LAWMAKER DECLINES TO CONFIRM REPORTS OF K.G.B. DEFECTOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303560094-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 94
• Publication Date: January 27, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Approved For Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303560094-3
NEW YORK TIMES
AR's ICE HFP' 27 January 1986
ON PAGE D, u Lawmaker Declines
To Confirm Reports
Of K. C.B. Defector
By PHILIP SHENON
Spada) to nm Naw Ymt TImN
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 - The vice
chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee declined to comment today
on reports that a high-ranking official
of the K.G.B. had defect to the
United States and was living here
under an assumed name.
Congressional sourtes said Saturday
that the K.G.B. official fled last year
and was providing American- inte4 -
gence officers with valuable informs.
tion about the K.G.B., the Soviet intelli-
gence and security agency.
The lawmaker, Senator Patrick J.
Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, said that
the Central Intelligence Agency had
told him that there was no such Soviet
official. But Mr. Leahy would not. com-
ment when asked if he has learned of
the defector from others.
A Congressional source today con.
firmed reports that the defector had
fled the Soviet Union last year.
But Mr. Leahy said in an interview
today: "I have been told by the C.I.A.
that no such defector eldsts. If you
asked me whether I believe that, I
would say, in light of Mr. Casey's pub-
lic statement of reluctance to follow tbs
procedures of oversight, then I will
have no comment."
Congressional Oversight
He was referring to William J.
Casey, the Director of Central Intelli-
gence, who has been involved in a pub-
lic battle with the Senate Intelligence
Committee over Congressional over-
sight of the C.I.A.
Lawmakers have complained that
the agency has failed to inform them
fully of important information about in-
telligence activities.
In a letter to the committee last
November, Mr. Casey charged that
oversight of intelligence agencies ,had
gone seriously awry." The letter ap-
peared to have been prompted partly
by mounting criticism of the agency
and its handling of Vitaly S. Yurchen.
ko, a Soviet intelligence agent who re-
turned to Moscow after defecting to the
West last year.
Approved For Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303560094-3