“p- ~ at _e - wth Ww Date: 03/09/05 JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION FORM AGENCY INFORMATION AGENCY : CIA Released under the John F. Kennedy RECORD NUMBER : 104-10534-10165 bssassination Records Collection RECORD SERIES : JFK ket, of 1992 (44 USC 2107 Note). AGENCY FILE NUMBER : NOSENKO RECORDS pases :Nil o3320 Date: 06-24-2017 DOCUMENT INFORMATION AGENCY ORIGINATOR : CIA FROM : WITHHELD TO : NONE TITLE : UNDATED BLIND MEMORANDUM: THE BONA FIDES OF YURIY IVANOVICH NOSENKO DATE : 01/01/1964 PAGES : 2 SUBJECTS : NOSENKO , JFK ASSASSINATION DOCUMENT TYPE : PAPER CLASSIFICATION : SECRET RESTRICTIONS : iB CURRENT STATUS : RELEASED IN PART PUBLIC - RELEASED WITH DELETIONS DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 02/17/04 COMMENTS : JFK-M-24 : F52 : 20040211-1044782 [R] - ITEM IS RESTRICTED 104-10534-10165 HW 53320 DoclId:32404631 Page 1
* of ; . Re eh SUBJECT: The Bona Fides of Yuriy Ivanovich Nosenko ae ~f | a | . , mo, 7 aa 7 ; a a arer . 1. KGB officer Yuriy Ivanovich Nosenko first. contacted CIA in, Geneva-in-June-.1962. —Over..the~course~ of-five- meetings he provided sufficient~ information-to-enable.the.two- officers ..:: from CIA's~Soviet-Russia-Division who-met. him..to. establish that~he~-was~a~bona«fide’'source. The major_information—furnished me by-him-at~that"time*was~ the’ identification: of -a-US .code-.tech- nician-who~had--been«recruited: by the’ KGB, and-the-identification ».°. ofthe location-of-KGB-microphones “in: the US. Embassy’in- Moscow, - .¥. 52--of “which were ‘later found. 2... When CIA'S Counterintélligence’ Staff was informed . - of NoSenko!s 1962 “approach;-its-management..regarded: this.news “9. / 2” within the context of what’ they had-been-hearing-from. a. KGB defector whom they“were~then-debriefing,: Anatoliy..Mikhaylovich oe Golitsyn.. Golitsyn, who had defected in December 1961,-was a ~ counterintelligence officer who was-obsessed.-with.the- subject °° :/.3 of- KGBdeception operations~... Even. though. Golitsyn -was..diag- nosed“in early 1962 as a "paranoid personality,;"*the-CL: Staff had-complete..faith-in* the validity of his ‘theories and analyses... 2. A~sanitized version..of£.Nosenko's information .was-therefore . shown to Golitsyn;:who-flatly. concluded.:that:..Nosenko was. acting _under~KGB control. «The -CI Staff accepted. Golitsyn's analysis and-persuaded~ the~management~ of..SR Division also-to accept it.*- 3. 3. By..the time. Nosenko was again heard. from,:.in. January ©. 2. . 1964,-again-in-Geneva,. the. management.of SR Division and CI Staff was firmly .committed’ to the.position.that Nosenko was part ofa KGB. deceptjon-operation.-~Nosenko~actually-defected os on’4"February~1964, ~ | MN HW 53320 DoclId:324048631 Page 2
. > woe aR. Co Ne aw - 4. In-October"1967> the DCI*turned Nosenko's case over to~the Office “of Security~for~final resolution, and at the same- time the-FBI--began: a review of the- information it had obtained: from-Nosenko. The~results of these two-very. thorough investigations were.set forth in a memorandum from the Office of Security dated 1. October.:1968 and one from the FBI dated . 20 September 1968, both of which concluded’ that Nosenko--was who -he« claimed. to’ be-and:. was*a bona fide defector. ~..Since that-time this has-been and is the position of: CIA. -  5,. Nosenko-was:‘probably: the most valuable source of counterintelligence:-information: that’ the US Government has ' ever~-had;--and- the: enormous:-scope: and* value of his information - + attest..conclusively:to his*bona- fides as. a defector. °He - identified.some~2;000-KGB-officers::and 300-Soviets who:.were acting..as- KGB-« agents: _He- provided information on some.-238 “Americans: in whom:the KGB had displayed:some interest, -including | '< many: who had been recruited. For-example,-.one of.hisidenti- fitations~led-to..the.,.trial.and-a-sentence: of -25' ‘years: for US oO Army Sergeant Robert: Lee. -Johnson. Nosenko also provided infor- -...: mation, on some 200 foreign nationals in 36 countries in whom . the KGB. had taken an active ‘interest, and the-friendly- ‘foreign — ‘governments-with which we ‘shared this information were,able to neutralize a number of important KGB agents as a result. For ‘example, the British were able on the basis of Nosenko's. infor- |. - mation to identify: William John Vassall, a high Admiralty. official, as a KGB agent and. sentence him to 18 years.