COUNTERPOINT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87M00539R000700950024-2
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• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: April 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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SERVICE A of the FIRST CHIEF
DIRECTORATE of the KGB
The term Active Measures is explained
in the introductory letter to the first
number of COUNTERPOINT. It is impor-
tant to distinguish between the two
distinct categories of such Soviet measures,
i.e. between
a) Overt Active Measures, and
b) Covert Active Measures.
The responsibility for the planning and
directing of covert Active Measures lies
with Service A of the First Chief Direc-
torate of the KGB. Service A closely
cooperates with the International Depart-
ment/International Information Depart-
ment of the CPSU via the Secretariat of the
Politburo, where all important measures
are cleared and where specific executive
responsibility is allocated.
Service A directs and supports opera-
tions carried out overseas by the so-called
PR Lines of the KGB Residencies overseas.
Service A has been allocated more and
more staff since the late 70s and early 80s
and now constitutes a large section of the
First Chief Drrectorate (FCD), employing
some 200 officers and supporting staff,
including keen young intellectual officers
who see in this work a chance of rapid
recognition and promotion. It is the one
field where the Kremlin (the Instantsyia)
can see real results.
The current head of the Service is
Vladimir Petrovich Ivanov, a former KGB
operator under TASS cover in Vienna. He
has several area and functional Deputies.
The Service now occupies more than half
of the third floor of the FCD building at
Yasenevo near Moscow.
1 r~hnrques regularly employed by the
minions of Service A overseas include:
covert manipulation of the media of
foreign countries both capitalist and
'Socialist',
the widespread use of so-called 'Agents of
Influence' in all walks of the target
country's life;
the selective use of forged documents
and of faked photo-montages and tapes;
the systematic spreading of rumours and
of material calculated to cause doubts and
uncertainty;
the systematic harassment of target indivi-
duals, institutions and ~~rganizatiuns~
the transmission of false intelligence
through 'double agents' to other hostile
intelligence srrvices.
The larger part of the evidence of these
activities has recently come from the
Third World where Soviets find that they
can "still get away with it". ~
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ACTIVE MEASURES SCENARIO
The following scenario shows how
Active Measures are used in support of a
foreign policy objective:
The Soviet Union has become interested
in the little island republic of Ruritania.
The island's economy, built upon fishing
and tourism, has recently received a boost.
Ruritania has been granted a World Bank
loan to upgrade its Erne natural harbour
to accommodate deep-draught ocean-going
ships. Because of Ruritania's unique
location, the Soviets would like to have
access to its new port facilities. The matter
is brought to the attention of the Politburo
who decide that a priority effort should be
made to persuade Ruritania to change its
pro Western stance.
The decision having been made, the
Central Committee's International and
International Information Departments
and the KGB will plan the influence cam-
paign. Although a multitude of disparate
elements will be involved, these three
departments will make sure that the
campaign is on target and well coordinated.
Each element in the field will receive
its marching orders tailored to its indivi-
dual capabilities and without reference to
the total effort involved. For example, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs will notify its
diplomatic staff that there is a plan to
influence the Ruritanian government to
allow use of the new port. Although the
diplomats can probably guess that the KGB
officers among them will receive their own
orders on this topic, they do not receive
any official notice of the KGB plans for
the operation.
^ The campaign begins:
The Commercial Attache approaches
Ruritanian Ministry of Transport officials
with veiled hints of Soviet aid if the port
should be opened to Soviet ships.
A KGB officer meets his agent in the
Ministry of Trade to tell him to start
advertising the advantages of allowing the
Soviets access to the port.
An International Department official
stops the Vice-Chairman of the Ruritanian-
Soviet Friendship Society after a meeting
to ask him to extol the advantages of
Soviet trade relations whenever and
wherever possible.
The TASS correspondent prepares an
article, first in a series, on the long-standing
friendly cooperation of the Ruritanian and
Soviet peoples.
An undercover KGB officer asks a
member of the staff of the New Ruritanian
Worker to write an article denouncing US
plans to use the new port for warships
armed with nuclear weapons.
A KGB officer notes that there has been
;r rash of poisonings due to the ingestion
of diseased fish. This fact is passed to an
independent journalist who is in fact, an
agent of the KGB.
^ The campaign builds up:
The Ruritanian Ministry of Trade,
which has already supported Soviet port
access for financial reasons, are constantly
wined, dined and applauded by Soviet
diplomats for their perceptive stand.
The Ruritanian-Soviet Friendship-
Society holds a series of lectures, accom-
panied by a free buffet, to extol the virtues
of non-alignment and an open trade policy.
