CIA USES WESTERN REPORTERS, SOVIETS SAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605280001-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 2, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 11, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sl Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/02 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605280001-3
~~ CHRISTIAN SCIENCE M:~NITOR
`~ 11 September 1986
CIA uses Western
reporters, Soviets say
By Paul Guinn-Judge
I Special to`The1Chri?fien Science Monitor _
In a move that could further increase superpower tension, the
official Soviet news agency 'Ihss alleged yesterday that the Western
press has long been "actively used by the CIA for espionage."
Until now, most official commentaries have stressed that jailed
American reporter Nicholas Daniloff was an unfortunate exception to
the rule. But lhss said "more than 800 newspapers and other
periodicals, press services, and news agencies" are in the "sphere of
influence" of the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
This number grows annually, Tess says, as the CIA is constantly
"trying to lay (its] hands on new American foreign mass media, and
recruiting [itsj own agents from among the bourgeois journalists."
Since Mr. Daniloff, a rnrrespondent for U.S. News ~ World Report,
was arrested on Aug. 30, Soviet spokesmen have stressed that gene-
ine journalists have nothing to fear. The most detailed account of the
Daniloff case to appear so far in the Soviet news media, an article in
the government newspaper Izvestia on Monday, went so far as to say
that foreign correspondents had shunned Daniloff because they sus-
pected he was involved in something fishy.
This charge is reiected by US reporters. Indeed, every accTe~dited
US correspondent in Moscow has signed a letter demand-
ing Daniloff's release and expressing support for their
colleague. Daniloff was a mentor for many correspon-
dents in Moscow, former Moscow correspondents say.
The Tass dispatch could be another Soviet effort to
justify their contention that Daniloff was a spy, and not a
genuine correspondent. But it could also be a sign that T
Moscow is preparing the ground for further moves
against journalists here - in the event, for example,
that Washington takes retaliatory measures over the
Daniloff case:
Although reports from Washington have spoken of
possible reprisals for the Daniloff arrest -such as the
expulsion of members of the Soviet UN delegation -
there is a strong feeling among Westerners here that
these would only lead to countermoves by Moscow.
Reprisals would not, it is felt, cause the Soviet leadership
to back down on the case. They could lead to a hardening
of Moscow's position.
The most likely solution, as long as tempers in Wash-
ington and Moscow remain relatively cool, would seem to
be a three-way exchange.
Daniloff and Gennady Zakharov, the Soviet UN offi-
cial whose arrest on Aug. 23 is thought to have triggered
Daniloff's arrest, would be released into the custody of
their respective ambassadors. Daniloff would then be
allowed to leave the country; Mr. Zakharov would go on
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 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/02 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605280001-3 7
trial. After a decent interval, Zakharov might then be
exchanged for a third person, perhaps someone in a
Soviet prison convicted of espionage for the West.
[Daculoff himself has suggested such a solution. Yester-
day, Daniloff. said the KGB liked this idea, according to
his succes.4or, Jeff Trimble.]
Although behind-the-scenes diplomatic contacts are
undoubtedly continuing, there is no sign of any break-
through. Nor is there any sign that Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev has replied to the personal appeal sent him
on Friday by President Reagan, in which the President
assured the Soviet leader that Daniloff was not a spy.
Officials in Washington have hinted that Gorbachev
has responded to the message. -But the repon of this,
carried in yesterday's New York TSmes, gave no details.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/02 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605280001-3