2 EX-CIA AGENTS SOUGHT BY FBI AS POSSIBLE SPIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570038-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 38
• Publication Date: October 3, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570038-4
ARTICLE
ON PAGE
2 Ex-CIA Agents
Sought by FBI
As Possible Spies
By Patrick E. Tyler
Wadinltm P, Suf wheat
The FBI said last night it has is-
sued an arrest warrant for a formes
CIA officer, apparently identified ar
a Soviet spy by Vitaly Yurchenko, a
high-ranking Soviet intelligence of-
ficer who defected two months ago..
Informed sources said the FBI has
identified a second CIA officer, ap-
parently named by Yurchenko, but
has not yet taken action against
him.
Yurchenko is being debriefed un-
der tight security near Washington,
a congressional source said yester-
day.
The suspect being actively
sought by the FBI is Edward Lee
Howard, 33, who fled his home out-
side Santa Fe, N.M., two weeks ago
after FBI agents questioned his em-
ployer.
Agents quickly searched his
home and car under a warrant say-
ing the government sought coding
equipment and espionage parapher-
nalia. The Federal Bureau of Inves-
tigation said Howard is charged
with conspiracy to deliver natigaal
defense information to a foteigifi
government.
A federal official said yesterday
that the second former Central In-
telligence Agency officer has not
fled the United States, but he would
not comment on whether efforts
are being made to place the man un-
der surveillance or arrest.
A congressional source also sug-
gested that a separate international
search may be under way for sev-
eral other former CIA' operatives
possibly identified as Soviet agents
by Yurchenko, a former Soviet KGB
officer.
WASHINGTON POST
3 October 1985
The FBI was clbeely guarding in-
formation abaft, the investigation
yesterday. The agent even asked
the Senate Select Committee on In-
telligence not to issue a statement
about the investigation after intel-
ligence officials briefed senators,
another official said
Committee Vice Chairman Pat-
rick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) was described
by one source as very disturbed
that information had leaked about
the CIA debriefing of Yurchenko
before law enforcement officials had,
time to investigate Yurchenko's dio-
closures. After the intelligence
committee briefing yesterday, a
panel spokesman declined to say
whether the search for Howard re-
sults directly from information giv-
en by Yurchenko. He would say on-
ly, "We were contacted last week
by the FBI that they were conduct-
ing an active investigation of [How-
ard]."
The profile emerging of Howard
yesterday was that of an Air Force
officer's son, a private economic an-
alyst working for New Mexico's
state Legislature and a former
Peace Corps volunteer.
Howard, who had worked for the
Agency for International Develop-
ment in Luna, Peru, from 1976 to .
1979, tu,Wd down a posting to
Moscowdid returned to his native
New Mexico in 1983.
The FBI said Howard worked for
the CIA from January 1981 to June
1983 under diplomatic cover in the
State Department.
According to Santa Fe court
records, he pleaded guilty last year
to assault with a deadly weapon and
was sentenced to five years' pro-
bation after being arrested for scuf-
fling witlrthree men in February.
Police reports said Howard fired
a .44 Magnum pistol through the
roof of a car during the altercation.
The FBI said he is also wanted for
unlawful flight while on probation.
Phil Baca, Howard's superior on
the New Mexico Legislature's Fi-
EDWARD LBB HOWARD
... subject at FBI larestigstioa
nance Committee, described him as
"a hard worker [who[ did a good job
for us."
Baca said he was interviewed by
FBI agents Sept. 19 and, although
he declined to disclose the nature of
the questions, said he was not sur-
prised when, on Sept. 23, he found
Howard's resignation letter on his
desk. The federal warrant was is-
sued that day.
The Associated Press reported
that reporters at Howard's home in
a Santa Fe suburb late Tuesday
found a search warrant on the driv-
er's seat of his car. According to
the warrant, the AP said, federal of-
ficials were seeking coded pads, mi-
crodots attached to business cards,
recording and transmitting equip-
ment, and telephone and travel
records.
While disclosures that CIA em-
ployes may have been feeding in-
formation to the Soviets have
alarmed U.S. intelligence officials,
several of the officials said Yur-
chenko's defection and those of oth-
er Soviet intelligence officials in
London and Athens represent a ma-
jor disaster for Soviet intelligence.
"[The KGB) has been hit with an
earthquake that's above 8.0 on the
Richter scale, and we've been hit STAT
with a few had stones," said George
A. Carver, a 26-year CIA veteran
who left the agency during the Car-
ter administration.
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oz.
Other officials said it is far from
clear which superpower has suf-
fered the greatest hemorrhaging of
sensitive information.
Some intelligence experts sug-
gested that, while Yurchenko's de-
fection may be a short-term CIA bo-
nanza, the loss of Yurchenko and
other recent Soviet defectors to the
West actually represents setbacks
for the West, since they can no
longer be used as "moles" inside the
Soviet intelligence establishment.
Counterintelligence experts also
cautioned that it will take time to
check and cross-check- information
provided by the defectors before it
is deemed reliable.
Staff writers T.R. Reid, Mary
Thornton and Loretta Tofani
contributed to this report.
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