TheWashington Star EDWARD L EPSTEIN'

Comment THE WASHINGTON STAR Sunday, May 17, 1981 An Incredible Mole. Who Would Be Tsar Several weeks ago the world was stunned to learn that a former head of British intelligence was officially This incredible 'mole" case began suspected of being a Soviet agent. nearly a quarter of a century ago. Ro- The suspect, now deceased, was Sir by the name Roger Hollis, who as head of MI-S as the vice from 1958 to 1966 was roughly the ch intelligence in British equivalent of Poland. Since he had a special re- J. Edgar Hoo- sponsibility for counter-infelligence ver. - or catching enemy spies - he During'this period, other officers worked closely with representatives in the British intelligence service of Soviet and East German intelli- had been identified as "moles," but gence. if the actual head of the British set-- Occasionally, his KGB liaison of- ' vice turned outIto be a mole, the en- ficer, a clever but boastful Russian tire secret world of intelligence dur- named Col. Ivan Andreievich Raina, ing this period woud have to be would allude to very sensitive agonizingly reappraised. After this charge sources that the KGB had estab- was made, Prime Minister lished inside the CIA and other West- Thatcher told Parliament that two ern intelligence services. He pro- secret investigations of Sir Roger vided only hints - but no names. had failed to produce any credible evidence that he had worked for So- Edward J. Epstein is the author of viet Intelligence; yet, the swirl of a number of books, including "Leg- suspicions and allegations contin- end: The Secret World of Lee Harvey ued. Oswald" (Readers Digest Press). During this entire controversy, Copyright c 1981 Independent News one of the few men who could cast ALEKSEIROAtANOFF some light on Sir Roger's bona fides sat quietly in his small apartment in Kew Gardens, in Queens, N.Y., shunned by all the intelligence ser- He could only deduce vices in the Western world. that the KGB had a A pale man in his early 70s, with a distinctive walrus mustache, this mole of its own in the man is perhaps the only important CIA, with access to what CIA mole to have successfully pen- etrated the secret world of Soviet in- he was supplying. telligence and survived to tell his tale in the West. (The CIA's other top moles - Oleg Penkovsky and Peter Popov - were both captured by the KGB and executed). He now is an American citizen living under the name Aleksei Romanoff, who ekes out a living editing a small newslet- ter. Twenty-three years ago, however, he turned the entire universe of in- telligence inside out when he re- vealed the existence of KGB agents who had risen to the top echelons of British. German, French and American intelligence. These KGB penetration agents, or "moles." had been actively undermining and be- traying the secret activities of West- ern intelligence. Such a list should have been kept Continued from G-1 On one occasion, for example, Cot in the most potected vault of British Raina warned that the CIA would at- intelligence, and known only to a as possible candidates for compro- tempt to recruit a Polish diplomat in few top British intelligence officials- mise and recruitment. It now be- Switzerland. He gave the ap- The CIA therefore wondered how came absolutely clear to all con- proximate time and place that the their mystery agent had obtained a \ cerned that the list had not been CIA approach would be made. copy. i lifted from a Warsaw phone dlrecto- How did Raina know the CIA ' In his next report, "Heckenschul- ! ry, as the British had suggested, but plans? Romanoff deduced from such tze" explained that he had gotten. it came from the secret files of either British intelligence or the CIA. tidbits of information that the KGB I this British secret list from the KGB. had indeed succeeded in placing one The implication was clear: The KGB It has never been determined or more "moles" in the CIA. 