ST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100420041-3
ARTICLE ee BOSTON GLOBE MAGAZINE
on PAGE Zt 19 JULY 1982
THE REGRETS OF
A A DEFECTOR
5 Seeks he
By William __By:William Beedhér Diss cin Tae and a ingratng maa,
ee en froin worked a hid serety in the
Re inca na peti BS Roxianidn embassy” One of he responses ws
the cold. Now, more-haa's. year after be'| ‘eal witty American newsmen, answering ques-
\ io eRe Uahed’Seeat he chika ig] tions about the actions or attitudes of his govero-
‘ment and attempting to pick up low-grade political
intelligence on the attitudes of the US government.
But his aE responsibility, by his own account,
tay have been a mistake.
Disourged, dsilusioned, and humiliated by
his treatment at the hands'of the American intelli
was to make friends among kev congressional aides
gz community, abandoned by his wife and childs} oo Capital Sill: Romania Sone SF the few Ear
Hlorodinea says he is thinking of going back home Gioccitone wo gethion Favored Nation tariff treat-
‘omania even -though "he possible twenty!" ment, renewable on an annual basis, and mainta
mn term for treason. = Scr fia in tor
F prioon tera for tre suet ing good relation onthe Hil i of overriding iy
sugges that Seepseated problems may exis in the | "io scincs“nss he ever Walted. Aniesean
way spics oy fae the looking: Lae af 1 Jaw, he never sought to buy secret documents or
in this coun compromise:anyone in that role
‘More important, Horodinca’s Sohappines alse | MEe is a bit shy about discussing all his reasons
| woubling questions about whether his complaints || fo- defecting. But both he and Traian, a fellow int
= Us ingen co ligence officer, say a major reason was a shakeu
ae fect. Se-8* I the sceurity hierarchy back home that made life in
Ie is dificult to check out Horodinel’ com-|, the field istolerable, Both say they were aot ecru
aos ced as defector by American ia they came
imilar exper-| over on their own.
cae ‘his part, oe festa Intelligence Agency In Horodinca’s case, he was driving with his wife
as maintained a Stony silence on the and young son on the night of February 23, 1980,
GIA man whom the two, identifed.as being in| wha he suddenly pulled his car into For Belvoir
Charge ofthe “resettlement” of defect declined to| Veiga, and ‘behulded army ofces wih bls
discuss Horodinea’s assertions and referred all ques-| out for political asylum, Ms
tions to-the CIA's public information office, which | "FBI and CLA raca were called in, he says,
has refused any comment: By and talked to him through the night, from 1 p.m.
In fire to the CIA, i shade pointed ou | 225 nearness mighty fom 1 pam.
that part of the problem may be that East European | 4 bona fide defector, he and his family were taken to
inxllgeoce officers lad privileged lve in their oe: 4 peah hotel in downtown Washington:
ties and doubtless have inflated expectations of held me in custody for three days ia dif-
they will be treated if they come over to rich old ferent hotels,” he recalls. * They said, “You did a
Undle Sam ten En oe oa SE ae décision 6 defect. You'll have a marvelous life:
But even assuming some exaggeration on Horo- = fe will take care
snd Se ig ne pono | Ee ply you ne Weil ake ae of
dealing with human beings who are experiencing | 7°" jen moved 00 socal
trauma over thelr treason and atterapted assimilation { ;, “bey ware then move Vigna a tices eae
into a totally different culture. ="
in sotally diffovons culture. = cdiby # uw firm a «cover forthe CLA, th, aca
STAT
, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100420041-3Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100420041-3
A different ‘group of people met there. They
asked for his paspott and driver's sense sad ek |
he would be paid $50 day daring the ate perio |
of interrogation, or debriefing. Three other peopl
shared the house with the Horodincas. Alll three had
rented cars to do such chores as ferry Horodinca to
his debriefing sessions in a rented office or take his
wife out to shop for food or clothes. All were armed.
