SOVIET TELLS OF AFGHAN EXPULSION OF U.S. DIPLOMAT

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00552R000706820005-5
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
July 26, 2010
Sequence Number: 
5
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
April 29, 1984
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00552R000706820005-5.pdf80.73 KB
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000706820005-5 ARI I CIS AFEWUM, 29 Ap- i1 19514 njE~f Soviet Tells of Afghan Expulsion of U.S. Diplomat speila mThe New Yorkrimes However, a detailed account appear- MOSCOW, April 28 - The Soviet Union has asserted that a United States diplomat expelled two weeks ago from Afghanistan was snared in a counterin- telligence operation that had been sending bogus information about Af- ghanistan to the Central Intelligence Agency. When Afghanistan announced . on April 11 that Richard S. Vandiver, a third secretary at the. United States Embassy in Kabul, was being expelled for spying, the State Department' re- jected the statement as having "no sub- stance whatever .P -:7 ing in the Soviet Government newspa- per Izvestia has assert ed that Mr. Van- diver was a C.I.A. agent and that he was duped into thinking that an Afghan citizen recruited during a visit to the United States was relaying valuable in- formation about Afghanistan's guer- rilla war, the movements of its leaders and other matters. According to the Soviet account, the operation passed false information to the C.I.A. for nine +tions." Since the Soviet military inter- vention in Afghanistan in December. In fact, Izvestia said, the Afghan con- tact, identified as Abdul Majid, was a double agent planted on the C.I.A."by Afghanistan's security services "'to ex= .pose the dirty face of C.I.A. provoca ghan security services mounted the operation against a background of in- tensive efforts by the C.I.A. to infiltrate the Afghan Government. "?In recent years, the United States special services did not ignore a single Afghan citizen making a trip to the United States," the paper said. "After a period of surveillance and soundings, a visitor would be approached with an offer to cooperate with the C.I.A. on, favorable terms." Izvestia identified Mr. Majid as a "security service operative" who posed as a "well-placed government of- ficial" and went to the United States for medical treatment..T'he paper said that on arrival in Los Angeles be was almost immediately approached by C.I.A. people who offered to pay his work again," izvestia said. "He was spirited to the C.I.A. office in Los An- geles for a polygraph test, which failed -to catch him off guard. He passed the test without losing his composure and was thereupon turned over to a certain 'John,' who made no effort to conceal the fact that be was a professional spy -working at the American Embassy in Kabul." The Soviet paper asserted that "John," proved to be Mr. Vandiver. Wed by photographs of Mr. Vandiver, who appeared to be in his late 20's, and of espionage equipment that he was said to have passed to Mr. Majid. According to the Soviet paper, the Af- caught, whereupon the Soviet experts who oversee Afghanistan's intelligence operations could have tried to reduce the damage by saying Mr. Majid had ', been a double agent all along.. Photo of Vandiver Published The Izvestia report was accompa- Western diplomats here cautioned against accepting the Izvestia version at face value, saying that it -could be part of a Soviet effort.to reco9p from damage done by, asuccessftiti United States infiltration of the Afghan Gov- ernment. The diplomats said they had no in-! side knowledge of the affair. However, they said it was theoretically possible that Mr. Majid, the Afghan citizen in the case, had been successfully re- cruited by the C.I.A. and was later tus has been controlled fromMoscow. ~ to spy. The Izvestia account, published two After heart surgery, Mr. Majid was days after the expulsion, did not say said- to have been required to make why the Afghans.had curtailed a pur- good on the C.I.A. "investment" forth- portedly successful counterintelligence with. "A mere two days after his dis- operation by expelling Mr. Vandiver.. charge from the clinic, Majid was at Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000706820005-5