UNPERSUASIVE CASE AGAINST FEDORA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404610013-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: September 27, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404610013-4
NEW YORK TIMES
ARTICLE APPEAL 27 SEPTEMBER 1981
ON PACE '
Letters',
Unpersuasive-Case
Against `Fedoia~
To the Editor:
William Safire's Sept- 17 column,
"The Other Shoe," on the supposed
"double or triple secret agent "Fedo-
ra," is seriously in error- as is the
information from- the-Reader's Di-
gest, Edward Jay Epstein and James
Angleton, on which the column is ap-
parently ultimately based -- at least
on one crucial point-'.
The heart- of the matter is the al-
leged relationship between Epstein's
"Fedora" and Yurr Nosenko, a self-
confessed K.G.B. agent who told the
F.B.I. and the C.I.A. in 1963-64 that he
had been Lee Harvey. Oswald's case;
agent for the K;G.B_'and that there
had been no relationship between the
K.G.B. and Oswald, .the assassin of
President Kennedy. - ? .. r
To put it mildly, there were - and
are=well-founded and substantial
doubts about the truth of Nosenko's
basic story:
As chief counsel for the Select Com-
mittee on Assassinations in. 1977-79, I
directed a comprehensive investiga-
tion
of Nosenko and his story. about-
Oswald and concluded, along with 'a
unanimous. committee, that Nosenko
had-lied to' the F.B.I. and C.I.A. in
1963.64-and tows in 1978. The details
are set out in 'The Plot to Kill the
President"'(Times Books 1981).
Included in that investigation,
which had access to the key classified ..
documents -as well as F.B.I. and .
C.I.A. personnel and foreign defec-'
tors; was a review of Epstein's allega-
tions about the relationship between a
"Fedora" and Nosenko. a
According to Epstein, nf'Nosefiko-
had lied, then. the bona fides of- his-
"Fedora" had to be questioned and
rejected, too. Unfortunately, it just is
not all that simple.
Although. the details of- the pro-
cess of reasoning, are classified, we -
concluded that ":. contrary to Ep:-
stein's -assertion[s] ' the bona -
fides of Nosenko [are]: : not inex-
tricably intertwined with those of any
other defectoi'.. .
' : G. ROBERT Bi.Ai~
.
:Notre Dame, Ind., Sept- 17,1981
ProfessorofLaw'
Notre Dame I
aiv School
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404610013-4