OFFICIALS SAY C.I.A. DID NOT TELL F.B.I. OF SPY CASE MOVES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840038-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 38
• Publication Date: October 11, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840038-9
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE I !ft
OFFICIALS SAY CIA,
DID NOT. TELL F.B.I.
OF SPY CASE MOVES
. The following-ektiele is based on re-
porting by Stephen Engelberg and Joel
Brinkley and was written by Mr. Brink-
ley..
S I.1 to TW New Yo,k T1mr
NEW YORK TIMES
11 October 1985
In the last few weeks the C.I.A.
transferred the chief of its office of so,
curity, William Kotopish, to a new job
at a level of equivalent seniority, but an
official said the more had been planned
"for some time" and was not related to
the Howard case.
Mr. Howard worked for the agency
from 1981 to 1963. He was told of classi1
fled American intelligence operations
in Moscow because the agency was
planning to assign him there,.officials
have said.
According to a criminal complaint on
file in Federal District Court in-Albu-
querque, N.M., Mr. Howard told two
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 - The Cen- current employees of the intelligence
tral-Intelligence Agency failed-to notify agency a year ago last month that he
the Fedeal Bureau of, Investigation had "spent hours is the vicinity of the
after it learned more than a year ago Soviet Embassy trying to decide
that Edward L. Howard was consider- whether to enter the embassy and die-
ing becoming a Soviet spy, Govern- close classified information.".
meat officials said today. . An F.B.I. affidavit says the conver.
. According to court records, Mr. How- cation was held Sept. 24, 1984. Four
el yd told. two agency employees in Sep days before that; the Government co*-
tember 1984 that he was thinking of dis- the tends' Mr. Howard gave his.is-
dosing. classified information to ' ttriiaa to Soviet officials in St. Anton, , Aug.
. soviet Union.
Soviet Defector Was the Key said today that as a. result that con-
The bureau has sole versation "action was taken" within
responsibility the agency "and it seemed to be rear
for domestic espionage investigations sonable action at the time." He would
and, under Federal law, the intelli- not say what the action was, although
gence agency and all other Govern- an official said the agency kept in coo-
ment agencies are supposed to report tact with Mr. Howard after his caner.
suspected espionage to the F.B.I. It is sation with the two C.I.A. operatives.
Illegal for the C.I.A. or any other Fed- Mr. Howard lived in New Mexico at the
eral agency to carry out surveillance or time.
other-actions within the United States I _ 'A Few Blatant Cases'
to stop potential spies.. . I The Senate and House intelligence
Mr. Howard, 33 years old, a former committees are investigating the ban-
inteiligencq agency officer' who is now dling of the Howard case. A key issue in
a fugitive, has been charged with espio. the study, committee members said,
Wage, accused of giving Soviet officials will be how the C.I.A. and other ages.
des deal with employees who leave
details of American intelligence opera- Government service with detailed,
tions is Moscow. Federal officials have classified knowledge about sensitive
called the disclosures serious and dam- programs.
aging.
'Bad Mistake,' Senator Says I
Federal officials said the C:I.A. told!
Another element of the investiga-
tions will be several recent espionage
cases in which- Government officials
failed to heed warning signs that a cur-
the F.B.I. nothing about Mr. Howard rem or former employee was planning
until after the bureau began an investt- to spy or was spying, committee mem-
gation this loll based on information, hers said.
from a Soviet defector, Vitaly Yur-
chenko, who had been a senior official
of the K.G.B., the Soviet irate
a Thecybureau began survelllasee of
Mr: Howard last month, but he slipped
out of.his_home at night and is helm
to have fled the country.
"We've had a few blatant cases
where we just didn't follow through,
even with alarm bells going off," said
Representative Dave U, Demo-
crest of Oklahoma, chairman of the
House committee's Subcommittee on
Oversight and Evaluaton.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Ver-
mont Democrat who is vice-chairman
of the Select Committee on Intdli.
gence, said today: "If the C.I.A. did not
give the F.B.I. adequate information
about this person, that's a bad mistake.
