PHILBY SAYS HE'S HAPPY OVER RED SPY CHARGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300220064-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 15, 2005
• Sequence Number: 64
• Publication Date: November 15, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300220064-1
Phi 1by Says He's Happy
Over Red Spy Charge
MOSCOW (UPI)-The Stam-
mering Kremlin spy accused of
penetrating American and Brit-
ish e s p i o n a g e headquarters
smiled today and said he really
wouldn't mind doing it all over
again.
Harold Philby, the upperclass
Englishman said to have served
Moscow while heading Britain's
anti-Soviet spy network,
emerged for the first time from
Soviet espionage shadows and
talked with Western newsmen in
a Moscow hotel.
Philby seemed pleased with
himself.
Faced with British charges
that lie stole enough secrets to
earn the title as the twentieth
century's greatest, spy, Philby
waggled a finger only once with
a correction.
ile said it most certainly was
not true that lie began spying in
1943, as reported in London. It
was in 1933, he said happily. And
why?
Philby, stammering still at
times, said he became a Com-
munist agent during the great
depression. "The dilemma of the
working class people was fright-
ful," he said.
"That's why I did it--I would
do it again tomorrow," he said.
Any regrets?
"I do miss the casual access
to my children, although in fact
I. think I see as much of them as
I would have had I remained a
foreign correspondent (one of
his spy "cover" jobs)," Philby
said.
Record in Top Spots
He waid he was "never hap-
pier, certainly never healthier"
than during the last four years
in Moscow since he skipped
away from Beirut.
l;ehind him, according to Brit-
ish official and press reports,
lay:
Spying for the Soviet Union
while serving as wartime British
spy chief for Spain, Portugal
and Africa.
Spying for the Soviet Union
while serving as organizer and
pionage network
World War II.
Spying for the Soviet Union
while a liaison man in Washing-
ton for Britain's M. I. 6 espio-
nage organization, London's
equivalent of Washington's CIA.
Being asked for and advising
U. S. security officials in those
years on organizing the CIA.
Being the "third man" who
tipped off British diplomats Guy
Burgess and Donald Maclean in
time for the pair to make their
famed 1951 flight to Moscow,
steps ahead of British counter-,
spies.
That Was Undoing
According to British reports, it
was Philby's known friendship
with both Burgess and Maclean
that led to his undoing. Eased
out of sensitive fields, he re-
turned to being a foreign corre-
spondent, fleeing at last to Mos-1
in 1963.
Some things Philby refused to
talk about. This included his re-
ported marriage to Maclean's
ex-wife, Melinda. She and Philby
were spotted at a Moscow con-
cert only last week.
He indicated he enjoys very 1
much life in a comfortable I
apartment supplied by a grate-
ful Kremlin. Be refused to show i
Approved For Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300220064-1