TASS brings to the attention of the
entire world, via their wire service, the
news (reported in a reputable journal)
that the United States has conducted tests
of biological weapons in the ocean near
Ruritania. This testing has led to the
deaths of hundreds by contaminating their
food supply.
A New Times correspondent informs
the Prime Minister that the magazine
would like to do a feature on him in his
role as a future leader of the non-aligned
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movement .
The ,'~'rw Ruru~natw te4ivAtr announces
that a demunstratian wU bs held to cutt-
dentn efforts to turn Rurttaau uitu a US
military base The spcrtyary of the dcnwn?
stratiun are The Runtanum fur Nea.e and
Social )wtke and Tht island ('hnstun
Associa t run .
New Tunur+-rn-?, the theoretr;al fuurrul
of the Ruritanun Canmwuyt Party, prints
a purpvrtcd U5 lE:rnbaysy ducumrnt
that outlure: ltS piarsy (? a as-al base ut
Ruritania. The U5 proasptl~ declares the
`document' ? forgery, powtrng out any
number of errury tali tlrle format and
language.
A Member ul Arlsaai+sseett wbmits the
questi~m, "lbw wt{) tfbe fwverrrrrtrnt
deny that the Wp{~ ~ {~ Maa made
on condtttun that t+r! kart tacattttn fur ?
US naval base'"
The Cabinet with an eye to the next
elcctiun, fears the image of toady to .the
US and softens the government's pro-
Wcstcrn stand. Privately, however, they
are uick to assure the US Ambassador
that their feelings are unchanged.
? The result:
A news item by "World Wire Service":
"T'he Prime Minister of Ruritania an-
nounced today that the new port facilities
will be made available to ships under the
Sunet flag. At a luncheon at the Ruri-
tartian?Soviet Friendship Society the Prime
Minister reiterated his nation's open door
policy."
A pro-Western country has become
'non-aligned'. ~
? The campr~tt ileaitt- unit:
The Prune Mrorrtar dsdua n a .~"~w
Times inurview tlsat the tgrtrttaewa peupk
have tradniunally sPw~ed a~an.es in
favour ul an ir-depeadtwr mtr of rorld
power r~l~tiunships
Do~turs at the he.r Hrnprtal is the
capital deny that recsrlt poss.iwirij deaths
were the result of bw.~loiscal warfart In
response to hundreds of wines, the
doctors state slut the deatftu ha?s bccn
directly cunnectcd w?ttlt toe wwWride
outbreak ul" ftcd (:~/ da>'rere
The Ministry of Trade ptsyeots us pro.
posal to the ('abtnet for wa:+urditwwl
trade relations wttji arty aril ap awotnp
The demonstntwa ~ US mdr?
tansm and tmpsrWtens r. tetsaY flwt .,,,ty
A leading Rwuaatw alggw firwe grey
the dentunytratruti tratwtt 0y appearteig
and malung a (tw brad Marta
The Mmutty of Trattrprxt uwerls its
plans fur Iht r~ port factW~es, nduday
cranes of S.-syet rnaerlactrur e.ailabie to
them below mut~tt cwU
TRUTH -MADE TO MEASURE
This actual case?history (in six chapters)
illustrates how Joviet or soviet-inspired
media manipulate Western news-items.
Ctrapter I
The ,Yrw? Y~,rk Times (August 3, 1982)
reports that Brasil plans to use defoliants
to clur vcgctation for a dam:
"Brazil is considering the use of `toxic
deic,asants' to clear a wide swath of the
Amuun Jungle for a large hydroelectric
pruJect, and the country's environmental
~href u warning that the move could create
a disastrous precedent. Protest is directed
a1 ulftctsls overseeing the construction of
the rnarnmWh Tucurui Uam, on one of thr
Ansauxi trtbutariey, that requires flooding
an tl3~?sywre?mile arcs, creating, body of
water nearly twke the size of lake Champ?
larrt. The vegetation must be stripped in
the afkcled tract to prevent decompo-
utlun of underwater plant from corroding
the lacihty's turbines."
