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•- f '., • •' COV£R| STORY h ^ I A15-month probe by Insight and the BBC uncovers asecret stash of East German intelligence documents detailing the recruitment of U.S. and U.K.agents. By Jamie Dettmer he will serve you for many years." months, even years, at a In the latter decades of the Cold time in the universities War, Communistspy agencies took that ofthe Warsaw bloc. Communisthave been scornfulspymastersof religionmay advice to heart and earmarked young Western liberals, but they had at least one thing Americans and Britons for recruit politicians and aca in common with the Jesuits — ment. The superficial thaw in East- demies alike saw they understood the value of West relations provided by bouts of higher-educa wooing the young. In the detente in the 1970s and 1980s gave tion exchange words of former KGB Maj. Gen. Oleg them the opportunity to trawl among programs as a Kalugin: "Ifyou can find a young per hundreds and laterthousands of West chance to fos son, perhaps a student, before his ern students, Americans and Britons ter mutual under opinions have fully matured, then among them, who took part in cultur- standing between the make him truly believe in your cause, al-exchange programs and studied for superpowers. But for October 18.1999 Caught; BBC TVfilm crexo catches disclosure of the Stasi's massive clan Pearson unaware. destine recruitment drive, which comes ". .. on top of a recent wave of spy revela Communist spymasters such as tions in London about Soviet espionage W|3£«l:j( STflsrj Markus Wolf, the wily head of East missions against the West during the ' oad».S;?;;3 090327 Germany's foreign-espionage service, Cold War era, likely will promptfurther the Hauptverwaltung Aufklarung or doubts concerningthe effectiveness HVA, foreign-intelligence wing of the ofWestern counterintelligence dur Stasi, the programs had one use only; ing the Cold War. They served as a rich source for InBritainthe BBC recently aired •• recruiting American and British stu a documentary detailingsomeofthe dents as long-term penetration agents resultsofthejointinvestigationwith ; who could be groomed to work their Insight, including naming two : way into governmentjobs in their own British moles from the Stasi files. countries — or into other influential Calls since have mounted from oppo spots in journalism, business, higher sition parties for Tbny Blair's Labour llfc fcalllllTTITf education (including scientific and Government to launch an indepen technical studies) or the military. dent commission to establish what Ifen years after the fall ofthe Berlin MIS knew duringthe Cold Warofthis WaU, a joint 15-month investigation by Stasi penetration. Angry Conserva- Insight and the British Broadcasting tives and Liberal Democrats also have Corp., or BBC, has discovered how demanded a full explanation of why the fruitful the exchange programs were government has no plans to prosecute for Communist spy agencies, and in the two unmasked British moles — particular for the HVA Stasi, which Robin Pearson, the director of post worked hand-in-glove with the KGB. graduatestudies atHull University, and Based on a huge cache of hitherto retired Leeds University sociologist secretEast German intelligence docu Vic Allen, who also was a high-pro U_S.£is^s-| ments, including complete Stasi mole file antinuclear activist in Britain in files of two British academics code- the 1980s. So far the Blair govern 'P 0512328 named "Armin" and "Diana," In mentis standingfirm against issuing sight/BBC has established the Stasi any detailed statement, despite the had a high recruitment success rate clamor in the House ofCommons. l- amongAmericanand Britishexchange In the United States, the CIA was students. "Regardlessofwhetherthese coming under stiff criticism even were students from Britain or other before the Stasi disclosures. In mid- countries, as a general rule one out of September the BBC revealed in 10 attempts to recruit someone for the another documentary that Langley secret service were success failed to scoop up former KGB ' ful," says Pieter Richter, a archivist Vasily Mitrokhin when he ^ i"-- former HVA analyst. approached U.S. intelligence opera % Neither the CIA nor tives in 1992 and offered to defect. ^ AIM ^825/9V f Britain'scounterintelli- Among the questions lawmakers are ' gence service, MIS, keen to secure answers to regardingthe A detected the recruit- Stasi revelations is whether the CIA ments at the time. The was aware that young Americans studying overseas were earmarked by Spymaster: Wolf, long the East Germans and, if so, what coun- time head ofthe termeasures were employed by Lang- East German ley.Further, congressional intelligence- Pearson's files: Checks, expense foreign-intel panel members want to know whether accounts, fake passport and thefile ligence the CIA has identified those Ameri jacketfrom the Gauck archives. services, cans who were recruited by the East ran HVA Germans. confined themselves to monitoring the effectively. Western