'had one or more moles deep within' whether the British denials repre- Then, through a series of acci- British intelligence who had stolen sented honest oversight or deliber- dents, he was upon by the Rus- the list 'for the KGB. ate lying to the CIA. And if the Brit- sians to open the safe of a Soviet in- Allen Dulles, then director of the ish were lying, was it for protective- telligence officer in Poland who had CIA, personally brought the matter security reasons or for more nefar- committed suicide. The contents of to the attention of British Intelli- ious purposes? the safe provided more pieces in the gence. Among the top British offi- Confronted with this new evi- jigsaw, and led Romanoff to con- cials queried about this list was Sir dence. the British accepted the pos- sibility that there might be a clude that the KGB had "moles" op- Roger Hollis, who then, in 1960, erating in West German, British and headed MI-S. The CIA wanted to high-level leak. An investigation French intelligence. Then, in 1958, know if the list was genuine; and if was immediately begun as to who had access to the list, and then nar- he decided to defect to the United so, who was in a position to leak it States - and provide this valuable in- to the KGB. rowed down to a Dutch-born career formation to Western intelligence. Several weeks later, British Intel- officer in MI-6 named . In April 1958, Romanoff crossed ligence reported back to the CIA the border into West Berlin, and that, after a thorough investigation Catching George Blake Blake. it turned out, had rapidly posted a letter addressed to Henl'y J. of the matter, it was determined that Taylor, the U.S. ambassador to Swit- the list was nothing more than a advanced his career through a re- zerland. In this letter, he gave nei- clumsy fabrication, It suggested that markable string of successful rec- ther his name nor his nationality. He the names could have been taken out ruitments of communist diplomats of the Warsaw phone book. and military officers serving in Ger- explained to Ambdssador Taylor that many. It now appeared that a num- the KGB had The British denials were so con- penetrated Western in- ber of these "successes" had been telligence, and if he identified him- vincing that even James Jesus An- purposely provided Blake by the self, his identity would soon be gleton. the legendary head of CIA KGB so that he would rise in the known to the KGB. , was prepared ranks of British intelligence. Instead, he proposed to help the to believe that the mystery mole was, Placed under surveillance, Blake ferret out these moles' a fake. Indeed, it was suggested that was caught in the act of stealing a by supplying information that could lieckenschultze" might itself be a' document, and then he confessed to be traced to them. He suggested that KGB disinformation operation de- : having turned over to the KGB ev- the FBI should set up a "mail drop" signed to sow discord between the5 ery important docment in the files for him, and inform him of the ad- CIA and the British Secret Service. of the British Secret Service that he dress through a classified ad in a Then, to the CIA's astonishment, West German newspaper. He pre- a researcher in the CIA's East Euro- had access to. ferred the FBI - since he believed "Heckenschultte" next turned his . pean division discoverved an exact the CIA was penetrated by KGB copy of the list of Polish nationals attention to piecing together the moles. He signed the letter 'Hee- in the archives. It had been sent KGB spy network in West German kenschultze." more than one year earlier to Wash- intelligence. He had been told by his Despite this advice, Ambassador ington by the British Secret Service KGB liaison, Cot Raina, that two of a group of six West German intelli- Taylor turned the case over to the _See CIA, which by law was the proper INCREDIBLE, G-4 gence officers who visited CIA head- channeL In a matter of weeks, the quarters in Washington in 1956 were CIA advertised an address for the KGB moles. Raina even bragged that anonymous mole in a Frankfurt these agents personally met with newspaper. It then began to receive CIA Director Dulles. incredibly detailed reports from' The CIA checked through its re- Hu. kgpschutp_" cords and it found that a delegation " These repats quickly identified' of six West German Intelligence of- no fewer than seven spies. These in ficers had indeed met with Dulles in eluded a British admiralty aide' 1956, and promptly began investigat- named , who had ing the group to see who among furnished the Soviets with secret in- them might be double agents. In formation about U.S. nuclear subma- short order, the lead focused suspi- rines; Col. Israel Beer, an Israeli mili- cion on Heinz Felfe, who was then tary historian who had gained the deputy chief of West German Intel- confidence of Prime Minister David ligence; and then, through surveil- Ben-Gurion; and Col. Stig Wennes- lance of Felfe, to the head of his own trout, the Swedish air attache in surveillance unit in Bonn. Both men Washington, D.C. eventually were convicted of espi- While the CIA was still hotly de- onage on behalf of the . bating the bona rides of this mystery Meanwhile, in Warsaw, the KGB agent, a document arrived at the became increasingly concerned mail drop that caused considerable about the source of the teak that had consternation. It was a list of 26 Pol- exposed their most valuable agents ish officials that had been compiled in England and Germany. Col. Raina by the British Secret Service as po- brought the matter to the attention tential targets for recruitment. of Col. Goleniewski - not knowing that he was in reality the mystery askea mole "Heelienschultze.' ate According to plan, he met the CIA and sentenced to death for attempea Goleniewskt to help in the investiga- case officers who for two years had defection. tion, and then he explained that he been receiving his mysterious re- If the CIA accepted Goleniewski's knew of various documents that the ports. It was a highly charged meet- inside account, it meant that they traitor bad leaked to the CIA. ing: found out that had made a tragic error in judging their anonymous mole was the vice Bryn a fake defector. In a sense, the Mote in the CIA chairman of military intelligence. CIA officers involved had signed his Goleniewski was stunned - that thousands of documents death warrant by allowing him to re- though he managed to conceal his and being were hidden in a tree trunk in War- turn to Poland. Moreover, they had reaction. He, in effect, was ; saw. . lost forever valuable information asked by the KGB to investigate him- While Goleniewski and his fian- about the KGB underground in Eu- self. He knew that he himself had cee were being flown to the United rope. States, a 'CIA operative in Warsaw went to the tree trunk, recovered the Whom to Believe? microfilm, and left it at the Ameri- But was this self-appointed mole to can Embassy. Then, it was sent in the be fully believed? James Angleton, diplomatic pouch to Washington. the CIA's counterintelligence chief, later told me, "The Goleniewski case Clues for Years of Work was the most complicated defection When the CM analyzed these doc- we had ever dealt with in the CIA uments, it found that they contained ... no one knew what to believe." It • a surprising number of U.S. military was especially difficult to believe secrets that could have only come that such a gross error had been from high-level sources in NATO or made in the Bryn case, because the the U.S., Defense Department. For CIA had received information from years to come, these documents I a very important source suggesting would provide clues for tracking that Bryn was a fake. Was this source down Soviet moles and other pen- now to be discredited? etrations in the Western defense es- Goleniewski's credentials were in- tablishment. tensively re-examined. He later re- called that he was mistreated and After Goleniewski was relocated found himself progressively isolated in a safe house in Alexandria, Va., a from his case officer. He claimed team of CIA interrogators began the that at one point, he was drugged in- arduous task of debriefing him. to unconsciousness. He recalls being There were a number of surprises to in a state of "full narcosis." come - not all of them pleasant - The next shock came when lie in- for the CIA. formed his CM interrogators that' sent the documents in question to The information be provided in Michael Goleniewski was not his ( the mail drop in Germany, and thus the case of one Col: Bryn was particu- real name. He now identified him- I Into the hands of the CIA. larly shocking. Bryn bad been a self as Aleksei Nicholaevitch Romae But how did Col, Raina find out member of Polish military intelli- noff, the son of Tsar Nicholas of about them? He could only deduce gence assigned to the Polish Embas- Russia and the heir to the tsarist. that the KGB had a mole of its own sy in Japan, and who in 1958 defected throne. The CIA was of course in- in the CIA, and this KGB mole now to the United States. American coun- credulous of this claim: the tsar and had access to the lake" he was se- terintelligence, however, did not ac- his entire family had been killed at cretly supplying. It was therefore cept him as a bona fide defector and Ekaterinburg in Russia in 1918. • only a matter of time before his iden- after interning him in a prison in Romanoff, as he now called him- tity would be revealed. He realized the Philippines and questioning . self, disputed the historical evi- now that he had no alternative but him, the CIA decided that he was pro- 1 dence. He said that all members of to escape. viding misleading