CLASSIFICATION REVIEW OF ARTICLE ON INTERVIEW WITH HARRY ROSITZKE, 'THE SPY GAME - - MORE CLOAK THAN DAGGER' (THE WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 3, 1981)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85B00236R000200070008-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 22, 2005
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: September 29, 1981
• Content Type: MF

ARMINISTRAT1VE - !KW 11 ONLY
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STAT mimoRANIxim FOR:
STAT FROM:
SUBJECT:
STAT
Office of General Counsel
Director of Information Services, DDA
OM Registry -1
000-nly
29 SEP 1981
Giassiication Review of Article on Interview
with Harry Rositzke, "lhe Spy Game -- More
Cloak Than. Dagger" The Washington Post,
September 3, 1981)
REi =',RENCE: OGC 81-08061, 21 September 1981
Tho captioned article has been reviewed by the Classification Review
Division, OTS, which has determined that the article contains nothing of a
classified nature. The article reveals Rositzle's personal opinions and
information on intelligence matters and incidents already in the public
domain. lho information on "sending people into the Ukraine" essentially
was published in Rositzke's book entitled The CIA's Secret Operations --
Espionage, Counterespionage and Covert Action (Reader's Digest Press,
1977). Each of the several cases in the articLe concerning Soviet recruit-
ment successes against American nationals also has been reported previously
in the news media.
Attachment:
Newspaper Article: "The Spy Game
More Cloak Than Dagger"
Distribution:
Orig - Addressee Watt
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ADMINISTRATIVE - INTERNAL USE Mr
STAT
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Nape
Me Arts
reicvisiort/ClasAlied C
am e
13%, Henry
Oh favorite enemy, oh noliwed
blackguard, liarry Itosit?r,ke may not
yearn to be grapplift.: with von
again, with your dirty pcnire black-
mail schemes your microilims .tud
paranoia, hut h.., caxt niue is
it
ROSitZke pitifltit ltirt)1.1 it !eiiCC at
the shuttered windows, the inan?kard
lurk, the Victorian glo,,m, he tele
vision surveillance camera- of 0/e
Soviet Embassy on I61.1 N.ft!et.
The KGB residencYa ashing-
t, is ;10 Lo - Top-
glip, (nit e
,!ineuring
outer joeks,
like the notorious Fed ,,i.a unveiled
ia The ?Vashington n/day, who
knows. Not that the:, noyd any ot
them, ,,ometimes. iituteritait
at the Titan base just ,A;I(Kod hu
referriag to t t2hcisto
oher NI. Cooke, ccli v tot trii0
at ;\ lit Air It ias,on char-
ge:- of delivering military secrets to
the embassy, in pkin view of Fill
8uuveillance.
Rositzke stares ;it the embassy.
h's one of' a lot of Soviet embassies
he did a lot of thinking ahi/ut during
bL c;!r,4er as t Soviet intelligence
with Len
iii the middle otfilw building et the
heart," he say..
'I 'he heart?
code row)a he file room.
peopk, ;iccess
;irr one or two orks, fairly low-
ii K that's %vh,,, they always
bet.tuse
c hiti he ,anie says,
jckti oh somy .erp,ants
who ,,c'er.! en ti i. WO) in the.
1?..thsii spy iApp.; i ia. the E.Cd.i:
Rob( la Lee ?Joht(-:oit, who was per-
i IF break 6,0/ th. vault or the
,;ray h).1.0.-, t`,?,oricv ?rtal.ioo. it
r; T. Co, I
CPYRGH
Arn3M154eTrir
aff?r81370771-2'r CIARDPel$3580216
CPTRGH
k Frimee Master Sgt. Roy
t?hodes, yyh,) was blackiniited in
1,10aeow hv ktlk 'seductress ..
the Ritseians Rositzke
atece- ,inst now. He is stand-
a,e 1. aa-aeinia iiiitside the eta--
Hen-a lie 7n. anti la yea-, retired
Russianiwatelling
?taie Hi Munich, New York,
???,:ca,e ;eat Washington. He is
author at "The KGR--- The
ot hi which he says
that the Kt )ii is the world's best
-intelligence organization.
Ile paint,. ia the industrial forest
antennas claim!, over the erntmeay.
hr roorn is the heart, these
e the ears ,,ind eves of the KGB
itieration hecv.
rboy ank,ereot microwave trans-
missions. There's a computer that
/is whieb fremiencies to monitor.
la the early '7(k, they could monitor
all the telephoue calls to and from
the Depart MeOt Of Agriculture, and
they ended iip knowing more about
the American tc,rain market than we
That's hiav they got that great
erain neat stays with a bark of
admiration
It his voice, the sound of
a cop who (7,ele to Mayor the in-
0:01is rah,. IV.
