For Your Eyes Only - Vol 1 No 1 - 1986

Magazine Overview

Title: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
Issue: Premiere Issue, Vol.1 Nr.1
Date: Copyright c 1986
Publisher: Paragon Independent News Service
Country: US
Price: $1.50 (US only)

This premiere issue of "FOR YOUR EYES ONLY" presents a deep dive into espionage and counterintelligence, focusing on a complex case involving Soviet agents and American intelligence agencies. The publication aims to reveal "important new facts & truth" based on "reliable, high-placed sources and solid, concentrated research."

Klass Dismissed: "Three Spies: One Dies"

The lead article, "Klass Dismissed: 'Three Spies: One Dies'" (Part 1 of 3), details the story of Lt. Comdr. Lev Aleksandrovich Vtorygin, a Soviet naval officer trained by the KGB for assassination. In November 1960, Vtorygin arrived in Washington, DC, on a mission to assassinate Nikolai Fedorovich Artamonov, a Soviet naval captain who had defected to the West in June 1959. Artamonov, who had adopted the name "Nicholas Shadrin," was a high-ranking defector who provided the CIA and the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) with crucial information about Soviet naval capabilities.

Vtorygin and Artamonov had a prior connection, having been friends and roommates at the Frunze Naval Academy. Artamonov, who had arrived in the US in August 1959, was reportedly issued a death sentence by a Soviet court. A chance encounter in Washington between Artamonov and Vtorygin left the defector with a sense of impending doom, suspecting his food had been poisoned when he fell ill.

The narrative introduces a third key figure, Philip Julian Klass, a "journalist" and former engineer who had shifted to a career in aviation journalism. Klass, who worked for "Aviation Week & Space Technology," became an "asset" for the CIA. He developed a friendship with Vtorygin, meeting him at Soviet Embassy parties and later sailing with him, creating opportunities for clandestine meetings away from surveillance. This relationship was shadowed by FBI counterintelligence agents.

Klass's role was part of a CIA operation designed to recruit Vtorygin or at least monitor his activities. To maintain the relationship, Klass provided Vtorygin with information about US secret developments, suggesting a quid pro quo for the KGB agent's time.

When Klass detected FBI surveillance, he could not directly approach the Bureau due to his CIA involvement. He informed the FBI that he would report any significant information Vtorygin might offer. Vtorygin's meetings with Klass continued until August 1965, when he returned to Moscow.

The article then shifts to a new KGB plan to target Shadrin (Artamonov) in mid-1966, involving a call to CIA Director Richard Helms from a purported KGB officer named "Igor." This plan culminated in a complex counterintelligence operation where Shadrin was to pretend to be recruited by Soviet agents. However, the KGB was orchestrating the deception, setting Shadrin up for abduction. Artamonov disappeared from Vienna, Austria, on December 18, 1975, after going to meet his supposed KGB "handlers," and was reportedly executed shortly thereafter.

With Vtorygin's departure, Klass's direct role diminished, but the CIA found a new mission for him. The year 1966 marked the beginning of the end for Nick Shadrin and the start of "Project Blue Book," the government's conduit for UFO disinformation, suggesting a need for a new debunking mechanism that the CIA found in Klass.

National Insecurity and Intelligence Failures

The issue extends its critique to broader issues of "National Insecurity." It argues that news organizations are often blamed for reporting on security breaches, obfuscating the real problem: that national security is jeopardized by those charged with upholding it. This pattern is traced back to the origins of national police and intelligence agencies.

The FBI's resistance to acknowledging the existence of organized crime (the "Mafia") under J. Edgar Hoover is cited as an early example of malfeasance. Later, in the 1960s and 1970s, the FBI's focus shifted to monitoring civil rights and peace groups, allegedly searching for "communist connections" instead of addressing genuine threats.

The article highlights the case of Sgt. Jack Edward Dunlap, an Army Security Agency member stationed at NSA's Ft. Meade headquarters. Dunlap, who had access to virtually every NSA secret, was paid by the KGB for years. Despite living a lavish lifestyle, he attracted little attention until he left the Army to work for NSA as a civilian and failed a lie detector test. Even then, the FBI and NSA remained unaware of his treason. Dunlap attempted suicide twice before succeeding. His wife's discovery of TOP SECRET NSA documents led to the FBI's involvement, but by then, key intelligence targets like mainland China and North Korea had already been compromised.

Further intelligence failures are detailed, including the NSA's compromised operations in Taiwan and Okinawa, resulting in the loss of U-2 spyplanes and personnel. The case of NSA communications specialist Ronald W. Pelton, who sold secrets to Soviet intelligence, is also mentioned, noting the apparent failure of the FBI to detect his actions. The "Walker spy net case" is presented as another instance where a KGB agent operated for over 18 years, passing classified documents via "dead drop" methods, undetected by the FBI until his wife turned him in.

The publication criticizes the current intelligence approach, which it claims is still focused on ideological motives rather than financial gain, making agencies vulnerable to deep penetration. It also condemns the current administration for blaming news organizations for reporting on these failures, suggesting this is an attempt to lessen embarrassment rather than prevent future treasons.

Recurring Themes and Editorial Stance

The core themes of this issue revolve around espionage, counterintelligence failures, and the perceived vulnerability of US intelligence agencies to foreign penetration. The editorial stance is highly critical of these agencies, accusing them of incompetence, misplaced priorities, and a tendency to cover up their own malfeasance. The publication asserts that the "real enemy" is not external threats but internal failings and the government's own actions. It advocates for greater transparency and a re-evaluation of security priorities, suggesting that intelligence agencies should be "watching each other" rather than focusing on domestic dissent.

The issue also previews upcoming articles, including further installments of "Klass Dismissed," "The Watergate Set-Up," "NASA's Sins," "The Nixon/Vesco Heroin Deal," "The CIA's Unreleased UFO Files," and "They Killed Kennedy."