SECURITY SHAKE-UP EXPECTED IN BONN AFTER DEFECTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504230009-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: August 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504230009-2
ARTICLE APPEAR
ON PAGE
SECURITY SHAKE-UP
EXPECTED IN BORN
AFTER DEFECTION
By JAMES M. MAREHAM
J Sp vial to The N.w York Tim..
BONN, Aug. 24 - A significant
shake-up of West Germany's intelli-
gence operations appears imminent
after the announced defection to East
Germany of a senior counter-
intelligence officer, well-placed Gov-
ernment officials said today.
The defection of the officer, Hans
Joachim Tiedge, who had been in
charge of West Germany's operations
against East German agents, was re-
ported Friday. It is being appraised by
intelligence experts as a serious blow
to West Germany's anti-espionage ca-
pacities.
Urgent Meetings Held
Interior Minister Friedrich Zimmer-
mann rushed back from a Mediterra-
nean holiday after East Germany an-
nounced the defection. He held urgent
meetings in Bonn to coordinate efforts
to rescue possibly endangered West
German agents in Eastern Europe and
to assess the overall damage.
"The necessary damage-limitation
measures have been taken," declared
Mr. Zimmermann. He insisted there
was no reason for panic.
Two newspapers said officials were
trying to arrange the return of under-
cover agents in East Germany.
Bild, a Hamburg daily, quoting
sources in Bonn, said two important
West German agents in East Germany
had fled to West Berlin because Mr.
Tiedge was about to expose them. The
Express newspaper of Cologne said
West German intelligence had begun
pulling agents out of East Germany in
case Mr. Tiedge identified them.
Officials said pressure was building
on Heribert Hellenbroich, who until the)
beginning of this month had been presi-
dent of the Cologr.e based counter-
NEW YORK TIMES
25 August 1985
intelligence agency, to give up his new
post as head of the Federal Intelligence
Service outside Munich.
As head of the counterintelligence
body, officially known as the Federal
Office for the Protection of the Consti.
tution, Mr. Hellenbroich had tolerated
Mr. Tiedge's unruly behavior, includ.
ing public drunkenness, fits of depres-
sion, enormous debts and family prob-
lems. The two joined the agency to-
gether in 1966 and were friends.
The Cologne agency's new director,
Ludwig-Holger Pfhals, reportedly took
a less indulgent view of Mr. Tiedge's
personal problems and rejected a re-
quest for a promotion.
According to several officials, the
changeover at the head of the counter-
intelligence agency on Aug. 1 may have
provoked Mr. Tiedge to tip off three
suspected East German agents - two
Bonn secretaries and a West German
Army employee - to flee the country.
He then apparently followed them to
East Berlin.
A Cologne newspaper, the Kolnische
Rundschau, reported today that Mr.
Tiedge had taken a list of 160 West Ger-
man intelligence contacts operating in
the two Germanys. Another news-
paper, the Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger, said
the 48-year-old official had fled with a
woman employee of the agency. The
accounts could not be confirmed.
Intelligence experts said it was un-
likely that Mr. Tiedge would be able to
betray American operatives or other
allied agents in Eastern Europe since
his responsibilities involved spy.
catching in West Germany. In West
Germany, such counterespionage work
is intentionally separated, physically
and institutionally, from active
intelligence-gathering by the Federal
Intelligence Service.
Debts of Almost $196,9N
Confusion persisted over whether
Mr. Tiedge was a long-term "mole"
planted by East German intelligence
or someone whose personal difficulties
had provoked an abrupt decision to de-
fect. It was disclosed today that he was
almost $100,000 in debt; part of his sal-
ary had been withheld to cover an un-
paid tax for keeping a dog, and he had
lost his driver's license.
The head of the Hamburg counter-!
intelligence office, Christian Lochte,
told a radio station that he doubted that
Mr. Tiedge was a longtime East Ger-
man agent since in 1981 he significantly
helped an operation that led to the cap-
ture of a spy for the Soviet Union.
But in an interview, Karl Wilhelm
Fricke, an authority on the East Ger-
man secret services, said he feared
that the defector-had been cooperatingi
with the Communists for some time.
Mr. Fricke said that since Mr. Tiedgel
took charge of operations against East
German spies three years ago, arrests
had decreased considerably.
"He may have sabotaged the thing,"
said Mr. Fricke.
Mr. Tiedge's departmental responsi
bilities in the so-called Section IV madei
him one of the agency's most impor-1
tans figures, since the Warsaw Pact's;
espionage effort in West Germany isl
conducted mostly by East German.
agents, who can function easily here.
Political Reaction in now
The scandal has drawn predictable
political reaction. Hans-Jochen Vogel,
parliamentary leader of the opposition
Social Democratic Party, said the
country's intelligence services had
been made to look like "total and com
plete tools."
"This is the most serious blow to the
security of the Federal Republic sin
1949," said Mr. Vogel, referring to the
year West Germany was founded.
Mr. Vogel, who heads parliament's
intelligence subcommittee, promised
"a tough debate" on the affair.
While Interior Minister Zimmer-,
mann - a protege of the Bavarian con-1
servative leader, Franz Josef Straussi
- has direct authority over the Federal'
Office for the Protection of the consti-
tution, overall political responsibility
for security matters lies with Chancel-,
for Helmut Kohl.
Mr. Kohl's designated coordinator
for intelligence matters is Waldemar)
Schreckenberger, a childhood friend,
who was removed in November as head
of the chancellery staff after wide-
spread complaints about his organiza-
tional abilities. Mr. Schreckenberger,
like Mr. Kohl, seems likely to face
heavy criticism from the opposition.
The small Free Democratic Party,
the partner of Mr. Kohl's Christian-
Democrats in the governing coalition,
may find it difficult to resist sniping at
Mr. Zimmermann in light of the frosty
relations between Mr. Strauss's follow.
ers and the Free Democrats. Burkhard
Hirsch. a Free Democratic spokes-
man, pointedly observed that Mr.
Tiedge should have been removed from
his post as a security risk.
The Free Democrats are also anx-
ious to clear their chairman, Econom-
ics Minister Martin Bangemann,
whose longtime secretary is oie of the
three suspected East German agents
who have disappeared in the last three
weeks.
East German newspapers and televi-
sion today highlighted Mr. Tiedge's de-
fection, but the tone of other commen-
taries suggested that the communist
authorities sought to avoid poisoning
relations with West Germany.
X
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504230009-2