built a new embas-
!,e, and tie), \as go if On a piece of
tied that's a Mile higher, yeah," he
afes. He par1; off toward a nearby
leael tOr ice) of coffee, about, a
paiik etealesinoked d(i-Ms (he
It-sate-It) and some
reeninieci nia
ble's a 1-t7aolcivn kid, he says in
ae paneled snogness of tlui hotel
nias i`y;lot It Hie ()SS/CIA type,
eathing can ;nienously Ivy F.eague or
elloot him, in his odd
o.eiiiiinatian et (+ailing seersu-
eli:ec snit anil desert hoots -- his ac-
cent reminiarcat of the late Henry
',Allier's, his iblight in a kind
visceral badinage and the sense
inat in hark of ad his sidewalk
ca.irm. be is keeping very careful
snore indeed. It's not surprising,
...i ,tnehow. that he raises calves to be
slaughtered for veal on his :150-acre
Cam] in Middleburg, Va. property
Isi bought tor $100 An acre back in
t.lai 'fats, before Middleburg was fa-
i amiable.
He should be George Smiley, the
iiihn ( arce spy novel hero a
little out of the mold, a scholar. Ro-
'etzke got 1.1 Phi) in Germanic
iilatolog,y from Harvard in 1935, but
once liejiiined the Office of Strategic!
Ilarr3( Rositzke
Services in World War II, he never
lookeii ill
"I eau- ins( rereatlinr: part of
?Sunilge.'s "1w says. "The
point ia iandemii training leads you
I'' the finis, to weigh thie
fact.,.. But Smiley conldn't exist in
any real environment.-
In 1.946, with Russia still our ally,
Rositzke asked for a job nobody
wanted at tidying Soviet intelli-
gence opera ions. He moved into an
office in an old World War I bar-
racks by the Piitianac. He writes:
"The iyaIlu ea're poll:marked with
holes and the ceiling smudged with
stain' from the rain and snow that
leaked through the fragile roof. It
had no carpet. It was furnished with
one antique green desk . ," and
with a daily companion, "the head of
registry, a bright, dignified, precisely
articulate lady who smoked cigars.
She combed the files for captured
documents that- might conceivably
he useful to nie."
From 1949 to l9:11 Rositzke
occupied with running agents in the
Soviet- t
a "Wu were sending people into the
Ukraine people forget that diem
was 00 active resistance moveme?t
there until, let's see. 1953 -- that
was the last year I sent anybody into
the tikraiiie. We'd fly them in and
parachute them from C47s. We
never lost a plane. Wo were pleased
to see how inefficient the anti-
aircraft faces were. I'll show you
how priinitive ice were. We had word
there v It some kind If uranium
plant, and the only' way we could
find out Wil ...110 eend a guy in to get a
bottle of waler di ww4ream from the
plant, then bring the bottle of water
back out ot the country."
Later. back in Washington, Ro-
sitzke lunched regularly with Kim
Phithy, the high-ranking British in-
telligence officer who turned out to
have been a Russian spy since the
'305,
"We used to g,) to the old Martin's
together. God, t) work 10, 12 years
under the kind of preasnre he did,
and never make i stip - -- and he was
quite a heavy drinker. I think he
started out as a believer. You know,
you're 21, '22, 23, whatever he was
nulann tilesmaniell Civil War, and
obviously the Loyalists are on t:
right side. But after a while I iinie
he had to keep telling himself a
believed, be 75' by that time
ti13 la ?X. they had him."
This is the K(111 style, alter
You sign a receipt for cash, you
photographed in lied with the Ki
partner of your particular taste, or
search of softie egotistical salista ?
tion you offer your services to thee
and soon you're hooked -- and
more you're you're hooked the more :le
have to blackmail yuu with.
Rositzke says: ataa) aewe
stand the importance of monry
our society - - they knov,- that .
man's status is determined lity
rich he is. An FBI friend was tellie
me the other day about them givir
$20,000 in cash to one Asner,'a7:
When his wife opened the hat lines,'
door, she found him sitting in fit
bathtub throwing S20 bills in tits. aa
Usually, though, the rule is nt -
pay so much money that it rritice-,
their agent conspicuous. There vaes
sergeant at the Pentagon who at:'
caught because he We tit 0111.
bought a Cadillac."
Rositzke says that we don't itec
the sexual gambit against the Los-
501115.
"We gig pictures of a high-rat-tide-a
Russian in South anwrica who i.voe
quite a ladies' man. We had hire
with the wives of officials. 1,,Vc
showed him the pictures and he ae-
latialted. Ile didn't care. Then ea
tried it with a homosexual, and le
just said 'My boss knows alreaity.-
Thit's the difference between tb
two societies ? they don't have ilea
puritan thing that We do. There
no goial female targets on the Res
sian side because they keep thea
women more secluded. But they're
always after our secretaries, Girt
abroad, single, lonely . . ," he ssya
lapsing into a curt jargon he enjoy
such as the KGB instruction to its
officers: "Make purposeful acquain
lance ..." and "Spot and study."
