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'Now I'm allowed to speak and I'm loving it' Grants Pass native Edmond Pope talks about contemplating life, and suicide, in a Moscow jail By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune Edmond Pope says when he was sick and depressed in a Moscow jail cell charged with spying, he thought of hiking in the woods of Oregon or floating the Rogue River, things he loved. "I made a list," he says. The worst moment of Pope's 253 days in Moscow's infamous Lefortovo Detention Center came on July 29 last year. He was sick, he'd apparently been drugged, and he was considering suicide. "I begged them to help," he says. "They laughed." Pope, 55, gave an interview while driving south on Interstate 5 from Portland to the Rogue Valley, where he plans several talks over the next few days. Pope was pardoned and freed Dec. 14 by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Although his case caught the world's attention when the Russians accused him of espionage, he says it's only now that the story can be told. That's because he agreed with Little, Brown, the publisher of his new book, "Torpedoed" (written with Tom Shactman), not to talk about his experiences until the book was published. "Now I'm allowed to speak," he says, "and I'm loving it." The book was released this month. For a look, visit Pope's Web site at www.edmondpope.com. Pope says the whole episode means that Russian hard-liners from the KGB came to power with Putin and are asserting their power. He says he was flabbergasted when a Tass reporter showed up at a press conference he held last week and accused him of trying to undermine the Bush-Putin summit. He says that struck him as the least realistic thing he's heard since spending most of last year in jail. "I didn't know I had that kind of capability," he says, laughing. Pope says that by later piecing together his own diary with details of what he says was an aborted plot to rescue him, he figured out that he'd been poisoned by the Russians in July. He believes he was being set up by the KGB and the Russian Mafia in a scheme to extort money from would-be allies and make him a fall guy. He's convinced that the scheme, which he says was hatched without his knowledge, would have led to his death and the chance for the KGB to crow over his body that it all proved he was a spy. A Grants Pass native and naval intelligence veteran, Pope was on his 27th trip to Russia as a businessman when he was arrested. After retiring from the Navy as a captain, he worked for Penn State University's Applied Research Laboratory. He later went to Russia representing two private companies, CERF Technologies International Inc., and TechSource Marine Group Ltd. He specializes in looking for civilian applications for products of Russian military science. On this trip, that involved a Russian torpedo. At first he figured it was routine harassment. It wasn't. They strip-searched him and threw him in a cell alone for four days without even a toothbrush. After 10 days, he was charged with espionage. He went through what he now says was the drug-caused illness, endless questioning (but no overt torture) and a trial. A rare form of bone cancer that had been in remission returned. His teeth weakened (they would require extensive dental work) from the poor prison diet. Found guilty, he was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor in Siberia, then pardoned. "It was a show trial, like the old Soviet Union," he says. Perhaps oddly, the Russians never questioned him about classified programs of which he had knowledge, more than 100 projects over the years. He was worried they would, but his fears were groundless. "They could have cared less," he says. "They never brought in specialists, psychologists. They ignored it all, thank goodness." Under Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, a pardons commission was formed to clear people unjustly convicted of crimes by the Soviets. Pardons continued under Boris Yeltsin and Putin, more than 12,000 over the years. Pope says he's the last person to be pardoned. The Russians published a book about Pope last spring, and the KGB has released a 30-minute television documentary. "It's a comedy," Pope says. "They show pictures of what's supposed to me in a trench coat with the collar turned up. It's a piece of trash." He says in the escape plan, American arms dealers working with the Russians would have agreed to an $800,000 payment with $400,000 to be paid up front. "They'd have kept the money and I'd be shot," he says. "It would've been perfect." He says the Americans behind the deal hoped to break up a log jam of Russian-American business deals in the wake of his arrest that cost them millions. He believes he was drugged so that he would appear sick and could be transferred to a Russian hospital. During the transfer, the rescue attempt would take place and be thwarted. He says his wife, Cheri, and U.S. Rep John Peterson of Pennsylvania got wind of the plan and succeeded in having it killed. He says that as his Russian lawyer talked to the press, the Russians recognized the familiar old KGB tactics, and the tide of public opinion turned in his favor. "In my mind, the very worst was that I'd be held two or three years and traded," he says. "The best was an immediate pardon." He says he became convinced he'd make it about three weeks after the suicidal time in July. "I regained my strength and I just laughed at them," he says. "When I wouldn't confess, they didn't know what to do." Pope says the episode is evidence that hard-line KGB elements are reasserting their power in Russia. Since his release, one of his Russian cellmates, a businessman named Serge, was committed to a mental hospital ("just like in the old days," Pope says), and two publishers have been driven from the country in a crackdown on press freedom by former KGB. "It's being done quietly," he says. "It's frightening." And Putin? "He's one of them." He applauds U.S. efforts to engage the Russians, but he adds a caveat: "Do not trust them." He says there's talk of a movie based on his ordeal. He won't say which actor he'd like to see play Ed Pope. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.