BUSH VS ANDROPOV: A SPOOK SCORECARD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100170034-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: November 16, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R
NEW YORK POST
16 November 1982
000100170034-7
vs Andropov:
,By GUY HAWTIN
VICE President George
Bush's long Lace at the
Brezhnev rites had little
to do with his feelings
for the dear departed.
He'd just had his first
face-to-face with Yuri
Andropov, Russia's new
boas - the guy who
thrashed his team to a
pulp in the 1976-77 Inter-
national Intelligence
World Series.
Bush can hardly be
blamed for the tact that
his appointment as man-
ager of th at-21A Angels
came at a I me w en the
club's reputation
reached its nadir.
And Andropov's KGB
Stealers were walked to
their stunning victory by
America's own umpires,
after a hurried rewriting
of the rulebook.
They declared every
CIA strike a ball and
every home run a foul
ball. And just for good
measure the U.S. team
was ordered to play
blindfolded.
On Dec. 17. 1975, the
very day of Bush's con-
firmation by the Senate
Armed Services Com-
mitttee as the new head
of the CIA, congressional
staffers leaked damag-
ing details of CIA opera-
tions in southern Africa
A week later-Rush was
wrestling with security
problems which followed
the assassination of the
Athens CIA chief, who
was fingered along with
many other senior
operatives by rogue
agent Philip Agee.
L,ea.ks from the Senate
investigations of the
agency - coupled with
open testimony by CIA
officials - provided An-
dropov with a windfall of
extraordinary informa.
tion.
This included the reve-
lation of bizarre plots to
murder Cuban strong-
man Fidel Castro and
details of the 1974 at-
tempt to salvage a
sunken Russian muclear
missile in co-operation
with billionaire recluse
Howard Hughes.
At the same time, An-
dropov - handpicked by
Brezhnev to run the
KGB's '?state-wtthin-
a-state" in 1967 - was
notching up his -own an-
ceases.
? Some 15,000 Cuban
regulars stationed In An-
gola consolidated ' Se
Soviet's hold on a vital
chunk of Africa.
? The CIA and State
Dept. stood by helplessly
during a bloodbath in
Ethiopia following the
'Rusin-inspired coup
against the Emperor
Haile Selassie, Amer.
ica's long-time ally.
? "The Falcon and the
Snowman" were leaking
America's innermost se-
crets about its most im-
portant spy satellite sys-
tem to Andropov's
agents in Mexico.
? Geoffrey Prime, just
'jailed for 35 years on es-
pionage charges in Brit-
ain, was hanging around
with his KGB contacts in
Vienna telling them how
the CIA could eavesdrop
on everything in Russia
from Politburo phone
calls to tank command-
ers in battle:
The list could go on.`
While the Senate was
tut-tutting about the
ethics of putting a depil-
latory in Fidel Castro'a
coffee, Andropov's meat
were planning to murder
East-bloc defectors with
umbrellas that fired pol-
sor, pellets.
When the American
public recoiled at revela-
tions that the CIA had
for 20 years been steam-
ing open private letters
and bugging officials in
Micronesia. KGB agents
were rounding up dis,
senters and putting
them in mental hospi-
tals.
As Sen. Frank
Church's Select Commit-.
tee on Intelligence paved
the way for a wholesale
"housecleaning" of the
agency. Andropov's
agents were destabiliz-
ing the Shah's Iran re-
gime and training the
young thugs who seized
the hostages.
While shamefaced
American newsmen con.
leased that they had oc-
casionally talked to CIA
contacts, KGB agents
using journalist's
credentials roamed the
capitol on wide-ranging
intell ence gathering
operations.
Small wonder that An-
dropov looked so smug.
Masters who manipulate
the pieces do not expect
`to come face-to-face.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100170034-7