Edward Lee Howard Cia Defector and Krause's Hero
Erik L.
MOSCOW (AP) - Edward Lee Howard, who maintained he was innocent to charges he
betrayed his homeland and caused the collapse of the CIA operation in Cold War
Moscow, has died at his home in an exclusive suburb of the Russian capital. He
was 50.
Igor Prelin, an official with an association of retired Soviet foreign
intelligence officers in Moscow, said Howard died July 12 in Zhukovka and was
later cremated. He said he had known Howard since 1988.
Howard was the first known former CIA officer to defect to the Soviet Union and
information he gave the KGB was said to have led to the execution of Soviet
citizen for treason.
Confusion surrounded the cause of Howard's death.
``There is talk that there was an accident or a car crash. There's lots of
contradicting information,'' Prelin said.
Author David Wise, who once interviewed Howard and wrote ``The Spy Who Got
Away,'' said Howard died after falling down a flight of stairs.
The State Department said Monday it had received information apparently
confirming Howard's death. Russia's intelligence services refused to comment.
Howard, a native of New Mexico, started at the CIA in 1981 and was fired by the
agency in June 1983 after he was suspected of selling secrets to the Soviets.
In 1985, Howard escaped FBI surveillance in Santa Fe, N.M., and fled to Moscow.
He used a dummy in his car to evade the agents, and his wife later reportedly
made a telephone call using a recording of his voice to throw them off his
trail. His whereabouts were unknown publicly until a 1986 report in an official
Soviet newspaper said he had been granted political asylum.
The KGB provided him a Moscow apartment and a country house, and paid him a
salary for five years until he set up a trade consulting business, he said in
an 1995 interview.
``I never gave information that could hurt America or Americans,'' Howard said
at the time.
Howard lived in Moscow until 1991, when his chief patron at the KGB, Vladimir
Kryuchkov, was charged with treason in the attempted coup against Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev. Howard went to Sweden for about a year before
returning to Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Howard's estranged American wife and son came to Moscow after hearing of his
death, and will leave Wednesday for the United States with his ashes, Prelin
said. Prelin said Howard also had had a Russian wife, but they separated
several years ago.
The town where Howard spent the last part of his life, Zhukovka, was the place
where many top military officials, politicians and scientists had dachas, or
country homes, in the Soviet era. Today, many newly rich Russians have built
homes there - castle-like structures, behind high security walls.
Howard had claimed to have dodged Western intelligence services and customs
officials while traveling in France, Canada and Mexico. He also said he had
traveled widely in Nicaragua, Cuba and Eastern Europe since asking for asylum
in June 1986.
Howard was blamed for many activities actually carried out by fellow CIA agent
Aldrich Ames, who was only caught in 1994. Ames pleaded guilty to spying for
the Soviet Union in the most damaging espionage case in U.S. history.
Howard said that before he was fired the CIA wanted to assign him to ``a
technical surveillance project, eavesdropping'' related to Star Wars.
Regarding his cooperation with the KGB, Howard said he identified photographs
of people he had worked with, described general CIA procedures for recruiting
agents and advised the Cubans on how to try to recruit a CIA agent they knew to
be a lesbian, according to his 1995 book ``Safe House.'
It's a great day for hockey. - Badger Bob Johnson
Erik L.
Harry Krause
> MOSCOW (AP) - Edward Lee Howard, who maintained he was innocent to charges he
> betrayed his homeland and caused the collapse of the CIA operation in Cold War
> Moscow, has died at his home in an exclusive suburb of the Russian capital. He
> was 50.
>
>
mentors, such as Paul Weiss, Robert Penn Warren, Saul Alinsky and I.E. Buff.
Yours probably included Joe McCarthy and Father Coughlin.
Bill Schenley
> > Sorry, feces-for-brains, but my personal heroes were my
> > teachers and mentors, such as Paul Weiss, Robert Penn
> > Warren, Saul Alinsky and I.E. Buff.
>
Didn't he write that compelling tale of the Yellow River?
... Or was it ... "The Man With No Stones?"
MadCow57
Might have been the same guy who wrote "I Rode The Tiger" - Claude Balls.
Actually, IIRC, these well-known books and authors came from fake books on a
trompe l'oeil door in some British country house library. Does anybody know
which one?
Rich Clancey
+ ``There is talk that there was an accident or a car crash. There's lots of
+ contradicting information,'' Prelin said.
We all know what "car crash" means in KGB. Any
indications he might have been a double agent?
--
rich clancey r...@world.std.com