Albright Delayed Pressing Russians POW Report
Issue Set Aside for Time Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright waited months before asking
the Russian government about a KGB document suggesting captured
Americans were taken to the Soviet Union for intelligence purposes
during the late 1960s, according to Clinton administration officials.
A document mentioning the KGB program was discovered by the Pentagon in
January among the papers of a retired Russian general. President
Clinton was notified in March about what investigators viewed as a
major discovery that could shed light on the fate of nearly 2,000
missing Americans from the Vietnam War. A month later, the State
Department was informed.
Mrs. Albright, however, did not act until Oct. 29 in writing to the
new Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, seeking information about
the plan, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Delays in the case have upset a number of officials familiar with
internal discussions on the issue. State Department officials "have
been dragging their feet on this since the start," complained one.
A letter drafted in June from Mrs. Albright to Russian Prime Minister
Yevgeni Primakov, a former intelligence chief with direct knowledge
about the KGB program, was never sent because of State Department
concerns it would upset Moscow during its financial and political crisis
in August, the officials said.
Russian Gen. Dmitri Volkogonov, a historian and co-chairman of a
U.S.-Russian commission on POWs, revealed what he called a
"sensational" KGB document on the plan in his memoirs published in
September. It was first revealed in papers his daughter donated to
the Library of Congress last year.
The plan called for "delivering informed Americans to the U.S.S.R. for
intelligence-gathering purposes," Gen. Volkogonov, who died in
1995, stated.
Officials familiar with the U.S. government's deliberations said they
were upset with the State Department's failure to pursue information
about the POW issue, which the administration has said is a high
priority. "They didn't want to upset the Russians," said an official
close to the issue.
Lonnie Spiegel, a State Department official involved in Russia policy,
told Pentagon officials in September the department had more urgent
matters to discuss with Moscow. Mrs. Albright's letter to Mr. Primakov
was not sent because of the "large number of issues between the
U.S. and Russian governments that required immediate attention,"
according to officials familiar with the meeting.
According to Miss Spiegel, the department put off sending the
secretary's letter to Mr. Primakov until after Mrs. Albright had first
met with the new foreign minister, Mr. Ivanov.
Mr. Clift, a former DIA official who is president of the Joint Military
Intelligence College, said Mr. Primakov was "specifically mentioned" in
the Volkogonov book disclosing the KGB program, and thus any letters
should be sent to Mr. Primakov and not the foreign minister.
Miss Spiegel could not be reached for comment. But Nerissa Cook, another
State Department official involved in Russian policy and POW
issues, declined to comment when asked Friday about State's handling of
the issue.
Another State Department official said that Undersecretary of State
Thomas Pickering asked Deputy Foreign Minister Gerogi Mamedov about the
KGB program during a meeting in London earlier this year, but the
issue never reached any high levels of the U.S. or Russian governments
until November.
Moscow has refused to release the document despite numerous U.S.
government appeals, including a recent request by Vice President Al Gore
to Mr. Primakov on Nov. 17 in Malaysia, and requests made at a U.S.-
Russia POW commission meeting in Moscow three weeks ago.
In July, Mr. Gore was scheduled to discuss the matter during a dinner
meeting with Russian Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko in Moscow. But
the topic never came up because Mr. Gore became sidetracked with other
topics.
Mrs. Albright never wrote or asked Mr. Primakov about the POW issue,
even though she had developed close ties to the Russian. Mrs. Albright
and Mr. Primakov performed a song-and-dance routine together during a
banquet July 28 in Manila that was put on as part of a diplomatic
forum sponsored by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Details about the KGB document were first reported by The Washington
Times on Nov. 9. In response, the White House initially said
President Clinton would not ask Mr. Primakov about the matter
during a scheduled meeting in Malaysia. A day later, White House
officials insisted the president might bring up the subject, but the
meeting never took place due to the crisis over Iraq.
Instead, Mr. Gore met Mr. Primakov on Nov. 17 in Kuala Lumpur, and the
Russian prime minister agreed to look into the matter, according to U
.S. officials.
Russian officials have provided conflicting statements about the KGB
plan identified by Gen. Volkogonov. During the POW commission
meeting earlier this month in Moscow, one official from the SVR
intelligence service said the document did not exist. A second SVR
official said the document was classified and would not be released.
Washington Times (WT) - Monday, November 30, 1998
By: Bill Gertz - THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Edition: Final Section: A Page: A1