information and the imperial family escaped execu- In the next few weeks, Goleniew- was ordered by the KGB to defect as tion due to a prior secret agreement ski decided on a final coup before his with the Bolsheviks, and were smug- departure from Warsaw. He photo; part of a grander deception. Subse- quently Bryn was released in Paris gled out of Russia into Poland. Hay- graphed thousands of Polish Intelli- and, in a state of despair and confu- ing assumed the name of Goleniew- gence and KGB documents in his of- sion, returned to Poland. ski to conceal his royal identity, he fice files, and then secreted the rose through the ranks after World cache of microfilm In a tree trunk Now, Goleniewski added some War II to the position of vice chair- in Warsaw. very unsettling facts to the case. He During Christmas of stated that Bryn was not only a legiti- man of Polish Intelligence. He fur- 1960, he traveled to East Berlin mate defector but had had access to ther claimed that dental and hand where he met his fiancee, Irma, and crucially important information prints would verify his identity. then they crossed into West Berlin, about KGB operations all and went directly to the US. Military over Europe. His defection, accord- Mission there. ing to Goleniewski, had raised fears in the KGB that these clandestine networks would soon be blown. Goleniewski was therefore amazed to find out, when he was vice chair- man of Polish Intelligence, that the Americans had released Bryn and al- lowed him to return to Poland. • Bryn claimed that the CIA had ad- ministered drugs to him and tor- tured him while he was in the Philippines_ Goleniewski concluded by saying that Bryn was immediately arrested in Warsaw. interrogated Sure of gold and platinum worth S38 (At least one CIA official whom billion, which the tsar had been spoke with, the late Herman E. Kim- transporting from Vladivostok to sey of the CIA's office of security, af- the United States for safekeeping. As ter leaving the CIA said that various heir to the tsar, Romanoff believed physical tests proved to his satisfac- he was entitled to a share of his fa- tion that Romanoff was indeed the ther's treasure. The Soviet Union, tsarevich.) meantime, is insisting that it is the The point at which Goleniewski sole rightful owner of this Russian identified himself as Romanoff is ship and all its glittering cargo. bitterly disputed. He told me that he I ended our lunch by asking Roma- had identified himself in 1961 to the noff about Sir Roger Hollis, who had CIA, immediately after defecting.he did been head of Britsh MI-S at the time The CIA officially claims that of his defection. Did he think Sir not raise the Romanoff issue until Roger might be a KGB mole? the summer of 1963 when he applied 1 don't think it would have been for U.S. citizenship, in a letter to Rep. possible.' he said. He then ticked off Michael A. Feighan. But the FBI li- I very precisely all the Soviet agents aison with the CIA recalled to me whom MI-S had captured due to the that she had heard the Romanoff information he personally provided. claim In 1962. if the KGB had had a mole at the In any case it became a matter of head of MI-5, you can be sure all extreme embarrassment to the CIA, these men would somehow have es- especially after Goleniewski- caped,' he said. Romanoff attempted to assert public- He suggested that the report that ly his claim to the Russian throne Sir Roger was a mole was more likely in 1963. a piece of disinformation being cir-i culated by the KGB now in order td Pensioned Off discredit British intelligence. Goleniewski had been the most productive agent in the entire his- tory of the CIA, revealing more than a dozen Soviet moles. The CIA, how- ever, could not be put in the position ofsupporting his incredible claim to the tsar's fortune. In March 1962, he and Irma, who had now become his wife, were moved from Alexan-.. dria to an apartment in the Times Square area of New York. The CIA • subsequently arranged for him and his wife to have a more comfortable apartment in Queens. Soon after- wards the CIA abruptly severed its relations with him, leaving him with a small pension in return for his services as a mole.'

Seeks Tsar's Gold Recently I had lunch with him at Harry's Bar in New YOrk City. He seemed spry, alert, and in good spir- its. He explained that he was in the process of instituting a suit against the Japanese company that is salvag- ing a tsarist ship sunk in the Russo- Japanese war of 1904-5. The Japanese salvage company had claimed a trea-