MONEY SAID TO HAVE REPLACED IDEOLOGY AS MAIN SPY MOTIVE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504500004-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: June 6, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504500004-7
a"TICLE f r:"k i.D
NEW YORK TIMES
6 June 1985
Money Said to Have Replaced
Ideology as Main Spy Motive!
By IRVIN MOLOTSKY
special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, June 5 - "Money is
the dominant reason" Americans now
choose to spy for the Soviet Union. ac-
cording to Stanfield Turner, a former
Director of Central Intelligence.
1 Admiral Turner. who served in the
dmmistratwc: and er or-
mer officials concerned with national
,security agreed in separate interviews
t that ideology was n er he
loam reason encan, commit r
nag , e as it was rn e 1940 s MM 1930's-
They suggested it was mu more
difficult to capture a spy acting fort
financial gain than those who do it for
reasons of ideology. The current spy
case involving three members of the
Walker family was broken uu j after
the former wife of one took her story to
the authorities.
Ideology in Rosenberg. Case
Perhaps the most famous case in-
volving ideology in the United States
was the one that led to the execution of
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, a case
that still stirs sharp argument over
their guilt today, 32 years after their
execution. They were the only Amer-
icans ever executed in the United
States after a civilian trial for espio-
nage, having been wrvicted of trans
mitting nuclear weapons secrets to the
Soviet Union.
Another was the perjury conviction
of Alger Hiss, a former State Depart-
The arcane language of espionage:
Washington Talk, page B14.
ment official imprisoned when he
denied charges brought against him by,
I Whittaker Chambers. Mr. Hiss has
I long denied guilt.
William E. Colo". who headed the
Central intelitgence Abcen,l;v from 1973
Lt 1 , said a ih, a..
Philby- urgess- ac
ring Case
Britain invo v accr?? > ~t .
cuffed ''when a ovr .tt
rented antifascism ana Lhc c .rc
pr iaeologicalrrecnu~
I eo od 7raspivnage motive fell
off with the Hitler-Stalin nonaggression
pact and later with the information
provided by Nikita Khrushchev when
he denounced the horrors of Stalin's re-
gime, Mr. Colby said.
More Potential Recruits
The current investigation, involving
John A. Walker and others, presents
pioblems typical of the that the
United States must deal with these
days, the intelligence experts said.
"John Walker is a money case," Ad-
miral Turner said.
Gene R. LaRocque, a retired admiral
who is director of the Center for De-
fense Information, a group often criti-
cal of the Reagan Administration, said
the development of spying-for-money
was dangerous because the field of
potential recruits is so much larger.
"The ideologues are few in number,"
he said. "The people who want a little
more cash are legion." '
Griffin B. Bell, the Attorney General
in the Carter Administration, said
changing values were also having an
effect in a number of recent spy cases.
'With the breakdown in values,
partly ;because of Vietnam and partly
Watergate, and a looseness in general
discipline, both social and organiza-
tional, secrets are held in much more
contempt," Mr. Bell said. "The 'me'
generation and 'I'll make it onmy own'
have lea to recent circumstances that
have beer financially based."
Asked to review the spy cases he
knew about as the nation's chief prose-
cutor, Mr. Bell said, "I don't know of
any ideological recruits."
Few Leads With Money Cases
A knowledgeable intelligence source
who wouid not permit use o his name,
Jhad this appraise :
"In counterespionage, if you can
identity ideological groups, that's won-,
derful. rttr when it's pure cash for sale,
you :ioir: have any leads. It makes
searching for the agents much more
difficult, if not impossible."
Morton Halperin, a Pentagon and
National Security Council official from
,1966 to 1969, agreed that ideology was
no longer the main motive for espio-
nage and said this undercut the notion
that the Government should investi-
gate the ideological past of Americans.
"The people convicted in the past
seemed to have acted out of political
reasons," Mr. Halperin said. Now, he
said, it would seem to matter less that
a person was once a member of the
Communist or Socialist Party, or the
Americans for Democratic Action.
Pine, ution Policy Change
Mr. Halperin is now director of the
Center for National Security Affairs,
which deals with security and civil
liberties matters and has been critical
of Reagan Administration policies.
Another change noted by Mr. Halp-
erin was that the Government was now
prosecuting people who spy for money.
"In the past," he said, "the Govern-
ment worzia make them double agents
or feed tnem false information. That
wnvld cast doubt on the information
they had sent previously. Also, if you
prosecute, you blow your double
agent.
Mr. Haiperin noted that it was Mr.
Bell who, as Attorney General, had
changed that policy.
Mr. Bell said he had decided to prose-
cute such cases because "1 always
thought we were going to have to have
more sentences to do something about
it."
"We do need to have more trials,
more examples, more long prison
terms," he said, "if we are going to
bring it under control."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504500004-7