14 February 1977 MEMORANDUM SUBJECT: Jorge Ajbuszyc VOLSKY (AMTRUNK-1) (201-352252) aka George VOLSKY, Zeray VOLSKI, "Chico": 1. VOLSKY, a Cuban citizen of Polish origin, reads, speaks, and understand Spanish, English, Polish, German, Russian and French. He resided in Poland from birth in 1921 to 1939 following studies at Krakow University. He then reportedly served in the Royal Air Force Polish Group, spent time in a Russian prison in the 1940's then enlisted in the Polish Air Force Service under the British oferational Command. (VOLSKY provided conflicting information concerning this aspect of his background.) | | 2. While in London at the end of WW II VOLSKY developed a pen pal relationshipwith a Cuban girl residing in Cuba. He allegedly was discharged from the Polish Air Force Service in 1947 at his own request. Unable to obtain a visa for Cuba, he obtained one for Ecuador. ‘In transit to Ecuador he stopped off in Cuba, obtained permission through friends to remain in Cuba and within a year married his pen pal girl friend. He reportedly owned his own business in Havana, described as a publicity office named, Dekora Studio S.A., from .1947 until he came to the U.S. in May 1961. During residence in Cuba he travelled frequently to the U.S. and Jamaica. He was avidly pro-CASTRO and publicly said that the future of the world is socialistic. He allegedly was arrested and imprisoned for a few weeks following the Bay of Pigs invasion, but was released and oe eet ~ Pere OG ERT EGRET ean a 4a “ey TEE enptirteerthtngewermn amew—wrarnér-nene owner gone oe So
allowed to leave Cuba because he had a valid U.S. visa-in. his passport. 3. Upon arrival in Miami on 22 May 1961, VOLSKY visited Paul BETHEL, a friend and former Press Attache of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, who was a suspected informant for the CASTRO regime. At that time BETHEL was in charge of the Miami Office of USIA and contracted VOLSKY to edit a VOA program. (BETHEL was employed by JMWAVE Station from October through December 1961 as a writer-analyst for a detailed analysis of the overt Cuban press, on a trial basis, but was terminated following a Headquarters assessment that his reports contained nothing not already available through regular established sources.) 4. As the result of VOLSKY's cultivation in Cuba of American journalists, in particular Tad SZULC, VOLSKY had influence with certain elements of the American press, especially ‘the New York Times and The Washington Post. VOLSKY and SZULC had a close relationship in Washington and Miami, were in touch periodically by phone and personally, and conversed in Polish. VOLSKY was a source of information for SZULC and evidentiy” influenced his thinking, manifested in a book written. Disaster, which was particularly critical of CIA, not only concerning its failure at Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs), but details of many other aspects of CIA. - 5. In August 1962 SZULC arranged an interview in Washington for VOLSKY with Richard N. GOODWIN, advisor to President KENNEDY. SZULC claimed that he had had a standing invitation for direct
mie snth olen ae we a tie cern edna BUNS oo a! contact with President KENNEDY and others in the White House on Cuban matters since November 1961. During the missile crisis, in October 1962, VOLSKY had contact with Major Manuel PINEIRO Losada, Chief of the DGI, the Cuban external service. 6. In late 1962 VOLSKY devised a plan to split the CASTRO regime. SZULC got the State Department and the White “House to buy it, and it was. referred to CIA for consideration. Because SZULC's opinions carried weight with the Administration he sat in on State/CIA meetings concerning the plan. His. influence is believed to be the primary reason the plan was so quickly adopted by CIA. ‘In 1963, a State Department official in Miami was a frequent visitor of VOLSKY and kept him informed of State Department affairs. .7. VOLSKY's contacts in Miami included a Raul CHIBAS Rivas, member of the executive committee of JURE (Junta Revolucionaria Cubana - Cuban Revolutionary Junta) a Cuban exile organization. (CHIBAS, an early idol of Fidel CASTRO, defected to. the U.S. in 1960 and was suspected by the FBI of being a CASTRO plant in the U.S.) In March 1963 JURE created an intelli- gence group to infiltrate agencies of the U.S. Government. A JURE official, named Jose AGUIAR, was making a list of CIA agents and their assigned tasks for JURE files and VOLSKY assisted him. On 6 June 1963 the head of JURE arrived in Miami from Puerto Rico, contacted CISNEROS of the executive board of JURE, and ordered that no further attacks be made on the ‘U.S. Government as he was to talk to Robert KENNEDY in Washington “SRR ESSERE Seenernersnp rete er erereranenee ee inves cirri hyena -Encrarerecp pees Sapnetararasvagnaaraarnadng‘Aewafpraroyérnu carcnasiarstavarnananteang apap dyligguneagheartgsnae ttptina pats ty ogee cio ee
the following day. On 27 June 1963 RAY returned to Miami from Washington, went directly to JURE offices, held a meeting, and said that he had gained more from his Washington contacts in the last month than he had in the two previous years. He later had a conversation with VOLSKY that lasted over a half hour. On 18 July 1963 RAY said that CIA agents are more dangerous than the KENNEDY Administration as the Administration will end but CIA agents always stayed and their memory is. longer than that of elephants; they never forget or forgive. In January 1964 JURE completed plans to send youths to all Latin American universities to lecture concerning CIA betrayal of U.S. policy. On 8 January 1964 a source reported that VOLSKY diverted refugees from contacting or reporting any information to CIA by informing them that CIA was the enemy of the Cubans who wanted to fight CASTRO. In 1964 VOLSKY was a stringer for the Washington Bureau of The Times which is believed to have been a special SZULC-engineered deal. 8. Other Government Agencies’ Knowledge of VOLSKY: a. USIA - VOLSKY was cleared in December 1961 for "unlimited purchase order. use" as a writer. (This is the category of a stringer.) ‘He apparently had no access to classified information. . b. -I@NS - In 1965 I8NS requested name checks on VOLKSY and his son. A SPECIAL - PRIVATE BILL had been submitted to grant VOLSKY U.S. citizenship. Unfortunately the CIA response on VOLSKY senior was "N.D." (no derogatory) ' .
which obviously was not a true statement. VOLSKY - became ‘a naturalized U.S. citizen on 10 April 1969. c. FBI - An FBI report of January 1974 re Orlando BOSCH Avila, indicates that VOLSKY, of the New York Times, was collecting noney from Cuban doctors on behalf of BOSCH. On 14 August 1974, the Miami Station provided the Miami FBI Office comprehensive traces on VOLSKY, in response to a July 1974 FBI request, for any action the Bureau deemed necessary. Miami Station advised the FBI that the Agency had not conducted any investigation, and that the information included in the trace was in Agency files because at the time of collection it was considered foreign intelligence. 9. Attached is a comprehensive CI study: of VOLSKY pre- pared by a JMWAVE Station analyst in 1964, from which the information in this memorandum was taken. The analyst specu- lated that VOLSKY's knowledge of clandestine methods of opera- tions, together with his Russian prison. background and. his ingenuity as a middleman in U.S. Government/CIA activities, made him an excellent candidate for a Communist penetration agent, and that the possibility existed that he might be a . singleton, sleeper, or stringer. for the RIS. Further, that if that theory proved false, VOLSKY violated his USIA position by * reporting to JURE and damaging the U.S. and CIA by his propa- ganda programs. a3 LAD/JFG Task Force 1977, Lrp Copy filed: 201-352252 5 Attachment: UFGA-17410, 24 Ag WDB4 fii,