JURY MUST DECIDE IF ACCUSED SPY WAS TRICKED BY FBI INTO TALKING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100120022-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: May 30, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/03: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100120022-4
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
30 May 1986
Jury must decide if accused spy was tricked
by FBI into talking
Defense claims agents offered
Pelton leniency for cooperating
my warren Richly
sue wnt? of The Chinn San McvWtor
s.iu~or.
With his family life falling apart, his finances in
disarray, and his career on the skids, Ronald W. Pelton
made one last desperate stab at keeping his head above
water, according to a United States government
prosecutor.
In January 1980, the former employee of the super-
secret National Security Agency (NSA) allegedly con-
tacted the Soviet Enbi y in Washington and attempted
to sell the one remaining valuable thing he had: a de-
tailed knowledge of US efforts to crack Soviet codes and
monitor Moscow's most sensitive communications.
For his expertise, the Soviets paid him $35,000, the
government charges.
Mr. Pelton's alleged five-year odyssey into the world
of Soviet intelligence is being Closely examined in a
Baltimore federal court when he faces a six-count in-
dictment and, if found guilty, a possible life prison
sentence. The trial is expected to last through next week.
Pelton is accused of having told the Soviets details of
at least five active US communications intelligence oper-
ations in the Soviet Union. He reportedly described the
operations in extensive debriefing sessions at the Soviet
embassy compound in Vienna in 1980 and 1983. Experts
have called Pelton's alleged disclosures one of the most
damaging breaches of US national security.
Although a Soviet defector played a key role in identi-
fying Pelton, the bulk of the government's case against
him hinges on self-incriminating statements he allegedly
made to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents during
two Nov. 24, 1985 interviews.
Pelton's appointed attorney, federal defender Fred
Warren Bennett, argues that the FBI agents unfairly
tricked Pelton into thinking that if he cooperated with
them and detailed his alleged contacts with the Soviets
he would receive lenient treatment.
"The statements that [Pelton] made were not
voluntary," says Mr. Bennett. The defense attorney says
he will work to convince the jury hearing the case that
Pelton's statements were coerced and thus inadmissible
as evidence.
"Without his statements, the government's case crum-
bles like a house of cards," says Bennett.
Bennett lost a pre-trial battle on the FBI interrogation
issue when Judge Herbert F. Murray ruled May 15 that
Pelton's statements were voluntary and that the FBI did
not violate his rights in obtaining the statements. Ben-
nett is hoping the jury will see it differently.
Similar charges of subtle threats and coercion by FBI
interrogators arose in the recent spy trials of Arthur
Walker and Larry Wu Tai Chin. Both men were subse-
quently convicted. Attorneys for accused spy Jerry
Whitworth have also said their client was subjected to
improper techniques by FBI questioners. Mr. Whitworth
is on trial in a federal court in San Francisco.
Pelton's case has all the twists and turns of a spy
novel. Though the FBI actually recorded Pelton's initial
telephone call to the Soviet embassy in January 1980
(through a counterintelligence wire tap), he was not
identified as a spy suspect until mid-October 1985. The
investigation was prompted as a result of information
provided by one-time KGB defector Vitaly Yurchenko.
of the sensitivity of some of the secrets
.. Because Pelton is alleged to have sold- Qgntral
?ctency Director William J. Casey has threatened to
deta~
brosecute any news organizations which disclose
of US inte ' ence operations beyond information re-
leased at the trial.
Mr. Casey an NSA Director Lt. Gen. William Odom in
an unprecedented action, issued a fresh warning to news
organizations Wednesday evening. It said in part: "Those
reporting on the trial should be cautioned against specu-
lation and reporting details beyond the information actu-
ally released at trial. Such speculations and additional
facts are not authorized disclosures and may cause
substantial harm to the national security."
The concern in the intelligence community is that
vigorous press examination of the case might help the
Soviets assess the importance of the information Pelton
allegedly sold.
Some members of the press have argued that the
Soviets are already aware of the importance of the
information Pelton provided and that only the American
public is is in the dark about the Pelton case.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/03: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100120022-4