Right away the Horodincas were upset, particu-
larly by one man whom Horedinca described as
“very, very dirty,” a reference to his persoaal hy-
giene. “My wife said, “This is like a horror movie. 1
can’t stay here. I doa’t like these people at all,’”
Horodinea says. +
The next day, while he was ing his first
formal debriefing, his wife slipped out of the house
and took 2 cab to the Romanian Embassy. She took
ung Nicolae, neatly 3 years of age, with her" |
7" Horodinen sae he didat know bs wit tancd \
to return to the embasyy with their son. = ||
Immediately, his handlers decided t9 move him,
first toa motel in northern Virginia, then to another
safe house, this time an apartment 7
enti days later, however; hit wife ll nd |
went t0 a hospital with her soa in tow. The FBE
| Showed up at the hoepital almont at Soce, see
| though Horodinca is unclear about what happened,
they Pd er rec or
lor the next threé months, he was questioned on
every aspect of his life: his training in intel
his foreign assignments, his in
Washington, the role of other members of the Re-
‘manian Embassy, communications procedues, cot
ing and doonlsy, how te peas
Pact communicated with one another, lations with
Soviet intelligence.
Horodinca says alot of promises were made, in-
cluding payment for him and his wife to study new
e 3, for his son’s nursery school,
wealth care, a good house, and jobs.
(At the end of the formal debriefing,-he was giv-
en $16,000 to buy a car, furniture, and clothes Sd
was told he would be paid an ified liv
allowince monthly:
The first check he received, ‘he: Say
3996.40, or roughly $12,000 a year,
But when he told the its that he wanted to
work, “they told'me I should forget about my foc
‘met training, that it was an opportuni
life from the beginning.” =
He was given an aptitude test, he says, and coun
seled that he would make a good preaches, military
man, or funeral director. “This was something very
stupid, but T sad obay, this ia the advog ee pee
me. Vl try to find something for myself. I told there |
T wanted to go into the study of computer aieene
After another aptinide tex, Horodinea claims
to start my
"ship, that'll take ten years.”
ments there.” So he enrolled himself in courses”at
another nearby institution while his wife, who pre-
ferred to go into German language studies, entered 2
secretarial school.
At about this time, he says, he was told that the|
family should change their name, for their own pro-
tection. “I said both myself and my wife do not feel
comfortable changing our name,” he says. But he
quoted the man in charge of the CIA's defector re-
settlement program as saying, ‘If you don't want
to change your name, you'll sign a statement that
you'll be responsible for your own security,” which
scared my wife very much.” a
Horodinea says since the stipend he was getting
from the CIA was not enough for the family’s needs,
he went in search of a part-time job. But he dida’t
have any-proper identification, so personnel manag-
ers asked him how he got into the country and,
whether he. had. a resident
alien card, a green card,
which indicates a person is in
the country legally.
When he asked his haa-
diers for such a card, they seat
2 phorographer to the apart
ment. “They photographed
me from the front, left, right,
back,” he says. “My wile,
when she saw this, started to
cary. She said, ‘I don't accept
this, to be photographed like
a wrongdoer.’ She asked them
to leave the house. She said, ‘|
don't need a green card, this is |
very degrading.””
The photographer re-
turned later, but again Horo-|
dinca’s wife refused to have
smug shots taken.
Horodinca says he did noe
receive his green card for a
few months. “My first ques.
tion on the first day, I asked:
How can I get cttizenshi
“We can't talk about
But I was told I would have
all the rights of citizenship,
‘except to vote,” he recalls
One day last summer, stil
concerned about. money, he
told his contacts he. wanted to
Took up some congressional
staff friends because he °
ight they might help him
find a job. Horodinea says the
agents, responded, “No,
have nothing in common and
Yyou are not supposed to speak
with them. We will take care
OF this.”
CONTINUED!
