Edward Lee Howard was a boy scout, an altar boy and a Peace Corps volunteer. No one would have predicted that Ed Howard would be called the Benedict Arnold of our time, the first and only CIA operative to join forces with the KGB.
But Edward Lee Howard would testify under oath that he did not spy against his country. Howard contends that the CIA and the FBI hounded him and his family because of a false lead from Vitali Yurchenko, the Russian double agent who defected to the United States then re-defected home. While the FBI was following Howard with a detachment of 60 agents, Aldrich Ames was giving away the crown jewels.
If this was masterminded by the KGB, it worked brilliantly, allowing Ames to work undetected for eight years in a powerful position within the CIA. Once Howard learned that the FBI planned to arrest him, he fled the country, not because of guilt, but for self preservation. At that time Howard felt he could not get a fair trial. Now, under certain conditions, he is willing to return to America to face an espionage trial.
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