HEINE CLEARS U.S. CUSTOMS ON WAY TO CIA COURT FIGHT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400190088-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 28, 2000
• Sequence Number: 88
• Publication Date: April 28, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

WASH1r ToN 1AS APR 2 8 1966
Approved For Release 2000/08/26 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000400190088-8
Clears U.S. Customs
On Way to CIA Court Fight?
By ORR KELLY
Star Staff Writer
What happens to a person ac-
cused as a spy.when he tries to
cross the border into the United
States?
The same thing that happens
to ordinary tourists. He loses
his luggage.
Erik Heine, who has been
described by the Central Intel-
ligence Agency as "a dis-
patched Soviet intelligence
operative, a KGB agent," went
through U.S. customs and im-
migration inspection at Toronto
without a hitch yesterday on
his way here to attend a court
hearing in Baltimore today.
The only trouble on the whole
trip came at Washington Na-
tional Airport when he tried to
find someone who knew where
he could claim his baggage with
the little red claim check the
customs agents had given him
in Toronto.
Finally, he was sent to the
air cargo office in the hangar
farthest removed from the ter-
minal. There, he was given a
piece of paper and told to take
it to the customs office, another
half mile away.
Finally, he got the luggage.
Seemed Pleased
Heine, who was half expect-
ing to be arrested when he went
through customs in Toronto,
seemed pleased when one of
the agents said he thought he
recognized his name.
But the other agent nudged
him and said, "Aw, you're
thinking of Sonja Heine."
Heine, a resident of Rexdale,
a suburb of Toronto, checked in
at the American Airlines ticket
counter at the Toronto Interna-
tional Airport a little before 8:30
a.m. He was directed to the
U.S. customs counter just
behind the ticket counter.
A polite and cooperative U.S.
customs agent asked the usual
questions about what he was
carrying.
Heine told him he had with,
him a film of a two-hour movie
based on his experiences as a
guerrilla fighter against the
Russians in the forests of
Estonia.
Heine showed the agent a
brochure printed in both Eng-
lish and Estonian describing the
film.
The agent then suggested he
.
ti
on for wudy s hearing, in
get a certificate from Canadian: my day in court." "CIA and I are both on the
si e , which they will attempt to take
customs sn he would have nn;, A spokesman for the Toronto
same
rom naus.
EERIK HEINE
Man without luggage.
"He was very cooperative,
most helpful," Heine said.
When Flight 402 was called,
Heine went to Boarding Room
30 in the new circular terminal
building.
His ticket was checked by an
airline agent and he then
showed his plastic, wallet ;size
Canadian passport to a. biuc-
shirted U. S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service officer.
The card carries his,picture and
both his signature and his type-
written name.
Routinely, the agent asked
where he was from, where he
was going and how long he
would be there.
He then stamped the ticket.
"Admitted, April 27, 1966."
"Wheew," said Heine, as he
stopped into the waiting room,
"I really hoped they would,
arrest me
Then I would have
pressfie surprise when informed
of the CIA's description of
Heine. "We've heard nothing
about him," the spokesman said.
"We've received no instructions
of any sort about him. It was
"If they destroy me, they will
remove a fighter. If I am
cleared, it hurts the CIA. I want
to make it clear that I have no
hard feelings against the CIA.
We fight the same fight."
The ground below was not
for us." visible as the plane carrying
Juri Raus, who made the 'Heine crossed the U.S.-Canadian
accusations against Heine, hasp border at 27,000 feet about 9:35?
pleaded absolute immunity a.m.
against the slander suit because He landed at LaGuardia
he said he was making the Airport in New York a little less
statements in the c&i irse of hs than an hour. later.
job as an agent of the''CIA. Thus, As he stepped off the plane
the truth or falsity of they onto a red-carpeted boarding
charges may never be tried in i ramp he remarked with a
court. tchuckle:
As he settled himself in a "Here I am 'on American
window seat on the new twin jet soil." Then he flew on to Na-
BAC-400, Heine talked freely tional.
about his case. After finally getting his lug-
"It is sad, very sad," Heine gage, he met with his attorneys,
said. Ernest C. Raskauskas and!,
No Hard Feelings Robert J. Stanford, in prepara-