CLANDESTINE SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES BY SINO-SOVIET BLOC REPRESENTATIVES IN PUBLIC INFORMATION MEDIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R001000360002-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 23
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 1998
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 1, 1958
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLANDESTINE SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES BY SINO-SOVIET BLOC
REPRESENTATIVES IN PUBLIC INFORMATION MEDIA
December 1958
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CLANDESTINE SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES BY SINO-SOVIET BLOC
REPRESENTATIVES IN PUBLIC INFORMATION MEDIA
I. INTRODUCTION
Based upon admittedly fragmentary information, this report
represents a tentative rather than an authoritative analysis of a
still obscure subject. The operations discussed in this paper
must be considered as a strategically significant complement
to the three other basic propaganda programs of the International
Communist Movement:
1. The conventional overt propaganda and public infor-
mation operations of Soviet Bloc governments.
2. The propaganda operations, both overt and clandes-
tine, conducted by individual Communist parties in the Free
World.
3. The overt propaganda operations, at both the inter-
national and national level, conducted by the primary inter-
national Communist front organizations and their national
affiliates.
The paper treats the following main topics:
1. Objectives of Soviet Bloc clandestine subversive
activities.
2. Techniques employed for gaining covert access,
influence, and control of public information media.
3. Exploitation of clandestinely controlled press
assets.
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Communist Direction and Coordination of Subversive
Activities!, in Public Information Media
Since the propaganda tasks carried out through
these operations are essentially of a deceptive character,
consistency between the themes and arguments employed
therein and the themes and arguments employed by avowed
or recognizable Communist-controlled vehicles is not
essential. Problems of coordination, such as those which
arise in the propaganda campaigns of front organizations,
are therefore minimized. They are not, however, elimi-
nated completely, since in many instances, particularly
in the Afro-Asian and Latin America areas, the clandes-
tine effort is intended to pave the way for front campaigns,
or to supplement them. Where the character of a clandes-
tine campaign is in fact affected by the desire to conform
to the themes and lines used by front organizations, there
may be important contradictions between it and the general
policy of the corresponding. Communist party, which can
lead to conflicts and disagreements. In general the
security standards imposed by Soviet Bloc governments on
many such operations are so demanding that even the
majority of the leadership of the local Party is likely to
be unaware of the existence and specific objectives of the
operations. Conventional security service operations
against the local Communist movement are, therefore,
not likely ''.to uncover the more sensitive of such operations.
II. THE OBJECTIVES OF SINO-SOVIET BLOC CLANDESTINE
SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES IN PUBLIC INFORMATION MEDIA
Covert subversive activity by Soviet Bloc agents in public
information media, as distinguished from both conventional
activity in. the propaganda field and propaganda activity organized
and directed by national Communist parties, has been employed
for the following purposes:
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1. To support agitational campaigns by:
a. providing ostensibly independent and "unbiased"
confirmation for accusations and purposeful editorial
interpretations of events being propagated by avowed
Soviet Bloc and CP outlets;
b. providing in the public domain, the initial
story or report upon which a general propaganda
campaign can be based;
c. supplementing from apparently unbiased sources
a general Communist propaganda campaign with material
designed either to induce specific reactions from anti-
Communist, ultranationalist groups, to discredit such
groups, or to increase the susceptibility of target
national groups, particularly in the political center and
left, to the ,general Communist calls for action in a
specific campaign;
d, inducing, in anticipation of a planned Soviet Bloc/
Communist agitational campaign, prior action and state-
ments of policy by target groups which would refuse to
act or would act cautiously on a subject if they were
aware of the existence of an identifiable Communist
campaign on the specified -theme.
2. To provide cover and support for covert political
action operations directed toward the manipulation of ultra-
nationalists, ultrareactionary, and other extremist groups
and individuals, not otherwise susceptible to Communist
manipulation.
3. To provide cover and channels for the purposeful
and carefully timed insertion into intelligence channels and
governmental circles of distorted or fabricated -- or
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occasionally true -- information of a provocative, divisive,
or deceptive character likely to affect national policy
decisions' in a manner favorable to long-range Soviet
objectives.
