TREATY LETS LIAISON OFFICERS CARRY OUT LICENSED ESPIONAGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404570021-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: March 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404570021-0
ARTICLE APP..AF
ON PAGE_
WASHINGTON POST
26 March 1985
Treaty Lets liaison Officers Carry
Out `Licensed Espionage'
By William Drozdiak
Washington Post Foreign Service
BONN, March 25-The slaying of a U.S.
Army major by a Soviet guard in East Ger-
many yesterday puts a rare public spotlight
on the actw~ties of the elite intelligence
units operating in East and West Germany
out_ of military missions established by the'
four wartime Allied powers at the end of
World war II.
",There's no question that the lives of
these liaison officers revolve around being
ha,?sled," a U.S. diplomat said. "But this in-_
cicent is a much more serious matter. Kill-
ing somebody is not playing by the rules."
Experts say the officers attached to each
military liaison mission gather some of the
best on-site intelligence to be found along
the Central European front They are usu-
ally equipped on their rounds with high-
powered binoculars, infrared cameras and
listening devices.
The practice of using the liaison missions
as mobile military observation posts has
been maintained by the four powers despite
the creation since the-war of two sovereign
German states. The governments in Bonn
and East Berlin have no official ties with the
four-power missions, which are accredited
only to each other.
The U.S.-Soviet accord, signed in 1947,
and others signed by the Soviets with Brit-
ain and France, give each side an outpost
and travel rights in the other side's occu-'
pation zones in Germany and the right to
accredit 14, officers and enlisted men to
their missions. The three western missions
are in Potsdam, in East Germany, a few
miles southwest of Berlin. The Soviets have
missions in Frankfurt, Baden-Baden and in
the north.
The U.S. mission maintains a white stuc-
co villa in Potsdam, although daily patrols
usually originate from West Berlin. East
German border guards allow the American
liaison officers free access between East
and West Berlin across 'the Glienecke
bridge. The antiquated span, where Francis
Gary Powers, famed pilot of a downed U2
reconnaissance plane, was traded in 1962
for the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, is kept free
of all other traffic.
British, French and American liaison of-
ficers generally conduct daily patrols, driv-
ing all over East Germany in marked mil-
itary jeeps seeking to glean insights into the
nature and location of troops, missiles and
armor. In West German territory, their So-
viet counterparts are permitted to do the
same. Only designated military zones are
considered off-limits to the roving officers.
According to the 1947 agreement: "Each
member of the missions will be given iden-
tical travel facilities to include identical per-
manent passes in the Russian and English
languages, permitting complete freedom of
travel wherever and whenever it will be de-
sired over territory and roads in both zones,
except places of disposition of military
units, without escort or supervision."
The reconnaissance sorties, carried out
by two- to four-man teams, are, nonethe-
less. closely monitored by Soviet Bloc au-
thorities to thwart intrusion or snooping in
restricted military areas. In the past, East
German trucks have been known to bump
or ram western military jeeps or fire warn-
ing shots toward them if they come too
close to sensitive installations.
Such harassment has become common-
place during spring and fall maneuvers in
the two Germanys, when liaison officers
from the Soviet and western sides strive to
learn as much as they can about the status
of each others' war-fighting capability.
Last year, a three-man French military.
'fUed
t/
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404570021-0
patrol was involved in a head-on collisioO
with an East German Army truck while
driving on a major road near the town of
Halle. One French soldier was killed and an-
other seriously injured in the collision,
which some western diplomats said they be
lieved was intentional. The group report-i
edly was trying to observe large-scale So-
viet and East German maneuvers.
But such incidents rarely have evoked
public controversy because of desires on
both sides to minimize friction over the un-
usual nature of the liaison missions' work."
Instead, Soviet and western military offi-
cials often try to resolve their problems in
confidential meetings. I V.
Western officials characterized the liaisorf,
officers' duties as "licensed espionage" and
said it is quietly accepted that the Soviet
teams who travel throughout West Get-
many also will try to follow maneuvers and
probe into sensitive military areas.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404570021-0