SZABO'S TESTIMONY MAKES CHILLY STORY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700420012-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 6, 2004
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: March 27, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

CUi\fLESTOM , S.C.
NEWS & COURIER
bl - ~1,16B
S - 79.805
MAR 2.7 1966
/12/15 CIA-REp
!Real-Life S 'Tale
P~
Staff Reporter
e- service
"'~ :'1 story. Lur a to Asian and African ? fn 1954.
I-
S readers
,
zao, taken by his own
FELT words, emerges as a weak' ' RIVERS CITED "I felt IA asH
man who for 20 years could Rep. L. Mendel
Rivers, < in the AVH," hersaid'y~safe1 {
not a
he.
D-S
the .claimsytonhave foundt rep g A r m,ecdaiServices Comm t-; butld hf aQeefao sed do go"back, I it.
nant. When his countr
men
y
staged the famous revolt of..
October 1956, Szabo accepted
Soviet protection in the Min-
istry of Interior building in
Budapest, within earshot of
the gunfire.
The 40-year-old Communist
esponiage agent defected to'
the West last Oct. 18 in Lon
don, where he was assigned,
1T ntly he related to the,
TA li ompi~tteehislife sto-
,,``' aye infot'mafion about
aaiu tie syrnpatnizea
the attention of the House with the 1956 revolt and told
Wednesday. ' the , subcommittee it was ac-
Szabo's testimony, R i v e r s `complished without outside
said, revealed that "every et- help'. 1:'
He said the Soviets
fort is made to blackmail' feared to act at first, not .j
Americans, to threaten people wanting to trigger a West to'
serving as intelligence agents help the revolution.. He said
of the Hungarians." lie thinks the Russians organ-
Szabo said his training was ized the new government un-
to "use balckmail if you have der Kadar, then ordered the
to, but recruit your man." new government to ask for
His Soviet teachers, he said, help.
"gave examples of blackmail- "It was all set ' up like a
in
di
l
g
p
omats with phtl" h
,oo- pay,e testified.
Hungarian Intelligence graphs of their intimate rela- Of his long years in the't
and Security Service. Szabo lions with women with homo- AVH, said, "I was a
was a major with the intelli= sexuals." '
genre organization, common. SABOTAGE OFFICER inhuman of a ? ivery
zat ion, and
ly known as the AVH, which'' Szabo worked intercepting never did did anything criminal
he served for 18 years. western agents' radio trans- , A heron "I cannot say that I am mission and as an industrial"; have refused. Iic
was not and
courageous," Szabo confessed sabotage officer.'
"but I do believe that I am When he defected, he was'., am ii of that, and I feared to,:
a sensitive man. I have al- an espionage officer in Lon- ,. Szabo's story leaves untold
ways aspired to a happy life don, During the 1956 Hungar- ;.the states of friends and rel.
and to the performance of tan revolt, Szabo "followed or- atives left behind. In a touch.
good purposes." ders and kept quiet." '
He described the AVH as The AVH has had some ' to t em,ohepurgesgthat''
a Soviet dominated intelli- success
he said recr
iti
a
''
,
u
ng
s they
it th l
,assseong-suffer-
genre organization whose agents some of the
WASHINGTON - , Nothing , The AVH staged antf-Amer. :' Szabo said he had "h I s
in the testimonny of Hungari- lean demonstrations, he said, first ggrave doubts about the
an Communist turncoat Las- bugged embassies; blackmailed . morality of the Hungarian se-as
zlo Szabo revealed here this tourists and diplomats and cury ice system,"
week in a House subcommit- even forged copies of News- early as 1948, but continued .
;'tee report was surprising. week magazine to misrepre. as an agent. He got out of the
1 But it makes a chilly, real. sent the U. S Civil rights pi
in. 1952, but returned
-_r ^ccwul - u mess-. who ? Choosing freedom and ha
peered , , without a trace," ,found refuge,in.t is coulitry,; Hess." .
Approved For Release 2004/12/15 CIA-RDP75_00149R000700420012-9