Key KGB Agent for North Africa Defects, NBC Says

A Soviet agent responsible for all KGB operations in northern Africa has defected and given U.S. intelligence officials names of Soviet agents operating in the region, the NBC Nightly News reported Thursday.

Oleg Agraniants was also a KGB liaison officer to Palestinian guerrillas until his defection last month, NBC said, quoting intelligence sources.

The CIA refused to comment on the report.

The network said that Agraniants, who was stationed at the Soviet embassy in Tunis, has been a double agent for the CIA for the past three years.

NBC reported that his defection had dealt a major blow to the Soviet agency. It said Agraniants had given U.S. officials names of Soviet agents in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Libya.

Former CIA Deputy Director George Carver told NBC that Agrianants would also have other valuable information because of his rank in the KGB.

“He would not have been posted to this senior an assignment overseas without having held previous assignments of almost equivalent seniority at KGB headquarters and he would have told us a lot about what he derived from those assignments,” Carver said.