GLOBAL PRIVATE EYE DWELLS IN CONSTANT AIR OF MYSTERY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00965R000400010012-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: November 16, 1953
• Content Type: NSPR

$FII~TGION POST NO V 16 19
Approved For as : CIA-R 91-
Row Col. Amoss Works--
Global Private Eye Dwells
In Constant Air of Mystery
By Edward T. Folliard-
root Importer
(Second in a Series)
Members of the International Services of Information
Foundation, a private intelligence service headed by Col.
Ulius L. Amoss of Gibson Island, Md., get exciting read-
ing for the $25 which they contribute annually.
A letter from Amoss to ISI members, dated last June
17, begins:
"GEORGI MALENKOV IS DEAD"
This was news, a real scoop.
But in the next sentence, Amoss hastens to add, "This
is a rumor from ISI sources-repeat, this is a rumor. It
is not a fact."
Even though there are occasional letdowns, Amoss'
reports keep the adventurous spirit running high. Some-
times, people who receive ISI material must fear for a
time that the colonel is a goner. Very often, however, it
turns out that he wasn't in any danger after all, and is
safe, sound and ready for further excitement.
Message Produced Thrill
On July 5, under a dateline reading "By courier from
putt' chief of staff oiThe Take, for example, his trip
ited States N i n t h Air to Europe last summer. He
i orce. One reads: "To Pete said that he went behind the
(Amoss' nickname) with sin- Iron Curtain and that it was
cere thanks for his loyal sup- "a simple operation." But his
port and excellent Counsel, most exciting adventure took
Hoyt . Vandenberg." place, not in Communist ter-
Books Indicate Interest ritory, but on this side of the
Curtain-in Duesseldorf, Ger-
On the bookshelves are many.
volumes that bespeak Col.
by Trotsky," "The Russian London, he said, when he
Menace to Europe," "The Pat- realized he was being trailed
tern for World Revolution," by somebody in another car.
"No Secret is Safe,". and A shot came from the pur-
"Handbook for Spies " suer. Then the car drew
According to a sketch In the alongside and there was an-
International Who's Who, other shot.
Amoss was born in St. Louis "I got out of the cab," Col.
58 years ago last July 28. He Amoss said, "caught another
was a student at the Marylandd one and went to the railroad
Institute of Fine Arts in Bat station. There I got a third
timore. He was a press agent cab and drove to the airport.
for the Baltimore and Ohio "When I calmed down, I
ft3lroad In 1915.18, and after concluded that the shooting
that was sales manager fora was just a demonstration,
Baltimore firm. something to impress me, not
In World War 1, he was a an attempt to kill me. Neither
ecretary with the 79th shot hit the cab."
:`A wesllso a YMCA He said that just before
secretary in Greece during a this he had been talking to a
part of the Greco-Turkish War group of men in West Ger-
of 1919.21. Thereafter, in many. They described them-
1920-24, he was adviser to the selves as dissidents from the
Munich," Colonel Amoss gave his ISI subscribers a thrill Greek General Staff, a job : Red Army, but he suspected 1
with this message: - that seems to have laid the them of being Soviet agents.
"I am a virtual prisoner in groundwork for his later He believed that they were
a Munich hotel. I am not bland Houses GRQ career as an Intelligence man. responsible for the shots. It
`the Returning to this country was all, he said, an example
sure that the care y' take An 11-room rented house on from Greece, Amoss was an of "the devious workings of
of me is due to consideration
for my safety-or theirs. the island, located on Chess- exporter in New York. He the Slavic mind."
`They' even post guards. peake Bay about 23 miles south- also served with firms like Curiously enough, either
won't permit me to go west of Annapolis, is the gen- the Condossis Tobacco Co., Amoss got his cities in Ger-
'outThey' wonwithout protection-and me -ago eral headquarters of Colonel and the Gramtrade Interne- many mixed up (something an
Amoss' ISI network, althoughttional Corporation. intelligence agent should do
never at night. But when I the business office Is at 219 W. Served With OSS only rarely, if at all), 'or else
went to parts I shouldn't Monument st., Baltimore. He won his rank in World exactly the same thing hap-
mention, they relaxed their He is a year-round resident War II, serving with the Air pened to him in Munich. For
guard, apparently consider- of =the island, along with his Force and OSS, and is now in in a piece In The American
ing a danger zone safe Vivacious English-born wife, the Air Force Reserve. Weekly on November 8,
enough. It was! e , former Veronica Grogan. How did he come to met up Amoss describes the identical
met In Caine. during his int
lli
.-..a..
k
I__id__
f
hot_ transfers
e
gence
or
?
