Barghoorn Tells Of Arrest

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30294, 21 November 1963, Page 15

Barghoorn Tells Of Arrest

(N.ZJ’.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, November 20. Professor Frederick Barghoorn said last night that it was possible that his arrest by the Soviet Union on spy charges could have resulted from a mistake on the part of minor Russian officials.

The Yale University professor, who was released suddenly last week-end after spending 16 days in a Moscow prison, gave high State Department officials a full report yesterday on his arrest and detention. Professor Barghoorn told a press conference last night how he had been seized after what appeared to be a roll of newspapers was thrust into his hands outside the Metropole Hotel in Moscow on the night of October 31. "1 don’t think I’ll ever know the answer to that question,” he said, when asked if he thought his seizure was ”a put-up job.”

But he agreed it was possible that everything could have resulted from a mistake by minor Soviet officials. Professor Barghoorn said the man who approached him outside the hotel was younglooking and spoke English. He asked if the professor was American and when he received an affirmative reply pushed the roll of newspapers into Professor Barghoorn's hand. "I thought it probably contained some sort of propaganda material and, perhaps unwittingly, foolishly. I took it and put it to my coat," he said. “Almost simultaneously a couple of men grabbed me and hustled me into an automobile.” Professor Barghoorn said he liad not seen these men before but be thought they might have been following the young man or himself. He said that it was alleged the material he had received contained military information. “There were some

things inside hat looked like photographs, out I don’t understand anything about military affairs,” he said. The professor said that he had not signed any confession while he was held in prison, but he agreed with one of his questioners last night that he bad been "grilled” rather than questioned by his interrogators. Professor Barghoorn said: “I never had any intelligence assignment” in the Soviet Union. However, he raid that one factor behind his arrest might have been his previous service for the United States Government. He recalled that in 1951 he had been working for the

State Department in Germany interviewing Soviet refugees. and although he considered his work to be sociological research, he had held the title of intelligence officer. Professor Barghoorn said he hoped that his recent experience would not destroy the possibilities of continuing Soviet-American cul- ! tural exchanges. “Danin Fool” ; A colleague of Professor . Barghoorn said today that Professor Barghoorn was a “damn fool” to go to the Soviet Union because from the Soviet point of view he was a spy, United Press International reported. “Where do you draw the distinction between a spy and a tourist?” asked the professor of political science at the University of Dallas. Professor Kendall, who said he had known Professor Barghoorn for about 12 yeai’S as his colleague and friend at Yale, said: “I regard it the duty of any American to report what he sees and hears when in Russia. Barghoorn did not go in deaf and dumb. He had his eyes open and that probably would be of interest to somebody.”