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Chapter 2
United Press International (December
15, 1983) reports that because of the negli-
gent use of the defoliant between 17 and
42 veople died:
"At least 17 people died in a remote
Amazon region after contractors working
for a government utility used a defoliant
similar to Agent Orange used by US forces
in Vietnam. An official of the Para State
Agriculture Department, Avellino do Vale,
said, `We have evidence that as many as 42
people may have died from the effects of
Tordon-155 poisoning.' "
Chapter 3
Reuters (October 5, 1984) mentions the
activities of a Brazilian lawyer who pro-
vides fuel for the eventual Active Measures
operation:
"A Brazilian lawyer has arrived in Kenya
to seek United Nations support to stop an
Amazonian dam project which, she says,
could mean death by poison for thousands
of people living there. Sonia Regina de
Brito Pereira met the head of the Nairobi-
based United Nations Environment Pro-
gramme (UNEP), in an eleventh hour
attempt to stop the flooding of land at
Turcui (sic) in Para State."
Chapter 4
Three weeks later the Soviets step in.
The disinformation effort begins (TABS,
October 27, 1984):
"Whole tribes of Brazilian Indians have
fallen victim to another act of genocide by
Washington, Vitaliy Kobysh, a publicist,
has said in a televised speech. The orga-
nisers of secret tests of that weapon of
mass destruction did everything to conceal
the traces of the crime. The huge territory
where the defoliants had been tested was
submerged. But the horrible crime came to
light. Experts who surveyed the area
maintain that poisoned earth there
resembles a zone of nuclear explosion and
that the consequences of that .turK UN
impossible to foretell."
Chapter 5
The tom of New Times (M~-..h-~,
No. 45, 1984; more grand durc~.ed 1w
reality:
"On the pretext of clearing uhw.~1- .I
2,400 square kilometres of luutlc t.~?
types of chemicals, very much .-:r~ a.~
dioxin, were tested along the banh- ut tl+r
Tocantins, a tributary of the Amu,m tlaW
flows through Brazil. At least 7,OuU t....~-
died in the area of Tucurui. Two (r-daar
tribes were all but wiped out and in,,cJ-bie
damage inflicted upon local fl~~ra a~r0
fauna. The Pentagon hoped to c:aucat r~
traces of its crimes, and on Septerat+ea d
the contaminated sector was flooded "
Chapter 6
The World Peace Council (Hdut~bl
introduces a Japanese dimenswn IPr~w+
Courier, November 1984):
"In 1981 a number of US, Japancx u.d
Brazilian chemicals firms carr-ed cwt rr
series of defoliation experimcnu ur rte
Brazilian Amazon basin which resulteJ -a
the liquidation of entire villagc- ae.3
communities through the extennur.tn~:, .a
some 7,000 people." ?
KGB RENEWS KAL ACCUSATIUhS
The current literary sensation fir ltl,~-
cow is a book entitled The C'rirne~ ~ ~~ rh.
President. Attributed to a Japancx p~~r
nalist, the book reiterates the thcs+- that
Moscow has been trying to pune~ t.. ?
sceptical world: that the South Ku:c.u au
liner in which 269 people died was, tr: t.,t
performing an espionage mission tau tAe
United States.
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Uwe Al.w Takahashi is named as the
s+r~ ul the book, translated and pub-
~d t,y 1UVOSTI News Agency. Curi-
+r-wt1 th~,sc well acquainted with the
~rrre press have never heard of such a
w~srr S~xne time ago, however, Akio
tamrla, a gentleman long suspected of
~ rn the pay of the KGB, published an
rivs+.lr ur :+ Japanese magazine making
~RM,irri) the same points about the KAL
~r,rur as the Takahashi book, i.e. that US
~,cttu~ ratJter than Soviet ruthlessness
~ rrslx,nstble for the tragedy.
M.r-.uw's efforts to shift to others,
wtably tttc US, the responsibility for its
w>A a.uuns have met with little success.
1.u a.rnt attempts have in fact backfired
the KGB.
I Vu summer, the British publication
QKJrAir Attachl~ carried a story suggesting
s~M Uce atrliner, shot down by Soviet
it~-ur planes after it strayed off course
tt,c North Pacific, has really been on
r~ ppwnage mission for the US. It was
?aScfy believed that the authors, using the
~ty,l orlym P. Q. Mann, had used material
,rc,i,r,ally supplied by the KGB. Defence
~ru~ht, uself a victim of this disinfor-
wur,vn, agreed in a London courtroom to
tp lrbel damages to Korean Airlines
atur ,un~eding that there was no basis for
sire atJc~tiun. On November 19th, Korean
Aui,ncs accepted their public apology.
t orally in the summer of 1984 Soviet
arntu prominently featured, and the KGB
npia>cd around the world, a report
~...~ung a retired American diplomat as
~a~urg that the airliner had been blown up
~ mid?atr by adelayed-action bomb after
rte tarlure of the espionage mission. The
Arrcr-..n, John Keppel, promptly denied
esa-rrrg any such statement. He explained
csut to indeed believed the plane had
W~r,.n up, but as the result of a kerosene
tuc u. one of its wings set off by the rocket
1,;ed by the Soviet fighter. ?