counterintelligence chiefs handful of GDR students who studied are reluctant to discuss the Stasi in the United States or Britain. recruitment drive. But they admit that Longtime HVA head Wolf has students were not warned before they acknowledged in an interview with embarked for the German Democratic Insight/BBCthathis organization made Republic, or GDR, to be wary of HVA strenuousefforts to recruit or, in the par recruitment designs nor were they cau lanceof Stasiofficers, to win overforeign tioned about the Stasi-dominated students and academics andthatAmer nature of the universities they were to icansespeciallywere important. Active attend. There was no systematic measures were mounted bythe Stasi to debriefing ofstudents or academics on pursue students and professors from their return. As far as the exchange the Slatesstudyingin West Germany as programs were concerned, Western weU. "In the last IS years that was the intelligence agencies appear to have Sdcus ofouractivity, lbhave recruitment October 18,1999 Insight-U groups at faculties ofuniversities which were of particularinterestto us... every person who had not yet been compro To Catch a Spy mised with the police or in defense cir cles was very valuable to us." Even those who had been compromised — people When working for The Times away inthe southeast Germantown of who already had exposed themselves a ofLondon, this reporter was Suhl and denying his well-document- little too much as left-wing—could pro among thosescrambling in ed intelligence career—hundreds of vide tips and advice. Eastern Europe to pick up )ages of secret papers from the HVA According to Wolf, money played a Cold War intelligence inthe wake of ellinto my lap. With them came the negligible role in the successful wooing the collapse ofthe Communist code names of dozens of Western of students — misplaced idealism was regimes. My objectives werewide- moles — American, British, West Ger more important. "Nearly all of these ranging — collectas much informa man, Belgian, Israeli and Irish— people did this work out of a political tion as possible about as much as pos who'd been recruited successfully by conviction, and this politicalconviction sible — butthere also wasa personal the East Germans in the 1970s and did not necessarily have anything to do mission involved: I wanted to track 1980s. with Communism. There were other down theEast German intelligence InSeptember 1993, The Times issues such as the rejection of the Viet agent, one Ulrich Kempf, who had tried published an article ofmine listing the nam War, for instance. There were the Ina ham-fisted manner to recruit me British code names of "Armin" and global politics of America, American overa few London lunches years earli "Diana." British intelligence quietly politics in Germany, the stationing of er. Kempf, then ostensibly a diplomat, swung into action; within six months missiles in Germany.... Thus, preserv had told me, "We could begood for they tracked down Armin's HVA file ingthe peace was an importantmotive your career." and confronted Robin Pearson. for many, more so than a Marxist or In theprocess ofsearching for the Remarkably, the filewas found inthe Communist conviction." For some that suave agent — Ifound him hidden Gauck archives in Berlin, where nearly was the basis, for others it wasn't. And 125 miles of domestic Stasi material for still others, say Stasi recruiters, a has been collected and is being sifted youthful sense of adventure could be through by researchersand periodi exploited, as the seductiveness of the cally released. cloak-and-dagger world worked its The Gauck has little HVA foreign- magic on novices. All of this comes espionage material. There was a near- through the fat spy volumes secured total destruction bythe HVA oftheir during the Insight/BBC investigation. archives in EastGermany afterthe fall The voluminous Stasi files — no ofthe Berlin Wall. The CIA, however, HVA Stasi mole files ever have been did manage to secure some files as made public before — cast consider copies were being transported to able light on the huge recruitment Moscow. effort. They demonstrate the tireless As British intelligence operatives meticulousness and patience of the haddone, Ifiled a requestwith the Stasi in planning recruitments and nur Gauck to see ifby a fluke the Armin file turing moles, characteristic qualities of might bethere. Idoubted itwould be, Soviet-bloc intelligence agencies in but last year to my utterastonishment contrast to their budget-constrained itturned up. Iwasn't theonly journal counterparts in the West, whotended to ist who had appliedto the Gauck grab at quick results and were less archives. After reading The77mes arti averse to squeeze-and-dispose assets. cle, the BBC's David Rose also filed an Belfast-born Robin Pearson, aka Armin request and re-ceived a copy of Armin, age 43, a senior lecturer in eco thefile. Our employers, Insight and nomic history at the University of Hull, the BBC, decided a joint investigation took less time than most to be recruited, was in order.