INTELLIGENCE EXPERTS HAIL SOVIET SPY CHIEF'S DEFECTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200890018-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: September 13, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP91-005
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
13 September 1985
INTELLIGENCE EXPERTS HAIL SOVIET SPY CHIEF'S DEFECTION
BY DANIEL F. GILb1ORE
WASHINGTON
The chief of the Soviet KGB's espionage network in Britain who defected may
be able to supply much information on other Soviet spies, including ''sleeper''
agents planted in countries for future espionage activities, intelligence
experts said today.
U.S. and Western intelligence circles were jubilant following Thursday ''s
announcement by the British Foreign office of the defection of Oleg Gordievski,
described as the head of the important London KGB center.
amazed he was able to survive for such a long period of time,'' said
Soviet defector r a y evc en o who le .ft his post as U .N undersecretary in
1978 to go to work for the CIA.
Former CIA Director Stansfield Turner said Gordievski's defection is
" going to make it a lot easier for Britain and, hopefully for the West, to
protect themselves from Soviet spying.''
Shevchenko, Turner and other experts were interviewed on morning televisison
news programs.
"I think the defector has information on Soviet spying efforts beyond his
area of responsiblity,'' Shevchenko said on NBC. ''He was in a very important
position. Besides, he used to work in Scandinavia so he got quite a range of
knowledge about everything. I'm sure he also has political knowledge, not only
espionage activity but other activity.''
Other experts suggested Gordievski could supply background on Soviet
strategic arms and poltical goals at the November summit meeting in Geneva
between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Turner, a CBS consultant, said the KGB chief may have decided to defect now
''because the KGB may have got a tip off and may be hot on his trail. He may
have wanted to come in from the cold ... to enjoy the sort of Western life he
has seen.''
Brian Freemantle, British author of a book on the KGB, said Gordievski ''is
possibly the most important defector to come across to the West in 20-25 years,
maybe even longer than that.''
He said Gordievski could identify Soviet ''sleepers'' -- agents sent to
foreign countries years ago who adopted identities, families and jobs with the
mission of surfacing later for active espionage work.
''Moscow will not know who he can identify and who he can't,'' Freemantle
said.
Earlier, other American intelligence experts greeted the defection as a
''bonanza'' that could provide vital military and political information to the
West before the superpower summit in November.
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think it is a great break,'' said Ray Cline, former CIA deputy director
for intelligence and former head of the State Department's Bureau o
Intelligence.
Cline, a 30-year intelligence veteran, said Thursday the defection "comes at
time when there has been a tendency both in Europe and America of wishful
''It is through such occasional defections that the free world has got the
best insights into the real working of the Soviet political system,'' he said.
David Atlee Phillips, another CIA veteran and former head of its Latin
American and Caribbean operations, said London is a key spot in the KGB's
overseas network, ranking with Paris. Washington and T^ky.
''London is terribly important because it is what we call an 'information
channel' for important messages,'' he said.
Gordievski's defection could have a bearing on the summit, Phillips said.
''One of the major responsibilities of an intelligence service is to advise
political chiefs on the eve of any important conferences. It would seem that the
head of their (KGB's) London office would know what is planned, what the
position is."
An active intelligence source who asked not to be identified said of the
defection, ''Speaking for the intelligence community, obviously we are
delighted. It's a good thing.''
The ''intelligence community'' embraces all U.S. agencies engaged in that
field ranging from the CIA, the State Department Bureau of Intelligence. the
FBI's counterintelligence branch tfheintelligence sections of the armed
services.
Another former CIA official, who requested anonymity, said the senior level
defection ''should turn up a bonanza of top intelligence."
Cline, now a senior associate and intelligence analyst for the Georgetown
University Center for Strategic and International Studies, predicted in a
telephone interview that Gordievski's defection ''will be a very important
development.''
''Most people don't realize how valuable it is when we get a defection like
this,'' he said. ''He (Gordievski) can tell you things how the system works
that confirm other data and research and analysis that we do which require
confirmation from inside sources.''
Cline said the defection may prove the most important since that of
Shevchenko, who has written a best-selling book exposing the Soviet U.N. mission
and its members of the U.N. secretariat as primarily engaged in espionage.
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