Promotion of Communism as an ideology has not been an
essential factor in the operations discussed below. The objective
in every case ,has been to promote Bloc policy lines of the moment,
and to compromise, discredit, and ultimately destroy the govern-
ments, organizations and individuals most likely to block the
increase of Communist and Bloc power in the area concerned.
In some instances, however, particularly in the Afro-Asian area,
the covert operation has in fact provided indirect support for the
propagation ofl the Communist ideology,
III. TECHNIQUES EMPLOYED BY SOVIET BLOC GOVERNMENTS
FOR GAINING COVERT ACCESS TO, INFLUENCE OVER OR
CONTROL OF PUBLIC INFORMATION MEDIA
1. Direct activities of Soviet Bloc official representatives
abroad through non-Communist publications.
a Newspapers and periodicals.
Publication of Sino-Soviet Bloc propaganda
material in the Free World is frequently assured
through cash or equipment subsidies to newspapers
which have no connection with the local Communist
plarties or Communist-front organizations. The
subsidies are frequently granted to publications
which accept the assistance because of their own
financial difficulties rather than because of any
particular sympathy with Communism or the
Communist countries. It is a, technique which
is in particularly active use at this time in the
countries of Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
The subsidies are given in various forms:
Now
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Direct financial payment, made in cash and
with no demand for receipts, by the Press Sections
of Soviet Embassies in the Middle East and by both
Soviet and Chinese Communist Embassies in South-
east Asia. In some cases, payment to a given
publication is made in a lump sum, at intervals of
two or three months, for propaganda articles
published during the period concerned. In one
case, in a Middle Eastern country, a non-Commu-
nist (and non-fellow-travelling) newspaper which
was in serious financial difficulty was approached
by a local Communist member of Parliament who
offered to "find enough money to keep the firm's
creditors satisfied for two years," on condition
that he be allowed to appoint a man of his own
choice to the board of directors of the firm and
to dismiss three or four of the paper's top
employees. (In this case information is
insufficient to determine whether the Commu-
nist politician was acting on behalf of his Party,
or as go-between for a Soviet or Chinese
Communist principal.)
Contract agreement. In some areas, news-
papers have been asked to work on contract with
the local Soviet Embassy, with payment of a
fixed sum at monthly or bimonthly intervals in
return for publication of one-half page a day of
r'news" articles supplied by the Embassy. In
these cases. also, it was with the Press Section
of the Embassy that the arrangement was made.
Payment at advertising rates for publication
of special news supplements. This practice is
widespread in certain areas of the Middle East
and has been reported from one Latin American
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country. The news supplements concerned are
in the overt-propaganda category, issued in
connection with special events such as the annual
Soviet celebration of the October Revolution,
Soviet trade exhibits held in the locality concerned,
May Day observances, and so forth.
Payment at advertising rates for publication
of "news stories," feature articles and editorials
supplied by the local Soviet Embassy.
Supplying of or pa in the cost of en raving
.blocks for material supplied by the Soviets and
for the routine stories carried by the newspaper
concerned.
Supplying or financing the purchase of
printing presses and other basic equipment.
eported occasionally for Southeast Asia and
the Middle East. In a recent instance in South-
east Asia, the newspaper concerned was not in
its country's capital, and the assistance was
given by the local Consulate of Communist
China.
Supplying newsprint without cost or at a
sales price which is so low as to amount to a
subsidy. In particularly active use in the
Middle East. Supply of newsprint and engraving
blocks seems to be a very common form of
subsidy.
Guaranteed purchase of a certain number
of co des of the publication is an easily hidden
form of subsidy.
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The use of several of the above forms of
subsidy for a single publication has been noted
in several instances, but use of only one or two
of them for any given publication seems to be
the more common practice.
The method of transmission of the propaganda
texts to subsidized newspapers is adapted to local
and probably to individual circumstances. In the
cases in which the Soviet Embassy has contracted
with an editor for publication of a daily half-page
of material, the texts have been sent through the
mail each day. In other cases, editors have been
told that if they prefer not to take the risk of
receiving texts and engraving blocks they can
accept cash subsidies and copy their material
from certain other newspapers in the same
general area.
