SOVIET ANNOUNCES A GRANT OF ASYLUM TO EX-C.I.A. AGENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706630009-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 7, 2011
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: August 8, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706630009-4
/1R I I1.1..G nr ,
ON PAGE
SOVIET ANNOUNCES
A GRANT OF ASYLUM
TO EX-C.I.A. AGENT
He Vanished in September -
Concern Over U.S. Security
Voiced in Washington
BY PIUUP TAUIMAN
SpeWto no MW yak man
MOSCOW, Aug. 7 - The Soviet
Union said today that it had granted
asylum to a former employee of the
Central Intelligence Agency who disap.
peared last September under suspicion
of selling secrets to Moscow.
According to the Government press
agency Tass, the former C.I.A. man,
Edward L. Howard, told the Soviet au-
thorities in seeking asylum that he had
"to hide from the U.S. secret services,
which were persecuting him without
foundation."
In Washington, officials said Mr.
Howard's defection and his disclosures
about what he knows about American
intelligence had done. immeasurable
damage to national security.
U.S. Feared Defection to Soviet
Since the night in September when he
abandoned his family and fled into the
New Mexico desert, American intelli-
gence officials have feared that Mr.
Howard would reappear in the Soviet
Union and reveal intelligence tech-
niques.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Ver-
mont Democrat who is vice chairman
of the Select Committee on Intelli-
gence, said: "Certainly if a C.I.A.
agent defects to the Soviet union, it
damages us. It is a matter of concern to
all of us."
Mr. Howard is believed to be the first
C.I.A. employee to defect to the Soviet
Union. In 1980, two employees of the
National Security Agency, Bernon F.
Mitchell and William H. Martin, turned
up here. Another employee of the Na-
tional Security Agency, Victor Norris
Hamilton, defected in 1983.
'Humanitarisa C.oaWWatIs '
In the Howard can, a brief Tan an-
nouncement said, the Presidium of the
Supreme Soviet was "guided by las.
manitarian considerations" in grant-
ing asylum. The Presidium is the
Soviet Union's collective presidency,
headed by Andrei A. Gromyko. The re-
port gave no other details.
The whereabouts of Mr. Howard has
NEW YORK TIMES
8 August 1986
been unknown since last September,
when he disappeared from his home
outside Santa Fe, N. M. He was working
as a budget analyst for the New Mexico
Legislature at the time.
His disappearance was an embar-
rassment for the C.I.A. and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, which had
been investigating his links to the
Soviet Union at the time. F.B.I. agents
had his home under surveillance when
he eluded them on a moonless night.
Mr. Howard was suspected of giving
the Soviet Union information about
C.I.A. activities in Moscow that he had
acquired while training for an assign.
ment here. He was never sent to Mos-
cow, and he left the C.I.A. In June 1983.
American intelligence officials have
described his links with the Soviet
Union, which are believed to have
begun after he left the agency, as dam-
aging to C.I.A. operations here, includ.
ing the work of agents and their han.
dling of Soviet informants.
Mr. Howard's move to the Soviet
Union brings full circle a Byzantine spy
case that began last year with the ap-
parent defection to the West of Vitaly S.
Yurchenko, identified by the C.I.A. as a
senior officer of the K.G.B., the Soviet
intelligence agency.
Named by Yurchenko
American officials said last year that
Mr. Yurchenko had identified Mr.
Howard as a Soviet double agent. Mr.
Yurchenko made a dramatic return to
the Soviet Union in November, can.
tending that he had been kidnapped
and tortured by the C.I.A.
Mr. Yurchenko also told the Amer.
icans that Ronald W. Pelton, a former
employee of the National Security l
Agency, had provided the Soviet Union
with secret information. Mr. Pelton
was convicted in June of having sold se-
crets to Moscow.
There is continuing dispute whether
Mr. Yurchenko was a genuine defector
who later changed his mind, or an
agent sent to the West to disrupt intelli-
gence operations.
American officials said in October
that Mr. Howard might have helped the
Soviet authorities apprehend a Soviet
citizen who was providing military in-
formation to the United States. Mr.
Howard, according to the officials, pro-
vided information that led to the arrest
of the Russian, A G. Tolkachev.
Mr. Howard, after disappearing in
September, was variously reported in
Central and South america and in Eu-
rope. One report traced him to Finland,
but there was no confirmation. He had
worked for the C.I.A. from January
1981 to June 1983.
The Washington Post said recently
that while Mr. Howard was training for
an assignment in Moscow, he was
given Information about how agents op.
erate, but not the names of agents.
The Post said his assign ment had
been canceled after he failed to pass a
lie detector test and was found to have
a drinking problem.
After he was dismissed in 1983, he
moved to Santa Fe with his wife and
son, taking a job in the New Mexico
Legislature.
American officials have said they be..
lieve he began selling information to
the Soviet Union in 1984 and made sev-
eral trips to Europe to meet with Soviet
agents.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706630009-4