CLUMSY' U.S. AGENTS 'CAUGHT RED-HANDED,' SPANISH AIDE SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000200960003-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: February 20, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Si Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/13: CIA-R
I-,
a-MED
ON WASHINGTON POST
20 February 1985
the account given today by the Spanish of- Gonzalez's office. The foreign minister then
D P90-00965 R000200960003-5
Clumsy' U.S. Agents `Caught
e ?f au
By Tom B
urns
Special to The Washington Post
MADRID, Feb. 19-A senior Spanish of- ficial, who spoke on the condition that he - asked Enders to have both diplomats re-
#icial today displayed Photographs of the not be identified. called to the United States.
Communication tower - of the prime minis- -,According to his account, the two men Some sources have speculated that the
per's official residence in Madrid that he were spotted by a sentry during the lunch diplorfiats were investigating the import and
paid -had been taken by two U.S. diplomats hour on Jan. 28 as they approached the : reexport of sophisticated American tech
who were "caught red-handed" on Jan. 28 Moncloa Palace across a strip' of waste land. nology to Soviet Bloc countries, ..but the
;ly the residence's security staff.. McMahan, listed as a second secretary in Spanish official rejected this explanation.
The official called the incident "an untie- the embassy's political section, reportedly He called it, rather, a. case of "spies being
evably clumsy act of, espionage" and said was, photographing the palace's 90-foot- caught red-handed."
that one of the two diplomats injured a fun- high red-and-white communications tower The case, meanwhile, has fascinated thei
der belatedly attempting to open the cam-' with a.long-range camera -held at waist lev- Spanish public and damaged the standing of
__ el. Guards were sent out to investigate the U.S. government in some circles here.
S
ni
era and expose the film th
pa
sh
e
He also ridiculed the Americans' alleged the camera and attempted to expose the most supportive of Washington in Spain,
,efforts to surre titiousl whole film when he and Massey-were ap- said it will ask Gonzalez and his Socialist
p y photograph the from behind b government to explain the incident in par-
Rower at the Moncloa Palace, noting that proached by members of the liament. The Communist Party has, urged
;when President Reagan-visits Prime Min- security staff. In a brief struggle a Spanish
`inter Felipe Gonzalez in May "there will be officer secured the camera, slightly injuring that Reagan be asked not to visit Spain.
scores of U.S. photographers. here in the one of McMahan's fingers, the official said. The influential Madrid newspaper El Pais
said that at the very least the affair. had
*oncloa Palace and they will be able to take Both diplomats claimed they were tour- proved a disservice to the pro-NATO stand
11 the pictures they want of the antennae." ists taking photographs of buildings of ar-
"There must be 50 different ways in chitectural note in the vicinity of the pre- erendum next year gain endorsement of Gonzalez's government. He plans a.ref-
m ier s residence, according to the Spanish
which our antennae can be photographed contmu d membership in NATO - of
and we would be none the wiser," the offi- official. But he noted that they had not pTio-
cial said. tographed a futuristic building nearby that
Photographs of the palace are frequently
published and the government's ire seemed
directed more at the manner in which the
Americans allegedly acted and their focusing
has won Spain's top architectural prize."
He showed -photocopies of diplomatic res-
idence cards issued by the Foreign Ministry
that he said the men were carrying. They
suggestea an intelligence mission.
an apparent attempt to poke fun at the
Americans, Liberacion, a left-wing Madrid
newspaper, published a photograph Sunday
of the communications tower taken by one
of the paper's staff photographers.
While the Spanish government appeared
prepared, at least publicly, to shrug off the
incident, some officials privately expressed
concern about what they saw as U.S. will-
ingness to risk a serious diplomatic incident
less than three month s before Reagan's
arrival as part of a European tour.
The two Americans-Dennis E. McMa-
han and John F. Massey, both attached to
the U.S. Embassy here-have since re-
turned to the United States and the embas-
U.S. Embassy staff and Massey as attached
to the embassy, employed in a civilian ca-
pacity at the joint U.S.-Spanish air base at
Torrejon de Ardoz, east of Madrid. .
The film was developed in Gonzalez's
own private dark room, the official said, to
establish rapidly what the diplomats were
doing. It showed that they had taken one
photograph of an approach road to the res-
idence and six, all from the same angle, of
the communications tower
.
Gonzalez was informed of th~ incident,
the official said, and ordered that U.S. Am-
bassador Thomas 0. Enders be told.
Both men were released after a quarter
of an hour. Later Spanish intelligence offi-
cials said the photographs appears to be an
attempt to learn radio frequencies used by
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200960003-5