IS THAT MISSING PHYSICIST CROONING TO THE CIA?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201520008-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: October 29, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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1_~l PAGE .i . -.
RALPH DE TOLEDANO
WASHINGTON TIMES
29 October 1985
that
missing p
cys h si
t crooning
Y
to the CIA?
he
disappearance of Dr. Vla-
dimir Alexandrov, top- clear attack. As such, he could in- drawer Soviet nuclear form the West as to the exact status noted, is still being pushed by Mr.
Sagan as 'scientific fact.
physicist and a KGB scien-
f S
i
d
o
ov
et a
vances in Star Wars -
tific disinformation specialist, information vital to President Rea- Mr. Alexandrov' was flown to
escaped the attention of the U.S. Was in ton the CIA and is now-
media cape until it was linked gan as he prepares for his summit b both by intelligence
es
by me to the meeting with Kremlin boss Mikhail etng debriefed defection of Vitaly Yirchenko, No. S Gorbachev
experts an by erican scientists,
man in the KGB, a report which LASKea u s repo the CIA
received international attention. But Vladimir Alexandrov's role in declined commen .
when it was bannered by The Wash- Soviet nuclear affairs may have been hat Vladimir Alexandrov
ington Times. of considerably greater importance
has CL--
W to the a uFffi the
Most of the American press, both to the KGB. Working in 1984 with the
of Soviet military nu
printed and electronic, in rewriting KGB's multibillion-dollar disinfor- state
-
my report, clear development and Star wars
thmgh giving me no mation section, Mr. Alexandrov had cabiliti rocredit, entirely missed the point of created the hoax of a "nuclear win- publicly w ed. But its effect can
what had happened to Mr. Alexan-
dro? ter" - thoroughly debunked by such a seen in ie visible stiffening of
Mr. Alexandrov vanished in Mad- real scientists as Dr. Petr Beckmann President Reagan's stance on his
rid, en route to a nuclear conference - which, we were told, would result Strategic Defense Initiative and his
in Sicily. The rest of the Soviet dele- from a nuclear exchange between decision not to bow to Soviet pres-
gation to that conference - a group the Soviet Union and the United sure against it.
States. According to Mr. Alexan- Once Mr. Alexandrov has been
of academicians including the son of drov's "findings" any such exchange thoroughly debriefed, however, he
Andrei Gromyko - was immedi. would release so much dust and can contribute mightily to American
ately ordered to remain in Moscow debris into the atmosphere that the awareness by exposing just how the
Vitaly Yttrchenko was sent to Rome sun would be blocked out and a new KGB has been able to influence and
to intercept Mr. Alexandrov, should Ice Age would destroy all vegetation distort our scientific thinking.
he show up. The importance of Mr. and most of mankind with it. -
Ytirchenko's mission can be meas. This fright-wig "theory" was suc- Ralph de 7bledano is a nationally
ured by the fact that he was met at cessfully transmitted by the KGB to syndicated columnist.
the Fiumicino airport by the Soviet the United States and caused a sen-
ambassador to Italy, who put the sation when it was espoused and
entire Rome embassy at his dis- popularized by Dr. Carl Sagan, Cor-
posal. At the first o ortunit Mr. nell University pundit and TV per-
Ytu-ch o turned himself over to sonality. This lozenge of sci-fi
Vatican authorities, REEM on- hokum made headlines, giving much
tact with the Central Intelligence comfort to nuclear-freeze propagan-
dists and, until the scientific com-
munity had analyzed it, giving the
T he uproar in the Kremlin over Pentagon and the Reagan adminis-
the Alexandrov disappear- tration some bad headaches. The
ance is understandable. He "nuclear winter" fairy tale, let it be
was, at 40, one of the top-ranking
physicists and mathematicians in
the Soviet Union, deeply involved in
both military nuclear research and
in the development of the Kremlin's
own strategic defense against nu-
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201520008-7