BRITON TELLS OF RED SPY'S HELP TO U.S.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600250048-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 18, 2000
• Sequence Number: 48
• Publication Date: November 12, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW YORK
l1E~2.1U)T2
Approved For Release 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP75-001.498060025004
NOV 1 2 1965
0 f "I -M
r-1 Lon I ells
Red Spy's'
By Gwen Gibson
Greville Wynne, British business man and intelligence
agent, told a news conference yesterday that had it not
bren for Soviet counterspy Oleg Penkovsky "you might
have had more than a blackout in this fine city of yours."
Mr. Waynne had flown here from London to help
publicize his own projected book and "The, Penkovsky
Papers," which Doubleday has just published.
Mn Wynne said Col. Pcnkovsky's'informat ion was vital
to the West in the East Berlin military showdown and the
Cuban missile crisis of 1962. The London businessman-spy,
who served 18 months in a Russian prison, has said that
President Kennedy was supplied crucial information by
Col. Penkovsky, a top man in the Soviet intelligence system,
at the time those two explosive situations were reaching a
showdown. The U. S. government has never confirmed this,
either officially or unofficially.
At his tape-recorded, hour-long press conference yes-
terday in the offices of Doubleday, at 277 Park Ave., Mr.
Wynne said it was probably Col. Penkovsky's swift response
to President Kennedy's request, for top secret facts about
the Soviet buildup in Cuba that led to Col. Penkovsky's
arrest and death.. .
Col. Penkovsky, 'known, according to Doubleday, in
intelligence circles as "the West's superspy in Moscow,"
was sentenced by is military tribunal, in May 1963 to
death by a firing squad for high treason. Tass announced
shortly thereafter that the Russian spy and friend of
the West had been executed.
"I believe Penkovsky is dead now," Mr. Wynne said
at his press conference. "But I don't believe he was shot
when they said he was. They (Russian intelligence) were
waiting to see what I would say. They still aren't sure
how. deeply I was involved."
Mr. Wynne said that Col. Penkovsky, whom he called
"Alex," was privy to the "holiest of holies in the Russian
hierarchy and he used this to the limits for the West.
They (the Russian government) haven't gotten over it yet."
Mr. Wynne, then a representative of 12 London menu-
facturers, first met Col. Penkovsky in Moscow in 1960
and, after elaborate consultations, served as his chief,
co-between while Col. Penkovsky, for 16 months during
1961 and 1962, gave Soviet secrets to the West.
Approved For Release 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600250048-0