NEW YORK CITY: HOTBED OF SOVIET SPIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201110086-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 86
• Publication Date: January 18, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000201110086-2
STAT
Espionage agents disguised
as diplomats pour into New
York so fast they outnumber
the FBI. A favorite nesting
place: The United Nations.
York City a center of espionage.
ber of foreign diplomats and members
of their families stationed here has in-
creased by 13,000 in the last five years
to a new total of 35,000.
Russians are not only the most active
in spying here, but also the most nu-
merous. More than 700 Russians work
in the Soviet mission at the U.N., in the
U.N. secretariat or in Russia's various
civilian agencies such as the Amtorg
Trading Company, the Aeroflot airline
and Tass news agency. About 35 per-
cent--or more than 200-of those Rus-
sians are considered by Western intelli-
gence agencies to be active spies.
Copy fever? There are 168 Soviet
citizens on the U.N. secretariat staff
alone. A European familiar with their
operations was only half joking when
he said: "A third of the Russian contin-
gent there is actually do-
ing U.N. work. The rest
run around photocopying
everything they can lay
their hands on."
ssians
R
th
id
B
in the United States, Webster's 35 per-
cent spy rate would mean a total of
more than 1,000 diplomat spies-each
of whom could. be supervising several
agents.
Why is New York such a magnet for
spies? For one thing, the city is head-
NEW YORK quarters of the United Nations, a gold
Spying by the Soviet Union and its mine of information where diplomats
satellites is spreading rapidly through- from all over the world are stationed.
out the United States-but especially Hundreds of them are known to be
here in this city. The Communists have full-time intelligence agents; many oth-
turned New York into the spy capital ers double as part-time spies.
of the world. Another reason for New York's pop-
Alarmed by the surge in espionage ularity as a spy base is that many of
activity, the Federal Bureau of Investi- Communism's prime targets for espio-
gation has beefed up its counterintelli- nage are located here or close by. Be-
gence staff in New York, which now is sides the U.N. itself, the city houses
believed to number several hundred. headquarters of some of America's
Still, it cannot keep up with the rising largest corporations and financial insti-
number of Communist agents. tutions. Their employes can-and of-
Atty. Gen. William French Smith ten do-provide the Soviets with valu-
warned in a speech on December 18: able information.
"Over the last dozen years, the num- High tech. Communist agents also
ber of official 'representatives of gov- are lured by the presence in the New
ernments with hostile intelligence ac- York area of many aerospace and com-
tivities in our country has increased by puter companies, producers of ad-
400 percent." vanced technology that Moscow badly
FBI Director William H. Webster has needs but cannot make itself.
joined in sounding a warning, reporting The number of Communist officials
that 35 percent of so-called diplomats in the U.S. is expanding so rapidly that
from unfriendly nations are actually Attorney General Smith said "At one
professional spies. On an ABC News time, the FBI could match suspected
telecast January 3, Webster said there hostile intelligence agents in the United
has been "a rather extensive increase" States on a one-to-one basis. Now, the
recently in the number of :'foreign in- number of hostile agents has grown so
h that our FBI counterintelligence
h
,
u
e
es
es
New York is home base for hundreds of
spies representing Cuba, Vietnam and
the Communist countries of Eastern
Europe. They all cooperate and share
secrets with the Soviet Union.
As for China: Says FBI Agent Donald
J. McGorty: "I have no doubt the Chi-
nese are planting the seeds of a future
espionage operation, maybe by culti-
vating young college kids, but that is 30 '
years down the road. The Chinese are a
concern of ours, but not in the classical
espionage sense. They aren't meeting
in alleys and passing microfilm." I
Soviet agents here operate under the
direction of Vladimir Kazakov, 49, lo-
cal chief of the Kremlin's secret police
and intelligence agency, the KGB. Ka-
zakov's cover title is deputy perma-
nent representative to the U.N. under
Ambassador Oleg Troyanovsky.
Russia's top spy in the U.S., Dmitri I.
Yakushkin, also has a diplomatic cov-
er-as counselor at the Soviet Embassy
in Washington. He is reported plan-
ning to return to Moscow soon, after a
six-year Washington assignment.
The Russian spies in New York work
from the Soviet U.N. mission in mid- !
town Manhattan-just across the street
from the 19th Precinct police station-
and from a recently completed apart-
ment house in the Riverdale section of
the Bronx that houses Soviet personnel
and their families.
The roof of that apartment building
bristles with antennas for sophisticated
ere. muc rPta.i
telligenc?_..e:" " individuals
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000201110086-2