MOSCOW AND THE GANDHI
ASSASSIIVATION
The illustration above purports to be a
negative of an official US Department of
State telegram. It first appeared in the
Indian press on January 25, 1983, in the
pro-Soviet journal Patriot (New Delhi).
The telegram contains a speech supposedly
given by US Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick
in 1982 which outlined an aggressive, often
vicious US policy towards Third World
countries, including India. In reality
Ambassador Kirkpatrick nev, r rnade any
such statement. The `speech' is an out-and-
out fabrication to which numerous tech-
nical and linguistic mistakes bear witness.
This forgery was part of the Soviet
propaganda groundwork which strove to
'prove' that there exists a longstanding US
policy to destabilise India.
When Indira Gandhi was assassinated by
two of her Sikh bodyguards on October 31
1984, the Kremlin immediately sought to
exploit the tragedy by trying to implicate
fictitious `imperialist forces', i.e. the
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United States. Although the identity of
the assassins and their motives were never
in doubt, the Soviet Active Measures net-
work was quickly mobilised to disseminate
the theme of US complicity. Analysis of
media coverage alleging US complicity
demonstrates conclusively the coordinated
nature of the effort to blame the United
Srates.
? First, Moscow states the theme: "So far
it is not known who concretely instructed
them and put the guns in their hands, but
it is known ?.vhere the terrorists received
their ideological inspiration. The address is
also known: the suburbs of Washington,
Langley, CIA headquarters." (Moscow
Radio in English, October 31, 1984)
? Then old friends provide the chorus:
"Leftist circles are convinced that the
assassination could not have taken place
without deep-laid foreign inspiration,
backed by agencies like the CIA." (Patriot
November 1, 1984)
? A slight variation on the theme.? "The
Third World, the millions of the poor of
the earth, received a fatal blow in the heart
yesterday when murderous hands armed by
the darkest circles of the international
reaction gunned down Indian Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi." (To Cthnos,
Athens, Navember 1, 1984)
~ The audience is an integral part of every
performance: "An overwhelming majority
of supreme court advocates declared today
their `conviction' that foreign powers were
behind the murder of Mrs Indira Gandhi.
Advocates belonging to the Congress
openly blamed the C?IA of the United
States." (The Hindustan Times, November
1,1984)
? Moscow returns to the stage: "There is
no doubt that Washington is ready to pay
any price to remove from power those
political forces of India that are at the
helm of government in the country today."
(Svetskaya Rossiya, November 10, 1984)
? Fina/e: Only after official US protests
did Pravda publish un November 24 a
convoluted denial ("editarial article") of
any Soviet charges of US involvement in
the Gandhi assassination.
NEW T/MES: A SOVIET `FRONT
LINE' PROPAGANDA ORGAN
The foreign affairs weekly, New Times,
holds a special place among Soviet publi-
cations because of its numerous ties to
Soviet intelligence and Active Measures.
All but two of its foreign correspon-
dents are full-time career KGB intelligence
afiicers running a variety of information
collecting, disinformation, and influence
operations. The two `clean' correspon-
dents, in New York and Bann, are actually
emissaries of the Central Cantmittee's
International Department (ID), a unit that
plans and oversees Active Measures world?
wide.
Editor-in-chief Mikhail Fyodorov,
former TASS correspondent, is closely
connected with bath the IU and the KGB.
The three deputy editors have inter-
esting backgrounds as well. Mr V. Chern-
yavsky is a former KGB senior officer,
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once the KGB resident (chief) in Sweden.
Mr B. Pishchik was once a KGB party
committee secretary in Soviet Lithuania.
Mr S. Golyakov, representative of the
younger generation of New Times writers,
spends most of his time in the ID and
Central Committee Propaganda Depart-
ment.
The KGB often uses the `false flag' of
New Times in recruiting foreign journalists.
For example, in the 1970s in Japan and
elsewhere, Soviet intelligence officers
recruited several journalists by persuading
them to cooperate with a `special confi-
dential bulletin published by New Times
for reading by the Soviet leaders.' In fact,
such a bulletin never existed.
New Times is one of very few Soviet
publications that publish `letters from
foreign readers'. Such letters are seldom,
in fact, from foreign readers but are
generally invented by New Times staff
writers as an excuse to criticise the West's
political, economic and military actions.
