BLUE-CHIP DEFECTOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570036-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: October 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

October 1985
pity itself-the ultimate question for a spy. Yurchenko had been
first secretary of the Soviet Embassy in Washington from 1975 to
1979, a post that was a cover for his real job in the KGB, perhaps
as the agency's station chief in the United States. On returning to
Moscow, moreover, he had moved to the very apex of the vast
Soviet espionage apparatus deployed against the West. Now,
knowledgeable sources said, he was warning the United States
that the CIA had potentially serious security problems of its
own. News stories last week speculated that Yurchenko had
"fingered" Soviet "moles" in the CIA. The CIA officially denied
that-but the denial was carefully hedged. "He did not identify
any moles in the CIA, past or present," one CIA official said.
However, intelligence sources pointed out that the denial did not
exclude the possibility of "security problems" at the agency.
The semantic distinction could be meaningless: a "security
problem" can do enormous damage, even if the CIA employee is
Blue-Chip Defector
A KGB `biggie' bolts to the CIA.
From the arrest of former Navy submariner John Walker to
the defection of West German counterintelligence official Hans
Joachim Tiedge, the summer of 1985 has been rife with startling
disclosures from the murky underworld of espionage-a spate of
news that made Soviet penetration of Western defense organiza-
tions seem widespread, effortless and dismally routine. But last
week Washington was buzzing about a spy story with a differ-
ence: the defection of a top-ranking Soviet spymaster named
Vitaly Yurchenko, 50, to the West. Yurchenko, U.S. intelligence
sources said, was nothing less
than a deputy chairman of the
KGB and chief of the Soviet spy
agency's operations directorate
-perhaps the most useful Soviet
defector in 50 years. "He was
extremely valuable. It was a hell
of a blow to them," said Sen.
Patrick Leahy of Vermont, vice
chairman of the Senate Intelli-
gence Committee. "This guy was
a big, big biggie-and he's left
the KGB all f---ed up," said a
U.S. intelligence expert.
Prize Catch: At first, the Yur-
chenko case attracted little pub-
licity in the West-partly be-
cause it was overshadowed by
the flurry of spy scandals and
defections elsewhere and partly
because the CIA made no an-
nouncement of its prize catch.
Yurchenko, traveling under
diplomatic cover, simply
dropped from sight on
Aug. 1 in Rome: accord-
ing to U.S. sources, he had
been assigned to trace an-
other Soviet defector, pos-
sibly a physicist named
Vladimir Aleksandrov,* and
chose to change sides himself. A
brief flap ensued. The Soviet
government notified Italian au-
thorities of Yurchenko's disap-
pearance, but Italian officials
found no trace of him. Piqued,
Christian DemocrafC Union, and Lonna.,
Betzln9, a military courier; disappeared
and bei eved to be in EsatGermany.
cAUIONTOYTHEEAST
? A. G. Tolkachev, a Moscow research-in-
stitutestater accused of passing secrets.
west~Mcrna 1tS111M
ft~ a bbo seper with Ms
mut Kohl'S office, and her huebenA sent
resignai; n letters from East Germany,
DEFECTED TO THE WEST
? Vitaly Yurchenko, a senior KGB official;
crossed over while on assignment in Italy.
? Sergei Bokhan, a Soviet military-intel-
ligence official in Athens; defection
revealed.
? Oleg Gordlyevsky, KGB's London sta-
tion chief and double agent; defection
revealed.
CAUGHT BY THE WEST
? Margarete Hoke, West German secre-
tary with access to diplomatic cables; four
East Germans arrested in London and
Lucerne; two West Germans arrested in
Mainz.
the Soviets canceled the planned visit of a Soviet scientific
delegation to a disarmament conference in Sicily. The contro-
versy echoed in the Italian press for a time, and then there was
silence-until last week, when columnist Ralph de Toledano
trumpeted Yurchenko's defection in a lengthy article in The
Washington Times. Yurchenko, de Toledano said, was in Amer-
ican hands and was telling U.S. intelligence officials everything
he knew-which was plenty. U.S. officials confirmed Yur-
chenko was in the United States-and sources hinted he indeed
had much to say.
Topic A, according to a variety of leaks from American
sources, was KGB penetration of the U.S. intelligence commu-
'Aleksandrov, an expert in computer modeling of nuclear-war scenanos, disap-
peared in Madrid last spring.
country, presumably for
Mexico; another source
told The Associated Press
that Yurchenko had iden-
tified "more than one and
less than six" CIA em-
ployees who had been in-
volved with the KGB. Again.
CIA sources flatly denied the
reports. There was also the possi-
bility that Yurchenko revealed
KGB penetration elsewhere in
government. "No comment," a
CIA official said.
`Panic' in the KGB: There was
an even more disturbing possi-
bility as well-that Yurchenko
had come West to spread disin-
formation, thereby creating cha-
os within the U.S. intelligence
community. That possibility,
U.S. experts acknowledged, was
real, and it will take months of
patient interrogation to check
and double-check Yurchenko's
story. "You've got to ask, 'Is he
real? Or is he bait on which to
bite-and if so, what's the hook?' " said former CIA hand
George Carver. Meanwhile, most knowledgeable officials
seemed convinced that his arrival was an intelligence coup of
enormous value to the West. Coupled with the defections of two
other prominent Soviet spies-Oleg Gordiyevsky, the KGB
station chief in London, and Sergei Bokhan, a Soviet military-
intelligence agent in Greece-the Yurchenko case may have put
the West ahead in the great spy game, they said: surely it
disrupted Soviet espionage. "The fact that so many people of
similar background have defected is causing unbelievable panic
and consternation in the KGB," said Leahy. "Every analysis we
have is that it will cause them problems for years to come."
TOM MORGANTHAU with KIM WILLENSON in Washington and
RICHARD SANDZA in San Francisco
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570036-6
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570036-6
NEWSWEEK
not a career Soviet agent. And
numerous news leaks last week
suggested that the CIA had more
than one such "security prob-
lem," with some sources indicat-
ing that at least one rotten apple
may have been relatively high up
on the CIA tree. One govern-
ment source said a well-placed
CIA staffer had recently left the
THE SUPERPOWER SCORECUI
A flurry of defections have occurred or been
publicly revealed in the last two months alone,