SOVIET COUP AND U.S. INTELLIGENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401830001-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 21, 1991
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401830001-2
RADIO
WRERORTS
4701 W?Ilcrd avenue, #218 30I j 556 4058
Chevy Chose, MD 20815
PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
NewsNight
August 21, 1991 12:45 A.M.
Soviet Coup and U.S. Intelligence
Washington, D.C.
ANCHORMAN: Some intelligence experts are predicting the
fall of Mikhail Gorbachev will give rise to a new surge in Cold
War in spying networks, but others say the coup was not unex-
pected and was even predicted by the man President Bush wants to
run the CIA.
CNN's David French has more.
DAVID FRENCH: Most Americans learn about spies in the
bookstore. Real ones are elusive by nature. They flit into the
news and are gone, like Felix Bloch, whose 30-year State Depart-
ment career ended when he was accused of selling secrets to the
Soviets. The FBI couldn't prove it and he was never charged. Or
Jonathan Pollard, serving a life sentence for spying on the U.S.
for Israel. It is a murky world where even friends spy on one
another.
Did America's intelligence agencies botch the job on the
Soviet coup? Retired Deputy CIA Director George Carver thinks
now, saying key former colleagues have been warning all along
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401830001-2
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401830001-2
that the reign of Gorbachev could be like a moth nearing the
flame.
GEORGE CARVER: Far from the least of those is Robert
Gates, whose track record as a Sovietologist, even though in the
course of making his predictions he's managed to infuriate two
successive Secretaries of State, but I think that his overall
track record speaks for itself and speaks very creditably for
him.
FRENCH: Soviet defector and former KGB agent Arkady
Shevchenko is less charitable about Western intelligence.
ARKADY SHEVCHENKO: In fact, I think they were caught by
surprise. And that's not good.
CARVER: It's going to once again highlight the need to
augment technological collection with human intelligence.
FRENCH: A consensus is forming that there were
sufficient and significant warnings: the U.S. Secretary of
Defense, National Security Deputy Gates, and signals from the
Soviets, Shevardnadze and Yakovlev.
SHEVCHENKO: I'm absolutely confident there were some
voices of reason from the intelligence community. But you know,
unfortunately I know by my own experience that there is [unintel-
ligible].
FRENCH: The thesis emerges, in a society of multiple
voices, even the spies disagree, allowing politicians and
statesmen to ignore them.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401830001-2