GLOBAL PRIVATE EYE SERVES THRILLS TO HIS 1000 CLIENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00965R000400010010-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: November 15, 1953
• Content Type: OPEN

WASHINGTON Po sr NO V 15 1953
Approved or se 7 . CIA-RDP91- -
-How Col. Amoss Works _
Global Private Eye Serves
'Thrills-to His 1000 Clients
(The first in a series)
By Edward T. Pollard
Pat Raport?r
Col. Ulius L. Amoss, editor and director of field opera-
tiollff whet fi? s a "private; world-wide intelligence
service," broke off an exciting story about intrigue, shots
in the dark, and the "escape" of Lavrenti Beria. He
wanted to see about his mail.
Presently he was back behind his desk, at his home at
Gibson Island, Md., holding up a gray envelope plastered
with foreign sumps.
"This," he said, with a mysterious air, "is from a very
great Russian expert."
Colonel Amoss (he holds that rank in the Air Force Re-
serve) has been described by an ecstatic reporter as "the
world's leading private eye" and as one of "the greatest ! In the privacy of the Kremlin's
ITUYVIL1Il1GL1L 111LG1LLSUL1L.C I11CII 1LdY LILMM dUUUL nun
in less flattering terms, as Amoss himself wryly admits.
A couple of recent published comments from unnamed
Federal officials have it that Amoss is a "total loss" and
that he was never known to be right.
Also, it is pointed out that Amoss may have caused
serious Government concern-
ous gamblg" for the purpose,
when he recently claimed ' business tycoons and executives, as he put it, of helping dissident
his intelligence organization for melodrama In the Interns- Soviet big-shots escape from be-
!brought about the escape of hind the Iron Curtain. So far
Polish Lieut. Franciszek Jarecki tional field. none has been helped to escape,
and his Russian-made MIG-151 Colonel Amoss gives the In. and he acknowledges as much.
Jet plane. By f n d i c a t i n g side stuff from behind the Iron Earlier Colonel Amoss got
the escape was part of a Curtain. He runs a lively and, $7500 from a group of Maryland
plot by an intelligence organs-I it would seem, fool-proof guide men, including former Gov. Wil-
service In this dart; realm. liam Preston Lane, for the afoFe-
things , Amoss harder for conceivably made You get interesting reading If mentioned scheme to get a Rus-
hing Denmark, you subscribe to the colonel's sian-made Jet out of Poland.
where the MIG-15 was landed. intelligence service. You get a Those engaged In undercover
The Danes, facing Russia) report from his "seldom-heard. work for Uncle Sam say that
troops a few score miles away, from correspondent in the re- Colonel Amoss appears to be
would appear in the light, less mote sub-Polar regions" that the one of the few Intelligence
of innocent bystanders than Yakutsk Eskimos detest Russian agents in the world who talks
partners in a plot. Communists, or from his "very openly about the information
Amoss is %. ell aware of his great expert on Russia" that which he claims to have gath-
critics and, ordinarily soft- there is bad trouble in Soviet ered.
spoken, grows vehement when guided missile production. Secrecy, they argue, Is the
he talks about them. He calls very essence of successful an-
them "cowards" and "termites" U. S. Can't Deny It telligence work. How other-
who speak from behind the cloak The Government intelligence wise, they ask, are you going to
of anonymity, and days they agencies can't deny it - they Protect your apparatus and the
probably are jealous. He cites can't say anything, since it Is ' lives of your agents? And above
what he considers a long record prime rule of an intelligence, all, they point out, you don't
for a c c u r a t e pr~i actions- service not to broadcast public- want the enemy to know what
scoops" on Stalin's "death and 1y what it knows and what it you know, or think you know,
the outbreak of the Korean war, doesn't, what is correct and about him.
for example. (More of Amoss' what is not.
reactions to his critics will ap- In a w o r 1 d desperately Hush-Hush Derided
pear in a later article). alarmed by the Soviet menace, Colonel Amoss, on the other)
But even his d
t
t
e
rac
ors overridingly Interested in what
acknowledge Amoss does have goes on behind the Iron Curtain
one gift. He produces romance, and in the Communist under-
a much-desired and highly ground, and vouchsafed almost
rewarded commodity. He seems no information about it, curi-
to be able to satisfy a basic! osity provides aseellller's mararkkeet.
n unc craving, than nowhe o1
~ rpftf~~H'b~ `~dh'h1~`f11Ys,
spills, stealth and excitement.