According to one usually reliable source,
a practice used widely by the Soviets and less
commonly by the Chine- e Communists is
financing of press subsidies with local currency
acquired through local sale of Bloc-produced
machinery, cars, newsprint, and so forth.
b. News Agencies
One case is known, in an.Asian country, of
payment of a monthly subsidy to a news agency
by the local Soviet Embassy. The purpose of
the subsidy is to insure the inclusion of TASS
material in the daily press bulletin issued by
the news agency.
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2. Individual journalists.
In addition to the practice of subsidizing publica-
tions and news agencies, reports from Latin America and
the Middle East indicate that covert employment of local
journalists by Soviet press representatives is also commonly
used. In some cases, this has taken the form of lump-sum
payment by the Press Information Section of a Soviet
Embassy, at regular quarterly or bimonthly intervals, for
articles the journalist has written and placed in local
publications during the period covered. In others, local
journalists have been employed for writing and placing
specific articles on designated subjects. An instance
of this type occurred in Cairo about three years ago, when
a misinformation article (in this case, a false news story
concerning alleged activities of the U.S. Government in
another part of the world) appeared in a Cairo newspaper.
The article was traced to its source -- a local journalist
who claimed that he had been paid by the Cairo represent-
ative of TASS for writing and placing the article.
Instances of subsidies or single-article payments to
local journalists have also been reported from Latin
America'.
3. Assumption of direct covert control over Commu-
ni-st Party members in the public information field.
Using techniques already well described in
connection with such exposed Soviet intelligence operations
as the Sorge case, the Jacob Golos case in the United States,
and the operation of the KGB in Australia (see Royal
Commission report), Soviet official representatives,
working through trusted contacts in key party positions
(e. g. , cadre commission, control commission, organi-
zation bureau, party secretariat, etc.) have made direct
clandestine contact with established party members in the
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public information field in order to support and direct
them in clandestine subversive activity. Such persons
are ordinarily required to sever all contact with the
party, and may even be "expelled" from the party in
order to conceal or at least obscure their continuing
collaboration with the Communist movement.
4. Exploitation of writers' clubs and "study clubs".
. A device which has been reported from Latin
America and from the Middle East is the establishment
of writers' clubs or "study clubs" whose members are
professional writers, journalists, and research workers.
The clubs are used as a means of directing and coordinat-
ing the work of their members in (a) preparing and finding
non-Communist outlets for articles, and speeches promoting
.the Soviet. Bloc propaganda line, particularly in its pro-
nationalist and anti-imperialist or anti-West aspects; and
(b) placing members in key positions in the press and radio
outlets in the country concerned.
An organization of this type is the SYRIAN LEAGUE
OF ARAB WRITERS, consisting of Communist Party members,
Communist sympathizers and ultranationalists. According
.to a report received from a reliable source in the first
quarter of 1958, this group "has performed yeoman work
for the Soviet cause.... The achievements of the League
are underscored by examples of the influence some of its
prominent members exert. Muwahib Kayyali, a founder
of, the League, for some time has written a weekly anti-
West column for the Syrian Army weekly magazine,
al-Jundi. . The magazine has the largest circulation of
any publication in the country. In date 1957 Said Qudmani
became co-editor of the once pro-West Damascus daily
al-Qabas, and has succeeded in changing the policy of
the paper to pro-Soviet. Nassib Ai-11htyar, another
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member of the group, is supervisor of news and editorial
output on Radio Damascus, which for over a year has been
.... more and more openly pro-Soviet and anti-U.S."
