ILLEGAL AGENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100150004-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 17, 2007
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: April 20, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/05/18: CIA-RDP88-01070R000100150004-5
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PROGRAM A l l T h i n g s C o n s i d e r e d
DATE Apr i l 20, 1982 5:00 P.M.
SUBJECT Illegal Agents
WETA Radio
NPR Network
Washington, D.C.
SANFORD UNGAR: Four years ago, while visiting Budapest,
Janos Smulka (?), a Hungarian-born U.S. Army officer, was ap-
proached by Hungarian intelligence agents. They tried to recruit
him as a spy. Under instructions from American agents, Smulka
played along with the Hungarians for four years, feeding them
false information. Yesterday, as a result of the ploy, Otto Attila
Gilbert, a native of Hungary who has lived in the United States
for 20 years, was arrested in Georgia on espionage charges.
It is suspected that Gilbert is not just an ordinary
spy, but what's called an illegal agent, long in place, waiting
to be activated.
Former FBI official Homer Boynton explains the distinc-
HOMER BOYNTON: The normal spies, so to speak, who come
out of the various embassies and consulates of adversary countries
are oft times refered to as the legal respresentatives. They are
here under the appropriate diplomatic license. The illegal agents
are here under a false identity, but are still representatives of
the intelligence agencies of the adversary countries.
UNGAR: And they may live here for a long period of time
without engaging in espionage at all. Is that right?
BOYNTON: Yes. Actually, Sandy, they are what you might
call a sleeper. They are here for the main purpose of when, if
diplomatic relations or a state of war occurs between the adversary
country and the United States, and all the diplomatic people, the
legal people are returned to the host country, then the illegal
agent is in a position to take over and become the operative.
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Approved For Release 2007/05/18: CIA-RDP88-010708000100150004-5
 Approved For Release 2007/05/18: CIA-RDP88-010708000100150004-5
UNGAR: Right. And sometimes they may live here for a
long pun i od of 1 1111,i) e111d then sudden I y be activated for a part i cu-
Iar par pose.
BOYNTON: That's true. A famous case involving Colonel
Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, who was arrested in 1957. And its a well-
known case. He was exchanged for the U-2 pilot Gary Francis
Powers. Colonel Abel was an illegal alien and had resided in the
United States for about eight or nine years.
UNGAR: Mr. Boynton, what does it take to catch an
illegal? What are these investigations like?
BOYNTON: It is a very difficult type of case to solve.
There are certain communi -- to try -- the best way it to try to
break through the communications network from the illegal agent
to what is referred to, in the Russian terms, the center or the
intelligence agency headquarters in the particular country.
UNGAR: It looked as if this case took four years. It
was four years from the time that this American military officer
was approached while visiting his family in Budapest. Is that an
unusual length of time for a case to be developed?
BOYNTON: No. They have a world of patience. And they
a l s o are very, very c a r e f u l not to have the i l l e g a l agent run
other sub-agents or have his identity known to other agents here
in the United States. So that if one is caught, he is not able
to identify others who would have been sent here by either the
Hungarian government or the Russian government, or whatever.
UNGAR: Homer Boynton, a former FBI agent who worked
on counterintelligence cases for many years.
Approved For Release 2007/05/18: CIA-RDP88-010708000100150004-5