l

'.. By Barbara Novovitch

B-10

agency careers 20-year wild 'mole' hunt Book reveals follies of CIA's

Paranoid searches

reportedly ruined REUTER

throughout the Cold War era, ac- cording to a new book by intelli- own ranks that bordered on para- 20-year search for moles within its noia and paralyzed the spy agency

Intelligence Agency conducted a gence expert David Wise.

none. But the careers of more than Wise said there probably were

destroyed, he wrote.

120 people were either damaged or

NEW YORK — The Central

The CIA found no moles, and

Sunday, Match

8, 1992 * ** * *

secretly later received compensa-

so-called "Mole Relief Act." tion from the agency under a

tered the CIA," Wiae blames the Search for Traitors That Shat- late CIA chief him he believed there was a mole. destructive purge in phantom Soviet spy whose name who had Angleton's ear had told began with the letter James Angleton for starting the

hunt for the mole. In 1989, Karlow about Wise's book. A spokesman secretly received close to $500,00e forced the resignation in 1963 of who was the top suspect in the Peter Karlow, a World War II hero along with a secret medal.

Each CIA officer who suffered

In "Molehunt: The Secret

The CIA declined comment According to the book, Angleton

K. A

■

hunt for a

defector

•

was said the agency does not comment career. Fedora, says Wise, was dora, a trained chemist and scien- States in the 1980s, was turned on books or movies. Aleksei Isidorovich Kulak, who important spy for the United FBI and was fed information by J. worked as a double-agent for the books about the CIA, compiled sia of natural causes. Edgar Hoover to advance his KGB tific attache at the Soviet U.N, down three times in his efforts to Among his contentions: interviews with 200 people, includ- "Molehunt" over 10 years through fense ing past and current CIA staff. mission, also known as Fatso, was view he had found no proof that a of a mental breakdown. Then-CIA years. paranoia about Soviet agents that work for the CIA because of the dismissed him then but he feared fired Angleton, said he would have Chief William Colby, who later believed Angleton was on the verge to Israel and the local station chief he would kill himself. had poisoned his bourbon on a trip fingered and investigated, but the man agent named Igor Orlov was

mole ever existed. A low-level Ger-

► ►

Wise, who has written earlier

►

Wise said in a telephone inter-

never exposed. He died in Rus-

a holdover from the Angleton

researcher who was the most. Controversial KGB agent Fe-

Adolf Tolkachev, a Soviet de-

Angleton believed the KGB

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER

pervasive suspicions that prevailed lames Angleton, spy. FBI never proved that Orlov was a

starting the destructive purge. terintelligence chief, is blamed for at the time, the CIA was paralyzed the belief that everybody was a They stopped trying to recruit in- at the height of the Cold War.

of being moles, he said, "were, as it pelling evidence ... not on whimsy turned out, all loyal Americans." side the because of et missile strength." the CIA to a screeching halt when and undocumented rumors." bility of the CIA, "but they have to information on, for example, Sovi- they should have been gathering act on the basis of clear and com- intelligence an important responsi-

Further, said Wise, "Because of

"This brought the operations of

Wise said he considers counter- All the men accused by the CIA

former CIA coun-

ASSOMIED MEW/ 1076