. The first intimation came in Detroit
when he received' a letter from a friend in Lake
Gen
v
Wi
 CPYRG
co
in 1949 at the age of 22. He had served in the U.S. a t avits estaoshing Raus's connection i
Army, graduated from college in 1956, joined a with the C.I.A., came late is 1965. Up to that tine,
rescr c at ti ekt 94 91hp1lro~peldd~t~p1~!?J~e `sfiY ~;Gt14`'F~E''P7t5!()E)'66aFRM?400=+Ir80,035-7
HT On May 20, 1963 - about t e time Heine started aus appearca to have n z.;c the charges on his own
to hear the rumors - Raus signed an oath of secrecy initiative. Now it was possible to argue that Raus
with the C.I.A. In the summer of 1965 be took a had made the statements he did about Heine in line
course at an intclligcncc school. For the past few of duty-and was privileged under law to do so.
years he has been employed by the Bureau of Roads finis argument is bases on a U.S. Supreme Court
in Washington, though this job may simply be the ruling of 1959 tact officers of the government had
cover for his C.I.A. work. immunity to libel suits that arose from their official
It seems that Heine at first actcd as if the rumors duties. Raus could also argue that as a tmemtrar'of
were the figments of someone's imagination and
tried to ignore them. When he learned that Raus was
the source, he wrote to a man named Krabbe in
Washington, who was reputed to be Raus's best
friend, and suggested he "put some sense into his
mind."
When the rumors continued and Raus made the
charges before a meeting of the New York branch
of the Legion of Estonian Liberation, Heine sought
legal advice. First a lawyer wrote to Raus giving
oim a chance to apologize and retract. When no re-
traction was obtained, a Toronto lawyer wrote'to the
F.B.I. in Washington denying the charees.
"Mr. Heine is willing to answer any c,::estiois
under oath connected with the niai.er afo:a.a;~i~ and
submit himself to a lie detector test if you so aesire,"
{ the lawyer said.
At this point Heise thought the F.B.I. was behind
the inquiries being made about him among Eston-
ians. Raus on sevc:,A occasions had told his listeners
that if they doubted his word they should "contact
the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
In his rcpl% to he letter from Heine's lawyer, 1.
Edgar 3.1. director, said the bureau did
not issue clei::at,ces or non-clearances. But he made
it clear t ?h ~ 17 3.1 l . d not originated the charges.
... you may rest assured that this Bureau has
t not relcascd any information which could be the basis
for the alleged charges against him," Hoover wrote
to Heine's Toronto lawyer.
This may or may not have been intended as a re-
buke to the C.I.A. But the F.B.I. director ca.,. not
Nave been entirely happy to learn the C.I.A. had
placed agents among immigrant groups where his
with the court a year after Heine started the slander,
proceedings.
"The purpose o this. instruction (to Raus, w;.. to
p:otcct the integrity of the Agency's foreign in:,:::i?
gence sources, cat, sing within or developed through
such groups, in accordance with. the Agency's statu-
tory responsibility to collect foreign intelligence,"
Helms said.
. 0CJ
men were already work.
In the United States internal security is strictly
} the domain of the F.B.I. The C.I.A. is forbidden to.1
i get involved in, it.
The suggestion that the C.I.A. had uncovered
what it charged was "e: X.G.B. [Russian secret]
agent" in such a group despite the F.B.I.'s vigilance
might be taken as a reflection on the F.B.I's effi-
ciency.
C.I.A. director Richard ;-elms (then deputy dir-
ector) seemed to take the trouble to establish a con-
nection betwccn Raus's denunciation of Heine and
foreign intell igcncc. He ti id this in an affidavit fiicd
151966
The C.I.A.
The United States Central Intelligence
Agency is almost as widely discussed and
criticized today as are its Russian-counter-.
parts. From its start in 1946 as the Central .,
Intelligence Group, it has had many notable
successes-and several widely-publicized
failuras. They Include:
Thu disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of
Cuba.
The support of Ngo Dinh Diem, later
ass:tssinated, as the head of a tyrannical
and corrupt government in South Vietnam.
The support provided to Chinese Nation-
alist forces in Northern Burma, which have
proved such a nuisance they have alienated
the Burmese against the Americans and
driven them closer to Red China.