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But when he told them |; she said. Horodinca doubted | turbed by the fact of their visit
subsequently that he had dis- || her because, he says, the death | and by the way in which I was
regarded their instructions || penalty is imposed for reason | treated. It was a kind of moral
and visited a Senate aide two |] only in wartime, |_| rape. You know, The remains
le came to hus apartment jorodinea and his wife | of my dignity,” Horodinca
Peer etka aftertbon and || went tose the Romanian am- | says, unable t0 finish the sem
Guestioned him about his con- || bassador last fall. He says he tence,
ct until midnight. "My wife | had no fear of being seized Then and there he prom
said, ‘I'm exasperated. I don't | and shipped back because the ised his wife he would never
know what to do. They didn’t | embassy is under firm instruc allow anything like that to
let me go to sleep." |; tions not to anger the United happen again: “I didn’t want
‘He says he was offered a || States unnecessarily. anymore to be a blind instru-
“salary” increase 10 826,000 a ||". He quotes the ambassador ment in their hand.”
year if he would stop secing || ai saying’ he would provide a Several days later, he says,
bis ‘congressional friends, but']| passport for his wife so that an item appeared in Jack An
he “said I don’t see any rela-a|"she could go back and repre- - derson’s syndicated columa
Gonship berween my fiends#|sent his interests in an appeal quoting. an. unnamed Roma-
fon the Hill and my salary2|| of his sentence (which turned nian diplomat who had de
They were the only moral'res| out to be twenty. years, not fected as having told CLA de-
inforeement for me, and“for4| death), They were assured no | briefers that *he Russians
my wile, too” | harm would come to her since ) mounted daily intelligence op-
In Sepeember, he got a || from the beginning of his de- | erations from the Romanian
part-time job at a discount de- || fection, she had wanted to go | Embassy. Horodinca knew the
partment store, unloading || back home.:** ’ columatst was referring. to
trucks and stocking shelves. |" | him and thar the Senate aide
Paid the minimum wage, -he: jwo things happened | had been the-source. But he|
worked. three days a week,|f | subsequently to change | says the assertion was a lie: “I
from 5 to 9: pm. and all day’ their lives. : never told them this. I told
Sauurday and Sunday.’"My || ‘The first occurred in late them in intelligence work ‘T
wile was very distresed. ‘If|| October. One of the CIA con- never cooperated with the
wi wm oy rm | Oca. Oa ofthe CU am sty npn
Weeks you should stay with us | Horodincas’ apartment and Horodinca “says the day
during the: weekend.” ‘The || introduced him as a senior the article-appeared in the
life-style he'd expected seemed ||. aide to-a Republican senator... Waskingiow Post, he was called
farther away than. ever. | Horodinca says. he was | by the FBI and asked how it
Horodinea says be asked {| shocked. First the man ques- | happened. For Horodinca,
for CIA help in buying || tioned him about his contacts | chis was the last straw, the f-
house, siace he wanted to| on the Hill: “Tell me every- | nal indignity. He told his call-
build something for. the fr |) thing about you and. about | er that henceforth he would
ture. There were no funds for || your" relations in the, Senate | speak to the FBI or CLA only
that, he was told, but the CLA'|) and in the Congress.” Horo- - in the presence of his attorney.
‘would continue to pay rent on || dinca insists that while he had In retaliation, he says, the
his apariment, one year at 2,|| done nothing wrong.on the government stopped. paying
time. # || Hill, by identifying all those for his schooling, for his son's
His wife told him thar ‘mostly Democrats, a8 nursery school, for medical in-
back in Romania they: had:| the contacts of a Romanian in- surance. But the monthly sti-
cit work, their apartment, a telligence officer, he was taint-* pend continued, albeit often
life they enjoyed. But in the|| ing them with suspicion. two weeks late.
United States they had uncer- ||” “After. they left, my. wil He went to, his attomey
Jnty and harassment. Horo-| told me she was very. dis- and spilled out his story, ex-
inca’ phoned his mother in " plaining that “after more than
Romania and asked what sen- 1 year I'm not able to have a
tence had been imposed in ab- normal life, and I'm very dis
sentia, The penalty was death, oriented and they make me
ee more disoriented.” He told his
lawyer he was thinking of go-
ing back to Romania and
‘wanted to explore his options
thoroughly: asi ecabaiaesd
CONTINUED,
, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100420041-3