NODULE X7 OSWALD IN MINSK AND THE U2 DUMP: JANUARY ...

for CBS from 1955 to 1961 he covered the United Nations and Soviet Premier Nikita S.
Khrushchev's visit to this country in 1959. Victor Marchetti wrote:
In 1955 Sam Jaffe applied for a job with CBS news. While he was waiting
for his application to be processed, a CIA official who Jaffe identifies
himself as Jerry Rubins visited his house in California and told him, 'If you
are willing to work for us, you are going to Moscow' with CBS. Jaffe was
flabbergasted, since he did not even know at that point if CBS would hire
him, and he assumes that someone at CBS was in on the arrangement or
otherwise the Agency would never had known he had applied for work.
Moreover, it would have been highly unusual to send a new young
reporter to such an important overseas post. Rubins told Jaffe that the
Agency was willing to release 'certain top secret information to you in
order that you try and obtain certain information for us.' Jaffe refused and
was later hired by CBS for a domestic assignment. [Cult, page 335]
In 1960 Jaffe went to Moscow for CBS to cover the trial of Francis Gary Powers. In
1961 Jaffe joined ABC and went to Moscow to open its first bureau there. He was
among the first to report the ouster of Khrushchev from politics on the night of October
14, 1964. In 1965 he was expelled from the Soviet Union because of a report ABC
carried from Washington saying that another shake up in the Soviet leadership was
imminent. By then Jaffe had already been assigned to take over ABC's Hong Kong
Bureau. As the war in Vietnam deepened he was sent there and for his coverage he
won a prize from the overseas press club. In 1968 he was reassigned to the United
States and moved to Washington. The following year he resigned from ABC.
In the 1950's and 1960's Jaffe had a brilliant run as a newspaper and broadcast
journalist, however, in 1969 allegations circulated regarding Jaffe's connection with the
KGB based on information supplied by Nosenko. The FBI reported:
1. Sam Jaffe‟s relationship with the Agency predates his assignment to
Moscow as an ABC correspondent. During the period 1958 to 1960 while
in New York, Jaffe was an FBI confidential informant on his Soviet
contacts. In addition, he had several meetings with the Domestic Contacts
Division New York office. While in Moscow with ABC, Jaffe felt he was the
Subject of a KGB recruitment attempt in 1962. He recounted his story to
the Regional Security Officer at the American Embassy, Moscow, copies
of which went to both the CIA and FBI. Jaffe covered the trial of Gary
Powers for the ABC Television Network, and flew on the same plane from
New York to Moscow with Barbara Powers' party. Prior to that trip, he was
briefed by a CIA psychologist on ways to observe Power's behavior and
demeanor. Jaffe was mever “ordered” to cover the Powers‟ trial, but
simply acting as an enterprising newspaperman befriending Barbara
Powers while her party was enroute and in the Soviet Union.