UNPERSUASIVE CASE AGAISNT 'FEDORA'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100590002-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: September 27, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100590002-6
NEW YORK TIMES
ARTICLE APPEARED 27 SEPTEME R 1981
ON PAGE '
Letters,,!
Unpersuasive-Case
? .Against `Fedoira" . .
?
To the Editor:
William Safire's Sept.-. 17 column,
"The Other Shoe,".. on the supposed
double or triple secret agent :"Fedo-
ra," is seriously in error-as is the
information from- the-Reader's Di-
gest, Edward Jay Epstein and James
Angleton, on which the column is ap-
parently ultimately based - at least
on one crucial point:`
;.
The heart of the matter is the al-
leged relationship between Epstein's
"Fedora" and Yuri'Nosenko, a self-
confessed K.G.B. agent who told the
F.B.I. and the C.I.A- in 1963-64 that he
had been Lee Harvey. Oswald's case
agent for the K:G.B:'and that there
had been no relationship between the
K.G.R. and Oswald,-the assassin of
President Kennedy.
To put it mildly, there were - and
are='well-founded and substantial
doubts about the troth of Nosenko's
basicstoryc
As chief counsel for the Select Corn
mitten on Assassinations in.1977--79, I
directed a comprehensive investiga-
tion of Nosenko and his story. about
{ Oswald and concluded, along with'a
unanimous. committee, that Nosenko
had-lied to: the F.B.I. and C.I.A. in
1963-64- and to us in 1978. The details
are set out in "The Plot to Kill the
President"(T3mes Books 1981).
Included in that ihvestigation,
which had access to the key classified
documents -as well as F.B.I. and
C.I.A personnel and foreign defec-'
tors; was a review of Epstein's allega-
tions about the relationship between a
"Fedora" and Nosenko.
According to Epstein NoseAko?
had lied, then: the bona fides of- his-.
`Fedora" had to be questioned and
rejected, too:. Unfortunately, it just is
not all that simple:
Although ? the details of. the.pro-
cess of reasoning, are classified,-we
concluded that ":. contrary to Ep-;
stein's assertion[s] the bona
fides of Nosenko [are]'. not ines
tricably intertwined with those of any
other defector :..."..
G. ROBERT BLAKEY
. :Notre Dame, Ind., Sept.17,1981
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100590002-6