U.S. Reportedly Sought Howard’s Ouster From Hungary

Hungary’s decision to expel Edward Lee Howard, the former CIA agent who defected to the Soviet Union, resulted from a Bush Administration attempt to distance the Soviet KGB from the intelligence services of Hungary and Poland, U.S. sources said Thursday.

The Administration has made it clear to the two East Bloc nations that prospects for U.S. aid would improve if, among other things, their intelligence services did not cooperate as readily with the KGB, the officials said.

The satellite countries’ intelligence units have proved useful in conducting espionage in areas in the United States where the KGB has found it difficult to operate because of U.S. restrictions on Soviet travel, one source explained.

U.S. sources differed Thursday on whether Howard has returned to Moscow or is living in another East Bloc country. But several said that they doubt he will be turned over to the FBI even though revolutionary political and economic changes have been sweeping Eastern Europe. They cited the unwritten espionage rule that nations do not give up spies who have provided crucial information for fear of discouraging future turncoats.

While Howard’s expulsion from Hungary is not expected to lead to his apprehension, U.S. officials are eager to deny him the Western-style comforts that he seemed to relish in Hungary. Howard’s reputed “serious drinking problem” and his general behavior in Hungary had become an issue, a U.S. official said.

“The fellow was being so obnoxious that our request (to the Hungarians) almost appealed to them,” this official said. “We have a feeling the Hungarians were actually pleased to get rid of him.”

Howard’s expulsion, believed to have taken place at least a month ago, has been interpreted as a signal from the Hungarian government that it is prepared, at least on this issue, to defy Soviet wishes.

Howard, reportedly bitter over his treatment by the CIA after it called off his assignment to Moscow and fired him in 1983, allegedly sold secrets to the Soviets during a 1984 trip to Austria. In 1985 he escaped FBI surveillance around his New Mexico home and fled, turning up later in Moscow.

Besides being an acute embarrassment for both the FBI and CIA, Howard is suspected of turning over vital secrets about CIA operations in the Soviet capital, exposing both human and technical intelligence sources there.

In Moscow, Howard gained a powerful patron, Vladimir A. Kryuchkov, now head of the KGB. Presumably through Kryuchkov’s auspices, Howard was given a Moscow apartment, luxurious by Soviet standards, and a dacha , or country home, outside the capital, according to David Wise, author of a book on Howard’s case.

But Howard, who was interviewed by Wise in Budapest after his defection, preferred life in Hungary because it was closer to the life style he had in the West.

Kryuchkov met with Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh in Moscow in October, but sources at the time said their discussion did not extend to intelligence cases.

Wise, in an interview Thursday, said his “best guess” is that Howard had returned to Moscow, which he said would be the safest haven for him. Aside from the valuable secrets Howard allegedly provided the Soviets, he has some value as a consultant on intelligence matters and constitutes an important propaganda asset--the first and only CIA agent to flee to Moscow, Wise noted.

According to many reports, excessive drinking has been a problem for Howard and contributed to his discharge by the CIA.

In October, Time Magazine reported that Howard had approached a Western journalist in a Budapest bar in a drunken condition and had complained about life in Moscow. The journalist, who was not identified in the report, called Howard the next day, but the defector had sobered up and asked that the matter be forgotten.

After the United States expelled 80 top Soviet KGB and military intelligence operatives in 1986, the Soviets turned to the East Bloc services for assistance, U.S. intelligence officials said.