FBI CHIEF DOUBTS DEFECTION OF YURCHENKO WAS STAGED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504460002-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 2, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504460002-4
WASHINGTON POST
2 December 1985
FBI Chief Doubts- Defection
Of Yurchenko Was St
aged
Soviet Gave Valuable Data, Webster Says11
By John Mintz
Waahmgton Poat staff Writer
FBI Director William H. Webster
said yesterday that if Soviet KGB
official Vitaly Yurchenko staged his
July defection to embarrass this
country before the Reagan-Gorba-
chev summit, it was "an act of folly"
for him to give the United States so
much valuable intelligence.
Webster, in an interview on ABC
News' "This Week With David
Brinkley," said Yurchenko had
helped the Justice Department open
a "substantial" number of spying
investigations and reopen others.
Yurchenko-a colonel in the
KGB, the Soviet secret police, with
a high position in the department
responsible for intelligence oper-
ations against the United States and
Canada-announced his intention to
return to the Soviet Union at a dra-
matic news conference on Nov. 4 at
the Soviet Embassy here. He said
he had been kidnaped and drugged
by the Central Intelligence Agency,
an allegation denied by U.S. offi-
cials.
Webster confirmed government
officials' private assertions in re-
cent days that Yurchenko had
alerted authorities to at least two
alleged Soviet spies: Edward Lee
Howard, a former CIA trainee who
allegedly told the Soviets about a
U.S. agent in the Soviet Union be-
fore being unmasked and disappear-
ing from his New Mexico home; and
Ronald William Pelton, a former
communications specialist with the
National Security Agency charged
last week with selling secrets to the
Soviets.
Asked whether Yurclaez4o mi
have been a Soviet doupfe agent
who was trying ;'to gall, ~` S M.
cials' trust by giving theeetfie adeu..
tities of some inactive former So-
viet agents, while not harinit % ac=
:;eve,; Soviet intelligence eef'
Webster said, "That analy ' Ukowl
k going, and I don't think e shill ld
-close our-eyes to that possibility.
+. "But certainly," Webster contin-_
Ted,' "everything I know about it is
?that it would be an act of folly to
7jave given up that kind information
pimply to have some embarrass-
ment going on at the time of the
summit.
"We have opened a substantial
number of cases based on very use-
ful information he has supplied," he
said. "Not only new cases, but re-
viewing old information that might
reflect on other [security] holes
that were open in prior years."
U.S. officials are debating wheth-
er Yurchenko was a phony defector
or was a bona fide defector who be-
came depressed and decided to go
home. -
Bill Baker, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's assistant director
for public affairs, said yesterday
that Webster would not elaborate
on his televised comments.
Webster reiterated that FBI
counterintelligence agents are
stretched to their limits in trying to
keep track of the approximately
2,500 Soviet-bloc diplomats and
consular officials in this country.
He said Soviet students who
come to the United States under a
Geneva summit agreement will
probably include spies.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.),
vice chairman of the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence, also
expressed concern about the num-
ber of Soviet-bloc officials here. On
NBC News' "Meet the Press,"
Leahy said yesterday that the State
Department is "lobbying heavily"
against implementation of a law,
originally- proposed by Leahy and
Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Maine), to
eliminate the Soviets' longstanding
advantage in numbers of diplomatic
officials here compared with U.S.
officials in the Soviet Union.
Leahy said there is "almost a war
going on between the State Depart-
ment and the rest of the'govern-
ment about how theylshould imple-
ment the law.' Sta ' Department
officials have said ;hey fear the
measure would lead to Soviet ex-
pulsion of U.S. diplomats.
The comments df Webster and
Leahy came amid revelations in the
last two weeks about new spy ar-
rests. Besides Pelton, the others
arrested are Larry Wu-Tai Chin,
63, a retired CIA analyst who alleg-
edly has been spying for China since
the early 1950s; Jonathan Jay Pol-
lard, 31, a civilian Navy counterter-
rorism expert who allegedly sold
classified information to the Israeli
government, and Pollard's wife,
Anne Henderson-Pollard, 25,
charged with unauthorized posses.
sion of classified 'documents.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504460002-4