HOWARD MAY HAVE GIVEN SOVIETS WEALTH OF DETAIL, EX-OFFICIAL SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504610003-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: August 7, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504610003-6
ASSOCIATED PRESS
7 August 1986
HOWARD MAY HAVE GIVEN SOVIETS "WEALTH OF DETAIL," EX-OFFICIAL SAYS
BY JOAN MOWER
WASHINGTON
Accused spy Edward L. Howard probably provided 1 S
e
oviet Union with much
etail about American intelligence activities and his defection may have dealt
U.S. operations a "iris f 11
o
J
,agar magnitude, a former CIA official said today.
George Carver, a senior analyst at the Center for Strate is
tudies, said Howard would have known some names of CIA peoplen~nlMnLenai
oslcowtasnal
ell as techniques used there when he first sold secrets nearly two years ago.
arver is a former deputy CIA director f t
W1 na tonal lnteiligence.
Howard was granted political asylum in the Soviet Union today, Izvestia, the
overnmentt newspaper said.
CIA spokeswoman Kathy Pherson said she could not confirm or deny the report
ram Moscow.
"What I am told is that he is a fugitive from justice," she said.
The agency declined to comment on what damage Howard's defection might pose
to U.S. intelligence interests.
"He was on deck for Moscow," said Carver, noting that Howard likely would
have had access to some training manuals. "To my knowledge, he is the first to
go directly to the Soviets with a wealth of detail."The consequent damage to the
agency was probably a "1055 of major magnitude," he said, speculating that "the
damage has to have been serious ... He was a professional staff officer."Howard,
fired from the CIA in 1983 after a polygraph test suggested he had used
illegal drugs and engaged in petty theft, had been trained to go to Moscow as a
junior level spy at the U.S. Embassy.
But he was pulled off the assignment and left the agency shortly afterwards.
Two years later, he was charged with spying for the Soviets, but fled the United
States before he was arrested.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504610003-6
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504610003-6
Last month L
the Washington Post quoted unidentified as saying Howard is "the
worst intelligence loss in years."After leaving the CIA in 1983, Howard went
to New Mexico where he worked as a $32,000-a-year analyst for the state's
Legislative Finance Committee.
U.S. officials charge that he left the CIA he sold secrets to Soviet KGB
officials in Austria in September 1984. He was reportedly paid $6,000.
Howard, who left a wife and young child when he eluded FBI agents and skipped
the country last year, was identified as a spy by Vitaly Yurchenko, a Soviet
official who defected to the United States.
Yurchenko later went back to the Soviet Union, embarrassing the CIA which
had touted his initial defection as an intelligence coup.
Details about the specific damage done by Howard to U.S. operations in Moscow
are hazy.
For instance, government sources reported last year that the United States
recently lost contact with a Soviet citizen in Moscow who had long provided
valuable information about high-technology electronics and aviation research.
It is unclear whether there was a link between Howard and the loss of the
Cori tact .
The Washington Post reported on July 18 that at least five American officials
have been caught spying in Moscow since Howard defected.
The Howard case prompted rancor and finger-pointing between the CIA, which
is responsible for hiring Howard in the first place, and the FBI which has
jurisdiction over domestic counter-intelligence activities to root out Soviet
operatives operating on American soil.
The Los Angeles Times said in June that a highly classified report blamed
both agencies for mishandling the case.
The report criticized the CIA for its hiring, screening and firing of
Howard, while the FBI came under criticism for failing to pursue the Howard case
with vigor and for letting him slip from its watch, the newspaper said.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504610003-6