55 SOVIETS OUSTED; EXPERTS SEE LIMITED SPY ACTIVITY EFFECTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201260007-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: October 22, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Approved For Release 2010/08/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000201260007-5
vrv PACE v
WASHINGTON TIMES
22 e"
55 Soviets ousted; experts see limited
spy activity effects
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The expulsion of 55 Soviet diplo-
mats will cause only short-term dis-
ruptions of Soviet espionage oper-
ations in the United States,
intelligence analysts predicted yes-
terday.
State Department spokesman
Charles Redman said all of the diplo-
mats ordered out of the country by
Nov 1 were engaged in "activities
incompatible with their diplomatic
status" - the diplomatic euphe-
mism for spying.
The expulsion announcement was
the latest in a series of espionage-
related actions that began Aug. 23
with the arrest of a Soviet United
Nations employee on spy charges.
The order for the expulsion of the
55 Soviet diplomats, including five
who were declared persona non
grata, came a week after the last of
25 Soviet U.N. diplomats, earlier
identified by the Reagan adminis-
tration as spies, were forced to leave
the country. The Soviets expelled
five American diplomats from Mos-
cow and Leningrad on Sunday.
Angelo Codevilla, an intelligence
affairs specialist, said Soviet spies
use diplomatic cover to "spot, assess
and recruit" U.S. government offi-
cials and opinion leaders as agents,
often for "active measures" - pro-
paganda and disinformation oper-
ations.
"They're not so much espionage
managers as they are workers of ac-
tive measures," Mr. Codevilla said.
"They are also the intelligence
scouts."
The KGB often uses low-level em-
bassy positions, such as chauffeurs
and clerks, as cover for senior intel-
ligence officers, said Mr. Codevilla,
a former Senate Intelligence Com-
mittee staff member who is now a
research fellow at the Hoover Insti-
tution in Stanford, Calif.
Mr. Codevilla said he believes the
Soviet KGB intelligence service will
scramble to salvage operations hurt
by the loss of intelligence
operatives.
relatively little time to transfer
cases to other people, so we are go-
ing to see a reshuffling of respon-
sibilities in the embassy and consul-
ate as some people here now depart
and new people are brought in to
replace them," he said.
The Soviets in the past have recov-
ered quickly from such disruptions
and may recoup within the next
three months,. Mr. Codevilla said.
"There is no net long-term gain to
U.S. security."
Sen. William S. Cohen, Maine Re-
publican, praised the administra-
tion's decision to expel the diplomats
in retaliation for Soviet action
against five American diplomats.
Mr. Cohen, co-sponsor of two laws
requiring reductions in the official
Soviet presence in the United States,
blamed the Soviets for starting the
tit-for-tat expulsions by "kidnap-
ping" American journalist Nicholas
Daniloff Aug. 30 in Moscow,
"This chapter in U.S. Soviet relai
tions demonstrates that the legisla-
tion ... calling for reductions in the
Soviet presence - and by extension,
the espionage threat - in the United
States was long overdue," said Mr.
Cohen, who will become Senate In-
telligence Committee chairman if
Republicans retain control of the
Senate next year.
The Leahy-Cohen amendment
was signed into law in August 1985
and gave the executive branch three
years to draw down the number of
Soviet diplomats to a level equal to
the number of U.S. diplomats in the
Soviet Union. The measure gave the
administration authority to carry.
out the reduction.
The second Leahy-Cohen
amendment passed two weeks ago
as part of the current intelligence
community authorization bill. The
law requires that the Soviet mission
at the United Nations be reduced to
roughly the number of the U.S. mis
The administration last March told
the Soviets they must reduce their
U.N. staff from 275 to 170 by April
1988. The U.S. mission has about 130
staff members.
FBI Director William H. Webster;
in a Oct. 16 letter to Mr. Cohen re-
leased yesterday, stated that the twQ
laws are "most welcome relief" to
FBI counterspy efforts.
"Both are of great value to the.
United States and ... the reduction(
in the Soviet presence in New York
will certainly assist the FBI in ful-
filling its counterintelligence mis-,
sion," Mr. Webster said.
Former FBI intelligence chief Ed
ward S. Miller hailed the expulsion:
as a "positive first step" in support
of FBI counterespionage efforts. But
he said the expulsion will have only:
a minimal impact on spy operations:
since the Soviets can rely on more:
than 2,000 Soviet bloc diplomats and
other representatives.
Former FBI agent Robert E. Ker-'
tin, president of the Society of For-
mer Special Agents of the FBI, said
the expulsion will "slow" Soviet es-
pionage operations.
"It makes for less people the FB[
has to follow around," he said. .
Approved For Release 2010/08/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000201260007-5