SHULTZ STILL THINKS YURCHENKO WAS REAL DEFECTOR, NOT A PLANT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302330019-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: November 11, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000302330019-4
-~ ~~PE K~~ WASHINGTON TIMES
' V .,,~?A~ 11 November 1985
Shultz still thinks Yurchenko
was real defector, not a plant
e~ Bill Gertz
TH MMSNIN6T0N TIMES
Secretary of State George Shultz
said yesterday that U.S. officials re-
main convinced Vitaly Yurchenko,
the supposed prize KGB defector
who walked back into Soviet hands,
was not a Soviet plant but "defected
and, for some reason or another,
changed his mind."
"What he said was just a packet of
lies;' Mr. Shultz said on CBS' "Face
the Nation." "He was not kidnapped,
he was not drugged or any of those
things:'
The Central Intelligence Agency
has identified Mr. Yurchenko as a
"general-designate" of the KGB in
an apparent attempt to counter spec-
ulation that the Soviet spymaster ac-
tually was slow-level plant dis-
patched by Moscow to disrupt CIA
operations.
In an unusual three-page
statement released Friday, the CIA
described Mr. Yurchenko's relation-
ship with his wife of 27 years as "se-
riously strained prior to his defec-
tion:'
The document provides details of
Mr. Yurchenko's responsibility for
KGB operations in North America,
which involved coordinating KGB
"work against American citizens:'
He also coordinated Soviet bloc in-
telligence operations, ran KGB sta-
tions in Ottawa and Montreal,
Canada, and selected "agents" in the
United States.
Other duties included "selection
of agents to be used after the begin-
ning of war and working out agent
communications," the CIA
statement said.
The White House refused to com-
ment yesterday on a report that
President Reagan is considering or-
dering an investigation into the CIA's
handling of the Yurchenko case.
The Los Angeles Times yesterday
described Reagan as "upset" over
the incident and quoted unnamed
sources as saying he is considering
an investigation into the case - a
review that could embrace the way
other defectors have been treated.
Mr. Yurchenko allegedly defected
to the United States last summer but
walked away from a Georgetown
restaurant Nov 2 and returned to the
Soviet Embassy compound several
blocks away. TWo days later, he ap-
peared at a news conference at the
Soviet embassy and said he had been
kidnapped and drugged by the CIA.
The newspaper quoted an
unnamed administration official as
saying, "The people involved will get
letters of reprimand, but I wouldn't
put this all on the junior people. It's
the senior people's fault:'
Questions have been raised by
members of Congress and intelli-
gence experts about Mr. Yurchen-
ko's seniority in the KGB. When he
first came over, intelligence officials
had described Mr. Yurchenko as a
senior KGB official who may have
held the No. S post in the KGB. Other
intelligence otficials have said Mr.
Yurchenko's seniority was far lower
in the chain of command.
The CIA'statement said Mr. Yur-
chenko was a 25-year veteran of the
KGB who moss recently was chief
counterintelligence officer in the
First Chief Directorate (foreign in-
telligence operations). He directed
the FSfth Department ofthe counter-
intelligence Directorate K, which in-
vestigates espionage by KGB per-
sonnel and penetrations by enemy
spies.
Mr. Yurchenko would have known
many details of KGB agent oper-
ations in North America, including
agent code-names. It was this KGB
division that handled the case of no-
torious British spies Kim Philby and
George Blake, Soviet agents during
the 1950s and 1960s, the statement
said.
CIA spokeswoman Patti Volt de-
clined to comment on why the paper
was released after months of official
silence on the matter.
Comparing Mr. Yurchenko to an-
other Soviet KGB defector in Great
Britain, Oleg Gordievski, one CIA
official remarked two months ago
that Mr. Yurchenko "makes Gordiev-
ski look like a throwaway." In spy
parlance, a throwaway is an agent
given away in order to protect more
important spies. At the time of his
defection, the official said, Mr. Yur-
chenko exhibited "no abnormal-
ities:'such as drinking or emotional
problems.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000302330019-4