U.S. AIDES DOUBT SOVIETS WILL USE YURCHENKO CASE TO UPSET SUMMIT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201150001-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 8, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201150001-5
"7 APPEARED LOS ANGELES TIMES
A y) 8 November 1985
FILE ONLY
U.S. Aides Doubt Soviets Will Use
Yurch~nko Case to Upset Summit
By ELEANOR CLIFT, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON-Initial White
House fears appear unfounded that
the Soviet Union might exploit the
case of KGB official Vitaly Yur-
chenko at the Geneva summit as an
example of U.S. human rights
abuse. White House officials said
Thursday.
The issue came up only in pass-
ing during Secretary of State
George P. Shultz's two days of
pre-summit talks in Moscow this
week, which included extensive
discussions of human rights, the
officials said.
Yurchenko, who said he was
kidnaped in Rome and drugged by
CIA agents, flew back to the Soviet
Union on Wednesday after spend-
ing more than two months in the
United States as an apparent defec-
tor.
But the Administration is deter-
mined not to let the spy scandal
upset the summit, despite the fears
of some advisers that Soviet leader
Mikhail S. Gorbachev may be sav-
ing it as "a trump card" to play
when he meets with President
Reagan in Geneva on Nov. 19-20.
Also, suspicions by Reagan and
others that the Soviets engineered
the Yurchenko case to embarrass
the United States before the sum-
mit also appear to' have faded,
officials indicated.
"There's no obvious rationale
why they would want to deliber-
ately upset the summit," one White
House official said. "To the con-
trary, they've been stoking the
propaganda fires."
Criticism of the CIA's handling of
Yurchenko is rampant in the intel-
ligence community, with former
national security advisers Zbig-
niew Brzezinski and Richard V.
Allen united in their condemnation
of the agency's performance. But
the White House. with its eye on
the summit,
chorus.
"I don't see any signs here
anyone is ordering a headhunt" as a
result of the case, said one top
official, who spoke on the condition
he not be identified. Reagan has
said he will not order an investiga-
tion into the CIA's alleged mis-
treatment of Yurchenko.
CIA Director William J. Casey is
a favorite of the President and has
weathered previous assaults on his
handling of a number of issues,
including unauthorized mining of
Nicaraguan harbors two years ago.
"He is definitely one of the
boys," a White House adviser said
of Casey. "No one would dare touch
him."
Administration officials agree
that the CIA should "hold hands a
little better" when dealing with an
apparent high-level defector like
Yurchenko, but they say they do
not want the agency's failings to
become a cause ceiebre on the eve of
the much-heralded summit.
'Cas! Is Clued'
"As far as we're concerned, the
case is closed," declared another
top official.
Brrezinski, who served in the
Carter Administration, said in an
interview that he supports Reagan
in his decision not to let the spy
case unsettle the summit. But he
assailed the way it was handled as
"a naive, incompetent and stupid
display by the CIA that probably
precludes for a long, long time any
defections to the U.S. by a KGB
official."
The former national security ad-
viser said that the agency lacks the
"human" intelligence-as opposed
to the high-tech wizardry-that is
essential to the proper handling of
such a sensitive case.
CIA officials have admitted that
"security was lax" when Yurchen-
ko was allowed to wander off from
a dinner last Saturday with his CIA
case worker. And they have ac-
knowledged that closer attention
should have been paid to the
fragility of his emotional state as he
rethought his apparent decision to
defecL
Indeed. Brsesinski said the agen-
cy behaved in such an "abysmally
insensitive and incompetent" man-
ner that it is likely to cost the
United States "some windfalls in
the future" in terms of high-level
defections.
likewise, Allen, who was na-
tional security adviser early in
Reagan's first term, also was criti-
cal. 'The agency at the operational
level is culpable of neglect, to put it
charitably," he said in an inter-
view. "If I called (Casey) up, he'd
say there's no explaining this and
no excusing it. I hope Bill will
discipline the proper people."
Despite their intention to close
the book on the Yurchenko affair,
Reagan's advisers are concerned
that the Soviets yet could turn it to
their advantage in Geneva. Noting
that the Shultz-Gorbachev meet-
ings in Moscow this week appar-
ently did not go well, one official
worried that Gorbachev may try to
"run roughshod" over Reagan the
way he reportedly did over Shultz.
In that context, said this official,
the Yurchenko case is "a trump
card that Gorbachev can play"
during his eight hours of scheduled
talks with Reagan. "We've just got
to watch that," he said.
White House officials said that
news of Yurchenko's decision to
return to the Soviet Union hit them
"like something out of left field."
But despite their private amaze-
ment, White House aides main-
tained a studied coolness when
discussing the issue in public.
Deputy Press Secretary
Larry
repeatedly declared "No
comment" when asked questions
about Yurchenko or the CIA's role
in handling his case. And he
stressed that the affair has prompt-
ed "no change in our attitude" as
the summit approaches.
Indeed, officials said there are
plenty of other issues more likely
to disrupt the summit, beginning
with Reagan's commitment to his
Strategic Defense Initiative, com-
monly known as "Star Wars."
"I've never seen any evidence
(the Yurchenko case) was going to
.derail the summit or color the
atmosphere," one top White House
official said.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201150001-5