EX-ARMY MAN ON TRIAL IN DOUBLE AGENT CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00494R001100710111-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2010
• Sequence Number: 111
• Publication Date: April 8, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP9O-00494RO01100710111-5
Ex-Army Mein on Tria I
In Double Agent Case
Charge Is Selling Identities to Soviets
By Caryle Murphy
Is Richard Craig Smith a traitor
who gave the identities of U.S. dou-
ble agents to a Soviet KGB officer
for $11,000, or is he the victim of a
renegade CIA agent who was con-
ducting an operation that went bad?
Those are the two scenarios
presented yesterday on the opening
day of Smith's trial in U.S. District
Court in Alexandria. Smith, a for-
nrer Army counterintelligence spe-
cialist, is accused of conspiracy,
transmitting the identities of six
double agent operations to the So-
viets and disclosing classified infor-
mation. lie faces life imprisonment
if convicted. lie has denied the
charges.
"A straight trade, money for infor-
mation. Those are his words," Assist-
ant U.S. Attorney Joseph J. Aronica
told the jury yesterday as he re-
counted, with details worthy of a
Robert Ludlum novel, meetings in
Tokyo between the Soviet official,
Victor I. Okunev, and Smith, a 42-
year-old Mormon from Bellevue,
Wash.
"The government will prove its
case through Smith's confessions,"
Aronica said, noting that Smith con-
tacted the FBI to tell them of his
meetings with the Soviet official.
While on a business trip to Tokyo
in the fall of 1982, Smith called the
Soviet Embassy, offering informa-
tion, Aronica said. After locking his
personal belongings, including all of
his identification, in a subway lock-
er, Smith went to the Soviet com-
mercial attache's office.
At that first meeting with
Okunev, Smith "gave him classified
information on 'Lancaster Flag,' " a
double agent operation, Aronica
said, In a second meeting with
Okunev, Smith "gave him all of the
code names for" double agent op-
erations and revealed "the identities
of U.S. intelligence personnel in the
CIA, FBI, National Security Agency
and the Army," Aronica said.
FBI agents who heard Smith's
story testified yesterday that
Okunev and Smith established se-
curity procedures for contacting
each other and hiding their meet-
ings. Okunev would contact Smith
by paging him in a hotel lobby at a
certain time.
Once, the name agreed upon was
"Mr. lienringway." But Smith told
FBI agents the page came through
at the appointed time for "Mr.
Shakespeare. i He took the call any-
way and it was the Soviet official.
Upon leaving the Soviet com-
pound, Okunev gave Smith a leath-
er tans to wear as a disguise, FBI
Special Agent Peter Chase testified.
Smith, who is expected to take
the stand at his trial, does not dis-
pute he met with the Soviets, one of
his attorneys told the jury yester-
day. But it was not to betray his
country, said A. Brent Carruth.
RICHARD CRAIG SMITH
... traitor or victim?
There is more to the story laid
out by the prosecutor, Carruth said.
When Smith "gave authorized
information," to the Soviets, Car-
ruth said, "he was working for the
CIA" as part of an operation in
which the agency was "hoping to
rope one of the Soviet KG13 person-
nel into talking with a U.S. agent"
by feeding him useless "chicken-
feed" information.
"Is this than a spy'?" Carruth
asked, referring to his client. "Yes,
he is, for the United States for
many years."
Carruth said testimony will show
that Smith was contacted prior to
his meetings with Okunev by t\~o
men who said they worked for the
CIA and gave hint a Honolulu tele-
phone number for a CIA agen,t
named Charles Richardson, ,ilia.;
Richard P. Cavannaugh.
Carruth portrayed Cavannaugh ,i:
an agent who did not report all his
activities back to CIA headquarter:
and who "was lining his pockets with
gold" from a Honolulu investment
firm used as a front by the CIA.
"Even the CIA was taken in in
this case," Carruth said.
A witness for the prosecution
identified Cavannaugh yesterday as
a supervisor in the San Francisco
CIA office.
Approved For Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP9O-00494RO01100710111-5