KGB DEFECTOR WANTS TO GO HOME AGAIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100280001-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 23, 2011
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 5, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/05/23: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100280001-2
AkTtCL: AF71EA4 PAGE 1- D
WASHINGTON TIMES
5 November 1985
KGB defector wants to
go home ag
Was the defection set up
to ruin Reagan's agenda?
By Bill Gertz "If something like this happens,
TH
~? :~ -'
E WASHINGTON TIMES
)
Intelligence experts believe So-
viet KGB official Vitaly Yurchenko's
announcement yesterday that his de-
fection was coerced was a deliberate
act designed to affect the agenda of
the upcoming summit meeting be-
tween President Reagan and Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The incident also has brought into
question the competency of the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency to identify
and handle defectors and is likely to
spur administration reforms of
agency procedures in handling de-
fectors.
Some analysts said Mr. Yurchen-
ko's charges of "torture" and forced
drug use to coerce secret informa-
tion has embarrassed the intelli-
gence community two weeks before
the Geneva summit.
Georgetown University professor
Roy Godson, an expert on Soviet in-
telligence operations, said he be-
lieved Mr. Yurchenko could have
been a false defector from the begin-
ning who was sent by the Soviets "to
discredit President Reagan and pre-
vent him from using human rights at
the summit."
Mr. Reagan and Soviet leader Mi-
khail Gorbachev will meet for a sum-
mit in Geneva Nov 19-20.
They also said the charges of tor-
ture and drug use could scare other
would-be defectors, who might fear
harsh treatment in the United States
as a result of the Yurchenko claims.
George Carver, a former CIA offi-
cial who is a senior analyst with
Georgetown University's Center for
Strategic and International Studies,
said in an interview that it appeared
the CIA had mishandled Mr.
Yurchenko's case.
something less than optimal;' he
said. "Either the guy was misjudged
or not kept in the proper en-
vironment,"
He dismissed Mr. Yurchenko's al-
legations that the CIA used drugs to
obtain secrets as a "story that ...
was clearly made up out of whole
cloth."
"Anybody [at the CIA] who would
have suggested that would have been
fired," Mr. Carver said.
Mr. Carver also said Mr. Yur-
chenko could have planned his false
defection since the beginning on
July 28 in Rome, or he may have
suffered a "psychic sea change" and
decided to return to the Soviet
Union.
He also speculated that the Sovi-
ets may have communicated in some
way with Mr. Yurchenko and suc-
ceeded in convincing him to return
to the Soviet Union.
Mr. Yurchenko apparently fooled
the highest levels of the CIA.
Sources close to Wyoming Repub-
lican Sen. Malcolm wallop, a critic
of current CIA counterintelligence
policies, said Deputy CIA Director
John McMahon told the senator as
late as Thursday, "I'll stake my ca-
reer on his [Yurchenko's] bona
fides."
CIA Director William Casey has
said privately that Mr. Yurchenko
was one of the most valuable defec-
tors to come to the West and com-
pared the former No. 5 man in the
KGB to two other Soviet bloc defec-
tors - Britain's top KGB spy, Oleg
Gordievski, and East German diplo-
mat, Martin Winkler. Mr. Gordievski
is in England. Mr. Winkler defected
from the East German Embassy in
Argentina and fled to West Germany.
last month, a CIA official said the
agency was convinced that Mr. Yur-
chenko was a legitimate defector be-
cause he exhibited "no abnormal-
ities;' such as drinking or mental
problems, that have affected the
credibility of past Soviet defectors.
The official said Mr. Yurchenko
had identified two former CIA of-
ficials as suspected Soviet spies, but
defended the agency against a con-
troversy over Soviet penetrations
saying, "There were no moles and
there are no moles in the CIA."
The official said Mr. Yurchenko
had set only one condition on his de-
fection: that intelligence agencies
would not provide any public confir-
mation of his departure since such a
revelation would jeopardize his fam-
ily in Moscow.
Sen. allop whoil s na former ow an aide intelli-
gence expert with the Hoover Insti-
tution, said the CIA's handling of Mr.
Yurchenko is evidence that U
S
i
.
.
n-
telligence agencies "lack the requi-
site ability and competence to run
the [counterintelligence] business."
Mr. Codevilla said the Yurchenko
case could have been prevented if
the CIA had relied lesson polygraph
tests to determine Mr. Yurchenko's
sincerity and more on vigilant cross-
checking of information with "unex-
pected" intelligence - information
from channels the Soviets did not
know the United States was using to
collect data.
He said CIA officials involved in
handling Mr. Yurchenko should re-
sign over the failure of counterintel-
ligence.
Georgetown's Mr. Godson, in an
interview, also said Mr. Yurchenko
"apparently gave information that
has been described as 'chicken
feed' " to establish his credibility
with U.S. intelligence.
"His performance today was so
strong it seemed to have been re-
hearsed," Mr. Godson said. "He
didn't look like a man who had been
drugged."
Mr. Godson also suggested that
Mr. Yurchenko may have suffered
"post-partum depression" in that
what he had expected in the West
failed to materialize.
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 Approved For Release 2011/05/23: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100280001-2
He mentioned the case of Soviet
editor Oleg Bitov who Mr. Godson
said had told him that he had de-
'fected voluntarily. Later Mr. Bitov
returned to Moscow and charged
that he had been drugged and kid-
napped.
Andrew Nagorski, a former Mos-
cow correspondent for Newsweek,
said the Yurchenko affair was de-
signed to "clear the decks" of discus.
sions about Soviet human rights vio-
lations and support for international
terrorism at the summit. He said
Moscow orchestrated the dramatic
"escape" of Mr. Yurchenko to pre-
vent Mr. Reagan from going ahead
with U.S. plans to raise human rights
and Soviet-backed terrorism and
thereby limit the summit agenda to
arms control and specifically talks
on curbing U.S. strategic defense re-
search.
One intelligence expert, speaking
on background, described Mr. Yur-
chenko's ploy as a "deliberate
provocation of great magnitude."
Mr. Yurchenko managed to make
fools out of the entire U.S. intelli-
gence community, including the
Senate and House intelligence com-
mittees which failed to question the
CIA about Mr. Yurchenko's legiti-
macy, the expert said.
The expert said he believed the
Soviets timed the Yurchenko press
conference to coincide with meet-
ings in Moscow between Secretary
of State George Shultz and Soviet
officials, scheduled in Moscow only
hours after the embassy news con-
ference here.
Z
Approved For Release 2011/05/23: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100280001-2