SPY DEFECTOR REVEALS RED FORGERIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700420015-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 6, 2004
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: March 24, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

AND 'T'IDIES HERALD
Approved For Release 2004/121: 1E16A- '75-00149
Icampaign" carried out by the
ISOvict Disinformation Depart-
Spy Defector', meet.
Szabo, in his report to the
~~ Rivers . committee, said the
.eVea1. disinformation o p b r a t'i o n
2 Newsweek Issues
"They preferred that an
item for disinformation should
have some real basis, be based
on facts, but if I can produce
a good idea that does not.
have any fact I send it in any-
,way. Truth is not important.
Deparlnient Faked,
ii oi'gei.'ies
`Disinformation'
By Richard Harwood - 1" --Y will inane 16 1OUK
truthful, then get it published,'
Washington Post Staff Writer in some little paper, some-
House Armed Services Com where."
mi tee ny Chairman Mendell A pho letter to an Arab
Rivers ' (D-S.C.), Who shares leader, Szabo claimed, caused
with the ident the secrets the arrest of another promi-
ncnt Arab figure, which in
of the iCIA . yesterday pro-!turn caused "a breakdown be
duced the 7i a story of a Com-1tween the Arab leader and (a)
t dhi 1 tl
mums
n
ons
e-
sumably the (CIF_,;La runuingitween the United States and
account' of ht 20-year career, other Western countries."
as a security and intelligence Szabo described himself as
agent. I
a reluctant and weak-kneed
One of his original rcvela-recruit to the H u n g a r i a n
tions was that the Hungarians; espionage apparatus.
had secretly forged. and dis-i . "I did not have the personal
tributed to Asian and African, bravery.. to turn In any.
diplomats two issues of News.lotheg~ dlrectian,",_, ,, lie.'.:.salt!
spy a
s revs a %'- Western country,"
on the mysterious. "Depart. One of Szabo's specific "dis-
ment of Disinformation." information" assignments, he
The spy's name is Laszlo said, was to come up with
Szabo, a 40-year-old tin-, ideas to cause friction be-
garian, who defected last falljtwcen the United States and
versions of American policies!
and were mailed out by agents
who wore "rubber gloves .. .
so as' not to leave fingerprints
in . handling and sticking' on
stamps."
This was not the first refer-
ence to the so-called "Depart-
tnent of Disinformation" be-
hind the Iron Curtain. FBI
D i r e c t o r - J . Edgar Hoover
charged last fall that he had
been the target of that De-
partment. He said it had sent
out forged letters linking him
to former White House aide
Walter Jenkins. The letters,
said Hoover, were "part of a
concerted ,Communist. smear
Approved For Release 2004/12/1.5: CIA-RDP75-001-6
the United Kingdom and "to
undermine the relati
b
I was a member of a
very cruel and inhuman'
organization. But I never did
)anything criminal, I never
!fired a gun at a man during
my service, and I never initi-
atcd any cases against inno-
cent people, My soul is clear
before God . . ."
His account of the routine
functions of a Communist spy
was as undramatic as most
such accounts-American dip-,
lomats In Communist capitals}
are trailed, efforts are made to
get secrets out of embassies,,
there is always a demand ford
new agents and some are re-
cruited through blackmail,,
one of his statements, how-'
ever, shed new light on the
American CIA's coup in oh-
Itaining a copy of the famo'isl
speech in which former Soviet
} Premier N i k i t a Krushchcv
first denounced Stalin and
Stalinism.
Szabo said thousands of
copies of the speech were avail-
able in Hungary and were :
"passed around secretly
"
.
Rivers did not explain yes-
terday how his committee hap-
pened to stumble onto the
Szabo case but he said "hardly
a day passes that a representa-
Live of the CIA does not visit
my office and the offices or l
some of the other 4 members)
of the-,,CIA Subcommittee. It;
25X1
C.