Another example is a "study club" in Latin
America which consists of an elite group of anti-American,
pro-Soviet intellectuals who attempt to influence public
opinion against the United States and in favor of the Soviet
Bloc through their lectures and publications. Several of
the individual members are sufficiently prominent in their
respective professional fields (politics, economics, bank-
ing, etc. ) that their activities in writing and placing
slanted articles, speeches and research studies, and in
some cases as advisers to highly placed government
personalities, constitute a rather powerful propaganda
weapon. The president of the club works in what amounts
in practice to a subagent/principal-agent relationship
with a local Soviet propaganda agent who in turn works
covertly, with an official of the Soviet Embassy. The
two local members of this trio are economists and, in
addition to directing the remarkably widespread and
complex' activities of the study club, each has wide
contacts in the financial and economic fields which he
uses in his propaganda activities. A close friend of
the principal agent, for example, is an influential pro-
Communist banker who has been used at times by the
principal agent as a means of presenting suggestions to
the president of the country concerned and of slanting the
presentation of economic questions to the local authorities.
The principal agent himself is not, so far as known, a
member lof the Communist Party, but his sympathies are
frankly pro- Communist.
The sub-agent mentioned above is reportedly a
member , of the Communist Party and the study club
itself, while not officially connected with the Party, is
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closely linked with local Communist front organizations
(World Peace Council, Soviet Friendship Society, etc.)
through its heavily Communist and pro-Communist
membership. The club maintains small local branches
in various provincial centers, which are used as centers
of pro-Communist agitation and propaganda. Closely but
unofficially connected with the club are a magazine (also
targeted at intellectuals) edited by the son of the principal
agent mentioned above, and a confidential newsletter of
small circulation which is targeted primarily at business-
men.
5. Use of expatriate. Communist journalists and of
foreign Communists as correspondents for selected press
organs,
There is a rather substantial corps of Communist
journalists whose careers develop on an international
rather than a. local level. In some cases these individuals
are expatriates (voluntary or otherwise) who write as
foreign correspondents for publications in their native
countries and other areas. Others retain residence in
their own countries, acting as correspondents on.local
affairs for publications abroad. A group characteristic
of these journalists is that they are inveterate travellers,
coordinating their professional activities through
personal contacts in various parts of the world. At
times members of this group manage to obtain positions
as foreign correspondents for non-Communist publications
whose editors are unaware of their status as professional
pro-Communist propagandists, but in most cases this
status is so apparent in their writing. that their employ-
ment is limited to publications which are themselves
Bloc propaganda vehicles,
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6. Use of books, authors, and publishing houses.
In addition to the vast quantities of overt propaganda
literature published within the Communist Bloc and transmitted
direct from there to individual or mass targets, there are
numerous publishing and distribution points outside the Bloc
which handle both attributable and non-attributable propaganda.
In many 'cases, Bloc propaganda literature is printed in one
country of the Free World for transmission to target audiences
in other Free World areas, in order to hide its Bloc origin.
An incident wtich is believed to be an example of
Soviet use of the hidden-authorship technique occurred about
two years ago, when a book (in several volumes) designed to
show the' compatibility of Communism and Islam was
published in Beirut and subsequently reprinted in Iraq. The
book was: well written and was obviously based upon serious
scholarly study. It elicited a good deal of interest -- and
suprise - in Shiite circles in Beirut because its ostensible
author was a Lebanese Christian who until the book appeared
had shown no propensity toward scholarship, but was
considered by people who knew him as a playboy who
happened, also to be a Communist sympathizer. The
alleged author personally paid the publishing costs of the
book and acted as its distributor for Lebanon, apparently
in order to increase sales by eliminating. any middleman
and thereby giving the retailers the middleman's profit.
The real ''origin of the manuscript has never been
definitely established, but in view of its subject matter
and the general agreement that the individual who
claimed authorship could not possibly have written it, it
seems reasonable to assume that the incident may have
been a fairly successful Soviet propaganda operation.
Other books that have given rise to some
speculation along the same lines are those printed in
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India under the alleged authorship of R o K. Karanjia of
Blitz. The three most recent works are (a) SEATO:
Security or Menace?, (b) The Dagger of Israel, (c) Arab
Dawn., They are highly tendentious and. inflammatory
propaganda tracts, and could not by any stretch of the
imagination be described as scholarly works. Vast
research would have been. required, however, to obtain
the many quotations from obscure sources which have
been skillfully strung. together to form and fill out the
propaganda line of the books. It is difficult to imagine
that Karanjia, who is an extremely active individual,
would have found time to do a research job ?f this
magnitude, and.in.view of his obvious position.as a
Soviet Bloc and LIAR propaganda agent, it seems
entirely possible. that this may be another case of
use of the hidden authorship technique.