Physically and sartorially.
Colonel Amoss does not co v n ette e r 1 n o w n than A
cloak-and-dagger man. He is 58, enee official. Dulles doesn't
j9 6-footer weighing 180 pounds, alk publicly about his under-
with thinning hair and a rather over work. Nobody knows what
full face. He goes n for brown is outfit, the Central Intelii-
business tweeds and bow neck- ence Agency, is doing except
ties, and is a cigarette smoker. resident Eisenhower and a few
He talks fluently, although others at the top.
sometimes cryptically;. and if For all the public knows,
you are in an adventurous Dulles may be entirely ignorant
mood, he can make things seem of the fate of Lavrenti Berta,
very exciting Indeed. boss of Russia's secret police
He states that about 1000 per- under Stalin, who was marked
Sons, mostly business and pro- for liquidation by Stalin's sue-
fissional people, make up his cessor, Premier Georgi Malen-
Intern tional Service of In- kov. Dulles either does not
forma on Foundation (ISI). Col- now or isn't saying if he does
lective y, they pay In $25,000 a Jcnow whether Beria Is dead or
year for the service. Amoss ` live, Inside Russia or outside
sends them exciting letters with f it.
such items as Beria's "escape" Not so Colonel Amoss. Ile says
and "the probable Soviet target there is no doubt in his mind
date for war," and such stireing about Beria's status. He says)
prose as: that Beria has escaped from l
"The heirs and would-be heirs Russia-that his agents have!
to Red glory are shooting It out told him so.
I Sometimes Colonel Amoss
launches schemes that require
I more money than Is available to
! him in the ISI treasury. Thus,
last September he got $50,000
from millionaire C l e n d e n i n
Ryan on what he said he made
"Is he alive?" the colonel was
asked.
"Well, last week he was alive,"
was the reply in a recent inter- I
view.
Colonel Amoss said he was
waiting right now for "instruc-
tions" as to whether he should
dash over to Europe to pick up
some Soviet Intelligence that
would be turned over to him if
Beria gives the word.
Now In New York
Those who subscribe to his
ISI service get up-to-the minute
word of what 'goes on in Mos-
cow. For instance, Colonel
Amoss informed his clients oni
September 14, 1953, that Andrei
Vishinsky Is doomed-marked
for a purge. His report sug-
gested that even Vishinsky:
might not know it, for he said:;
"Vishinsky s h o u 1 d quickly!
seek political asylum. A week,
a month, six months may be too
late."
Vishinsky is in New York,1
where he is serving as Russia's
Permanent Representative to;
the United Nations.
One of Colonel Amoss' latest
intelligence "scoops," sent out
under date of October 28, is a
shocker.
"This Is a STOP, LOOK. and
LISTEN letter," he tells sub-
scribers. "Within months, the
contents of this letter will be
carried by the press wire serv-
ices of the Nation.
"1959 Is the probable Soviet
target date for WAR ..."
Sometimes Colonel Amoss has
hand, says there is entir too! hard luck in his timing.
much hush-hush abo govern- For example, on last August
md!!t"`relTigerce work. Not 8 Premier Malenkov announced
f that "the United States no long-
only tha
Tr
Mrnks that Un
clleI er has the monopoly of the
r
-
{
?n~iway"th ~sl~aM a hkl }Te4Droduetlon~ of that agnep
 Colonel Amosa',innt?ellig nge~ 0 r ason fo r
apparatus evid 1tQ~e
~~~
lieve it. The colonel sent out the exploration of the possibili-
an "ISI Telegram" dated from ties for escape of other high-
Aachen, Germany, August 11,, ranking Soviet personalities,
and signed by Janisi, presum-' based on allegations made by
ably an agent. certain agents.
The telegram said: "It would have been improper'
"Malenkov hydrogen - bomb for the ISI Foundation to fl-'
claim is witless hysterical propa- nance such an operation from
ganda. its meager funds. It would have''
"America explodes, then talks., been downright dangerous to
Malenkov talks, doesn't ex-! use the established overseas ISI
plods." network in such an operation
Unhappily for Agent Tanisi" for fear that the proposals were
(and also Colonel Amoss) Pre-l fakes planted for the purpose
mier Malenkov backed up his] of making contact with and
TOT
talk with a blast that shook the
chancellories of the Free World.
