Soviet Spy for U.S. Reportedly Exposed by Former CIA Officer

A well-placed Soviet aviation and electronics expert arrested by Soviet security agents in June for passing secrets to the CIA was exposed to the Russians by former CIA officer Edward L. Howard, who eluded capture in New Mexico last month, according to intelligence community sources.

Howard, fired by the CIA in June, 1983, allegedly began selling secrets to Soviet intelligence last October. He fled his home outside Santa Fe Sept. 21 while under surveillance by FBI agents and is presumed to be in the Soviet Union, authorities said.

The Soviet expert, A. G. Tolkachev, was first identified as a U.S. spy in reports by the Soviet news agency Tass Sept. 20.

In the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, editorial writer William Kucewicz said: “Tolkachev was one of the CIA’s most valuable human assets in the Soviet Union. And his exposure (by Howard) and arrest stand as indictments of gross mismanagement and ineptitude reaching to the highest levels of U.S. counterintelligence operations.”

The CIA had no official comment on the Journal report, but several intelligence community sources indicated that information fed by Howard to Soviet intelligence officials over the last year led to the exposure of Tolkachev.

The Soviet was described as a research expert in new aircraft technology, including advanced avionics, electronic countermeasures, radar and “stealth” technologies to conceal aircraft and cruise missiles.

“(Tolkachev) saved us billions of dollars in development costs,” the Journal quoted a “well-placed source” as saying.

Tass reported that KGB officials who searched Tolkachev’s apartment in June found “miniature cameras of a special design by means of which he (Tolkachev) photographed secret documents” along with “codes and ciphers, quick-acting, two-way communications radio apparatus and other equipment for espionage work.”