A 'CIA CONFESSION' IN KABUL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303590003-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: April 14, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303590003-0
LLB.\1 .IJ I.J 111 rr. T:a>+ON FACE
NEWSWEEK
14 April 1980
A `CIA Confession' in Kabul
With his blond hair, his trendy aviator glasses and his
sweater, the young man looked as though he had just walked off
an American college campus. But when Robert Lee appeared on
Soviet and Afghan television last week, he made a startling-if
wholly unconvincing-confession: he said he was a spy for the
Central Intelligence Agency sent to aid Afghan guerrillas in
their fight against the Soviet-installed government.
Since the Soviet invasion last December, Moscow's puppet
regime in Afghanistan has been anxious to establish foreign
complicity in the rebel cause-especially if the foreign devil was
an American. Lee provided a convenient propaganda tool. A
former chemistry student at the University of California, Lee
happened to be in Afghanistan during the guerrilla uprising in
February. He was arrested and imprisoned in a Kabul jail.
There, according to former prisoners, Lee was subjected to
physical and psychological mistreatment designed to extract his
"confession."
"Lee is very confused," said David Wilkie, a 21-year-old
Australian student who had been in an adjoining cell. "He has
bronchial pneumonia brought on by the intense damp cold and
he also hasjaundice. Without medical treatment, he could die."
Wilkie said Lee was questioned incessantly by Afghan and
Soviet officers and offered asylum and a new life in East
Germany in exchange for his televised performance. As Wilkie
recalled: "I remember hearing him say repeatedly, `I want to
make a new beginning for myself, I want to go to East
Germany.' He was in such a bad state, he began saying anything
to please his guards."
`Crying Like Babies': According to the released prisoners,
Afghan jailers systematically tortured inmates to extract infor-
mation about the resistance movement. Several mentioned
electric-shock treatment; others recounted how an 8-year-old
boy and a 90-year-old man were severely burned with lighted
cigarettes. "At night we could all hear other prisoners, Afghans
and Pakistanis mostly, screaming while they were being beaten
and questioned," said Wilkie. "There was banging and thump-
ing and some were crying like babies." Given the prospect of
undergoing such torture, Wilkie said, "I wasn't surprised that
Lee agreed to do what they wanted." But Lee's captors have not
done what he wanted. Despite his "confession," the young
American is still imprisoned in his damp Kabul cell.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303590003-0