UNDATED BLIND MEMORANDUM: THE BONA FIDES OF YURIY IVANOVICH NOSENKO
Agency: CIA
Originator: CIA
From: NONE
To: WITHHELD
Document date: 1/1/64
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

## Page 1

Date: 03/09/05

JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM

IDENTIFICATION FORM

AGENCY INFORMATION

AGENCY : CIA

RECORD NUMBER : 104-10534-10165

RECORD SERIES

AGENCY FILE NUMBER

: NOSENKO RECORDS

Released under the John F. Kennedy

assassination Records Collection

act of 1992 (44 USC 2107 Note) .

Case#: NU 53320 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 ASSASSINATIOI

DOCUMENT TYPE

: PAPER

CLASSIFICATION: SECRET

RESTRICTIONS

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

HH 53320

DocId: 32404831

Page 1

---

## Page 2

SUBJECT: The Bona Fides of Yuriy Ivanovich Nosenko

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

The major information-furnished

by-him at that time was the identification of a US code tech-

nician who-had--been«recruited by the KGB, and the identification

of the location of KGB-microphones in the US Embassy in Moscow,

52 of which were later found.

When CIA's Counterintelligence Staff was informed

of Nosenka's 1962 approach, its management regarded this news

within the context of what they had been hearing from. a KGB

defector whom they were-then debriefing, Anatoliy Mikhaylovich

Golitsyn.. Golitsyn, who had defected in December 1961, was a

counterintelligence officer who was obsessed. with the subject

of KGB deception operations:

Even though Golitsyn was diag-

nosed "in"

early 1962 as a "paranoid personality," the CI: Staff

had-complete faith in the validity of his theories and analyses

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. By...the time Nosenko was again heard from, in January

1964, -again in Geneva, the management of SR Division and CI

Staff was firmly.committed to the position that Nosenko was

part of a KGB deception operation. Nosenko-actually defected

on 4 February-1964;

HH 53320 DocId: 32404831

Page 2

---

## Page 3

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 300Soviets 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

I recruited.

For.example,-.one.of.his_identi-

fications led to the trial and a sentence of 25 years for US

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.

53320

Docl

Id: 32404831

---