The denials issued about a U-2 plane shot
down over Russia, and the later revelation
that it was on a spying mission.
These are just a law of the occasions In
which the C.I.A. has made mistakes. But It
also has many Intelligence coups to Its
It detected the installation of Soviet mis-
siles in Cuba.
It overthrew the pro-Communist Arbenz
government In Guatemala.
It tapped the telephone lines to Soviet
militar/ headquarters In East Germany.
it had a C.I.A. man installed as a top
adviser to Genial Abdel Nasser In Egypt.
It had, in Col. Olog Penkovskly, a spy,
shared with the British, an agent with access
to secrets In the Kremlin.
It cannot be assumed that the C.I.A. al-
ways blunders, neither that It Is Infallible.
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the Spjq,i~gq i-t I1 Cr PcYa~;'dn~tRol e;p e CIA-RDP75~00001 R0004Q01~aA03 :7
I authoriicd disclosures relating to is 6,.:
While Judge Thomsen ponderc.: how :,..:t.:rs
stood with the law as, he saw ; there Uerc many, t,~ ! questions to which the answe,-s* %re r.:: :apparent:
If the C.LA. believed Heine to be a ::evict agent.
why did it not have him followed to establisb who
his contacts were, and then mare arrests and lay
Charges?
Alternatively, why was he not approached ant:
asked to serve as a double agent. as is custom
in such cases?
Since I-Icinc is a Canadiai and l'a'ds :.-c works in
Canada, why was the case not handed o??:: `;r action
by the Royal Canadian iviountcd Police?
It is interesting that when Rans was n;;,:an; his
charges in the U.S., Heine was :,pplyir.g .. r C,.na-
di
a
n c
i
t
i
zenship.
1
1!
1
,
f
?`~
l -
j
Heine listens to lawyers Ernest C. Raskauskas,
There seems litt:e doubt the t the R." ..?. ;r,ade left, and Robert I. Stanford, right, after a
its usual investigation for security cle. ...ca. At its pre-trial hearing in federal court at Baltimore.
disposal it would likely have inor;natiaa from both
the F.B.I. and C.I.A. (It is some:.roes s:.id in police I
circles that the two U.S. agencies will give the Ulianswered Questions
R.C.M.P. information that they would not entrust i
to each other.) Why did the C.I.A. try to settla :;ie slander
There is no way of knowing exactly what were the suit out of court by making a financial settle-
R.C.M.P.'s fiadings. But Heine was granted Cana- ment with Heine?'
than citizenship in August. 1964, long after Raus had
said he was a spy. 1 Why has no one taken Heine up on his offer,
At one of the hearings, Heine 's counsel wondered
why, if Heine were a Soviet agent. he was not simply made to the Federal 8ure,:u of Imit~stigation,
stopped at the Canadian border and barred from the to take a iia-detector test?
United States. Heine has on many occasions offered ?
himself for arrest in the U.S.. but no action has Why did Heine receive Canadian citizenship,
been taken against him. which involves a security check, after the
"The inference from the facts is irresistib;e - that spy charges had been made?
there was not enough evidence even for as indict-
meet let alone a conviction, L ,-.d at lens: an indict-
ment would have given the plaintiff ar. ..?porwniry Why would be allowed to move freely In for vindication," said Ernest C. Raskaub.,as, He ne's the United States., it. he. were a Soviet spy,
counsel. ( as. the C.I.A. has `alleged?
"Therefore, these slanders u;;ainst the plaintiff
! ? were part of a deliberate and ca:culatcu design to
destroy without proof, and no .. cncy has ever been
livea such powers by statute r, the history of the
United States, unless it is ruled herein the C.I.A.
has."
As this was written, Judge Thomsen ir. ialtimore
had still to rule whether Heine's slander st,:. would on
to trial. Whatever .:IC judge's decision, t united
States Supreme Court seems likely to hav,. .:;e final
word..
NEXT WEEK: The story of Eerik Heine's
personal war With the Russians.
OCT 1 X66 Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R0004001.80035-7
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 OCT 15 19 nitized - Approved For Release.: CIA-RDP75-00001 R000400180035-7