'rhere are about dri0 KGB 10071
this country, he estimates, most el
them involved in gathering scionii0,
and technical data. There mav Itt
lot. of cloak, but very' little dagger
"They haven't targeted , anyone ''17
iiasossination :11151' 1362," lit'
"And laifOre that it was only detee
lora or high-ranking emigres,"
AppiTyieAci!,?rmIgliptomp42G00,12Z(12 : CIA-RDP85600236R000200070008-8
rid the Sp
Washington, he says, is a terrible
city for them: It's too small, and peo-
ple are too seellfity -conscious. "The
KGB residency here is probably no
more than :I0 to 40 guy's. New York
is where they do well. They have all
those subways, they have crowded
streets with lots of people talking in,
foreign accents, and they have all
those United Nations contacts. My'
idea of a vacation would be to be a.
KGB man in New York,"
Why not throw them all out?
Well, they have a certain value to
us as well as to their bosses. Rositzke
vrites: "Spies in tlw right places can
induce a feeling of security by nega-
tive reporting or guarantee no stra-
tegic surprises by positive reporting.,
Their value in reducing the (normal)
paranoid tendencies of the Soviet
mind should not be underestimated."
He dismisses the fears of jour-
nalist Claire Sterling that the Rus-
sians are behind world terrorism. "As
you know, we're in a 'Soviet menace'
stage of history. She uses all those
umbrella terms that don't mean very
much." And he dismisses the novel
'The Spike," in which Arnaud de
Borchgraye warns of Soviet infiltra-
tion into the media, among other
'This is shoddy ? de Borch-
grave isn't willing to name names.
Maybe he ought to, if agents are
working against American interests,
inthr
In fact, given the great competi-
tion between the first and second
worlds, Rositzke isn't sure that spies
are terribly important. "What role do
they play'? It's way down there."
lewd to imagine, for 0 mo-
ment, why Rositzke has felt his life's
work was important until he starts
describing the "bread and butter" of
recruiting agents, of dealing with
them. It's not money that counts,
really, he says. It's not ideology, ei-
ther. He thinks hack to all the con-
tacts he made in New Delhi, in New
York, and a little lopsided wise-guy
smile starts working around the cor-
ners of his mouth.
"It has to get more personal, you
have to find out the guy has a pro-
blem. Look at Shevchenko, that guy
at the U.N., he didn't like his wife.
Or maybe you're worried about your
career, or you've got a mistress and
you need some money for her, or
you're a Polish intelligence officer
ame
110110101...-
OOO 4 .
and you have a brother who emigra-
ted to South America. Maybe we get
something going, with the brothei,
and one day he sho?cs up for a sin -
prise visit. Personal stuff. That's
how it always happens. Anything t.,)
have a relationship. But all the time,
both sides know exactly what's going
on, but you can't say so."
And Rositzke seems to take a sud -
den, sly step backward to look at th?
journalist he's been chatting with,
and the old instincts take over, a
delight in the caginess of the KGB,
his lifelong interview.
"Journalists," he says, with e
throaty laugh full of cynical satisfac-
tion. "They like journalists. Jour -
nalists know people that they ware
to know. Say I'm the KGB guy, and
I've got cover as a diplomat. We ger.
to know each other, and one day
say, 'I've got a friend who edits this
magazine in Moscow. why don't you
write si hing for it'?' And you
write it, I say, 'Very interesting.
Can I pay you fin- this?' And i give
you, you know, nothing, just $25 or
so, But you're on your way to being
had."
The real heart of a KGB opera-
tion would seem to he not the code
room, but .. . the Elliman heart. Ro-
sitzke stares, nods, and thinks about
it. Human frailty, and all that. The
KGB gave him a lifetime to study it,
tight it, exploit it. Why shouldn't he
be grateful in an odd sort of way?
"What you're always looking for is
a personal bond with a slight ele-
ment of obligation," he sa3s, a
phrase which also describes the
usual atmosphere of n newspaper
interview, as it happens. And this
discovered, a certain sLed behind
Rositzke's rumpled exterior begins to
shine through. Somehow, for a cou-
ple of hours it's possible to forget
that he's all business, but the inter-
view is over nay, and in his anony-
mous raincoat and gently eccentric
desert boots, he picks up his brief-
case, shakes hands and walks out the
door.
vilitst..-vosOmmeisoolimietwiiiiiimmiwasmormrisomnasonare
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Approved For Reliaase 2005/07/12 : CIA-RDP85600236R00020007
-rc egis try
OGC 81-08061
21 September 1981
MEMORANDUM FOR: Thomas White, DDA/ISS
FROM
SUBJECT
Office of General Counsel
Classification Review of Article on
Interview With Harry Rositzke,
"The Spy Game - More Cloak Than Dagger"
(The Washington Post, September 3, 1981)
The captioned article was brought to the attention of the
Publications Review Board.
In order to determine what, if any, action should be taken
by the Agency in this matter, could you please undertake a
classification review of the article and provide me with the
results of that review?
Thank you for your assistance.
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