EX-INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS CALL YURCHENKO A PLANT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200810001-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/06/09: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200810001-2
ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL (NM) FILE ULY
27 November 1985
ix..I~telligence Officers Call
Yurchenko a Pl~iit'
By Rick Nathanson
summer while in Italy, fingered several U.S.
citizens spying for the Soviet Union. Among
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER them were Edward Howard of Santa Fe, who
Purported Soviet KGB defector Vitaly Yur- worked for the CIA from 1981-83, and fled to
chenko probably was a plant whose mission Finland in September, and Ronald Pelton,
was to penetrate thALULand trigger congres- arrested Monday in Annapolis, Md. Pelton
sional hostility against t agency, a group of worked as a communications specialist for
former intelligence officers speculated the National Security Agency from 1965-79.
Tuesday. Because Howard and Pelton had no current
Panelist Newton S. "Scotty" Miler, a retired access to sensitive information, Miler said,
Qe the intelligence community's interest in them
CIA. agent, said the intelligence community is "historical."
nationwide generally agrees the CIA botched Another panelist, author Ed Epstein, also
the Yurchenko affair, and "even the CIA questioned the significance of the informa-
knows it," although high-ranking CIA officials tion Yurchenko was feeding to the CIA after
still maintain the Russian's information was his defection. Yurchenko claimed to be the
truthful. "It my have been accurate, but it was No. S man in the KGB, "but he did not possess
also not of any particular importance," Miler the level of information appropriate , for
said
someone in that high position in the organiza-
Milpr participated on a a panel of local tion," he said.
intelligence experts fielding questions during Epstein, author of the book, "Legend,"
a luncheon meeting of the Association of which examined the assassination of Presi-
Former Intelligence Officers. dent Kennedy and the Soviet connection with
Yu:chenko, who defected to the West last Lee Harvey Oswald, currently is working on
an article about Yurchenko for Life magazine.
He noted that the CIA may not have been
completely duped and may have doubted
Yurchenko's value. He pointed out that Yur-
chenko was not kept isolated and had no
problem re-defecting.
A further indication that Yurchenko was a
plant, Epstein said, was in his willingness to
return to the East, knowing how the Soviet
Union deals with traitors.
While the CIA got some positive public
relations in the wake of Yurchenko's defec-
tion, his re-defection may have had the
opposite effect, said University of New
Mexico political science professor, Dr. Peter
Lupsha.
In claiming that the CIA kidnapped him in
Rome and kept him drugged until he could
escape, it gave the Soviets the opportunity to
accuse the United States of human rights
violations and state terrorism. The accusa.
tions came as President Reagan was prepar-
ing for his Geneva summit with Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev.
S
Approved For Release 2010/06/09: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200810001-2