SOVIETS BLACKMAILED DIPLOMAT FOR NATO DATA, NORWAY SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606750015-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: February 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606750015-3
p^.?t1~'i.E APP~.A~ED
I PIN
oil f X, 26 February 1985
soviets blackmailed diplomat
for NATO data, Norway says
OSLO, Norway (AP) - Former
Norwegian diplomat Arne Treholt
was photographed during an sex
orgy at a private party in Moscow
and blackmailed into giving secrets
about NATO's nuclear weapons to i
the Soviet Union, a government
prosecutor said yesterday.
Chief Prosecutor Lars Qvigstad
outlined the state's case against Mr.
Treholt at the opening of the most
sensational spy trial in Norwegian
history.
He accused Mr. Treholt of provid-
ing information about NATO nuclear
weapons and their possible wartime
use, revealing defense
arrangements along NATO's
northern frontier with the Soviet
Union and giving Moscow inside
reports on the thoughts of top West-
ern leaders.
Mr. Qvigstad said many aspects of
the case, were too secret for open
court, but he described secret meet-
ings in Vienna, Helsinki,.New York
andOslo and messages left in toilets,
automobile exhaust pipes and on
tables in a U.N. library.. He said Mr.
Treholt also provided information to
Iraq.
Chief Judge Astri Sverdrup read
15 pages of accusations. Mr. Treholt,
42, once considered a star of Nor-
way's Foreign Ministry, stood calmly
in the dock and denied the charges.
"I never revealed anything refer-
ring to the security of the country in
the points referred to in the indict-
ment," he said. "I cannot therefore
plead guilty to the eight points of the
indictment"
A panel of seven judges is hearing
the case. If found guilty of the
charges, Mr. Treholt will face a
maximum sentence of 20 years in
prison.
The indictment charged that Mr.
Treholt was carrying 66 secret
NATO documents for delivery to I
Soviet agents in Vienna when he was
arrested at Oslo's airport Jan. 20,
1984. In addition, Mr. Qvigstad said,
6,000 pages from 832 secret doc-
uments were found in Mr. Treholt's
apartment at the time of his arrest.
Mr. Qvigstad said Soviet KGB
agent Gennady Titov appeared to
have begun cultivating Mr. Treholt
as a contact by giving him gifts of
cognac and vodka. In 1975, when Mr.
Treholt was serving on a delegation
to Moscow, he was invited to a pri-
vate party that turned into an orgy,
the prosecutor said.
Mr. Titov confronted Mr. Reholt
with photographs from the party "a
short time later" ana asked him
about his access to secret material,
Mr. Qvigstad said.
Mr. Qvigstad gave no details about
the photographs.
In the years after that, Mr. Qvig-
stad charged, Mr. Treholt met Mr.
Titov in Oslo restaurants to give the
Soviet agent secret material to copy.
The documents were always
returned four hours later outside a
small store in suburban Oslo.
When Mr. Treholt later became
counselor to Norway's delegation to
the United Nations, he was assigned
to another Soviet contact, Vladimir
Zhishin, whom he met in New York
restaurants and the U.N. delegates'
lounge. Messages were left in rest-
rooms, the lounge and the U.N.
Library, Mr. Qvigstad said. i
By that time, Mr. Qvigstad said,
Norway had asked the U.S. Federal
Bureau of Investigation to watch Mr.
Treholt.
Despite the surveillance, when
Mr. Treholt returned to Norway he
was chosen to attend the National
Defense College in 1982-83.
Mr. Qvigstad portrayed Mr.
Treholt's admission to Norway's
defense establishment as a mistake
by Foreign Ministry administrators
who did not know Mr. Treholt was
suspected of espionage.
Among the information Mr.
Treholt is accused of providing were
confidential accounts of meetings
between Norwegian officials and
former Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger, former Chancellor Hel-
mut Schmidt of West Germany, for-
mer Prime Minister Pierre Elliott
Trudeau of Canada and former For-
eign Secretary Lord Carrington of
Britain.
Mr. Treholt opened a Swiss bank
account in 1982 with $32,000 he
claimed he made from the sale of a
Mercedes car he bought in New
York City, Mr. Qvigstad said.
A year later, the account took in an
additional $20,000, which Mr. Qvig-
stad said Mr. T1Teholt received from
Iraqi intelligence agent Rahdi A.
Mohammed.
Mr. Treholt allegedly gave Iraq
information about Israeli and Syrian
military matters, the positions of
Soviet forces near the Middle East
and Western views concerning the
region.
Mr. Treholt was accused of pro-
viding oil industry intelligence
obtained at the defense college, I
although the indictment did not
specify to whom he gave it. He also
was accused of passing along con-
fidential Western predictions of oil
production, American views of
internal Iranian and Saudi Arabian
politics and prospects for U.S.' mill- i
tary intervention in the Middle East.
Mr. Qvigstad said -Mr. Treholt
received about *$13,000 from Mr.
Titov, largely to pay travel expenses.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606750015-3