RUSSIANS SAY AN EX-C.I.A. MAN WHO SPIED IN INDIA HAS DEFECTED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600240007-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 30, 1998
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: October 25, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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C{PYRGHT By RAYMOND H. ANDERSON special to The New York Times
c. 24 - An
American' who identifed him-
self as a former agent of the
Central Intelligence. Agency
was reported today to have de-
fected to the Soviet Union.
An excerpt from a. book
Written by the American, John
Smith of Quincy, Mass., 'pur-
porting ' to expose United
States espionage activities in
India, is printed in the latest
edition ? of Literaturnaya Ga-
zeta, the weekly organ of the
Union of Soviet writers.
spirators in the employ of thelthe Central Intelligence Agency
ing members of, the army's Gen-
eral Staff.
Mr, Smith indicates in an in-
troduction to the excerpt pub-
lished today that insights about
the activities of the C.I.A. are
to be expected in his book. '
It is impossible to keep
secrets from code clerks be-
cause of the nature of their
work," he writes.
Mr. -Smith says that, besides
serving in the embassy in India,
he worked.in embassies in Cey-
lon, South Africa, Saudi Ar ibia,
Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The defector alleges that he
was persecuted and forced to
11 The book is considered by;quit the diplomatic service be- .
oooic aucl oetween the Soviet
Union and the West. it fol-
lqws the publication in Britain
l4pt month of "Man From Mos-
cow" by Greville M. Wynne, a
Briton sentenced to eight years
which has been challenged,
sheds light on the operations of
Soviet intelligence.
In'turn, the book of the self-
styled Central Intelligence
Agency man purports to expose
operations of that agency.
The author, who has taken
Soviet citizenship and now lives
in Moscow, says that he was
recruited by the C.I.A. while he
was serving in the United States
Embassy in New Delhi as a dip-
Authenticity Challenged
About the same time, the
alleged ' memoirs of Colonel
Penkovsky were published in
the United States under the
title "The Penkovskiy Papers."
The book, the authenticity of
the Portland naval base.
After his return to Moscow,
Lonsdale published a book,
"Spy," in 1965.
the British as the "directinglTass, the Soviet press agency,
mind" of an espionage ring at,Mr. Smith served in the United
ovie . spy, or on
Lonsdale, was sentenced in
.1961 to 25 years in prison by
in, a Soviet prison in 1963 as
an accomplice of Col. Oleg V.
Penkovsky, who was executed
as a traitor. Mr. Wynne ' was
released the next year in an
exchange for a Soviet spy jailed
in Britain.
Th S ' t ?G d A
Waller, John Marsh. and other
cause of nonconformist politcal
views and! disagreement with
United States foreign policies.
Before he came to the Soviet
Union, he writes,, he wandered
through many countries, includ-
ing Australia, Switzerland'and
Italy.
Mr. Smith does not make it
clear when he arrived in the
Soviet Union. The United States
Embassy in Moscow said that it
had no information about him.
Tass Reports on Defector
MOSCOW, Oct, 24' (AP)--=
According to a summary in
States Navy and went to work
for ' the State Department in
1950.
He was said to have spent
his first 17 years in Quincy,
Mass., receiving his education
at Thayer Academy in nearby
Braintree. Then he worked at
yards that manufactured war-
ships before he volunteered for
the Navy.
After studying ' at naval
schools, Tass said, he was sent
into permanent service at a
special' liaison department, of
the Navy, which was engaged
in deciphering enemy codes.
After the war, it said, he at-
tended Washington University.
According to the account,
Mr. Smith and an agent called
"Pete.. Petersen" taped conver-
sations of the Indian military.
Meanwhile, it said, his wife,
"Mary London Smith, who
worked with the C.I.A., sup-
posedly told him about "many
secret agents of the C,LA;
among the Indian military.
Soviet Motive Assailed
Special to The New. York Timea
lo>natic code clerk.
He describes in detail a plot
In which he says he played the
key role in gaining access to the
secret codes of an unidentified
nonaligned nation.
The nation's pro-Soviet poli-
cies were troubling Washing
ton, he says.
Mr. Smith identifies John
diplomats in the United StateslSoviet Government was pub-
Embassy in New Delhi in the licizing the memoirs of. an al=
nineteen-fifties as fellow con-Ileged American defector from
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