BRITAIN'S SPY CASE: DAMAGE CONTROL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505220019-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: November 8, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/26: CIA-RDP90-0
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE_ 7
NEWSWEEK
8 NOVER 1982
PERISCOPE
Britain's Spy Case: Damage Control
Geoffrey Arthur Prime, suspected of being a "mole" inside
British intelligence, may not have done as much damage to Western
espionage operations as first feared. Prime worked as a Russian
translator at Britain's Government Communications Headquar-
ters at Cheltenham, one of the West's most important sources of
covert information about the Soviet Union. But according to U.S.
officials familiar with the case, Prime translated only intercepted
plain-language communications. Because he did not handle de-
coded material, he would not have been able to tell Moscow which
Soviet codes had been broken. He also could not have passed along
keys to U.S. or NATO codes, because the encoding staff is strictly
separated from other operations. In addition, U.S. sources say that
Prime had a relatively low security clearance. Prime's principal
value to Moscow probably would have been his ability to report
which uncoded communications were being picked up. Moscow
then would have been able to encode them, send them by different
means or use them to transmit misleading information.
The CIA's Videotaped Evidence
The Central Intelligence Agency has demonstrated that it can
learn from its mistakes. Last year a Nicaraguan captured in El
Salvador said that he had been sent by Nicaragua to fight with the
antigovernment guerrillas in El Salvador. But when the U.S. State
Department presented him to reporters last March, he recanted,
saying his admissions were coerced. Recently Honduras captured
five Salvadoran guerrillas-at a secret base in Honduras-who said
that they had been trained in Cuba. To avoid a replay of last year's
embarrassment, the CIA videotaped their confessions.
ERIC GELMAN with bureau reports
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505220019-9