EX-INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS CALL YURCHENKO A PLANT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000301860004-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 15, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: November 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301860004-3
x.Intelligenee Officers Call
Yurchenko- a Plant'
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 is penetrate th&C1Aand trigger congres- arrested Monday in Annapolis, Md. Pelton
sional hostility against the 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,
CIA.agent, said the intelligence community the intelligence community's interest in them
nationwide generally agrees the CIA botched is historical
the Yurchenko affair, and "even the CIA Another panelist, author Ed Epstein, also
r
questioned it," although high-ranking CIA officials tion n Yurc Yucdhen the significance
g to the the CIA A after
still maintain the Russian's information was his defection. . was feeding Yurchenko claimed to be the
truthful. "It my have been accurate, but it was No. 5 man in the KGB, "but he did not possess
also not of any particular importance," Miler
said. level of information appropriate for
.
Miler participated on a a panel or local
intelligence experts fielding questions during
a luncheon meeting of the Association of
Former Intelligence Officers.
Yu. chenko, who defected to the West last
y
ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL (NM) flIE 1
27 November 1985
E
tion," he said.
Epstein, author of the book, "Legend,"
which examined the assassination of Presi-
dent Kennedy and the Soviet connection with
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.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301860004-3