There have been reports from Southeast Asia,
the Middle East, and Latin America of the use of local
publishing firms (such as Dar al-Fikr in. Cairo) as
distribution points for locally printed Bloc propaganda,
both attributable and unattributableo From. the same
areas have come other reports of the use of firms
which combine publishing and retail bookshop
facilities under the same management. One example
of this is a bookshop in Southeast Asia, which is
described as one of the two largest distributors of
Chinese. Communist material in the country concerned.
The bookshop went into the publishing business in the
spring of 1958, when it launched a daily tabloid news-
paper combining the reader appeal of sensational
scandal and adventure stories with news reporting
slanted to fit the Chinese Communist propaganda line.
The author of two serialized books (both innocuous
adventure tales) vrth which the newspaper. began its
existence is. employed in Hong Kong as a scriptwriter
for a Communist-front motion picture studio,
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Another example is the Egyptian Bookhouse in
Cairo which began as a small, dingy hole-in-the-wall
shop and has since blossomed into one of the most
attractive and well-arranged bookstores in the city.
The bookshop serves locally as an overt commercial
outlet for all Sino-Soviet Bloc publications and maintains
its own publishing house, devoted largely to pro-Soviet
propaganda material. The firm distributes its books
in various ways; by mailing copies. directly to book-
stores, cr to individuals in Egypt and other countries
who distr?ibute the books ob. a commission basis within
their own areas or countries. One report states that
while the publications of the firm are kept out of
Jordan and Lebanon by censorship, "a few copies are
mailed tee interested parties, and Egyptian travellers
carry small amounts."
A Latin American example is a combined art
gallery,, bookstore, cultural and hobby center established
in a South American capital during the summer of 1958,
The center has no overt connection with the local Commu-
nist Party or any of its front organizations, but its list of
stockholders and directing personnel runs heavily to
individuals who are Communists or have Communist
connections.
The company conducts an active trade in imports
of books', and other merchandise and their re-export to
neighboring countries under its own shipping address,
Since Soviet Bloc propaganda can legally be imported
into the country in which the shop ig located, but is
illegal in neighboring countries, it is; believed that the
shop is acting as a re-mailing point for such material
in order'to avoid its confiscation by the postal authorities
of the neighboring countries.
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Other Sino-Soviet subversive efforts in connection
with use of non-Bloc book, publishing and printing firms
include such cases as (a) that of the USSR Commercial
Counsellor in an African country who arranged with a
local book dealer to supply the bookshop, at nominal
cost, with Soviet books and periodicals imported through
the diplomatic pouch "in order to speed up delivery," and
(b) the offer of the Press Attache of the Soviet Embassy
in an African country to pay all the salaries of the employees
of a local printing plant in return for the.iirm's agreement
to print "anything the Soviet Embassy wished when the
Embassy qo desired."
One case of an unsuccessful Soviet effort to
prevent publication of a non-Bloc book occurred during
the summer of 1958, when the First Secretary of the
Soviet Embassy in an Asian country asked.a well-known
local author to visit him at the Embassy. The author
did so, whereupon the First Secretary asked him not to
publish a book he had just written, which ran counter
to Soviet propaganda interests in the area. In order to
make the idea attractive to the writer, the First
Secretary offered to "work out a deal with the local
Communist Party" to pay him for the full press run
in lieu of publication. The role the Communist Party
was to play remained unclear, since the First
Secretary assured the writer that he could.have the full
payment ready, in cash, within twenty-four hours.
