U.S. AGENCIES DIFFER ON FATE OF 11 SOVIETS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100017-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: October 8, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100017-9
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90 PAGGE_A _ ,_V
STAT
WASHINGTON POST
8 October 1986
U.S. Agencies
Differ on Fate
Of 11 Soviets
Revoking Expulsions
Of Some Discussed
By Walter Pincus
d David B. Ottaway
Washington Post Staff Writers
The fate of 11 Soviet diplomats
assigned to the Soviet mission to
the United Nations in New York has
become a bone of contention be-
tween State Department diplomats
and FBI and Justice Department
officials, according to informed of-
ficials.
The 11 diplomats were among 25
named by the United States as no
longer welcome in this country dur-
ing the flap over accused Soviet spy
Gennadi Zakharov and U.S. News &
World Report journalist Nicholas
Daniloff, charged with spying by the
Soviets. Fourteen of the 25 have
left the country, but the Soviets
have said they want some of the
others to stay.
A senior administration official
told reporters at the White House
yesterday that it was possible that
two or three of the 11 would be
allowed to remain in this country if
the Soviets can demonstrate that
they had been misidentified as in-
telligence operatives.
In a conversation in New York
with Secretary of State George P.
Shultz last month, Soviet Foreign
Minister Eduard Shevardnadze said
he "knew" that several of the 11
were diplomats whose work was
important to the Soviet mission,
and asked that the United States
reconsider their expulsion. Shultz
agreed at the time to a two-week
grace period beyond the original
Oct. 1 deadline for the departures.
Shultz told Shevardnadze to pro-
vide the names of those diplomats
who he thought should be allowed
to remain in New York. No names
have . been provided by Moscow,
State Department officials said yes-
terday.
Intelligence sources said yester-
dayt the 25 names were taken
rom a ist o initially orovi by
the Federal Bureau of Investiga-
ti n which identified them all as
intelligence operatives wor in out
o t e viet mission tot e
T e fate of the Soviet diplomats
in New York may come up at the
summit in Iceland this weekend.
Sources said yesterday that the
FBI is now concerned that for dip-
lomatic reasons, the Reagan admin-
istration may compromise on its
earlier demand that all 25 named
-Soviets leave New York.
How to handle the 1,500 official
Soviets in the United States has
long been a matter of dispute
among government agencies. The
State Department the CentralTn_-
telh ence Agency and the FBI have
di erent missions an thus different
approac es or re ucmg w at a
Senate intelligence committee re-
op rt on counterintelligence said
yester a were approximately 450
aov~et i omats in this country
w o are rea v intelligence agents.
The committee report noted that
the KGB, the Soviet secret police,
"has succeeded in infiltrating its
officers into the U.N. bureaucracy,"
including the position of assistant to
the secretary general. The assist-
ant was not named in the Senate
report, but the U.N. roster lists
Vladimir Kolesnikov of the Soviet
Union as one of Secretary General
Javier Perez de Cuellar's special
assistants.
The FBI, which has to keep track
of Soviet diplomatic activities in the
United States, wants the number
cut as quickly as possible on the
grounds that the bureau has insuf-
ficient investigative personnel to
keep track of all Soviet activities.
The CIA and State Department
want the overall number r aced,
but not at a ra e a wi cause
Moscow to retaliate by demanding
reciprocal reductions on t e S.
id pTomatic an mte i ence res-
ence in t at country. n a ition,
t e is re adapt o see a num-
r o viets ere re uc too
mac because it views them as a
pool of potential recruits.
~`he dif erin ints of view
among the FBI the an t e
State Department emerged last
mont when t e a minis ra on e-
sided to give the Soviets a list of
individuals at their three U.N. mis-
sions, including those the
LJKra an ve orussi-a w n
would have to leave the country by
Oct. 1. This was to be the first step
in a two-year program that began
last March to cut their missions
from .275 to 170 persons by April
1988.
The administration had ordered
the Soviet missions reduced to 218
by Oct. 1 but had received no infor-
mation from Moscow as to whether
it was ready to comply and, if so,
which members of the U.N. mission
were leaving.
Actually, the Soviets had already
begun the reduction, and claimed
they were below the 218 level when
the names were handed to them.
A State Department spokesman
said yesterday that Shultz still
stands. by the original expulsion or-
der that the remaining 11 Soviet
diplomats who have not actually left
yet must go.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201100017-9