RUSSIA HAILS SECRET POLICE,PRAISES DOUBLE AGENT PHILBY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330008-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2000
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: December 19, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

n ? Approved For Release 2001/07/27: RR- OTM00600330008-5
0E019196'7 CPYRGHT'
CLAIMS U.S. SPIES OUTSMARTED
0 Russia Hails Secret Police,
CPYRi faIses Double Agent Philby
MOSCOW (M-Preparing to cele-
brate its 50th birthday, the Soviet
secret police, the KGB, got praise
Monday for recruiting master spy
Harold A. R. (Kim) Philby and for
allegedly outsmarting many U.S.
spies.
With the headline "Hello, Com-
rade Philby" and a smiling photo of
the former high official of British
intelligence, the Soviet government
newspaper Izvestia praised hitr, as a
hero of communism and disclosed to
the Soviet people for the-first time
that he was in the Soviet Union. He
fled to Moscow nearly five years
The U.S. Embassy, reacting to the
ctaim that 'U.S. agents had been
'outsmarted, said In a statement:
"Apart from attempting to. glorify
the Chekists (the old KGB) on, their
0
Approved
anniversary, the article seems to b
part of a series of Soviet fabrications
regarding alleged Western and par.
ticularly U.S. espionage."
Since he came here after gaining
access to many secrets of the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency, Philby
told Izvestia, he has found his
"second homeland."
The former double agent said that
from the -start of his career in
British intelligence he obeyed the
Soviet secret police-the KGB-and
"I was happy that I had become a
member of- Soviet intelligence."
? Philby boasted in the Izvestia
article of his feats as a double agent
and said he had completely fooled
eirut, Lebanon, as corre-
pondent for the London
bserver.
The. London Sunday
Imes and the' Observer
eported last September
hat Philbyy was confront-
d with the evidence
gainst him In Beirut late
in 1962 and In January,
1963, fled to Moscow.
In separate praise, of the
GB's 50th. anniversary
Wednesday, Pr vda, the
ewspaper of the -Soviet I
Communist Party, said So-
iet counterespionage was
so successful that`it
aused enemy agents to.
complain: "We try, but the
KGB. stops us." .
Pravda also charged that
two U.S. assistant military
attaches were caught last
year when they. "im-
pudently peered" through
a fence around.an uniden-
tified Soviet "military ob-
ject",about'.300 miles west
Allen Dulles, then director of the
CIA.
"It was. my job to plan various
operations against the Soviet Union
,and other. Socialist coun-
orpedo them myself," he
aid.
As an example, he said
he CIA planned a revolu-
ion against the Commu
.1st regime in a Balkan
ountry - identified ear-
ier in British newspaper
tories on Philby as Alba-
la.
Philby took part In the
lanning. Then 'the CIA
gents were caught as
hey crossed the border
nto the country.
Dulles analyzed every
ossible reason for the
allure, but he "could not
uppose that a member of.
oviet Intelligence was sit-
ing at the table," Philby
aid.
T h e article disclosed
hat Philby had been. giv.,
n one of the highest
viet awards, 'the Order
A the Red Banner.
On Philby's Trail
The, article ' seemed to
onflrm London newspa '
er reports that the Brl
ish had been closing in on
hilby, who had quit the
ritish Intelligence Ser-
ice and had gone to
of Moscow.
Improperly Detained .
In reply, the U.S. Em-
bassy confirmed the in-
cident but said the Ameri-
cans were improperly de-
tained and "the accusa-
tions against them were
without foundation."
The two Navy Lt.
Comdr. Robert B. Ba-
thurst and Army Lt. Col.
Robert E. Liichowwere
arrested on the spot but
were later released. They
left the Soviet Union last
spring at the end of nor-
mel duty tours.
The KGB said In Pravda
that at one time it caught
a spy named Afonov, who
worked for U.S. Intel-
ligence. Using his radio
and secret dispatches, the
KGB said, it tricked the
United States for eight
years with false ' informs
tion about the Soviet mili-
tary, especially its subma-
rines.
The KGB, whose initial
stand for the R*u s s i a
words for State 'Security
Committee, also said i
was able to arrest a con'
tact man for U.S. espion
age after. it. caught two
American spies in Latvia
and got them to double
cross the CIA, by helping
them find the contact
n t man.
For Release 20 1/07/27 C1ii-RD1575-0( 149R000600330008-5