YURCHENKO DEFECTION GROWS SUSPECT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320080-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 80
• Publication Date: January 10, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320080-7
_ARTICLE APPOC) WASHINGTON TIMES
ON PAGE
10 January 1986
Yurchenlio defection grows
sus t
By Bill Gertz
THE NASMINEITON TIMES
The "redefection" of Soviet KGB
official Vitaly Yurchenko last No-
vember continues to RerDleg'U.S. in-
terrel?ice officials trying to sort fact
from fiction among ?fornia?ii e
turned over to es ern intelligence
services.
Both NI Director William Web-
ster and CIA Director William
1( Casey, with some trepidation, have
certified Mr. Yurchenko a bona fide,
yet homesick, defector._
Mr. Webster went so far as to state
publicly that it would be "an act of
folly" for the Soviets to give up valu-
able information as a means to affect
public opinion prior to the Geneva
summit last November
The_a_Land CIA have said the
intelligence analysis or the Yur-
chenito case is continuing.
But now intelligence sources say
Mr. Yurchenko has become suspect
by some intelligence officials, who
believe the information he provided,
while valuable, lacked the quality of
detail that a KGB officer who held
the rank of "general-designate"
could turn over to the West.
Officials say Mr. Yurchenko's
early career as a navigation officer
on a submarine does not fit the ca-
reer path of an upper-echelon KGB
official. According to a biography re-
leased by the CIA, Mr. Yurchenko
was responsible for everything from
KGB North American operations to
training border guards in Moscow.
"He did everything but run the
war in Afghanistan," one intelli-
gence expert quipped.
His biggest jump was from secu-
rity officer at Moscow's Washington
embassy to counterintelligence
chief of the KGB's foreign intelli-
gence directorate, the largest spying
operation outside the Soviet Union.
The most difficult problem facing
U.S. intelligence officials has been
sorting out the damage to U.S. intel-
ligence from Mr. Yurchenko's re-
turn. With both FBI and CIA officials
convinced, at least publicly, of Mr.
Yurchenko's sincerity intelligence
sources say Mr. Yurchenko's reports
on the U.S. agent networks were
"vague."
They say an official in Mr. Yur-
chenko's position would have known
the exact names of agents working
for the Soviets.
"At a minimum, he should have
given up the entire North American
'illegal' network," said one intelli-
gence expert who doubted Mr. Yur-
chenko's credibility when reports of
the case first surfaced last summer.
Illegals are agents operating under
deep cover and using non-diplomatic
communications networks to com-
municate with Moscow
One senior intelligence official
said a key indicator that Mr. Yur-
chenko was a fake defector dis-
patched by Moscow was the unusual
Nov. 4, 1985, press conference held
two days after he escaped from the
custody of CIA security agents.
A legitimate defector would never
have been permitted the freedom to
answer questions, much less in
Washington, the official said.
The official also noted that when
Mr. Yurchenko was granted immedi-
ate entance to the Soviet Embassy
compound in upper Georgetown
after leaving a dinner, "they were
expecting him."
He speculated that Mr. Yurchen-
ko's return following a relatively
shert, three-month period of being
"in place" may have been prompted
by certain information he obtained
and that required his immediate re-
turn.
Newsweek magazine, citing intel-
ligence officials, reported last
month that U.S. officials have been
given leads to "dozens and dozens"
of Soviet agents in the United States,
including journalists on the KGB's
payroll and others who serve as
agents of influence.
Yet to date, the only arrest to come
directly from Mr. Yurchenko was
former National Security Agency
analyst Ronald Felton, who was
charged with providing top secret
information on U.S. electronic list4n-
ing posts.
Former CIA operations trainee
Edward Howard fled the country
from under an FBI net after leads
from Mr. Yurchenko revealed he had
offered secrets to the Soviets. FBI
Director Webster said the FBI was
planning to arrest Mr. Howard
"within hours" of the time he disap-
peared.
Both men were described by intel-
ligence sources as "dead cases,"
given up by the Soviets in order to
establish Mr. Yurchenko's bona
fides.
One source said Mr. Yurchenko
succeeded in casting aspersion on
the CIA and its director, created a
reactionary "spy scare" in the
United States, and succeeded in set-
ting a negative example for would-be
KGB defectors during an important
preliminary period in the reign of
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320080-7