FIRED CIA PAIR TOOK REVENGE BY SPYING FOR KGB, FBI TOLD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302330037-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: October 4, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302330037-4
A-M,,CLZ AP
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
4 October 1985
Fired CIA pair took revenge
by spying for KGB, FBI told
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Two former CIA operatives sus-
pected of spying for the Soviet Union
were dismissed from the agency as
the result of improper conduct and
then took revenge by spying for the
KGB, according to administration
and congressional sources.
The FBI is continuing to search
for Edward L. Howard, a former eco-
nomic analyst with the finance com-
mittee of the New Mexico
legislature, who resigned two weeks
ago and eluded federal agents who
had placed him under surveillance.
Howard, a former CIA operations
officer hired in January 1981, was
fired by the agency in June 1983
after he was discovered stealing
money from the CIA and for using
illegal drugs, sources said.
He also failed to pass the CIAs
probationary period for new employ-
ees, the sources said.
"He was a rotten apple we got rid
of in 1983;' said a senior CIA official.
A second ex-CIA operative also is
under investigation on suspicion he
supplied CIA secrets to the KGB, the
Soviet intelligence service, in con-
nection with Howard. But sources
said his crimes appeared to be less
serious than the FBI's case against
Howard.
The unidentified former oper-
ative also was dismissed from the
agency for disciplinary reasons and
not for suspected espionage activi-
ties, sources said.
Tb date, the two former CIA
employees being sought by the FBI
are the only two Soviet agents impli-
cated by Vitaly Yurchenko, a senior
KGB defector. The CIA does not sus-
pect that a Soviet agent - or "mole"
- has burrowed into the ihtelligence
service, the sources said.
Howard has been charged with
conspiracy to deliver national
defense information to an unspecif-
ied foreign government believed to
be the Soviet Union.
The espionage charges were filed
in a federal arrest warrant issued
Sept. 23 in Albuquerque, N.M. Four
days later, Howard was charged with
unlawful flight to avoid prosecution
for violating probation on his 1984
conviction in a Santa Fe, N.M., gun-
brandishing incident.
Rep. Bill Richardson, D-N.M.,
said yesterday that at his request
Rep. Lee Hamilton, chairman of the
House Select Committee on Intelli-
gence, has agreed to hold a hearing
next week on Mr. Yurchenko's
reported disclosures concerning
Americans.
"I'm extremely concerned about
the potential damage to national
security;" Mr. Richardson said, allud-
ing to Howard's reported access to
the Los Alamos laboratory.
In Los Alamos, a businessman
told reporters he and a lab official
met with Howard and that Howard
had asked questions about technol-
ogy transfers. The lab conducts top
secret research on nuclear weapons
for the U.S. Department of Energy.
Contrary to news reports, How-
ard never served in Moscow nor was
he offered the post while working for
the CIA, these sources said.
Howard served in the Peace
Corps, its ACTION division and the
Agency for International Develop-
ment before his employment with
the CIA, the sources said.
Howard was described by these
sources as a "revenge case" similar
to that of former CIA cablt clerk
William Kampiles.
Kampiles was convicted in 1978 of
passing the Soviets a top secret man-
ual for the KH-11 spy satellite after
failing to be admitted to the CIAs
clandestine services division.
Federal authorities were led to the
two Soviet agents by information
provided by Mr. Yurchenko, the
Soviets No. 5 man in the KGB. Mr.
Yurchenko defected to the West in
Rome Aug. 1 and is being debriefed
by the FBI and CIA.
FBI officials defended their sur-
veillance of Howard, saying he was
only a suspect and had not yet been
charged in any legal proceedings
when he disappeared.
Federal authorities in New
Mexico last month found two airline
tickets from Santa Fe to Austin,
Texas, after searching Howard's
house. Howard, 33, graduated from
the University of Texas in Austin.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302330037-4