On August 19 Lewis L. Strauss,
be necessary hastily to create]
ti
hi
h
.
i
on w
c
,
za
chairman of the Atomic Energy' a temporary organ
Commission, announced thatamong other things, would
the Russians had indeed touched- tail the members of the far-,
off a hydrogen explosion on Au-(reaching gang purporting to be,
gust 12. in touch with Red Army dissi- I
dents. It would cost about $50,-1
Colonel A
h
moss says
e set up
s
his intelligence network back in
'1946. However, he did not break
"to the newspapers in a big
ay until his name was linked
ith the escape of Polish Lieut.
VVV.
"So I looked for an Ameri-
can, alive to the Soviet Commu-
nist danger, who might be will-
ing to back the hazardous en-
terprise. It was a long-odds
gamble-but, if successful,
eria's escape. would produce devastating re-
Colonel Amos
i
id
t
s
s pres
en
suits that might further lessen
and editor-i.l-chief of ISI. His
organization, he says, engages the danger of war and would
the services of 12 intelligence, certainly circumscribe Soviet
experts abroad, two of them existing cold-war operations.
th
'
among
e world
s greatest. He "Mr. Clendenin Ryan was
says the average pay for these su gested to me as an alert
men is less than $50 a month, pa nt wjio had been known to
to $300 the top men get close a month. support proper efforts to check
ports t the 12 Feeding ys, Communist advance. I saw him;
parts to the 1 agents, says, told him that the
is a volunteer army y of of 7000 project wall
persons. an 'outrageous gamble' but thatl
'
,
(low is all this financed? The if it won, the results would be
answer, according to Colonel~a major contribution to the
safety of the Free World. An-
Amoss i
th
s
e membership of
,the TSI Foundation-those 1000
business and professional men
who pay in $25 a year each.
From time to time, they get the
international low-down from
parently, Mr. Ryan believed
that the chance of such impor-
tant results justified the long;
odds, and he sent his check to'
the ISI Foundation to support;
Colonel Amoss in his "general 'the risky enterprise."
report" and "special letter." The hoped-for "devastating
Occasionally, as has been results" of a walk-out of dis-
said, he comes up with a schenic'enchanted Russians have not
that requires big money, as hi been realized. But then, as
the case where Clendenin Ryan 'Amoss told Ryan, it was an
came through with $50,000. i "outrageous 'gamble" to start
Ryan, husky heir to the great- with. He says the $50,000 still
fortune of Thomas Fortune' is being used to finance a pro-
Ryan, once was secretary to the
late Mayor Fiorella La Guardia
of New York. Thereafter he
battled with Mayor William
O'Dwyer, underworld k i n g
Frank Costello and others.
Colonel Amoss told about
Ryan's contribution in an ISI
letter dated September 28. He
had been recounting his trip
to Europe, Beria's "escape," and
his report to the United States
Government about his talks
with men purporting to be
Beria's representatives.
By Harry Goodwin-The Washington Post
Colonel Ullus L. Amoss, mainspring of what he calls a "pri-
vate world-wide Intelligence service," narrates in his office
some hair-raising stories of undercover work abroad,
It's a terrific story as Amoss
tells it in the newspaper feature
-one to "tail" those claiming'1 Tried to Kidnap Stalin's Son."
to be in touch with Soviet dis-1ISI subscribers would have en-
sidents. joyed it-"stocky, grim, nerv-
In his letter of September 28,Ious" conspirators, a red-haired
Colonel Amoss did not tell hisjbeauty who was the mistress of
revealed in the November 8 Is-
sue of the American Weekly. In
a featured article, Amoss dis-
closed that the $50,000 he had
asked Ryan for was for effecting
the escape of Lieut. Gen. Vassily
Stalin.
one of them, an agent scooting
back and forth across the mine
fields into Czechoslovakia. Then,
at the last minute, the very
night of a crucial rendezvous at
the border, word came that the
Russians were baiting Amoss, in-
tending to assassinate Vassily
Stalin, kidnap Amoss, brainwash
him and Heaven knows what:
elsd.
Anyway, the deal didn't come
off.
Approved For Release 2001/03/07 ;n+? ''9'"'6$ 2'00400010010-5