BONN STARTS OVERHAUL OF SPY SYSTEM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201720010-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: August 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201720010-2
Bonn Starts ,
Overhaul of
Spy System
Official's Defection
Is Said to Trigger
Recall of Agents
By William Dnisdisk
WP Pwi s...e.
BONN, Aug. 24-The West Ger-
man government embarked on a
high-level security review and a
massive overhaul of its intelligence
services today following the defect
tion of one of its leading counter-
espionage officials to East Ger-
many.
Interior Ministry officials said
that a thorough reconstruction of
West Germany's domestic counter-
espionage system must take place
quickly and that foreign operations
would have to be altered. Some
Bonn agents reportedly were re-
called from the East for protective
purposes as soon as the defection
became evident.
The revelation yesterday that
Hans Joachim Tiedge, the man in
charge of tracking Eastern Bloc
spies inside West Germany, had
arrived in East Berlin to seek po-
litical asylum stunned Chancellor
Helmut Kohl's ruling center-right
coalition and caused consternation
in capitals of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization.
NATO officials and western dip-
lomats said the scandal would lead
allied governments to curtail ex-
changes of sensitive material with
the Bonn government because of its
vulnerability to penetration by
Communist agents.
As the third-ranking official for
counterintelligence operations,
Tkdgs. 48, had access to a broad
range of top-secret ithrmstioo.
Besides information on western
intelligence contacts in Eastern Eu-
rope, security sources said, Tiedge
knew the methods used in rooting
out East German agents and the
names of suspects under surveil-
lance.
One of the enigmas dominating
the urgent security review under-
taken by the Kohl government is
ARTICLE APJEARtED
ON PAGE - J--" WASHINGTON POST
25 August 1985
whether Tiedge served as a long-
term mole for East Germany during
his 19 years in counterintelligence
work, or whether his betrayal oc-
curred after he fell victim to serious
alcohol and debt problems in the
wake of his wife's death three years
ago.
Interior Ministry officials said
they believe Tiedge may have been
turned" only within the past six
months as his personal troubles
grew more acute.
But some nongovernment ex-
perts said that West Germany's fail-
ure to capture any important East
German spies since 1979 could in-
dicate that Tiedge had worked for
the Communists for a long time.
Even so, some intelligence spe-
cialists said knowing when the trai-
tor changed loyalties may be irrel-
evant.
"What Tiedge did not betray be-
fore, he will tell now in East Berlin,"
said Richard Meier, a former head
of the Office for Protection of the
Constitution, which handles coun-
terespionage activities.
"He knew practically everything.
He carried virtually all of the se-
crets of our spy defense network in
his head," Meier said.
[East German media highlighted
the defection but simultaneously
underlined that country's close re-
lationship with West Germany,
Reuter reported from East Ger-
many.]
The scandal has provoked intense
criticism of Tiedge's superiors be-
cause they apparently knew of his
drinking and financial difficulties yet
failed to relieve him of his sensitive
post.
One of Tiedge's neighbors said
on West German television that he
personally informed Heribert Hel-
lenbroich, then head of internal se-
curity, about the spy hunter's
drunken and disorderly habits but
his warnings were ignored.
Hellenbroich, 48, who was pro-
moted earlier this month to become
chief of foreign intelligence, said
today that he had nothing to be
ashamed of in keeping Tiedge in his
job and insisted he would not resign
from his ned post.
But Hans Jochen Vogel, leader of
the opposition Social Democrats,
insisted on a full investigation of the
intelligence authorities, who he said
had been made to look like "utter
and complete fools" in disregarding
Tiedge's problems as a potential
security risk.
Besides Hellenbroich, Interior
Minister Friedrich Zimmermann
and the chancellor's adviser on se-
curity affairs, Waldemar Schrecken-
berger, are facing political pressure
to accept responsiblity for the spy
scandal and resign.
The Tiedge affair is only the lat-
est in a series of espionage betray-
als that periodically underscore the
security problems confronted by
West Germany.
Government institutions and po-
litical parties are considered to be
easy prey for East German agents,
who face no language or cultural
barriers when they seek to infiltrate
West Germany.
East Berlin's Ministry for State
Security, which calls itself the
"sword and shield of socialism,"
draws on formidable resources and
wields vast power in suppressing
internal dissent as well as carrying
out foreign espionage tasks.
In contrast, West Germany's in-
telligence services are divided to
thwart the growth of any overly
powerful security apparatus.
The Interior Ministry oversees
counterespionage operations, the
chancellor's office controls foreign
espionage, and the Defense Minis-
try manages military intelligence.
Under Markus Wolf, considered
East Germany's master spy. Com-
munist agents have developed so-
phisticated ways of exploiting West
Germany's open society, its protec-
tive privacy laws and its willingness,
to grant passports and full citizen-
ship to all Germans regardless of
their birthplace.
East German spies usually re-
main dormant for the first few
years after entering West Ger-
many, often by posing as political
refugees or assuming identities of
West Germans who have settled in
the East.
Two other spy suspects who have
vanished here recently, including
the secretary of Economics Minis-
ter Martin Bangemann, lived and
worked in West Germany under
false identities for the past two dec-
ades.
Those two and another alleged
spy- who served as a messenger
for the West German Army-are
believed to have fled to East Berlin,
possibly after being informed by
Tiedge that they were in danger of
being captured.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201720010-2