WHAT THE SOVIETS HAD ON DANILOFF; WHY US HURRIED TO ARRANGE SWAP; HOW CIA BUNGLING JEOPARDIZED HIM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90B01390R000100090034-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 7, 2012
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: October 6, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

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NEWSDAY
2 October 1986
The Soviets
WHATHad on Daniloff
U.S. Hurried
WHYTo Arrange Swap
HOIXIT CIA Bungling
Jeopardized Him
By Roy Gutman
Newsday Washington Bureau
Washington - The
United States was ea-
ger to have Nis o as
Danl o freed firom a Soviet ns-
on in part Biau-se, of the s
mishandling of a contact the
agency had with him last year,
U.S. officials said yesterday-
They said the Reagan
administration feared
that the CIA had inn
vertently implicated
the American reporter
in a way that could cause him
serious trouble under prolonged
questioning by the Soviets and
could embarrass the administra-
tion and extend the confrontation. The
contact involved a communication
aru o delivered from a Soviet citizen
FD the I LS_ Fmha mv in w.
The U.S. news & World Report cor-
respondent was arrested on Aug. 30,
more than a year later, after receiving
a package from a Soviet acquaintance
containing classified materials. The
Reagan administration said he had
been framed. Officials said his arrest
was an apparent responsg to the FBI's
arrest in New York a week earlier of
Gennadiy Zakharov, a Soviet UN em-
ployee, on espionage charges.
For more than a week, the White
House rejected Soviet demands to give
equal treatment to Daniloff and Zak-
harov. But on Sept. 12, the adminis-
tration relented. Daniloff was turned
over to the custody of the U.S. ambas-
sador in Moscow, and Zakharov was
remanded into the custody of the Sovi-
et ambassador in New York.
Secretary. of State George Shultz de-
fended the equal treatment on hu-
manitarian grounds, and White House
officials, speaking to reporters on
background, said that they were wor-
ried that Daniloff might not be able to
withstand the mental pressure of fur-
ther incarceration.
But following Danilofys return to
the United States, officials disclosed
what they said was the main reason
for the change of U.S. attitude. This
was the report in the Soviet govern-
ment newspaper Izvestia on Sent. 8 of
an incident involving Daniloff that
had occurred at the beginning of 1985.
"In some circles, there was fear of
him being interrogated for a number
not to days,"
named, but who official,
is who with asked an
agency that opposed the arrangement
"You don't know what else would hap.
pen.
ne hat Daniloffcoouuld have been fn
big trouble."
The earlier incident involved a man
who identified himself as a priest and
who sought out Daniloff with purport-
ed information about Soviet youth or-
ganizations. A few days after the
priest, who called himself "Father Ro-
man," promised to drop off a packet of
material on religious subjects, Dani-
loff found an envelope left outside his
Em ynt and addressed to the U.S.
ncertain what to do with the pack-
a Danilofl` n brought it to e
embassy, w ere an o cia o ens it in
his resencesources close to ani o
cludin one addressed to CIA Director
Orn a letter contained a reference to
handed over t ~a
oscow and he in turn ave it to a
C su mate in the embassy. the
One embassy official asked Daniloff
how to get in touch with "Roman," and
Daniloff provided that information.
In an unusual move, which one sen-
ior . . o cia in as n n rm
v_yr - amateunsT;"'fora L all
the Men m a en o
co ai aon ac.. -- _ now edged receiving
t P flan -- -
that e a - C1?"
recerv our packs
oomm ourj o i en
Sources c ose to Dam o quoted him
as saying that the episode was thor-
oughly discussed during his interroga.
tion. It was also mentioned in the in-
dictment against him handed down on
Sept. 7:
Daniloif s wife, Ruth, told reporters
in Moscow that Roman was a "bogus
priest the KGB sicced on Nick at the
end of 1984."
whfc a use wo
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: oZ 1
The first reference to the letter in
the Soviet media was contained in the
Sept. & Izvestia article. It said that an
American diplomat, Paul M. Stom-
baugh, had written to Roman and
mentioned "a reporter" who passed the
letter from Roman to a designated ad-
dress on Jan 24, 1985.