t o
s
out having experienced any ex? intelligence work? he for long felt that the trouble with but as happening in Munich,
citement. But, once in my room, en. William J. (Wild Bill) secret intelligence was that it not Duesseldorf, just after an
a series of `shots' startled me;l onovan's Office of Strategic] was too secret. Also, he had 11 abortive effort to kidnap Vas-
Ihrnneh my windnw_ rM Ramp ervices and she for the made this discovery: that by sily Stalin..
to say that I shouted to my ;Amoss on Gibson Island, as other intelligence, appraised ! Col. Amoss showed the re-
friend and personal security of. all visitors to the privately- and edited-it often was no 1 1 porter a letter he sent to ISI
ficer, 'Keep away from that owned island, must first be ivnher intelligence but his- members last summer. The
window!' I am ashamed, be-, cleared at the gate. Up the ton. dateline was Duesseldorf; the
cause we discovered that the' road a way is the colonel's Moreover. Col. Amoss said, date July 21.
'shot' were firecracker explo- house. Guests are taken to he concluded that the Ameri- "Berta," he had written, "has
sions, set off by German chil- jlis office, just off the living an people as a whole were not been arrested. He is in
riren in honor of our Fourth nflroom. It has an Impressive tting no benefit from our hiding. This is the belief of
After this let-down, Colonel its occupant has been around. win it was decided to leak ~ This is the conviction of an-
Anmoss hurried on in his ISII The walls are covered with something to them so as to other ISI source, not always
letter to tell about his meet- autographed pictures. One formulate public opinion. reliable."
ing with some mysterious mom- bears the inscription, "'For my Once Col. Amoss gets going Col. Amoss, bringing the re-
hers of an "elite underground friend, Ulius Amoss, Franklin porter u
system." D. Roosevelt." (FDIC auto- about his agents, his annual p to date, was much
trips to Europe and the flow more positive - much more
He also had something to say graphed it when he was Gov- of intelligence reports to Gib- emphatic. Right now, he said,
about his meetings with myi- ernor of New York). '`here sob I la d thins begin to Berta definitely Is 'out of Rus-
fl" tery men in a ~-tij} de~? 1 7 Cot1f 94-H 63R ?40013M112mt as of
at Gibson Islan o t n?erg, of espionage. hew weeks ago.
toes of the time when Col.
Amass served under him as f
 He thApproved For F elease 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400010012-3
t
en n
on to tell of
an adventure that befell him
In Munkh last summer, say-
ing:
"A man came to me. He
represented h i m s e l f as a
major in the Russian Security
Police. He said he was repre-
sentin Berta, and presented
a card signed with Berta's
name. He said he had been
authorized tof ask me whether
Berla, if he escaped would get
sanctuary anywhere in the
West.
"I said I couldn't give him
an official answer, But I said
that if Berta was willing to
give information, unquestion.
ably he would get sanctuary.
"The major said, 'Well, I'm
satisfied,' and left."
Colonel Amoss said he
could state as "a fact" that
Berta sent five of his most
trusted lieutenants out of the
country when he got worried
about his own life.
"They had instructions," he
said, "that if anything hap-
pened to him (Berta) they
were to turn papers over to
Western agents.
"Beria himself faded. He
went to the mountains of
Transcaucasia, of which his
native Georgia is a part. It
was then that the Kremlin
denounced him. He even-
tually got out of Trans-
caucasia.
"Now evidently he was still
in the mountains when this
major called on me in Munich.
At least, I believe he was.
Since Berta got out, additional
facts have been learned.
"They have taken a dummy
Beria from Tiflis, capital of
Georgia, and he has been
trained and secretly sent to
Moscow. He is being held in
a prison operated by the De-
fense Department, not the
MVD. The trial material for
this dummy Berta has been
completed, and orders have
been issued to send him back
to Georgia to stand trial. I
say they have been issued;
whether they have actually
been sent, I don't know.
Comic Feature Related
"There Is a comic feature to
all this. Beria has learned
about the scheme. Ile doesn't
like it. That is why he sent
-1 1
Colonel Ullus L. Amos, bead of a private Island, Md., home. The photos are mostly
Intelligence network, relaxes at his Gibson of military men with whom Amoss served.
the major to see me. If they
go through with the farcical
trial, he will tell his lieuten-
ants to turn over the papers
to Western agents.
"I am waiting now on in.
structions as to whether I am
to go over and get them or
not."
He said the Berta papers
announce that they have exe-
buted Beria, Amass will be
able to point out that long
ago he predicted that a
"dummy" would be put on
trial and executed,
"allegedly" contained informa-
tion about Russia's atomic
energy program.
If it turns out that Beria
really has escaped--and espe.
cially if he unmasks himself
somewhere in the West-
Amoss will be a hero. If, on
the other hand, the Russians
TOMORROW: Lieutenant
Jarerki and his MM-15.
Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000400010012-3