Edward Lee Howard (1951 - 2002) was a CIA case officer who defected to the Soviet Union.

He was hired by the CIA in 1980 and was later joined by his wife, Mary, where they were both trained in intelligence and counter-intelligence methods. Shortly after the end of their training and before going on their first assignment, a routine polygraph test indicated that he had lied about past drug use, and he was dismissed from the CIA in 1982 for not having disclosed illegal drug use in the 1970s.

Disgruntled over the perceived unfairness of having been dismissed over accusations of drug use, petty theft and deception, he abused alcohol and while drunk uncovered his CIA contact in the American Embassy in Moscow through an angry phone call over a KGB-tapped line.

In 1985, the CIA was being shaken by several security leaks that led to exposure of agents and assets. In the investigation of these leaks, a KGB defector Vitaly Yurchenko and a CIA case officer Aldrich Ames marked Howard as a possible traitor. While living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Howard used his CIA training to evade the FBI and fled the US for Russia before he could be arrested. He spent most of the rest of his life there. He died in 2002 at his Russian dacha from a broken neck. Cursory investigation of the cause of his death has been inconclusive, with an accident, suicide or murder being the possible causes.

The fact that shortly after Howard's flight, Yurchenko re-defected to Russia, and Ames was convicted (in 1994) of spying for the USSR cast doubts on some aspects of what intelligence Howard disclosed to the Soviets.

1951 births | 2002 deaths

Edward Lee Howard