"It remains to be added that the re-
porter mentioned above was Nicholas
Daniloff, who passed the above-men-
tioned letter to intelligence," Izvestia
said. The report did not mention the
phone call. But it added, "Are more
proofs needed? They exist."
Stombaugh was declared persona
non grata and expelled from the Soviet
Union in June, 1985, for alleged espio-
nage.
On -Sent. 13. a day 8 er Danilof and
Zakharov were released th
tody
of their res ective ambassa ors the
viet ores mrnist spokesman
c acme irre to a evidence at
an American Murat Natirboff who
i e in Soviet news accounts
as Fe aCrtt,."
th9b MA
Sources close to ani o sai that
Natirboff, who had the title of counsel-
or for regional affairs, left Moscow
about three days after Daniloff s arrest.
The CIA refused to comment on the
incident with Father Roman or alle a-
xons in e o ci vie media
Stour aug or Natirboff s n in-
volv Kathy Pherson a sno eswo_ m_
an said: "u write an article about
pee e w o are a intelligence
officers, it sure oesn e
Wabg
whether you're n t or not." he also
note tat the Agents entities ct,
wnicn mares disclosure of CIA agents'
identities illegal, is still in orce.
During his interrogation in Lefor-
tovo prison, sources close to Daniloff
said, he asked his Soviet questioner
what he should have done in a case
where a Soviet citizen approached him
with an offer of information about So-
viet life. The interrogator replied that
Daniloff should tell the Soviet citizen
to clear out.
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LCS ANGELES TIMES
2 October 1986
Officials Say He 'Made a Bad Mistake'
U.S. Feared Soviets Could
Make Daniloff Look Guilty
By RONALD J. OSTROW, Tines Staff Writer
WASHINGTON-U.S. officials Prominent Soviet dissident in Sibe-
said Wednesday that they went to ria by Oct. 7, as well as next week's
unusual lengths to avoid a Soviet meeting between President ReA-
trial of American correspondent gan and Soviet leader Mikhail S.
Nicholas Daniloff, partly for fear. Gorbachev in Iceland.
the Soviets
l
cou
d put together a
seemingly credible espionage case.
They said their concern for what
might come out of a Kremlin-or-
chestrated show trial stemmed
from the fact that Daniloff ac-
knowledged receiving a Russian
map that turned out to be stamped
"secret" and had contact with a
Russian priest now believed to be a
KGB agent.
The officials emphasized that
they were not suggesting that they
believed Daniloff was, in fact, in-
volved in spying but that the
Soviets might have been able to
portray his actions in a light em-
barrassing to the U.S. News &
A U. S. News official described
the document as "a very foggy
picture of a map that appeared to be
on a bo*d-a troop placement
thing." It was among a number of
th
Ph0togra
t M
p
a
isha told Dani.
`Mentally Manipulated'
loff had been taken by Soviet
Responding to the suggestion- soldiers and sent home from Af-
that Daniloff was showing signs of The ot The of .
Stockholm syndrome while in So- tanks and her personnel in of Soviet
Afghani.
viet custody, U.S. News editor scan, News o f s said. The
~David,R. Gergen said Wednesday= slam. a U.S. News official said. The
I don t know if I would go that far material was stored in the maga-
but it was very clear he had been rime's files and not printed, he said.
he wally manipulated. It seemed An intelligence source said he
tiring at the end (of his was Puzzled by Daniloff's dealings
Imprisonment).... Over time, we with Misha.
thought mental torture could have "Misha worked the hotels In
an impact. Frunze," the
i city where
fey essentially can make YQu Daniloff first met hviet
m in 12. the
say black is white and then have source said. "He introduced 98himself
You sign a document on it." to foreigners
Daniloff
in
i
,
n to show
an interview them the his," s
World Report correspondent and to Wednesday night, rejected the would not have been activity he
the United States. Suggestion that he identified with p esermitted to
U.S. officials from the President his captors m' Pursue sympathized without KGB endorsement,
on down continue them. During the source said.