IV. EXPLOITATION OF CLANDESTINELY CONTROLLED
PRESS ASSETS
The subsidies to newspapers and periodicals discussed in
Paragraph III., I., a. above are frequently perhaps usually --
given as a means of insuring publication of overt, attributable
propaganda material issued by the Sino-Soviet Bloc governments
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(TASS and NCNA releases, special supplements, etc. ). Scattered
in various countries throughout the world, however, are a number
of publications, usually having little or no recognizable organiza-
tional connection with local Communist parties or Communist
front organizations, which function as consistent purveyors of
"black" or t nattributable propaganda and misinformation items
of various kinds, including propaganda forgeries. Publications
falling, within this "black propaganda" category seem to be of
two kinds:
1, Publications used primarily as propaganda vehicles,
a. Blitz, weekly, published in Bombay, India,
directed by R.K. Karanjia. In 1947 Karanjia
stated that he had once been a CP member, but
had left the Party. He has since denied ever
having been a member. He has consistently
used Blitz, however, as a vehicle for pro-
Soviet (and, since 1955, also pro-Nasser)
propaganda. Blitz followed a policy of ignoring
the local Communist Party or mentioning it
only with a mildly disapproving attitude, until
mid-1957, when the paper began moving in
the direction of approval of Indian CP actions.
In the summer of 1958, Karanjia made his
first step toward official identification with
Communist-sponsored organizations when he
attended the World Peace Council meeting in
Stockholm and was elected to membership in
the World Peace Council. On the return
journey to India, he stopped in London, Paris,
and Cairo (where he conducted a widely-
publicized interview with UAR President
Nasser), In addition to a small staff of
correspondents (several of whom are active
members of the Indian CP) in various parts of
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India, Blitz maintains a string of foreign corre-
spondents. Several of the foreign correspondents
are individuals, such as London correspondent
Paula Wiking, who have long records as Commu-
nists. Others, such as Eslanda Robeson (wife of
the American singer Paul Robeson), are simulta-
neously employed in their own countries as
writers for Soviet publications.
b. La Patrie, small periodical published in'
Bangkok. LaPatrie has no official connection
with the Thailand CP, but is a consistent channel
for Soviet Bloc pr.:,naganda of the sensational,
hate-mongering type, including the familiar
plot charges and propaganda forgeries.
C. Al-Masaa of Beirut. As of late summer
1958, this was an outlawed, clandestinely
circulated newspaper, reportedly maintaining
close ties with the pro-Soviet Cairo newspaper
of the same name. Its content runs heavily to
releases from TASS and other Soviet Bloc news
agencies. The paper distinguished itself during
the summer of 195 8 by acting as surfacing point
for a propaganda forgery known as the "John H"
letter, which was promptly picked up for wider
propaganda relay by the official press and radio
media of the USSR and Communist China.
The list could be extended to include every area and
many of the countries of the Free World. Like the operational-
cover newspapers discussed below, most of the newspapers
concerned are of small circulation. In the case of several
of them, there is evidence of a curious interwoven pattern
of personal contacts which suggests that the publications
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concerned may in fact be a par; of a single internationally
directed or internationally coo:; linated propaganda, mis-
information, and political action complex.
In addition to their use for routine publication of
pro-Bloc propaganda, including the continual stream of
charges of plots, aggression plans and so forth which are
a staple item therein, it is almost invariably papers of
this type) that are used as the non-Bloc. surfacing and
relay points for propaganda forgeries, There has been
a progressive increase in use of forgery as a propaganda
weapon during the past two years. The surfacing and
overt relay-of these propaganda forgeries were handled,
for the most part, by official Communist-Bloc and UAR
press media and the official and clandestine radios of the
Soviet B]oc and UAR. The only other overt- surfacing and
relay points that came to our attention during the period
concerned were:
Blitz , India
The Mirror, Burma
La Patrie, published in Bangkok
Bintang Timur, Indonesia
!Berita Minggu, Indonesia
The Delhi Times, New Delhi
Antara, Indonesian news agency
So far as known, the incident in which Antara was
involved was one of the rare cases in which a reputable
publication or news agency picks up in good. faith a forgery
which a Bloc propaganda agent has managed, directly or
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indirectly, to convey to it as an authentic news item. The
other publications on the list, however, are Without
exception newspapers of the type discussed just above.
