POLES IDENTIFY 9 AS AGENTS OF C.I.A.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707140004-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: January 29, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707140004-0
ARTICLE APPEARED
011
PAGE__ !~ ~
NEW YORK TIMES
29 JANUARY 1982
To one e side were e two d two glass-enclosed
POLES IDENTIFY - Er sid ewe
booths containing what was labeled as
American spy devices, including tran-
CiA sistor radios, cameras, code paper that
AS AGES.OF AGENTS was said to vanish on contact with
Police Film Purports to Show,
3 American Spies at Work 'l
-- 6 Others Are Cited
By JOHN DARNTON i
sr?6+t,oZa.I+.wYoe~nm.a "`.. ~.'~
WARSAW, San 23 - The Polish Gov
ernment accused - the United States
today of espionage. in Poland and said
the Central Intelligence " Agency had
played a significant role in creating
anti-Government opposition.
At a news conference, three colonels-
presented what they said was.evidence
.of spying. They showed film clips of
three diplomats once posted here.and
named six others stationed outside Po-
land who theysaidwere C.IA. agents:
The film was part of a five-part series
being shown on television. Titled "Who
is Who," it uses Interior Ministry film
purporting to show spies at work. - ,'
Poles said the television series was
more anti-American than anything that
they had seen since theheight of the cold
-war. It was regarded as a retort to-the
United States Government-sponsored
television program, "Let Poland Be PO:
land," which is to be aired on Sunday :,r ,,
.The accusations also appeared'-An-
tended to cast a further chill on contacts
between Poles and Westerners, espe-
cially diplomats, and. to undercut the
Solidarity trade union and dissident.
groups by - suggesting that tliey were.
linked with foreignsubversion:. ' ; _
One of the officers at the news confer=
ence, Col. Zbig lew-Wl lockl of the-
tenor Ministry's ?roounterintelligence
unit, said in response to a question that
actions of - Solidarity "aimed., at the
breaking of the.state were to?a signiti
cant extent the result of activities by the
U.S. secret services."t i t -~
United States diplomats here-derlded
the accusations in private and said pub-
lic comment on specific- charges-must
.come from the State Department.
Others at the news conference, which
was held at the Government press cen-
ter, were Col. Hipolit Sta_rszak, head of
the Interior Ministry's investigation bu-
reau, and Col. Boleslaw IClis, who is with
the MilitaryPrsecutor's Office,,:
hidden in the handle of a shaving brush.
Reporters examined the objects before
the conference opened, as a song sung
by Tom Jones was piped into the room.
The first film was about Leslie Stern-
berg, Identified as.a third secretary in
the- consular. division- of the United
States Embassy here from 1979 to 1981-
The film,- evidently taken from a mov-
ing van, shows a Fiat car-.being stopped
"for a routine road check,"-" on March 13;
1981. Inside the trunk, according to the
narration; were found printing ink, bro-
chures and leaflets from the Confedera-
tion for an Independent Poland, a dissi-
dent group. Miss Sternberg is shown
standing grim-faced beside the car and
Embassy Job is Called Cover.
The camera zeroes in on her Amen.
can passport.
"It was learned that she speaks ?Pol-
ish, but not well enough to answer cer-?
tain questions; ' the narration says, add-
ing that her embassy job was a cover for
collecting information,. such.-as- the
home addresses of police officials:.
. The second episode concerned Peter
Burke, described as a second secretary
. in the embassy's political section in 1979
and "an important spy." The film shows
his identity papers, his'local residence
and then a park wherea stone had been
placed under a lamppost. A car is seen
stopping nearby, a man picking up the
stone- Then Mr. Burke is brought to po..
'lice headquarters"where, according to
the narration, "he keeps repeating 'I am
an Amercian diplomat" .r'. ;
Inside the stone, which is opened on
camera,.was said to be Information on
Poland's air defense sy ?
stn2. A close-up
of Mr. Burke's face follows-
"This is the man who worked for.,the
C.I.A-and slipped on a stone in Poland,"
the narratorsa ?--F-'-
ysj ?s. ~ PoleTells of Vietnam Incident
A third segment was about anuniden-
tified Pole, the man who was said to
have left the stone. He describes on film
how he was recruited by the Americans
while a member- of the Polish Control.
Commission in South Vietnam.
, The fourth concerned Alicia Wesolow-
1 ska, a Polish citizen who worked for the
United Nations and was arrested while
on a : visit herein August 1979, `was
I charged with espionage and is now serv-,
ing a seven-year sentence. Her case has
become an international cause celebre.
--:The film was'apparently made during
'idea, interrogation.,. Over , -a.- -scratchy
soundtrack, she-is seen saying that she
had provided "bits and pieces'^of infor---
rrationon diplomats at the--United Na-
tion t- nclt dink Russian;:-The-detaiLT
called -X-
side an a
longtime
szewski,
second
ical secti
.Romasze
meats to p
not being o
`Spy
Colonel Wi; --.,... u are uevernmentl
did not wantto create a "spy mania." i
"We are not planning to limit contacts 1
of Poles with Western embassies," he
said, "but frequently official contactsi
later change intosomething else,'
He acknowledg d?that Soviet-bloc na-
tions might also be using. spies.in the
West, but said; `.'Poland is not threaten-
ing anyone. We must defend ourselves
asa sma11 European country.'. :: , z
Colonel Wislocki gave the names and
positions of sit` people he said were
'C.LA. agents attached to United States
embassies mother-foreign capitals.
Many of them, Colonel Wislocki said,
tried to recruit Poles abroad to work for
theC:IA~,
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707140004-0