Yuri Nosenko

Who was Yuri Nosenko?

Lt. Col. Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko was a KGB defector and a figure of significant controversy within the U.S. intelligence community, since his claims contradicted another defector, Anatoliy Golitsyn, who believed he was a KGB plant. The harsh treatment he received as part of the early US interrogation was one of the "abuses" documented in the Central Intelligence Agency "Family Jewels" documents in 1973. In 1978 Director of Central Intelligence Stansfield Turner gave an unclassified briefing, including a summary of testimony given to Congress. In his statement, Turner accepted Nosenko's assertion that the Soviets had no connection with Lee Harvey Oswald and, referring to the Nosenko's solitary confinement: "The excessively harsh treatment of Mr. Nosenko went beyond the bounds of propriety or good judgment. At my request, Mr. Hart has discussed this case with many senior officers to make certain that its history will not again be repeated. The other main lesson to be learned is that although counterintelligence analysis necessarily involves the making of hypotheses, we must at all times treat them as what they are, and not act on them until they have been objectively tested in an impartial manner."