It should be noted, in connection with propaganda
forgeries, that distribution is not effected through overt
channels alone. In addition to the overt distribution which
is made, there have been several instances in the past two
years of similar forgeries which were not published, but
were transmitted as "confidential information" to the
Foreign Min- stries and, in some cases, to the heads of
the governments of Free World countries. In other cases,
surfacing and relay through overt media has been supple-
mented by relay of the same material, unchanged or in
slightly modified form, into Free World intelligence
channels in the guise of "clandestine intelligence reports,"
and by transmission of copies of the forged letters to
various diplomatic missions by certain non-Bloc
diplomatic representatives.
2. Publications used as cover for political action
operations.
The publications of this type which have so far
come to our attention have had two common characteristics:
(a) Each uses a consistent pro-Bloc slant and (b) each has a
circulation so low as to remove any possibility of its
effective use as a medium of mass propaganda (or even,
in some cases, any possibility of its use as a means of
financial support for its personnel).
One example is a "camouflaged-Communist" news-
paper which is published biweekly in one of the West
European countries bordering on the Soviet Bloc. The
publication is supported by funds its staff members collect
on personal trips to the neighboring Bloc country. Direction
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by the Bloc country is complete, extending even to reading
of galley proofs before publication of each issue. The news-
paper is occasionally used for publication of special
propaganda editions running as high as 50, 000 copies, but
its normal circulation is so small that its propaganda value
is almost nil. The publication is used, however, as a
rallying point in drawing together and guiding the propaganda
of various small, non-Communist, political, theological and
pacifist, organizations in the area.
A more ambitious operation, in another European
country, is handled by a covert team of local agents who
maintain clandestine contact with the Soviet Embassy.
The agent team consists of:
A professional political-action agent whose overt
contacts are limited entirely to ultranationalist political.,
and industrial groups of the Right and who receives much
if not all of his financial support from industrialists of
the ultraconservative, ultranationalist Right. His
political mission consists primarily in acting as chair-
man of a privately organized, covertly run committee of
parliament members and industrialists and, on behalf
of the committee, directing the day-to-day maneuvers
of his group on the floor of parliament and in the
parliamentary committees. His cover for this activity
is his position as a professional journalist. engaged in
running a small confidential newsletter devoted to
economic and industrial affairs. The members of his
committee and his "normal" outside contacts regard
him solely as the agent of the conservative industrialist
group mentioned above. They are unaware that he is in
fact co chairman rather than sole chairman of the
committee, working in covert hour-to-hour contact
with a silent partner.
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The silent partner .is the director and owner of a
small weekly newspaper which is frankly a vehicle for
ultranationalist propaganda of the pro-Soviet variety. The
paper has no connection with the local Communist Party or
front groups, and its staff is an odd mixture of down-at-the-
heel apolitical journalists, pro-Communists, and members
of extreme-right groups who in some cases write for this
publication under one pen name and for a local fascist
newspaper under another.
Aside from its propaganda content, the paper is
badly written and its circulation figure is very low. Its
director uses his status as a professional journalist as a
means of entree in political, press and diplomatic circles,
and has developed a wide circle of contacts which he uses
in:
a. Verbal promotion of rumor and person-
libel campaigns which are geared to promotion
of Soviet propaganda needs of the moment.
b. Picking up libelous gossip which is then
worked into "intelligence reports" and submitted
(through a member of his newspaper staff who
poses as an informant on the activities of the
newspaper and its director) to the police
services of his own country and locally
stationed representatives of foreign intelli-
gence services. (This is a particularly
ingenious operation, since in several cases
the same material has been fed into the
extreme-Right groups to which other members
of his staff have access, to reappear in police
and intelligence channels as apparently
independent confirmation from "anti-Commu-
nist" organizations of the far Right. )
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c. Through intensive cultivation of diplomatic
contacts, he has at;.mes been able to obtain
classified information concerning diplomatic
negotiations of his own country, and to publish
the material in his newspaper at a moment
chosen to cause a maximum of embarrassment
to his government.
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