EX-CIA MAN'S FLIGHT TO MOSCOW STOKES CHARGES OF U.S. BUNGLING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100230007-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 27, 2011
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: August 8, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/09/27: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100230007-1
REUTERS
8 August 1986
fit GNL.1
EX-CIA MAN'S FLIGHT TO MOSCOW STOKES CHARGES OF U.S. BUNGLING
BY CHRISTOPHER HANSON
WASHINGTON
The Soviet defection of an ex- CIA agent groomed to became a spy-master in
Moscow and accused by the United States of selling secrets to the Kremlin has
stoked charges U.S. intelligence bungled the case.
Tass news agency announced in Moscow yesterday that the Presidium of the
Supreme Soviet (parliament) had granted an asylum request from the ex-agent,
Edward Lee Howard, 34, on humanitarian grounds.
Howard, accused by the Justice Department of selling highly damaging
intelligence data to Moscow, was the first former CIA agent ever to seek
asylum in the Soviet Union, U.S. intelligence sources said.
The Justice Department had been searching for him since last September when
he slipped from under the noses of an FBI surveillance team and disappeared,
sparking strong Congressional criticism of U.S. counter-intelligence.
Howard sold his secrets to Moscow after he was dismissed from the CIA in
1983, according to FBI officials. They said his disclosures devastated U.S. spy
nets in the Soviet Union and apparently to the execution of one key U.S. agent.
"Both the CIA and the FBI are taking a hard look at themselves because of
this mistake," Seri. Patrick Leahy, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, told reporters yesterday. "There were mistakes all around."
The Vermont Democrat said Howard had done serious damage, and more harm was
likely to come. "The Soviets are relentless about getting every bid of
information he has," he said.
Former CIA official George Carver, now with Georgetown University, told a
television audience the CIA had erred in not keeping a closer watch on Howard
after he had failed a CIA lie detector test and been accused of drug use in
1983.
Howard was dismissed and allowed to go his own way.
"He was told too much too soon -- too many details," Carver said, referring
to Howard's CIA training to become a spy-master in Moscow.
due
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He was never sent to Moscow, but intelligence sources said his training
included details which, when disclosed to Moscow, allowed Kremlin counter-spies
to roll up the U.S. networks.
Howard told CIA colleagues soon after being fired that he was thinking of
selling secrets to Moscow to extract revenge, intelligence sources said. But
despite this tie was not put under surveillance until he was fingered as a spy by
Soviet defector Vitaly Yurchenko, who later redefected to Moscow.
After leaving the CIA, Howard went to work for the New Mexico state
legislature. He is thought to have fled to the Soviet Union via Mexico after a
tip-off from Moscow.
American intelligence sources yesterday took some consolation in what they
said was the likelihood Howard would lead a miserable life in the Soviet Union.
"It is colder in Moscow than it was in New Mexico," a Justice Department
official said.
Ex- CIA Director William Colby, who termed Howard "a tawdry little man who
sold his country out," said the defector would probably end up with a tedious
job and lead a lonely life.
"It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy," Colby said.
Approved For Release 2011/09/27: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100230007-1