BOYCE/LEE CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01554R003400200006-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 28, 2006
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: April 28, 1977
• Content Type: MF

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Approved For Release6/;?'/,wIP RQP3GB,5,4,003400200006-1
2 8 APR 1977
MEMORANDUM FOR: DDCI
FROM: DCI
SUBJECT: Boyce/Lee Case
1. Attached is a copy of The New York Times article on
the Boyce/Lee case. I note in it that both Boyce and Lee were
apparently on drugs as well as alcohol. Lee apparently was in
this stat~ral years while still holding a high security
clearance
STANSFIELD TURNER
Admiral, U.S. Navy
t'v1ORUCD
Approved For Release 20061 8729 "f`bP8?0 15 8003400200006-1
10 vat 6"
 alleged Soviet SPY NEW AIL TIMES 27 April 1977
Testifies He Was Blackmailed After Telling a Friend
of C.I.A. `Deception' of Australia
By ROBERT LINDSEY sation turned to mutual unhappiness over a whirlpool in which he was trapped and
Spec'.a2 to The New York Times Watergate, the American involvement in could not escape.
LOS ANGELES. April 26-A 23-year-old Vietnam, the recent disclosures in the ! Mr. Boyce said that on two occasions
college student testified today that, while press about alleged involvement of tha he had gone to Mexico City and in one
vrorking as a code clerk for a Central C.I.A. in the assassination of President case had met with Soviet agents in the
Kennedy and of destabilizing the Allende basement of the Soviet Embassy. "The
Intelligence Agency project, he learned Goernment of Chile. Mr. Boyce asserted two Californians," he said, were. given
of "a deception against the Australians," that, on an impulse, he said: "You ought considerable liquor and "we got drunk."
and that revulsion over this discovery to hear what the C.I.A. is doing to the He admitted takLig $15,000 from the Rus-
had begun a trail of events that led to Australians." He said he had been ang- sians, and said his friend took $55,000.1
his being blackmailed into becoming a ered by the alleged deception and wanted ? "He took the money from the Russian
- it made public. He contended that Mr.: and used it to buy heroin and smugglel
Russianspy Lee had- said that his father, a physician, it in from Mexico," he alleged. !
Government lawyers repeatedly object- was an "influential man" who could have At one stage of .the testimony, Mr.
ed when Christopher J. Boyce, who is the material discreetly released through Boyce, attempting to -support an assertion
charged with espionage, began to explain a third party. that "security at TRW was a joke," said
the details of the alleged C.LA.deception, 'I agreed to write a statement of what ; that liquor was regularly brought into
and Jude Robert Kelleher of Federal Dis- thought to be a violation of the law the super-secret code room, a vault that.
against Australia," Mr. Boyce said. had three and checheotn'ts, and that
trict Court upheld the objections. , ?
However, reliable sources said that the There was no discussion of Russia." drinking parties were held. He said em-
reference had had to do with a large But, instead of passing the letter for ! ployees grew marijuana in the room and
little-known American satellite communt- publication, Mr. Boyce said, Mr. Lee. who that they would also use marijuana, co-
cation readout station at Alice Springs, he said by then had become a heroin cai.ne, amphetamines and other drugs on
in the outback of Australia. addict, flew to Mexico City and sold it their lunch hours. -
Deception Not Specified to officials at the Soviet Embassy. He asserted that by last fall he had
e
that tired the of only vr the way mae he c co o a ulld drt deci escape
The station is used to collect informa- { Tried to Evade His Friend ed grown
tion from American reconnaissance satel- Mr. Boyce, a black-haired, slender youth from it was to quit his job at TRW. When
lites built by, among others, TRW Sys-! who looks younger than he is, said that he told Soviet agents he was going to
terns, Inc., Mr. Boyce's employer until last he was astonished when Mr. Lee told him do so, he said, they urged him to enroll
December. It could not be learned what' what he had done with the letter and in a course of political science and history
specific deception Mr. Boyce was alleging 1 that after this he tried to evade his friend. that could lead to a career in the State
in regard to the controversial secret in-; But he said Mr. Lee pursued him, telling Department. He subsequently enrolled at
stallation. I him that the, Russians had been so the University of California at its River-
In testimony in which he often ap- , pleased by the information that they side campus southeast of here.
peared to be on the verge of tears, Mr. wanted detailed 'cryptographic informa- Asked by his attorney if he had ever
Boyce contended that he had been black- ti.on from the C.I.A. communications- post. "willingly or knowingly acted as an agent
mailed into spying by a childhood friend, When he continued to refuse to supply, for a foreign power," Mr. Boyce arl-
Andrew Dalton Lee, from the affluent Los additional information, Mr. Boyce said, swered: "Not willfully, but I know that's
Angeles suburb of Palos Verdes. Mr. Lee, Mr. Lee threatened to mail a copy of what I had become."
25 years old, is also charged with espio- # the original letter to his employer at
nage, and his trial is scheduled to begin TRW
hare tomrrow.
Mr. Boyce said that because of this
Mr. Boyce said that in 1974 his father'
had arranged to get him a job as operator threat he agreed to go along with theplan,
of a code room that maintained communi- but only as a ruse-by photographing
cations between the TRW plant here and training manuals and other data that he
C.I.A. headquarters in Virginia. His fa- felt would bb useless to the Russians.
then, a former Federal Bureau of Invests- Lacked Access to Some Material
gation agent and now the head of security When Soviet agencies subsequently
was for the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, asked for more specific material, he said,
a good friend of the TRW executive refused to supply it, and Mr. Lee
who ran the company's security facilities. he "threatened to blackmail my father." He
Tells of Drinking and Smoking said, however, that he never did provide
Not long after taking the job, Mr. Boyce the requested information because he did
said, he began drinking liquor and smok- not have access -to it. -
ing marijuana with Mr. Lee, who was - As Mr. Boyce told his story, in which
then on probation for conviction of sell- for him the stakes were a possible life
o.ng dangerous drugs. He said the convey- imprisonment, he attempted to character-
ize his life over the past two years as
Approved For Release 2006/08/29: c,-f IJP80B01554R003400200006-1
Approved For Release 2006/08/29: CIA-RDP80B01554R003400200006-1