RICHARD OSBORNE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100610004-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2007
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: March 10, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100610004-4
RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 656-4068
ABC World News Tonight
DATE March 10, 1983 7:00 P.M.
STATION WJLA-TV
ABC Network
Washington, D.C.
FRANK REYNOLDS: The name is Richard W. Osborne, and the
Soviets were not trying to be cute or clever when they say they
caught him re,d-handed in Moscow spying for the United States.
Osborne is, or was, officially in the Economics Section of the
U.S. Embassy there. However, as diplomatic correspondent Barrie
Dunsmore reports, he had other things to do, as well.
BARRIE DUNSMORE: The Soviet Union today claimed it had
caught a U.S. diplomat engaging in espionage. And ABC News has
learned that the man was indeed an American intelligence agent.
In a statement in the official Soviet newspaper Izves-
tia, the KGB charged that U.S. diplomat Richard Osborne was
caught, in their words, with a kit of portable spying apparatus
for transmitting intelligence information via satellite and hand
written notes recorded in a notebook made up of paper that
dissolves quickly in water. The statement added that Osborne
would thus be expelled.
The official U.S. reaction was telling for what it did
not so. There were no denials and no threats of retaliation.
MAN: We'll confirm that he was declared, has been
declared persona non grata by the Soviets. He's a First Sec-
retary in the Ecoomics Section.
DUNSMORE: Further indications of tacit U.S. admission
of guilt are that no picture of Osborne is being made available
by the State Department, and also no biography.
Officials are unwilling to discuss precisely what
Osborne was up to or how he got caught. However, intelligence
Material supplied by Radio N Reports, Inc. may be used for file and reference purposes only. It may not be reproduced, sold or publicly demonstrated or exhibited.
Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100610004-4
 . Approved For Release 2007/05/21 : CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100610004-4
sources concede that equipment does exist that can be used in
the field to communicate with a satellite.
And interestingly, no one here appears to see the
incident in terms of new tension in U.S.-Soviet relations.
Approved For Release 2007/05/21 : CIA-RDP88-010708000100610004-4