iloff to proclaim Dan- KGB colonel, interrogation by a
's innocence of espionage Daniloff said, It BY all accounts, the Russian
charges. But a State Department became clearer and clearer that he Priest, Father Roman , to kyn,
Wednesday that in ~waa bent on fabricatin a offered in December, 1984984, to pro_ c official taking said Possession of the "secret" would make me look like a sspy that vide Daniloff with information
map from a Soviet acquaintance. "I always looked on him with about religious discord in the Sovi-
Daniloff made a bad mistake and considerable trepidation. There et Union. Government sources said
something had to be done to correct was no love lost,.. said Daniloff, Daniloff grew wary of the man,
it?" describing the sessions as " who later was described
Adding to their concern, an Ad. dinariiy unpleasant." extraor- Daniloff, the correspondent' Ruth
as "a
ministration source sald The potentially incriminating sicked on" her ie sa whom 't a wife,
cials had detected signs that said. U.S. o Daffmi. map g a bogus Priest and. he KGB
loft was weakening unde-r and ad the woMslam
stamped on Envoy Egw1led
psychological pressures being uap. nder in Russian assn
plied to hin Mbeing
Wortovo it in government so riling to a U.S. A U.S. ov
urce Prison. him
was Moscow's cow' case. It was included involved v in the , g to arse said
"Stockholm s showing signs of group of the man, who referred himself as
dent of Yndrome"-the ten. documents that Daniloff received by Per Roman, was later contacted a political
Y Prisoners to identify in the summer by Paul M. StomU.
denc Of caPtors-the official osaid. f y with Soviet acquaintance of 1985' from a officer with the S Embass
"Daniloff had problems and that as Misha. nilas known to said he him Moscow who was accused of spy.
hS we ex lax the extraordinary material from Misha ohm sent x
declared persona
-- ." said one rov.r.- zing. but thn- i- ...-- _ _. -- aga- emplla.~ ._ ._ .L _ nOn graft and
98
` `? ?`ry~ very important to Mikhail Anatokvich Luz mu,e? as
avoid a t:iaL" Daniloff was Such concerns help explain the KGB Aug. 30 In arrested by the
Complex deal engineered b Immediately envelope t Misha handed
f
rftdOnL The agreement included Photographs and aps oned of g
the almost.
a Soviet mn Now S release of which the government source said
Moscow's SPY in New York and was the same as the Afghanistan
agreement to free a map he had been given a year
earlier.
The government source, ac-
edging that Stombaugh was
a CIA Lke case agent. said the Soviets were
Father Roman as ehis vidence that
Daniloff had close ties to the Intel-
ligence agency.
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TIMES, MONDAY OCTOBER 6, 1986
Daniloff's Unwitting gole in Intrigue
By PHILIP TAUBMAN
Sped, w TM Now York Tin=
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 - Nicholas S.
Daniloff said -today that he had been
unwittingly caught up in a complex in-
telligence confrontation In Moscow be-
tween the Central Intelligence Agency
and the K.G.B., the Soviet intelligence
and secret police agency.
Mr. Daniloff said he fell into a situa-
tion he still does not fully understand
when he delivered to the American
Embassy in 1985 an unsolicited letter
from a bogus priest who he thinks was
probably a K.G.B. agent.
The embassy's efforts to follow up
the letter, he said in an interview, in-
cluded two communications with the
priest that mentioned Mr. Daniloff indi-
rectly, apparently giving the Soviet au-
thorities the impression that he was in-
volved in American espionage.
He said the K.G.B. was planning to
present the incident as key evidence
against him if he had gone to trial.
Seen as Cenllal to Case
Mr. Daniloff provided many new de-
tails today about the handling of the let-
ter, an incident that has emerged since
his return to the United States on Tues-
day as central to both the, case against
,
officer he knew and was taken to a se taken by the C.I.A. station in Moscow.
