DEFECTOR HOWARD GOES ON SOVIET TV

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100230004-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 27, 2011
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: September 15, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/09/27: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100230004-4
ARTICLE APPEARS
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
15 September 1986
Defector Howard
goes on Soviet TV
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Former CIA operative Edward
Lee Howard, in his first public inter-
view since he defected to the Soviet
Union, yesterday denounced the
"militarist spirit" of the CIA and
said he sought asylum because "I got
tired of life on the run:'
In a Soviet television interview
with commentator Genrykh
Borovik, Howard said the Soviet
Union is "the No. 1 target" of the
CIA. He described the agency's So-
viet operations section as "the sa-
cred part of the CIA" and said its
officials were "very hostile" toward
the Soviets.
Mr. Borovik, who often produces
television shows about the CIA, said
he interviewed Howard in "a Mos-
cow suburb" where the defector
lives. He said Howard was the first
CIA employee to have sought asylum
in the Soviet Union.
Asked why he came to the Soviet
Union, Howard, who eluded an FBI
hunt for almost a year, said: "I
wanted to live openly and I wanted
no one to threaten my safety. You
can't hide from the CIA for your
whole life:'
Earlier, U.S. News & World Report
correspondent Nicholas Daniloff,
whom the Soviets have charged with
espionage, said he suspected How-
ard would try to implicate him in
spying activities with "inside infor-
mation."
"Should that happen, we'll be in a
situation where his credibility -
that is to say, an American defector
in Soviet hands - will be pitted
against the credibility of President
Reagan, a man who speaks freely
from the White House, and my cred-
ibility," Mr. Daniloff said on NBC's
"Meet the Press:'
But the CIA defector made no
mention of the Daniloff case.
Howard, according to U.S. offi-
cials, became disgruntled and left
the agency in 1983 after his assign-
ment to join the CIA's Moscow sta-
tion was canceled when he failed a
lie detector test. According to an FBI
affidavit, he supplied CIA secrets to
the Soviets during a meeting in Aus-
tria three years ago.
Howard said in the 50-minute tele-
vision interview that he had been
trained to recruit agents in the So-
viet Union and to make contact with
Soviet citizens spying for the CIA.
He denied that his defection had
harmed U.S. security.
"I never did anything that would
damage or threaten my country's se-
curity," he said.
According to U.S. officials, How-
ard is suspected of exposing CIA op-
erations in Moscow, including the
identities of several CIA officers. He
is also suspected of identifying a
CIA agent - or "mole" - within the
Soviet aviation industry in Moscow
The official TASS news agency
last week described the mole as "the
traitor [A.G.] Tblkachev" and said he
had been "sentenced to death:'
Intelligence analysts viewed the
Howard interview as part of a larger
Soviet propaganda campaign. It was
broadcast during a heated media
campaign against US. intelligence
operations that began after the ar-
rest of Mr. Daniloff.
"Howard is singing from the
sheet of music the KGB has put be-
fore him;' said former CIA official
George Carver, now with
Georgetown University's Center for
Strategic and International Studies.
"The Soviets are now embarked
on what would appear to be a fairly
systematic effort to blacken Daniloff
and to suggest that there was in fact
an intelligence connection when
there wasn't:' Mr. Carver said in an
interview.
This article is based in part on
wire service reports.
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Approved For Release 2011/09/27: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100230004-4