PHILBY BID: SPY SWAP TO KILL BOOK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330013-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2000
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: December 19, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

c$ICAGO DAILY
Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : CIA-RD5-JR000600330013-9
vivo
EXCLUSIVE SUPERSPY INTERViEW
-- ;;-f CPYRGHT -
July, 1965, to a year's imprisonment and tour years In
a labor camp. Suggestions of an exchange have been
steadfastly refused by the British government.
lam.
CPYRGHTHE BACKGROUND .1
flltra' mn of British and American intelligence operations
marked him as the Kremlin's most successful spy
In the postwar era, is reportedly attempting to publish i
his memoirs in the West. ti
In lengthy interviews with London Sunday Times re- I
porter Murray Sayle, Philby, who fled to the Soviet'.
Union In 1963, suggested that he might withdraw his
memoirs (presumably damaging to Western Intelligence)
If Soviet spies Peter and Helen Kroger were exchanged .1
for Gerald Brooke.
The Krogers were sentenced in Britain In March, 1961,
to 20 years for. espionage. Brooke was sentenced In
By Murray Sayle
CPYRGHT London Sunday Times Special
airect contact with Ra-r-oAd y
was a telephone call to my room at the Leningradskaya
Hotel in Moscow. We arranged to meet In Room 436 at
the Minsk Hotel on Gorky Boulevard (the "Broadway of
Moscow"), at 8 the same night.
i I knocked, the door opened, and there was Philby, smiling
ith hand outstretched. The room was bare except for two
hairs and a table on which stood a briefcase, a bottle of
odka and two glasses. The tables stood by a window with a
reathtaking view over Moscow, red stars shining on the
I ' .This is a tough, dynamic city,'.' said Philby. "This.. ;1,
I accepted his offer. Philby is a courteous man, smiles
i great deal, and his well-cut gray hair, and ruddy com-
lexion suggest vitality and enjoyment, of We..
H
e speaks exactly as a senior British civil servant-would
bout his present employers-"My superiors" he says. "my
UMNIP-S." mild very early in our conversation he ex.
lained, "I am a serving officer of the KGB (the Soviet
cret police), as you probably know.'"'
He said he would assume that It was possible that I '
;
orked for some Western Intelligence service.
'I naturally took precautions against any rough stuff-
We mot subsequently at a number of. resteurents,~Durln$
ems long Russian meals vodka, wine and brandy flowed
He is clearly a sociable type of drinker and he seems
have an iron head; I could detect no change in his
ertness or joviality as the waiters arrived with relays
The conversations which follow took place in no particular
GERALD BROKE AND ,THE KROGERS: Philby raised
"There was an Interesting suggestion in ..the' Economist.'
he said. "The idea was that I would be prepared to withdraw
my manuscript if - the Krogers were exchanged for Brooke. ?.
It that were In fact a condition of the ? Krogers being re,
leased, of course I would withdraw my book."
I asked, "Is that a message for 'someone? Do you want
that passed on?"
Philby replied; "Nb, It was just an idea I had." I asked;
"Why are you so anxious to make this exchange with the
Krogers?"
"Our position is that the' Krogers are innocent of the
charges on which they were convicted." Philby said. "They
were personal, not political friends of Gordon Lonsdale. We
on't dispute that people like Gordon and Col. Abel were our
gents, highly skilled professionals, but we cannot agree
hat -the` Krogers were the top-level agents they are being
"Now, look. at the other side. It's a pity about Brooke,
e really was a silly fellow. He got involved with the
ITc (the I'D-.1.1. I ..L-
F
..
-
ront
ontact who were supposed-to-be working Inside the Soviet
ughly. that the very first person he contacted was a KBG
n the West," ?
I said: "There seems to be a feeling in the West that
rooke was more or less. Innocently handing oot' anti-Com-
unist literature and. was grabbed by-your people in order