E. GERMAN SAID TO AID DISSIDENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201720006-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: October 9, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25: CIA-R P90-00965R000201720006-7
WASHINGTON POST
9 October 1985
E. German Said to Aid Disside
'Lawyer Reportedly Seeks Terms for Release of Sakharov
By William Drozdiak
Washington Poet Foreign Service
masked in 1974 as an East German
spy, contributing to Brandt's down-
fall. Guillaume served seven years of
a 13-year sentence before being re-
leased in a spy trade in 1981.
The intelligence sources said the
release o - the two Soviet dissidents
does not appear likely fore the
summit meetin Nov.
tween President Reagan and Gor-
bachev. But they suggested that
going so shortly thereafter could
cushion disappointment f om a po-
tentially unsuccessful Geneva meet-
in dominated conflicts over
arms control.
Vogel, a confidant of East Ger-
man leader Erich Honecker, has
cultivated close contacts in Moscow
and Washington by frequently serv-
ing as a conduit in human traffic
between the two superpowers as
well as the two German states.
Vogel's role in the current nego-
tiation was first reported by the
West German weekly news maga-
zine Der Spiegel last weekend. The
magazine cited no sources for its
article, but one American official,
describing Vogel as "something of a
self-promoter," speculated that the
lawyer himself might have leaked
the story initially.
Last June, Vogel arranged the
release of 25 East Bloc detainees
accused of aiding western intelli-
gence services. In a ceremony at
Berlin's rickety Glienicker Bridge,
they were delivered into the cus-
tody of Richard Burt, assistant sec-
retary of state for European affairs
and now U.S. ambassador to West
Germany, in exchange for four East
Europeans charged or convicted of
espionage in the United States.
[In Washington, State Depart-
ment officials dealing with Soviet
affairs said they have not heard
Vogel's name mentioned in internal
U.S. government discussions about
Sakharov and,Scharansky. Howev-
er, the officials acknowledged that
the plight of the two dissidents "is
what one called "an absolutely top
priority, front-burner issue for us
and one that we raise with the So-
viets at every opportunity."
[They said the cases of Sakharov
and Scharanksy are raised by the
United States in every bilateral
meeting with Soviet officials. In ad-
dition, the officials added, the Unit-
ed States has assigned a high pri-
ority.to obtaining all the informa-
tion it can gather about the where-
abouts and health of the two men.]
Vogel's most spectacular exploit
in spy swapping occurred m
wen a secured the trade at the
same Glienicker Bridge of Francis
Gary Powers, the reconnais-
sance pilot shot down over te
viet Union, for Col. Rudolf Abel a
top-ranking Soviet spy convicted in-
the unnad States.
Over t ~e past two decades,
Vogel, 59, has gained most noto-
riety by acting as broker for East
German political prisoners or
would-be expatriates whose release
is paid for, often according to their
professional rank, by the West Ger-
man government.
More than 20,000 East Germans
are believed to have gained passage
out of jail to freedom in the West at
a cost estimated as high as $1 bil-
lion. Originally Bonn paid for their
release in scarce commodities, such
as coffee, oil or machinery, but in
recent years many transaction have
been conducted in cash.
Freedom for a doctor or profes-
sor might cost as much as $100,000
while a laborer is sent to the West
for as little as $10,000.
In his rare encounters with west-
ern reporters, Vogel has dismissed
charges that he maintains a hand-
some income and friendships in
powerful places by serving as a
"flesh peddler."
He has said that his true motiva-
tion is to reunite divided German
families and to earn compensation
for the costs incurred by the East
German socialist system in training,
and educating those who decide to
leave for the West.
BONN, Oct. 8-The United
States is seekin to gam t e re ease
of Soviet dissidents Midrei Saklia-
rav and t Scharansicy
through the mediation of o gang
oge , the East German a er
'who often acts as an intermediary in
.th exc a~f spies an po its
prisoners, western intellie gence
.sources said.
menc and West German of-
'icia s have re to ivu de-
'tailsabout gel's role in secret
egotiations or who initiated the
,contacts. But inte i ence sources
confirmed tat oge is involved in
ne of atin terms for the freedom
of a rov, the Nobel Prize-win-
rung p ysicist, an aransk , -a
Soviet Jew and computer scientist.
An early release of the two re-
nowned dissidents has acquired
greater urgency because both of
them are known to be in failing
health. Scharansky, denied the right
to emigrate to Israel to join his
wife, was jailed seven years ago and
is being kept virtually incommuni-
cado. Sakharov, forced to live under
internal exile in Gorki, was last
seen in two film reels released in
June undergoing medical treatment
for serious heart and circulatory
problems.
One of the difficulties that has ap-
parently arisen in the surreptitious
bargaining is a strong American re-
luctance to implicate the two dissi-
dents in any deal that might brand
them as traitors, the sources said.
It is believed the Russians are
seeking an exchange for key spies
held in the United States, but the
administration wants to avoid equat-
ing Scharansky and Sakharov with
foreign agents.
Several years ago, Vogel tried to
arrange a swap of Scharansky for
Guenter Guillaume, a trusted aide of
chancellor Willy Brandt who was un-
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201720006-7