FOR THE RECORD: The official pub-
lisher of New Times is the newspaper Trud
(Labour) which represents the All-Union
Council of Trade Unions. Actually, New
Times has nothing to do with the trade
unions and only uses them as a cover, a
smoke screen, that allows the real
publisher, the International Department, to
claim that New Times does not represent
the Kremlin's official viewpoint. The
magazine was founded in 1943 for intelli-
gence purposes. During World War I[ and
in the late 1940s New Times was a conduit
for instructions to communist parties in
non-socialist countries. Since then it has
been used extensively by the KGB's
external intelligence units as a ~?~ver for
their officers. In the late 1960s, a secret
Politburo directive designated ~~ew Times
as a `frontline propaganda organ' charged
with influencing foreign public opinion in
ways most beneficial to the Kremlin. As
such, New Times routinely takes the lead
in Soviet disinformation campaigns. ~
[This is the first in a series of reports on
Soviet front line' Active Measures organs.
Future articles will look at Literatumaya
Gazeta, NOVOSTI, PROGRESS Publishing
House, and other such conduits for Soviet
disinformation. ] .
BOOK NOTES
As the arena of Active Measures is
largely the open press, we will be re-
viewing new books and articles on
Active Measures as they appear. The
following are some of the standard
texts on the subject.
The Deception Game by Ladislav Rittman.
(New York, Ballantine Books, 1981)
One of the first books published on the
topic, this is an uneven but fascinating
account of Active Measures as conducted
by the Czechs. Mr Bittman's account of
the Black Lake Operation Neptune is
admirably instructive on the use of forgery
in an Active Measures campaign.
Dezinformatsiya: Active Measures in Soviet
Strategy by Richard H. Shultz and Roy
Godson. (Washington, Oxford: Pergamon-
Brassey's, 1984) Although sometimes
slow, this is a clear exposition of the Soviet
Active Measures threat, particularly against
the United States and NATO. Chapter IV
on Soviet covert political techniques is
especially good. Includes a short but
excellent glossary of terms.
KCB: The Secret Work of Soviet Secret
Agents by John Barron. (New York,
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Bantam Books, 1974) As well as a good for peace and of the fear of nuclear
general primer on the KGB, the book weapons. Another has been the failure of
includes a useful chapter on Active some Western governments to perceive the
Measures. There are a number of examples dangers. The term 'adversaries' was delibe-
of Active Measures campaigns (referred to rately selected to denote those whose
in this book as disinformation) which cover efforts have been directed, under CSPU/
the history of Soviet power. In the chatty KGB control, to undermining the security
Reader's Digest st~?le, it is certainly the and stability of the West. In addition to
most readable of the books on the subject. discussing the `critics', the role of 'dupes',
KGB Today: The Hidden Hand by John
Barron. (New York: Reader's Digest
Press, 1983) This book should be read as
a supplement to Baryon's earlier book on
the KGB. There are some strong chapters
on Active Measures, especially in the first
half of the book.
Soviet Active Measures; Hearings before
the Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence, House of Representatives,
July 13 and 14, 1982. (Washington, D.C.,
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1982)
A good reference work on Active Measures;
the hearings include exhaustive, and
exhausting, reports on all aspects of the
subject. Not a fun reading experience but
an informative one.
Campaigns against Western Defence:
NATO's Adversaries and Critics by Sir
Clive Rose. (London, Macmillan, 1985)
This scholarly book, written by the former
UK Ambassador to NATO, examines the
pressures and influences which have been
applied in order to erode public support
for NATO policy. One cause of such
erosion has been the exploitation by Soviet
and Communist propaganda of the desire
of whom there are many thousands, is
clinically exposed, based on hard infor-
mation from the East.
t
Soviet Active Measures: The Propaganda
War by David Rees. (London, The
Institute for the Study of Conflict, Con-
flict Studies Number 169). An excellent
introduction, clear language and short.
It stresses the inability or unwillingness
of the West to appreciate the scale or the
implications of this highly developed
Soviet weapon. Rees cites two veteran
communists:
"We must penetrate every conceivable
milieu, get hold of artists and professors,
make use of theatres and cinemas, and
spread abroad the doctrine that Russia is
prepared to sacrifice everything to keep
the world at peace."
Willi Munzenberg, Comintern propaganda
chief before World War II
"One sympathizer is generally worth
more than a dozen militant Communists.
A writer of reputation, or a retired general,
is worth more than 500 poor .devils who
don't know any better than to get them-
selves beaten up by the police."
Georgi Dimitrov, Chairman of the
Seventh Comintern Congress, 1935
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