DRUGGED BY RUSSIANS 3 U.S. ATTACHES SAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400440015-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 17, 1998
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: May 7, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

Quiet Protest Made to Soviet Ministry;
Other Acts Against Americans Noted
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN ,
Three staff members of the American Embassy in Moscow
claim they were drugged in late March while on a visit to the
port city of Odessa.
According to reliable sources, the three officers, all assistant
military attaches, became sick and passed out after apparentb
being given "knockout drops" during a two-day trip to Odessa
on March '24-26. Odessa is the
principal Soviet Black Sea portleign Affairs," Mr. McCloske
where most American wheat said. '
was shipped last winter, Mr. McCloskey said the pro
The Embassy, after examin- test was made last week. H
ing the attaches' report, pro- had no immediate comment o
tested to the Soviet Foreign why there had been a month'
Ministry. delay between the incidents an
Possibly lacking substantiali Officers Identified
proof, the United States decided! Officials later identified the
not to make public the charges.) officers involved as Marine Lt
No one :,cams to know why the l Col. J. M. Landrigan and -Nav
drugging took place.
When asked about the report,
Robert J. McCloskey, State
Department Press Officer, said
today that "I would confirm
Naval attaches; and Lt. Col. W
L. Van Meter, the air attache.
The officers apparently wer
drugged during dinner o
attaches were driving in a ca
in Leningrad .when a crowd
Soviet citizens stopped the
crawled over the car and hey
on the hood. The American
subsequently were accused
taking illegal photographs-
charge denied by the embass
which said they took no photo
On March 17, two air attache
were surrounded by angr
citizens in a public park in th
city of Tula, and accused o
being on military property. Th
park is near. an airfield, but. th
embassy said the officers wer,
only relaxing.
The Soviet government fu
ther barred the four officer
involved from 'traveling outsid
Moscow for 90 days.
Word of those Incidents be
came public only when Wester
reporters learned of them i
early April and broke the stor
Must Tell Travel Plans.
All foreign diplomats mus
tell Soviet officials of trave
fans before they can leav
Moscow. The tactics seem a
indirect way of telling . th
mericans that they are bein
losely watched, observers her .
ay.
Sovite diplomats in the United
tates also must file travel.
that two assistant naval at-1. Tney first noticed "inil " "? ~~aw a~cyali'-
,symptoms" when they awok pent and the Pentagon when
tactcs and one assistant air 11 the next morninc. SiibsannPn la_nning to travel, outside a 25-
attache from the United States
I Embassy in Moscow may have
been drugged. with mild effect
while on a trip to Odessa,
March 24 to 26.."
"The Embassy has protested l other incidents in recent month
to the Soviet Ministry of. For.
"
medical tests showed "present
of enough barbiturates to taus
extreme drowsiness," official
The '. drugging follows ' tw
11110 A UAUJ UL VY dJ1111166U11.
In recent testimony before the
irbcommittee . of the House
ppropriation's Committee, FBI;
hector J. Edgar. Hoover said
hat ',in 1962, Soviet military:
ttaches made 23 automobile
`reconnaissance trips" around-
he United States,
made 36 such trips.
Both countries have put abou
26 per cent of their nationa
territory off limits to one
other's officials. The Unite
States, however, unlike th
Soviet Union, allows Sovie
tourists free range in this coun
try. Less than 100 Soviet tour
ists visited the United States i
1.963. .
This is believed the first tim
American diplomats in Russi
h a v e claimed ; they wer
drugged. It ? is not . the firs
drugging, however.
There have been many inci-
dents in the past, and man
complaints to Soviet authorities
about such incidents-or "pro
vocations" in diplomatic jargon
Mr. Hoover disclosed in hi
testimony, for instance, tha
"on two separate instances a
American college professor an
a woman tourist went to Mos-
cow where they were drugged
while separately visiting the
S o v i e t Union, photographed
while unconscious, participating
in acts of sexual perversion,
arrested and their co-operation
in obtaining intelligence infor-
mation solicited under threat of
prosecution and exposure."
CPYRGHT
Sanitized Approved For. Release CIA-RDP75-001 ~9R000400440015-7