GB officer says he was kidnapped by CIA
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C. Vitaly Yurchen
ko, a high-level Soviet KGB officer who was
described by the State Department as a
defector to the United States, turned up at
the Soviet embassy yesterday and claimed
that he had been drugged, kidnapped, and
offered $1 million to cooperate with the CIA.
The State Department said Yurchenko's
charges were "completely false." One sen
ator called his story "baloney" and said
CIA officials weren't sure the Soviet was
acting voluntarily when he made his allega
tions during an extraordinary news confer
ence at the embassy.
The State Department said Yurchenko
would not be permitted to leave the United
States until he provides assurances that a
decision to return to the Soviet Union is
"genuinely of his own choosing."
Yurchenko repeatedly described his or
deal as "state-sponsored terrorism" and
told of being drugged before meeting with
CIA Director William Casey.
Yurchenko denied-that he knowingly gave
U.S. officials any Soviet secrets. He said he
did not know who actually abducted him,
but he discussed in detail what he said were
CIA efforts to sign him to a lucrative life
time contract in return for working with
U.S. intelligence.
"I was kept in isolation and forced to take
some drugs and denied the opportunity to
get in touch with official Soviet representa
tives," Yurchenko charged.
Yurchenko said that on Saturday, due to
"a momentary lapse" in his supervision, he
was able to "break out to freedom" and go
Love a rainy night
That's what these State College residents and University students on Pollock road may have been singing through their soggy umbrellas and windsheild wipers for the last two days
Reagan asks for Star Wars,
By TERENCE HUNT
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C. President Reagan says
the United States will not erect its "Star Wars"
shield against nuclear weapons until America's
missile arsenal is abolished. However, the White
House took pains yesterday to explain that the
United States will not disarm unilaterally and
would expect the Soviet Union to scrap its weapons
also.
In an interview published yesterday in Moscow,
barely two weeks before his summit in Geneva
with Mikhail Gorbachev, Reagan linked deploy
ment of Star Wars with nuclear disarmament.
"We won't put this weapon, or this system, in
place, this defensive system, until we do away
with our nuclear missiles, our offensive missiles,"
Reagan said. "But we will make it (Star Wars
technology) available to other countries, including
the Soviet Union, to do the same thing."
Reagan's statement suggested for the first time
that Star Wars technology would not be deployed
until U.S. nuclear weapons are dismantled, but
White House officials insisted that was not so.
the
daily
to the embassy in the northwest section of
Washington, D.C. But 'Sen. David Duren
berger, chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, said Yurchenko simply went
out to dinner Saturday night and disap
peared.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the panel's
vice chairman, told reporters that Yurchen
ko.either was trying to get back in the good
graces of the Soviet Union "or he was a
double agent all along."
Was he a Soviet plant, sent in to cause an
intelligence uproar? "I think that's highly
unlikely but not to be dismissed," said Sen.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., former
vice chairman of the panel.
Yurchenko, 50, had been thought to be one
of the highest-ranking Soviet officials to
defect in recent years. He was described as
the No. 5 man in the KGB, the Soviet
intelligence service, at the time he defected
in Rome in early August.
"Mr. Yurchenko was specifically respon
sible for the direction of KGB intelligence
operations in the U.S. and Canada," the
State Department said on Oct. 11.
State Department spokesman Charles
Redman said yesterday night that Yurchen
ko "defected of his own volition to the
American Embassy in Rome, Italy."
Durenberger told reporters on Capitol
Hill that "the CIA is surprised at this as
anyone else. . . Nobody can have a clear
opinion right now as to why he's doing what
he's doing."
CIA spokeswoman Patti Volz said the
agency would have no comment, but Duren
berger, R-Minn., called Yurchenko's claim
about being drugged "a lot of baloney."
Earlier yesterday, Dave Holliday, a
Presidential spokesmen Larry Speakes and Ed
ward Djerejian said Star Wars, known in the
administration as the Strategic Defense Initiative,
envisions reducing nuclear weaponry in stages as
components of the defense system are installed.
While insisting that Reagan's comments were
Clear on the point, Speakes said Star Wars would
be deployed even if Moscow refused to go along
with disarmament and the United States felt it had
to keep its missiles.
"Certainly, if we get the technology we'd be
prepared to deploy it," Speakes said. "But first,
we'd express a willingness to discuss it with the
Soviets and others, about sharing."
The president made his comments in an inter
view last Thursday by four Moscow journalists
who unabashedly challenged the president on U.S.
policy, particularly on Star Wars, and criticized
some of his responses as being "unbalanced and
one-sided in favor of the U.S. side."
The interview, the first in 24 years between an
American president and Soviet journalists, was
published yesterday in a full-page display in the
Soviet government newspaper Izvestia.
Reagan said the Soviets have been working for
olle • lan
spokesman for the Senate Intelligence Com
mittee, said he had been told by the CIA that
Yurchenko had re-defected to the Soviet
Union, but that wasn't the story Yurchenko
told:
• "On a business trip to Italy (in Au
gust), I was forcibly abducted in Rome," he
said. He did not say by whom but later he
talked about conversations he held with CIA
officials.
• Of his alleged meeting with Casey,
Yurchenko said, "Later I have only vague
recollections of the conversation but it was
a general conversation of vague policy
issues regarding th 6 summit, the things
they usually write about in the newspa
pers."
• He would not confirm that he worked
for the KGB. "I know I'm not going to make
any comments about spying business," he
said.
