DEFECTOR HAD JOB TIED TO CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700040001-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 7, 2006
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 15, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

AND TIMES HERALD
Approved For R(58se 440ftf lA;-RD
superiors advised him to un-
dergo psychiatric treatment.)
State Department security
officials were looking into ' in-
dications that Koch may have
visited Vietnam sometime in
1963 or 1964. .
In 'applying for his current
U.S. passport,- Koch' stated
that he had traveled in ?Eu
rope and the, Far East during
that period f~ But 'he did not
specify, what countries. he had
visited. -
Koch was Issued a passport
Aug. 2 and left the United
States Aug. 21 on a KLM Air-
line flight from New York to
Amsterdan. He was supposed
.to be en route to Jidda, Saudi
Arabia, ' to oberve training
By'- Ross
1-:.i .o aura-rime.
Harold X. Koch, a ? former
Roman Catholic priest, from
,Chicago who defected to the
Soviet Union, once worked
!briefly a Ce:itral Intel-
higenco z~ ency cover organi-
!zatioi, .:. _ s been learned.
Duri"n., -ie summer of 1064,
Koch an employe of Ra-
dio L3";, ry, Which broad-
! casts :.ci-Corr. -nunist pro.
from l.e quarters in Munich,
Wert G,r any.
The X- -w York Times re=
vealed last April that Radio
Liberty, ostensibly a private
company; in fact provides
-`cover for CIA-financed or-
kanizations."
It could not be immediately
determined, h o w e v e r, If
;Liberty adc< a na.ional securi-
ty dimen-_ . to his defection,
!vision w~_:.s' z,nd denounced
dal Bureau of investigation
Koch any was .;ta.rting from
scratch is its r.vestigation,
~wnioh tin'si' ' egin Chicagq.
{ (In ?Cti: ;o
urohdio
esan
,
c
`officials -nave said Koch
Paris police were unable to lo-'
cate him or provide .any infor-
imation.about his movements.
? Rocca said Koch .ap-
proached a representative of
the Institute at a convention
of the National Association
for Foreign Student Affairs In
said, Koch submitted an appli-
cation, for. an . overseas .job,
listing the fact that he was. a
graduate of St. Mary of the!
Lake Seminary in Mundelein,:
I11.
Rocca c?aid Koch, who,
speaks good RLsslan, listed)
employment with Radio Liber}
ty on the application, which
proved accurate when subject j
ed to a normal check ofi
professional experience cud!
security.
The Institute WAS well
,aware mat Koch was a priest
who had left his duties, Rocca;
said, but -did note raise 06.
Issue with him.
"It was a bit unusual," Roe-,
shock me. That ,sort of thing
Is not so rare in our time,"
The Institute judged Koch
to be well-qualified for it
teaching job and brought him
be Washington bast month foi.
a two-week briefing_,.before
overseas assignment.:
V E
methods at an English-lan.
guage school and eventually
teach there.
Koch was traveling with an
11-mean team of instructors un-
der contract with the Institute
of Modern Languages ,Inc., a
company based here.
Koch left the group in Am-
sterdam, telling his colleagues
that he wanted to stop over in
Paris to talk to a Sorbonne
professor with Whom he was
working ona doctoral thesis.
? When Koch failed to appear
on the job in Saudi Arabia on
Aug. .25, the Institute started
a search for him.
Marcel X. Rocca, head of
CIA-RDp75=0a149R000700040d61-3
"He never talked 1folltics,"
Rocca Odded. I
In Saudi Arabia he' was toI
have: given language training:
to Arabians employed by the"
Raytheon Corp. in the instballa?
tion of Hawk antfadres af!t ;nmis-'
sides.. .
fiocea r oomplaSned
Koch owes tlhe. Inbtdturtb about;