JOHN SMITH VS. THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700290006-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 6, 2005
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: December 3, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2006/01/03 : CIA-RDP75-00149
I;:. 7% T _......_ , ..,IS, IND.
STAR
Lt-228,852
S-378, 39
DEC 3 1967.
John Smith Vs: The CIA'
You sometimes ca~ judge a Man b th
o e weighed against,
the fact that he said he' has a lot ore `.to tell-in a'
book which he plans to bring{ out ater. Provided, of?
course, the Kremlin like it. i
e. enemies -h
;makes. If you can judge an organization the same way,,
the Central. Intelligence Agency may well come outs
smelling like a rose after' its brush with John Smith
3 American turncoat.
Smith's "Memoirs," being published in the Literary
'Gazette of Moscow, portray him as a spy who came
out of the`fold. He defected to the Soviet Union,
apparently with his mouth wide open and going at top:
speed. The stories he tells have a James Bond thriller
flavor, without the .girls.
Smith says he was provided with a suitcase con-
taining two, time bombs which was placed aboard the:
"Kashmir Princess" airliner. , The plane, while carrying
;delegates of the African-Asian conference from Peking
to Bandung, Indonesia, in 1955, was lost at sea.
He gave the government newspaper Izvestia an
interview in which he-aired once more, the shopworn
!.
allegation that "a broad conspiracy in which the CIA
was involved" was responsible for the assassination of
President Kennedy.. _
He charged the CIA with. murder, bribery and steal-
ing state secrets, and said..that four out of five diplo-s
mats at United States embassies really, are.intelligence j
,officers. Smith also, said the U.S. Information Service
is being used as a front by the CIA. He said that in'
India, where he worked with the U.S. Embassy, many
officials under 'USIS cover were gathering intelligence
about India's leading statesmen and politipal figures,,
interfering in election campaigns, hiring local journal
ists to get distorted information into the local press
and paying to put out books "in the desired spirit."
The State Department ladrnits that Smith worked
as a code clerk in various mbassie4, but denies he had
any linking,-.with the CIA. 1. l" a
Smith's tales should be ;'viewed a' ainst the backdrop
of history. Few American's;' choose td'-find "freedom" j
by "escaping" to the Soviet!Union. ` ew Westerners of
any nationality do, for that' ; m 'tter, Those who do arc'
I often found to be fleeing fro n so ething more per
sonal. His storie
s also deserve t
Approved For Release'2006/01/03 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000700290006-1