It shows- very, very serious problems
within the: C.I.A."
official said Mr. Howard's conversa-
tion with the two C.I.A. officers would
have been sufficient to warrant an in-
vestigation.
"Anytime we get information that
someone has considered such an act,
we would take some action," said Phil-
lip A. Parker, deputy assistant director
of the bureau's intelligence division.
An intelligence official said the
C.I.A.'s decision to handle the matter
internall rather than
F.B.I. was "a judgmentcall," iadding,
"If you reported every fantasy that
people have, you'd have everyone
under surveillance."
Law Bars C.I.A. Moves in U.S.
The C.I.A would not say whether it
undertook any form of inquiry after
Mr. Howard told the twb C.I.A. em-
ployees he had considered becoming a
Soviet spy. But Federal ?1aw and a
Presidential executive order prohibit
the agency from taking any steps in-
side the United States to investigate
MMr.Howcam of ard was one of tens of thou-
sands of people who retire from Gov-
ernment
holding p0sit~ that each year after
cane to classified materials. More than
4.3 million people in government and
Industry associated with government
now have clearances to use classified
information.
Asked' what procedures the Central
Intelligence Agency uses to monitor
former employees who. have knowl-
edge of classified programs, Mr. Laud'
er, the agency y spokesman, said: "We
haven't got, any. procedures. Once a
persasn leaves here, he is John Q. Citzen, just ? like you and me. We don't-
keep a string on them. It's strictly an
F.B.I. niatter. "
Dave Dgrenberger, the Minnesota
Republican who is chairman of the Sen-
ate Intelligence said his
panel would also examine the problem
presented by military officers who re-
tire with knowledge of classified ma-
terials.
Most people with security clearances
work for the Pentagon. At the Defense
Department, L. Britt Snider, director
of coumterintellgience and security
policy, said: "We don't have any juris-
diction of any kind over former em-
ployees, whether or not they had clear-
ances. It's strictly the F.B:I."
At the F.B.I., Mr. Parker said, "We
are not concerned about Americans
who have had clearances. We don't .
look at these people unless we detect an
individual involved in espionage."
Ex-Intelligence Chiers Moves
Senator Leahy said: "I don't think
anyone expects the F.B.I. to maintain
surveillance on the several hundred
thousand people who leave the Gover-
ment each year with security clear-
ances. But there are a certain number,
of people in extremely sensitive post-
tions, a handful of them, that we ought
to do more with."
Mr. Leahy said Mr. Howard "car-,
?tainly would have been one of those"
because he held highly sensitive infer.
mation and was being dismissedfollov f-
ang a polygraph examination that indi-
cated drug use and petty thievery, a4-
cerdiu to Federal officials.
Continued
ff7T7 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840038-9
 Il !III'aaI:III II II I-~11. I__1! l ill I'I l~l~lll la_~ _i I~.1L I_ . ~
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When Adm. Stanfield M. Turn*
was Director of Central Intelligence in
the Carter Administration, he d*
missed, transferred or forced to retire
nearly 200 C.I.A. officers who held.
highly sensitive positions.
In an interview this week, he said
that others in the agency had warned .
him that "we ran the risk of some of
them selling their information' to the
other side." He said he had disagreed
when it was suggested that some
should be given other jobs, and p*~
seeded with his original plans.
But he said of Mr. Howard: "I don't
think my rule should be totally rigid-.It
this guy had just been briefed, I'd 49
let's stick him in the Dominican Repub
lic or someplace like that for a couple
of years, until the information isn't
valuable anymore,"
Senator Leahy said: "We may need
some sort of turkey farm forstheeef
these former employees. like that
translate cables or something
for a couple of years."
Admiral Turner said ' he thw4W
C.I.A. officers ought to
agree when they are hired tl:t
three years or so after they leave, they,
will be subject to the same rules of in.
I trusion as applied when they were
government. Make them come back for
random polygraph examinations. Th X
would give them one more thing to
worry about before they turn." "
A Cti I.A. official said "s conceivJ,
able" that that idea solutions would work, ad&
the P 1
ing that finding
lem "is certainly something we've
thinking about now."
A*
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000201840038-9