HOW RUSSIA STEALS U.S. DEFENSE SECRETS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200880012-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 8, 2010
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: May 25, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/08 :CIA-RDP90-008068000200880012-0
ARTICLE APPEARED
pl; PAGE 9''
U:S. NEL~S & 410RLD REPOR
25 May 1981
~.
F. ~? j ~ t, S C Y,~ ~~
Bribery, blackmail, outright
theft-anything goes for
l?Aoscow. Can Reagan succeed
where others have failed in
foiling the Kremlin raiders?
A bizarre operation-mounted by U.S.
agents against a Moscow bound airliner
in mid-Say dramatizes growing con-
cern over a global raid by Soviet mili-
tary planners on Western. technology.
i,iinutes before ara Aeroflot jetliner
was scheduled to take off from Dulles
International Airport outside ~Vashing-
ton, D.C., the agentsclambered aboard
and seized three cartons suspected of
containing "defense elated items."
As it turned out, Customs officials
subsequently announced that they had
acted on an erroneous tip and that thz
shipment was, in fact, legr?.
The episode-denounced by iVloscow
as "terrorism and gangsterism"-points
up the Reagan administration's resolve
to block a hemorrhage oEWestern tech-
nological secrets to Russia_
Through bribery, blackmail, espio-
nage and theft, the .Kreiniin's agents
are getting their hands on highly ad-
vanced U.S. products-despite strin-
gent safeguards and an embargo on ex-
ports of this type of technology to the
Soviet Union.
The problem is not a lack of controls.
The embargo, in effect for years on
items with direct military use, now is
almost total-tightened by President
Jimmy Carter after A?ioscow's invasion.
of Afghanistan.? President Reagan
wants to turn the screws even more.
But this supposed bamer is proving
to b~ porous. State Department offi-
cials say leakage of American products
through allied and neutral countries-
particularly Switzerland
and Sweden-is high.
Active traders. While
American sales of all
types of goods to the So-
viet Union have plum-
meted from a projected
4.8 billion dollars to only
1.5 billion dollars in
1980, Soviet imports
from Western countries
actually have risen by 18
r
A
For Senator Henry Jackson (D-
Wash.),.the hemorrhage of technology
bears out the prediction made years
ago by Bolshevik chief Nikolai Lenin
that greedy Western capitalists would
"supply the rope" for Russia to hang
the West. As Jackson puts it: "The U.S.
and its allies have been selling the rope
to the Soviets. What eve haven't sold or
given away, they have been stealing."
The result: A steady flow of sensitive
and vital Western know-how to Soviet
armies and military industry. The mag-
nihide of Russia's effort is amply shown
in a sampling of its successes brought
to light in recent years-
_e In California, an American compa-
ny sold sophisticated laser mirrors to
the Soviet Union, despite an export
ba.*-. These devices reportedly could be
used to enhance research on Russia's
laser weapons. - . `
r Seismographic equipment legally
obtained from an on-exploration com-
pany in Texas now is being installed in
Soviet ships. Instead of searching for
oil, the sensitive gear can be used to
help pinpoint U.S. submarines.
'r Despite official U.S. concern, Swe-
den sold the Russians anair-traffic-con-
trol system so advanced that it can dis-
tinguish aircraft from missiles and even
track planes that are not emitting any
radio signals.
r A 1.5-million-dollar. shipment of
U.S. computer equipment-barred
from export to Russia
because of its high level
of sophistication-was
.purloined through a net-
work of middlemen in
Canada, Austria, Israel
and Holland.
I~'o one can be sure
that other technological
Clandestine Soviet efforts are not
new. But the Russian assault on tech-
nology today shapes up as different
from any it has mounted in the past.
Now, Moscow is orchestrating what
intelligence experts describe as a com-
plex. operation that ranges from tech-
nology-rich companies in California to
the office high-rises and back streets of
other industrialized nations.
The most obvious facet of Russia's
strategy is a surge of classical espionage
against firms manufacturing comput-
ers, lasers, fiber optics, electronics and
other strategic goods. In fact, these
companies are now the chief focus of
Russia's spy agency, the KGB.
The iYUSSians have a fat target. In just
one area-California's high-technology
"Silicon Valley"-hundreds of firms
have access to classified data. Nation-
wide, sensitive technological informa-
tion is routinely made available to
more than 11,000 American compa-
nies-some of which have only lax in-
ternal-security safeguards.
The result is an influx of Soviet
agents. As William H. Webster, direc-
tor of the FBI, describes the situation:
mong majo
~ y:.: -- ~?~.;,~ ~ ~ ~ .,~,.,-
percent.
NATO allies. only Brit- s~lti+'~ ~ .~- ..~ v
Soviet crew tells of rani on
Aeroflot planes?by federal
against leakage of U.S. se-
crets. Thy seized cargo
ain nos nv~ u-c Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/08 :CIA-RDP90-008068000200880012-0
.__a.- ...t-1. A..~