by emad » Fri Dec 09, 2005 1:31 pm
<br>Komsomolskaya Pravda<br><br><br>Former KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov spent 20 years in the Soviet intelligence agencies. In an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily he reveals what the KGB knows about UFOs and other supernatural phenomena, life in space and secret agents’ secret methods.<br><br>The media keep telling us about UFOs and a variety of other supernatural phenomena. Researchers and cosmonauts may have different opinions on the matter, but all of them are sure of one thing: that exact information can be obtained from the intelligence agencies. You headed the Soviet secret service for the longest period of time, 17 years, that is, from 1971 to 1988. You also chaired the KGB from 1988 to 1991. You must be able to give us the ultimate truth — are there any UFOs out there?<br><br>We have never received any proof whatsoever that UFOs or other supernatural phenomena actually exist. <br><br>The authorities asked me many times to prove or refute reports of this or that inexplicable incident on the planet. Most frequently I received requests concerning UFOs and yetis, the “snow people”. I would commission our best specialists and agents to find out where the reports that worried society so much came from. In the end it always turned out to be pure imagination. Sometimes an ignorant observer would interpret an unfamiliar phenomenon in a mystical way, sometimes a perfectly ordinary event would be called supernatural to make news. Often the people would add the KGB knew about the supernatural phenomenon, but wanted to keep it secret.<br><br>With full responsibility I have to state — never ever during the long period of my work with the intelligence service was anything really supernatural spotted, either in Russia or in any other country. When I say “other country”, I rely on the information from the highest officials, military, research and of course the intelligence agencies of foreign states. <br><br>The point is, in every “important” country presidents, prime ministers and secret service chiefs requested investigations into resonant abnormal incidents. And in every case, in each country, competent people would give one and the same answer — no. I have personally read copies of these reports.<br><br>I finally came to the conclusion that, for better or for worse, there is nothing supernatural on the Earth.<br><br>Then how do you explain the annual self-ignition of the sacred fire in Jerusalem?<br><br>I’m afraid I must disappoint you — it is just smart work, or if I may say so — a trick of the local clergymen. It has nothing to do with the divine powers. I could go further and say that our KGB researchers could organize a couple of miracles in Moscow that would totally outshine the Jerusalem fire. But this would mean playing games with believers’ religious feelings. This is utter disrespect, relying on their ignorance of some natural phenomena and secret scientific inventions.<br><br>However, I do not rule out the possibility of us having neighbors in the endless depths of space. Space abounds with various life forms, but of course they have nothing in common with the stories that indecent researchers and mentally ill people tell us. Actually the only accident that inspired serious theories was that of the Tunguska meteorite… <br><br>Did the Soviet authorities commission you to get information about the Tunguska comet from the U.S.?<br><br>No. Because there was not a single clue to start from. If we had had something, we would have tried to investigate, but we didn’t! And neither did the U.S. nor any other country. <br><br>By the way, the Americans tried conducting so-called “parapsychology experiments”, but made no progress. Neither did our own research institutes in this respect, although we also conducted some research… There are more exaggerations than achievements here. <br><br>More precisely, no discoveries at all, and this with the efforts of the KGB’s best, most extraordinary thinkers. This is a field that generations can explore for years, and still discover nothing. So you have to be careful when approaching it, and give no promises to anybody, but persistently continue the research. Then maybe you can answer some of the expectations by revealing something new. <br><br>So all these rumors of the KGB’s ’zombifying’ its agents, or of whole closed special-mission towns, this is sci-fi fantasy, playing games with an ignorant and spooked public. At the same time the subject looks fairly promising to me; we know so little about the human body, while the experiments show it has an amazing potential…<br><br>So, what I want to say is that — had there been anything at all, our agents would have informed me immediately.<br><br>Books and movies about spies are packed with stories of mysterious deaths. Venoms that are impossible to trace, unheard of weapons and murderous fighting techniques. Now is any of that true? Who and in what case would act this way?<br><br>All of this is true. Some still is. But “the fashion” today is a battle of minds. Intelligence agents, and especially espionage agents try to outwit their opponents with complicated operations. They try to fool their opponents.<br><br>Actually the murder of Stepan Bandera was one of the last cases when the KGB disposed of undesired people by means of violence. The USSR abandoned those methods in the times of Andropov, at the beginning of the 1980s.<br><br>The West proclaimed the same non-violence policy, but we have information raising doubts that, say, the Americans follow this policy. We witnessed agents who were U.S. nationals disappear, and then learned they were dead.<br><br>Is it possible to steal a person from a foreign country and secretly bring them to Russia?<br><br>Well, technically this is no problem at all! Just name him! More important here is the issue of relations between Russia and other states.<br><br>The times when we stole people are gone. If you steal a person today, and another tomorrow — who can guarantee other states will not start thinking badly of us? They may decide that Russia is not to be trusted, is not to be dealt with. Relations with other countries are more important for Russia than success in a single case.<br><br> <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://mosnews.com/interview/2005/12/06/kgbchief.shtml">mosnews.com/interview/200...hief.shtml</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
