THE SPY SCENE IN AFRICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000800080001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 26, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

STATINTL
9#1=1;a4 CIA RDP80 0
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26 OCT 1971
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.By RUSSELL WARREN HOWE
Algiers.
lheii an amorous Soviet spy in
London recently bought himself an
iron curtain that would divide both
him and his mistress from their
tiresome ties in Mother Russia (by
defecting with the local KGB per-
sonnel list), the Heath government
.discreetly- claimed a triumph for
Western democracy for a whole
three days--before saying that, by
the way, a certain Irma Teplyakeva
had "come over" along with Cleg
Lyalin.
,In Africa, too, we like a little
decorum in our security leaks. A
number of years ago, in another
country, 'I was serving as counselor
to the prinie minister of Toga.
Ghana was threatening to annex us:
its president,- Kv nine Nkruniah,
knowing that any self-respecting
expansionist power- must have its
advance intelligence, had sent us--
as v hat Russians would call the
Rezident--an irrepressibly jolly spy
who threw parties for the Togolese
opposition, and sounded out their
desire for posts-under some future
Ghanaian raj.
-'1"he head of Togo's thimole-sized
FBI, a disabused Claude Pains
tinders turfy called Georgia (vino
was later promoted to head the
Vice Squad in Rlarseilles) wel-
comed the Chanaian's tactics . - All
this plainclothes flatfeet had to do
,was bird-dog everyone who vent
to the fellow's parties.
But a minister tool; umbrage at
this overt subversion. Georgia and
Largued in vain that overt subver-
sion was the best, that if the cham-
pagne spy departed it might take
many ,weeks or months---or for-
ever-to uncover his more discreet
replacement. But the minister con-
vinced his colleagues, and the jolly
agent had to go. If we were going
to be spied on, dammit, let it. be
decently in secret.
Discretion about espionage was
demonstrated this year in Senegal.
In Janilary, a routine check re-
vealed a burin tihe'desk of the U.S.
ambassador. No great sleuthing
was needed to uncloak the Culprit,
an embassy local employee. The
Senegalese fuzz took over the ques-
tioning, and the first kick had bare.
ly scattered a couple of teeth be-
fore he was fingering his suborner,
one of the five Soviet "corre-
spondents" in Dakar.
Because virtually .all Soviet jour-
nalists abroad-and absolutely all
Communist Chinese ones-arc full-
time spies, the independence of the
Western pressman from his govern-
ment is something many African
leaders find almost unbelievable.
Suspicion invariably falls in our
direction, especially in capitals
like this, where almost every East-,
ern European agent seems to have
a press card.
Back in 1967, I agreed to be a
part-thre'professoi? at Dakar Uni=
versity's infant journalism insti-
tute. I Was on leave in Europe when
'an anguished letter arrived from
t; e institute's director' He was
sorry, but the arrangement Was.
off. A trustee of the institute had in-
sisted that I should not be al!o\ved
to brainwash the students. He knew
for a fact that I worked for the
CIA.,,-
J
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Last week the Novosti Press
Agency (APN) called a press
conference in Moscow to de-
nounce a crude anti-Soviet for-
gety-
It is a booklet, entitled The
Soviet Union and Islam, pur-
porting to be published by
Novosti and allegedly written by
Rafik ' Nishanov, the Soviet
Ambassador to Ceylon.
It was, said Karen Khachaturov;
vice-chairman of the Novosti
board, full of insults.;1"ainst tile
Moslem faith, and plainly in-
tended to create anti-Soviet feel
ing among Moslems and in pre-
dominantly Moslem countries.
'-, It completely, falsified the
Soviet position on the national
question.
The booklet has been circulated
in Ceylon, Egypt and other
Islamic countries.
Khachaturov pointed out that
the dissemination of anti-Soviet
material in the guise of Novosti
publications was no new thing.
In 1969, for instance, what
purported to be a Novosti Press
Bulletin was put out in Dakar,
capital of Senegal, full of provoca-
tive statements about another
African country; the Ivory Coast.
The government of the Ivory
Coast unfortunately, took it as
authentic and used it as a pretext
for breaking off diplomatic rela-
tions with the USSR.
That booklet was quickly
exposed as a forgery, even Victor
Zorza - a journalist with no
sympathy for the Soviet Union -
describing it in The Guardian as a
CIA concoction.
Material alleged to be from
Novosti had also been forged in
Guinea and the Congo.
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