BLIND MEMO: THE BONA FIDES OF YURIY IVANOVICH NOSENKO
Agency: CIA
Originator: CIA
Document date: 01/01/0000
Document type: PAPER-TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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so Wilted

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

that-he-was-a-bona fide source.

The major information-furnished

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

nician who-had--been Tecruited by the KGB,

and -the identification

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

52-of which wore later-found.

of Nosenko's 1952 approach, its management regarded this news

"CIA's Counterintelligence Staff was inforned

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

defector whon 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.

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 NGB deception operation. Nosenko actually defected

on 4 February-1964/

SER

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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 revier of the information it had

obtained fron 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 clained. to

be and was a bona fide detector.

that time this has been and is the position of CIA.

Nosenko was probably the most valuable source of

counterintelligence information that the US Governnent has

ever had, and the enormous scope and value of his information

attest conclusively to his bona

fides as a defector.

identified sone-2,000 KGB officers and 300 Soviets who were

including

many who had been recruited.

For example, one of his

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

Army Sergeant Robert Lee Johnson.

Nosenko also provided infor-

mation on sone 200 foreign nationals in 36 countries in whom

the KGB had taken an active interest, and the

friendly foreign

governments with which ve shared this information were able to

neutralize a number of important KGB agents as a result.

example, the British were able on the basis of Nosenko's infor-

mation to identify William John Vassall, a high Adniralty

official, as a KGB agent and sentence hin to 18 years.

SEGMET

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