,dressed to the United States Ambassa-
dor, Arthur A. Hartman. When-the let-
ter was opened at the embassy, he said,
it contained an interior envelope ad-
dressed to William J. Casey, the Direc-
tor of Central Intelligence. -
Since returning to Washington, Mr.
Daniloff said, he has learned that the
letter contained information, poten-
tially valuable to the United States,
about Soviet rocket technology.
A month later, he said, he was called
to the embassy by a senior political
him in Moscow and the Soviet-Amer-
ican arrangement to free him and Gen-
nadi F. Zakharov, the cony)cted spy
who was a Soviet employee of the
United Nations.
Administration officials said after
Mr. Daniloff's return here that one rea-
son the White House had accepted an
arrangement that to some extent
equated his case with that of Mr. Za-
kharov was to avoid a Soviet trial in
which the letter, particularly the
C.I.A.'s handling of it, might become an
issue.
Although the disclosures about the
letter have not suggested in any way
that Mr. Daniloff was knowingly in-
volved in espionage, they have pro-
vided a possible explanation for why
the Soviet auth6ities arrested Him
rather.than another i merican corre-
spondent to gain leverage for the re-
lease of Mr. Zakharov.
Mr. Zakharov, as part of the deal for
Mr. Daniloff's freedom, was allowed to
return to the Soviet Union last week
after pleading no contest to espionage
charges in New York.
Mr. Daniloff said today in an inter-
view at the Washington bureau of The
New York Times that he first met the
bogus priest, a young man who identi-
fied himself as Father Roman, in
December 1984, when he called tote
Moscow bureau of U.S. News & World
Report. Mr. Daniloff was the maga-
zine's correspondent.
Delivered Letter to Embassy
Although not convinced of the'iuan's
identity,. Mr. Daniloff said he had de-
cided to deliver a letter to the Amer-
ican Embassy that he found in his mail-
box in January 1985 and that he as-
sumed came from Father Roman.
"If I knew then what I know now, 1
would have burned the letter instead of
taking it to the embassy," he said.
Mr. Daniloff said the letter was ad-
cure room that is designed to thwart
Soviet listening'devices or other elec-
tronic surveillance.
Mr. Daniloff said they were joined by
another top embassy officer who he
now believes was the C.I.A. station
chief in Moscow. Mr. Daniloff said he
suspected the man's intelligence con-
nections at the time but was not sure.
American intelligence agents oper-
ate under cover in Moscow, posing as
diplomats. American correspondents,
in the normal course of business, have
contact with many embassy officers,
not knowing which, if any, are C.I.A.
officers.
Mr. Daniloff said he provided the em-
bassy officers with the name and phone
number of Father Roman.
"I also told them in no uncertain
terms that I wanted nothing more to do
with the matter," he said.
Several months later, in April or May
1985, he was called to the embassy a
second time to discuss the letter, he
said.
At this meeting, also held in the se-
cure room, Mr. Daniloff said, he was
told that the embassy had concluded
that the delivery of the letter to him
was part of a K.G.B. trap and that he
would be well advised not to have any
further contact with Father Roman.
K.G.B. Cited Father Roman
Mr. Daniloff thought the incident had
ended there until his arrest on Aug. 30.
when he was informed by a K.G.B. in-
terrogator that there was evidence the
embassy had twice communicated
with Father Roman, once by letter,
once by phone, both times indirectly
mentioning Mr. Daniloff.
Mr. Daniloff said that at first he as-
sumed the evidence was fabricated but'
that since' returning to Washington he
has learned that a C.I.A. officer in Mos-
cow did communicate with Father
Roman.
In one case, he said, a"letter was sent
to Father Roman saying that his letter
to the embassy had been received with
the aid of "the journalist."
Later, the American intelligence offi-
cer called Father Roman and intro-
duced himself by saying he was "?a
friend of Nikolai," Mr. Daniloff sail.
Administration officials confirmed
last week that these steps, which they
called "unprofessional
" had been
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