WHY DIDN'T THEY TELL US?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000504830031-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: June 17, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
C
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504830031-9
WASHINGTON WEEKLY
011 PAGE. _,_r?_,,,, 17 June 1980
A Soviet defector has testified that ,the Soviet Un
Jon has been carrying on military-bacteriological re-
search for more than 50 years. Mark Popovsky, a
former Soviet journalist who published 14 books on
Soviet -scientists, told the. House Intelligence
Committee on May- 29 that Moscow operates sev-
eral secret' compounds... that . conduct work on
bacteriological weapons..w'.'On the basis of. A large
number of facts which were at my disposal in the
USSR, I maintain that the Soviet Union never, eith
er after 1925 or after.1975, carried out its commit-
ment; too:' renounce-.bacteriological weapons," he
said Popovsky said.,it.was likely -that the Soviets
were conducting germ warfare experiments in
Afghanistan. This testimony was ignored-by the
Washington:-daily. newspapers and the New York.
Fidel Castro's crackdown on dissent helped trig:
ger the massive influx of Cuban refugees, a. report
`issued by.the House Intelligence Committee's Over-
i-sight Subcommittee has revealed. The report, re-
leased on June 2, quoted the CIA as noting on Jan-
uary 9, 1980:: "Until mid-1977 public dissatisfaction
-over food shortages,- inadequate- public ?services,
and lack of housing had been.expressed through
such, passive means as absenteeism and low produc-
tivity The. trend since then has been toward more
open displays of frustration crime', vandalism,.
illegal- departures, and even some isolated an-
aaa?_: _
ti-government activity and sabotage. By late 1979,-
Raul Castro-the regime's ideological hardliner-
was demanding the suppression of counterrevolu-.
tionaries. Last month, security-forces instituted an ii
unusual series of security checks and mass arrests in
the Havana area.- The operation, -along with the
appointment of hardliner Ramiro Valdes as Minis-
:"ter-of Interior-underscored-the regime's deter=mination to "crack down."-;.The- subcommittee
report,-ignored by the Washington Star, was men-
tioned by the -Washington Post and the New York
-Times. But these papers ignored the above section
on mass repression.
(This survey. of missing news is based.upon
examination of the New York .Times city edition,.
the Washington Star's AM Extra, and the Washing-
;ton Post's third edition.)
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504830031-9