U.S. WON'T CONCEDE OR DENY FECTEAU WAS ON SPY MISSION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00764R000300070002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 1999
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 15, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release.4999/09/27 : CIA-RDP83-00764WO300070002-1
_........ ., ~., ~.a.~,xr,xWr,e zatttkw. sl-,k.?S.#., r~y.:a~~y. ~? '~ ~ ~. r {~~= y. .;r" ~nr.`FM1K!..
U.S. Won't Coicede
Jr Deny Fecteau
Was on _ Spy MIssio
n
Associated Press
ils yesterday de- 20-year sentence. He was re-
d tQ;c.Qricede that one of
wq Americans released by
a was on an espionage
ion when captured in
But it was learpeg they
`longer deny the charges.
gressing reluctance. yes-
to talk about "so
el, seni ii iug a., ,matter,"
nment sources neverthe-
fiisaid "we ;are not arguing"
. more with the Chinese
insist that Riclipxd ,Fec-
and John Thomas pow-
were engaged in espio-
?when arrested.
teau was released Mon-,
-after serving 19 years of a
turned to the United States
along with Mary Ann Harbert,
an American . from Menlo
Park, Calif., who was arrested
in 1968.
Downey remains in China,
but his sentence was reduced
from life to a term scheduled
to end in about five years.
Speculation that Fecteau
and Downey might have been
dropping Nationalist Chinese
agents on the mainland as
charged was raised to a possi-
bility Monday when Fecteau's
former wife was reported by
several newsmen as saying
that "the Chinese haven't been
lying."
She was said to have ex-
plained, "It's, very involved
and I'm not supposed to get
into it. He was a civilian work-
know what he, was doing, but I
can't 'say. Let me put it this
way-the Chinese haven't
been lying." Associated Press
Mrs. Feete u denied later Miss Harbert fingers orchid at Valley Forge hospital.
that she WA +h
' b t h
z
, u s e
would not elgborate. Two re-
porters who interviewed Mrs. Robert J. McCloskey said yes-
Fecteau quoted the same lan- terday,. "I don't see any use-
guage in their Monday stories. ful basis on which I could, at
STATINTL
vately that' the administration
no longer is following the
original U.S. characterization
that the charges against Fec-
teau and Downey were
edup
elease 1999/09/27 : CIA-RDP83-00764R000300070002-1