FORMER CIA AGENT DEFECTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504260006-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: August 7, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504260006-2
Former CIA Agent Defects
TOM JARRIEL : The CIA
trained him, he used their
escape techniques to elude the
FBI, and today Edward Lee
Howard turned up in Moscow,
where he was given a safe
haven. Howard was sought by
U.S. authorities after it was
learned he had told the Soviets
all about U.S. intelligence
gathering in Moscow. The
secrets he betrayed are
described as among the most
damaging in recent years to
American intelligence gathering
in the Soviet Union.
We have two reports on the
spy who got away. First,
here's ABC's John Martin.
1 JOHN MARTIN: In Moscow the
Soviet newspaper Izvestia
reported this news: "Edward
Howard, an American fugitive
and former CIA officer, had
been granted political asylum."
The Soviet press agency Tass
said, "Howard has stated that
the motive for his request is
that he has to hide from the
U.S. secret services."
Edward Howard is wanted by
the FBI for espionage, repor-
tedly for betraying CIA
operations in Moscow. Even
though he was an acknowledged
former drug user, the CIA hired
him and revealed secrets to
him, then fired him in 1983
when he failed a lie detector
test. Later he moved to Santa
Fe, New Mexico, where he left
this house at night last year,
even though F9I agents had him
under surveillance.
As a spy, Howard apparently
told Soviet agents how the CIA
avoided surveillance in Moscow
and how it arranged to meet its
informants. His spying was
apparently revealed by the
Soviet KGB3 defector Vitaly
Yurchenko, who also reportedly
identified Ronald Pelton, a
National Security Agency
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
7 August 1986
Y
employee convict fl ~n
W
of
spying for the Soviet Union.
Yurchenko returned to the
Soviet Union last year.
Since Howard allegedly began
betraying CIA operations, five
American Embassy personnel have
been expelled from the Soviet
Union, and a Soviet expert in
technology is missing and may
have been executed, according
to some reports.
A Former CIA official said
the blame for this should be
shared by agency officials.
GEORGE CARVER: That at
least one person paid with his
life for Howard's indiscre-
tions. Ana that, to me, is
criminal culpability on a
number of people's part.
MARTIN: Intelligence
sources nave told ABC's John
Scali the CIA decided to break
contact with most of its Soviet
informants, even though Howard
only knew a few of them. It's
not clear how much this damaged
national security. But the
irony tonight is that Edward
Howard and the Soviet defector
who reportedly betrayed him,
Vitaly Yurchenko, may now be
living in the same city,
Moscow.
DENNIS TROUTE: This is
Dennis Troute in Washington,
where the CIA and the FBI were
sharply criticized by the
President's Foreign Intelli - b
gence Advisory 9oard for their
work in the Howard affair. FBI
Director William Webster issued
letters of reprimand to a
handful of agents For mishand-
ling the case. At the CIA,
William Casey also reprimanded
his operatives on the Howard
case for failing to tell FBI
counterparts who were trying to
keep track of him that Howard
was an espionage expert trained
at slipping surveillance teams.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504260006-2
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504260006-2
2
The agency has also begun
internal reforms, such as
replacing the chief of the
security section who oversees
investigations of recruits.
The CIA will closely scrutinize
applicants fur any with a
history of drug or alcohol
abuse.
The CIA no longer is firing
unsatisfactory agents outright,
but instead is giving them a
cooling-off period before
dismissal, so their information
is outdated by the time they
leave the agency.
Finally, counseling for
dismissed agents is being
reemphasized to lessen the
chance that an embittered
former employee will turn
against the agency and reveal
its secrets.
Curiously, intelligence
sources say that's the one
thing they did right in the
Howard case, arrange psychi-
atric counseling for him after
his dismissal from the CIA.
Obviously, it didn't work. And
experts say they don't expect a
foolproof system, even with
this additional reform.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504260006-2