• He would not give details of his alleged
escape, saying only, "I am very proud that I
managed to escape, but I won't tell you
how."
Early in the news conference, which
lasted almost an hour, Yurchenko went out
of his way to tweak the CIA, describing a
conversation he said he held with a "Mr.
Gerber" whom he identified as chief of the
ClA's Soviet department.
He said Gerber told him there were re
quests to interview Yurchenko from Ameri
can journalists and that Yurchenko said "I
follow my promise now." He said reporters
could get confirmation of that anecdote
from Gerber himself except "I'm sure he's
very busy now."
While alleging he was a victim of torture,
Yurchenko offered few specifics.
disarmament
years on systems to defend against missiles, and
that the Kremlin's interest "would indicate that
maybe we should be a little suspicious that they
want it for themselves."
The president said if research determines a
space shield against missiles is feasible, "Our
move would be to say to all the world, 'Here, it is."
"And if the Soviet Union and the United States
both say we will eliminate our offensive weapons,
we will put in this defensive thing in case some
place in the world a madman some day tries to
create . these weapons again, nuclear weapons,
because, remember, we all know how to make
them now," Reagan said.
"There has to be a transition period from offense
to defensive weapons," Djerejian said. "The presi
dent is not implying doing away with all offensive
weapons immediately.
Reagan and the journalists traded charges of
superpower involvement in other countries.
Reagan said the United States intervened in
Vietnam and Grenada at the invitation of govern
ment officials in each country. A Soviet journalist
said Moscow was asked by the government of
Afghanistan to send forces there.
Yurchenko said he was asked to cooper
ate and in return was offered $1 million tax
free, plus salary and benefits totaling $lBO,-
000 a year for the rest of his life. The
benefits, he said, were to include free medi
cal care and furniture.
Yurchenko said that, to his knowledge, he
had not cooperated with American authori
ties.
He said his captors hoped to persuade him
that he had given secret information to
them.
They showed him papers "which were
written in my hand" and said "everyone
thinks you are a traitor," he said.
"They were trying to say everybody will
believe what they were saying. . .They, I
think, were hoping I eventually will start to
believe that I had indeed passed some
information of a secret nature."
Acting on his information, U.S. authori
ties said they learned that Edward L. How
ard, a former CIA employee, sold
intelligence secrets to the Soviet Union.
Howard, a 33-year-old economic analyst for
the New Mexico state legislature, vanished
in early October while under FBI surveil
lance and was last reported to be in Helsin
ki, Finland.
"They brought these to me and were
looking at me like a zoo animal. They were
thinking I'd be shocked at the secrets I'd
disclosed," he said. But he said, "I heard
the name of Howard for the first time from
the newspapers."
U.S. sources had said that Yurchenko did
not in fact know Howard's real name but
had only been able to describe him to them
by his code name Robert and by details of
his life.
.
_ -L. •
=.=7
. . .
Today is Election Day. All regis
tered voters are encouraged to
exercise their right to choose
candidates for office. Polls will
be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Bars will be closed those hours.
index
comics
freelance
opinions Pago 6
sports Page 8
state/nation/world Page 4
weather
Today clouds and rain will con
tinue with a high near 50. To
night the rain will end but it will
remain cloudy. Low of 38.
Tuesday, Nov. 5, 1985
Vol. 86, No. 83 14 pages University Park, Pa. 16802 ,
Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University
©1985 Collegian Inc.
Vitaly Yurchenko
IFC votes
to require
college IDs
at parties
By COLBY STONG
Collegian Staff Writer
Interfraternity Council members
last night officially accepted an
amendment that would require all
fraternities to check party guests for
college identification.
The amendment was approved for
the second time by IFC members 49-
1, with one member abstaining.
Fraternities will be required to
card all guests attending parties and
rush taps, starting in January 1986.
For the remainder of this year, each
fraternity will decide on its own
whether to card all party guests.
High school students will be prohib
ited from entering fraternity parties,
according to the amendment. Howev
er, persons who are of college age,
but do not attend college, will be
permitted into parties, providing they
have some form of identification that
proves they are not still in high
school.
The proposal was approved for the
first time at a meeting on Oct. 21. In
order for any amendment to be added
to IFC bylaws, a two-thirds majority
of all IFC members is required at two
separate meetings.
IFC's decision last night overturns
one that was made earlier this year.
At an IFC meeting on Sept. 9,
council members had voted 27-20
against the same proposal.
IFC President John Rooney said he
has received much approval from
community residents about last
night's IFC decision.
"What we did is showing," Rooney
said.
Rooney said that relations with the
University President's Task Force on
Alcohol have "worked out a lot better
than what people thought," and
added that this and, two other IFC
decisions tonight will be just part of
an ongoing process of cooperation
with the community and task force.
In addition to accepting the college
ID check, IFC members also voted on
two other proposals regarding the use
and abuse of alcohol.
One proposal that was approved on
its first voting was an amendment
which will require all associate mem
bers / pledges of fraternities to at
tend a seminar, sponsored by IFC,
which will deal with the problem of
alcoholic use and abuse and the con
cept of server liability.
In order for the proposal to become
an official amendment it must be
approved by two-thirds majority of
all council members at a second
meeting.
IFC also voted to make a formal
request to the University to change
its mandatory BDR of a one-credit
health course to a course stressing
the problems associated with alcohol.
Each student would be required to
take the course during his or her first
year at the University.
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