ALLIES SAID TO SPY FREQUENTLY ON EACH OTHER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605470017-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: November 23, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605470017-5
ARTICLE Arr
()N PAGE --- 23 November 1985
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Allies Said to Spy Frequently on Each Other
By STEPHEN ENGELBERG
Special to The New York Times
rested on charges of spying for. the
Dutch Government. Among other
things, he told the Dutch that the
agency itself was listening to Dutch
diplomatic transmissions.
More recently, in 1979, South Africa
expelled three employees of the Amer-
ican Embassy in Pretoria who had fit-
ted the American Ambassador's plane
with cameras to photograph military
installations.
Americans Asked to Leave Spain
Earlier this year, in February, the
Spanish Government asked two Amer-
ican diplomats to leave the country
under suspicion of espionage.
Israel has been the focus of charges
of gathering secret information in the
United States for a number of years. In
1978, Michael Saba, an official of the
National Association of Arab-Amer-
icans, told the Justice Department that
he had overheard a Congressional aide
offering to supply Israeli officials with
a classified document.
The aide, Stephen Bryen, denied the
charge and was cleared by the Justice
Department. He is now a senior Penta-
gon official.
A 1979 C.I.A. study that was captured
and made public by Iranians who
seized the American Embassy in Teh-
ran contended that Israeli intelligence
services try to learn about secret
American Government decisions on Is-
rael and the Middle East.
was particularly surprised by the
charge that the Israelis had chosen to
use an American agent.
"The Israelis have such wide access
to American society, and contacts in all
part and all levels of the United States
Government," he said. "I'm surprised
they would have to engage in clandes-
tine activity."
Mr. Saba, now with the Attiyeh Foun-
dation in Washington, said that "tlt
United States Government withhold
from the Israelis a large amount of fli=.
formation on the military capabilities
of Arab countries. This would nclude,
he said, American retorts on the 1
tion of radar stations in countries
Jordan.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 - If an
American Navy analyst is convicted of
spying for Israel, it will be the latest of
many examples of allied intelligence
services' spying on each other.
Former intelligence officers say,
however, that the case of the Navy ana-
lyst, Jonathan Jay Pollard, is unusual
because the charges involve the use of
a clandestine agent rather than other
methods of gathering information.
Governments are reluctant to dis-
cuss their intelligence efforts in allied
countries, and they often adopt the
position, as Israel did today, that such
efforts violate official policy. But.
American officials say the Central In-
telligence Agency, like its counterparts
abroad, gathers sensitive information
about all of the world's strategially sig-
nificant countries.
Keeping Abreast of Shifts
Indeed, some of the severest criti-
cism of the C.I.A. in recent years arose
from the failure to predict the fall of
the Shah of Iran, one of America's clos-
est allies in the Middle East.
t3Effrey-': Richelson,.arofessor at j
American-University who specializes
in intelligence matters, said that
spying on allies was motivated by sev-
eral factors, including the need to avoid
being surprised by sudden shifts in poli-
cy. In 1956, for example, he said, the
United States monitored Britain's
coded communications to keep in-
formed about the progress of their Suez
Canal operation.
"One good reason to do it is that your
allies can get you into more trouble
than your enemies," Mr. Richelson
said. "Even with our allies there are
conflicting interests. There are things,
for example, we don't want to see the
Israelis do or things we don't want
them to have. Whenever there's any
sort of conflict of interests there's a
motive for spying or. intelligence."
On a number of occasions, American
intelligence agencies, particularly the
National Security Agency, have been
accused of monitoring the electronic
conversations of allies. In 1954, for in-
stance, an N.S.A. employee was ar-
The study said that two of the most
important goals of Israeli intelligence
are: "collection of information on se-
cret U.S. policy or decisions, if any con-
cerning Israel" and "collection of
scientific intelligence in the U.S. and!
other developed countries."
In the document the C.I.A. said that'
some of the data came from "covert
assets of the Central intelligence Agen-
cy," an allusion t at su ests t at e
Unit States may have done some in
telligence gathering to prepare the re-
1-0.
Harold Saunders, the Carter Admin-
istration's Assistant Secretary for
Near Eastern Affairs, said today that
United States policy has barred spying
against Israel. Mr. Saunders said he
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605470017-5