MOSCOW SAYS EX-CIA AGENT GIVEN ASYLUM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200880038-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 14, 2010
• Sequence Number: 38
• Publication Date: August 8, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/14: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200880038-5
r.R ^X . BALTIMORE SUN
S3NPACE 8 August 1986
Moscow says ex-CIA
agent
ven as lum.
~ Y
American accused
of spying vanished.
from home last fall
From Wire Reports
MOSCOW - A fugitive former
CIA agent suspected of passing dam.
aging secrets that may have led to
the execution of a top spy working
for the United States in Moscow has
defected to the Soviet Union, Tass
reported yesterday. ~Tass, the Soviet news
agency, said the Presidium of the Su-
preme Soviet. or parliament, guided
by "humanitarian considerations,"
from had granted 3a request for asylum
34-year-old Edward Lee How-
ard.
"He has stated that the motive for
his request is that he has to hide
from U.S. secret services which per-
secute him without foundation,"
Tass said.
No further details were immedi-
ately available. and the U.S. Embas-
sy said: "If Howard has anything to
say, he can say it for himself."
Defections to the Soviet Union are
comparatively rare. British spies
Kim Philby. Guy Burgess and Don-
ald Maclean defected to the Soviet
Union in the 1950s and 1960s. In
1960, Bernon Mitchell and William
Martin, code breakers with the Na-
tional Security Agency, also
switched sides and fled-to Moscow.
Mr. Howard's defection - the
first by a CIA agent - was reported
the same day that two Soviet high-
wire artists, a husband and wife. de-
fected to the United States after flee-
ing the Moscow Circus while it
toured
The Soviet ~Argentina. newspa-
per Izvestia published a brief an.
nouncement of Mr. Howard's defec.
tion on its back page. It did not say
Mr. Howard was accused of spying
and described him only as "a U.S.
citizen (and) a former CIA officer."
The statement did not say when Mr.
STATE entered the Soviet Union.
ui Washington. CIA spokeswom-
Kathy Pherson said she could not
nfirm or deny izvestta's report.
U.S. law enforcement authorities
last year accused Mr. Howard of
Passing the eSovi Union intelligence
data might
have led to the arrest of some Intel-
ligence agents working for the Amer.
icans in Moscow and to the execu-
tion of at least one.
Sources said Mr. Howard had
worked for the CIA's clandestine ser-
vice from 1981 to 1983 and may
have provided details on how the
United States gathered sensitive in-
telligence information from the Sovi-
et Union.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, vice chair-
man of the Select Committee on in.
telligence, said yesterday that Mr.
Howard had, done "serious damage
to the U.S. intelligence effort in the
Soviet Union.
tol, Speaking to reporters in the Capi-
Capi-
y, D-Vt., said: "Whenev-
er the KGB (Soviet spy agency) has
had someone defect to the United
States, It has caused damage to the
Soviet Union, so it's only logical to
assume that when we have a defec-
tor, it damages the United States."
The CIA fired Mr. Howard in
1983 for misconduct, and he appar-
ently began selling sensitivg infor-
mation to Soviet agents, the sources
said. His motives appeared to be
money and a desire for revenge for
his dismissal, they said
On leaving the CIA. Mr. Howard
moved to New Mexico and took a
low-paying Job as an economic ana-
lyst with the state legislature there.
After he came under suspicion,
he was followed and watched by FBI
agents but managed to slip away
from his home in Santa Fe one night
last September and disappeared.
Acquaintances of Mr. Howard
said yesterday they were not sur-
prised to learn he had sought asy-
lum in the Soviet Union.
"My first thought was, he was of-
fered asylum," said Kate Gallegos. a
family friend. She wondered wheth-
er Mr. Howard's wife, Mary, would
be able to meet with him.
Authorities suspect Mrs. Howard
knew of the alleged sale of CIA se-
crets to the Soviet Union and helped
her husband escape. She moved
away May 31, apparently to Minne-
sota. where her family lives.
Phili R.
er said, "We certainly give a lot of tor e New . e e ei Uve direc-
of th Mexico Leslative M.
credence to the Soviets' public re- nance Committee, whoogifoound Mr.
marks. We have no reason to believe Howard's letter of resignation on his
they are untrue." desk Sept. 23, said he was not sur-
prised to learn of Mr. Howard's ap-
parent defection.
1 haven't been surprised from
the beginning, because I had been
interviewed by the FBI," said Mr. Ba-
ca. "I feel sorry for the family."
U.S. Intelligence sources said Mr.
Howard had been Identified as a
Kremlin spy by Soviet defector Vita-
ly Yurchenko, a KGB officer who re-
quested sanctuary in the West last
year but then re-defected to the Sovi-
et Union. Mr. Yurchenko said he had
been abducted by CIA agents and
had never defected at all
.
The Los Angeles Times quoted
Informed sources last month as say-
dent Reagan classified report sent to P ize(j
the CIA and FBI for 'mishandling-
the case of Mr. Howard.
The Paper said the report by the
President's F Intelligence Ad-
visory Board singled out the top CIA
spymaster's office for overiooking re-
peated blunders in Mr. Howard's
hii~ screening and eventual dis-
It said Mr. Howard's troubles
went undetected until shortly before
he was to be sent to Moscow, where
he reportedly was to become a "case
officer" for one of the CIA's most
valuable informants.
Moscow Although the CIA canceled the
Times quoted~ the~report as saying
both the agency and the FBI later
failed to ensure that the disillusioned
SPY did not sell secrets.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/14: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200880038-5