FRENCH ARREST EX-SERVICEMAN ON SPY CHARGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000503860002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: February 1, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

3 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RD
PAGE
NEW YORK TIMES
1 February 1986
P90-00965 R000503860002-1
French Arrest Ex-Serviceman on Spy Charge
By PAUL LEWIS
Special to The New York Times
PARIS, Jan. 31 - A retired member
of the French Air Force has been ar-
rested and charged with spying for the
Soviet Union, the Interior Ministry an-
nounced today.
French officials are said to believe
that the man who was arrested was giv-
ing information to Soviet intelligence
agents about the movement of French
n vessels around the Brest naval
port, where France has based subma-
rines carrying nuclear missiles since
1972.
The suspect, Bernard Sourisseau, 44
years old, described as a retired air
force helicopter mechanic, was ar-
rested about a week ago by agents of
France's counterespionage police.
Officials said he was arrested in the
village of Le Croisic near Saint-Na-
zaire, about 120 miles from Brest, a
spokesman said.
The arrest came after several indica-
tions in recent years that the Soviet
Union may be increasing its espionage
activities against French naval targets
in the Brest area, the authorities said.
Officials say Soviet fishing vessels,
equipped with sophisticated electronic
devices, are permanently stationed in
international waters off the northwest
coast of France, apparently trying to
monitor the movement of French nu-
clear submarines and other vessels.
Recently, French counterespionage
agents have found Soviet-registered
long-distance delivery trucks driving
around in the extreme northwest cor-
ner of the country with instructions to
pick up nonexistent cargo in Brest and
Saint-Nazaire.
French suspicions were also report-
edly aroused by pressure from the
Soviet Embassy in Paris for the city of
Brest to be twinned with the Soviet port
of Tallinn in Estonia. This would have
led to increased cultural and tourist
contacts between the two cities and al-
lowed the Soviet airline Aeroflot land-
ing rights at Brest.
But in 1983, the Mayor of Brest,
Jacques Berthelot, broke off negotia-
tions for the link with Tallinn after a
Soviet airliner, coming to pick up
French tourists at the Brest airport,
failed to land on its first approach and
then overflew the nearby French naval
airbase at Landivisiau while making a
second approach.
The arrest of the retired air force
mechanic also appears to be another
sign of increased concern the French
Government has been showing in re-
cent years about Soviet espionage,
particularly against scientific targets.
Much of the concern is believed to
stem from a major sucess achieved by
the French intelligence service in 1981
and 1982, when it obtained details of the
Soviet Union's espionage effort in the
West from a senior K.G.B. official in
Moscow, code-named Farewell.
The information provided by the
K.G.B. official showed that the efforts
of the Soviet Union to obtain Western
technological secrets were far greater
than had been suspected.
Details of the Farewell operation
were first disclosed in a book published
earlier this month, "The K.G.B. in;
France" by Thierry Wolton.
After the disclosures by Farewell,
France expelled 47 Soviet diplomats in
1983 ftlr spying.
Only three other French military
servicemen have been accused of
spying for the Soviet union in recent
years. In 1974, an air force sergeant
was sentenced to 10 years' imprison-
ment for stealing secret military docu-
ments that he was suspected of selling
to an Eastern bloc embassy.
In 1978, a retired World War 11 cola
nel in the Communist resistance move-
ment was imprisoned for working for
the Soviet Union. And in 1984 a retired
air force colonel was sentenced for sup-
plying information about the French
aeronautical industry to a Soviet agent.
In 1964, a French official at NATO
headquarters was convicted of spying.
Another French civil servant working
for NATO was convicted of spying in
1971.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503860002-1