EMBASSY BEAUTY PROBED AS 'MATA HARI'

Document Type:

CREST [1]

Collection:

General CIA Records [2]

Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):

CIA-RDP90-00552R000605710001-3

Release Decision:

RIPPUB

Original Classification:

Document Page Count:

Document Creation Date:

December 22, 2016

Document Release Date:

August 24, 2010

Sequence Number:

Case Number:

Publication Date:

May 3, 1983

Content Type:

OPEN SOURCE

File:

Attachment	Size
CIA-RDP90-00552R000605710001-3.pdf [3]	124.44 KB

Body:

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605710001-3 N c'TAT OZ PAC a2. NEW YORK POST 3 May 1983 Sandinista soldiers at a pored. eei.breting their via tort ever By NILES LATHEM bureau Chief WASHINGTON - A beautiful press secre- tary of the Nicara- guan Embassy - trained by Cuban in- telligence - is being probed by the CIA as the suspected Idata Hari at the center of an intricate Sandin- ista spy operation. She is Angela Saballos, who carries the title of First Secretarv of the Nicaraguan embassy. Publicly she is the woman who answers the phone when the press wants a statement from the embassy, and ar- ranges interviews when Allege powerfui Q.C. links visiting members of the radical Sandinista gov- ernment visit Washing- ton. But, for a press secre- tary, Angela Saballos has a rather interesting back. ground and even more in- teresting connections here th Washington These connections, which include friend- ships with powerful Democrats in Congress. have attracted the atten- tion of the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency. According to intelli- gence sources, there is great concern over Miss Saballos' friendship with two Democratic mem- bers of Congress. One, a House member, has been, a key figure in the fight to cut $0 mil- lion in funds for a covert CIA operation designed to sabotage the Sandinis- tas' mischief-making in Central America Miss Sabailos also has allegedly been linked to a Democratic senator who has been an outspo- ken critic of continued U.S. aid to El Salvador. Sources say that nei- ther member of Con- gress is suspected of any wrong-doing. U.S. intelligence be- lieves that Angela Saba)- log is actually "station chief"' for Nicaragua's intelligence organization in Washington. U.S. intelligence also has evidence that she has had extensive train- ing in Cuba by the DGI - the Cuban sister of the Soviet KGB. But while there is evi- dence of her connections to Soviet-backed spy agencies, the U.S. has been unable to catch her doing anything other than her official duties in the embassy. The allegations come Sonwza. at a time when President Reagan is on the defen- sive in the battle for pub- lic acceptance of his view that unless Nicara- gua is controlled, the Communist fire that started there in 1979 could envelop the entire region in revolution.. Miss Saballos could bot be reached for comment last night, having flown from Washington to New York late yesterday. At the Nicaraguan Mission to the UN, em- ployes said they did not know where she was. The CIA refused com- ment. Miss Saballoa, the daughter of a dress- maker in Managua, for- merly worked for the U.S. government. At the time when the Sandinista revolution was overthrowing the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua, she was em. ployed as a receptionist at the U.S. Embassy in Managua. While there, it is be. lieved that she had a close friendship with a senior member of the U.S. Embassy. ,COAT 1V VED Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605710001-3