WARSAW ACCUSES U.S. AIDE OF SPYING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403300001-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 23, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
N Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403300001-4
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE
NEW YORK TIMES
23 April 1987
WARSAW ACCUSES
U.S. AIDE OF SPYING
A Videotape Is Presented as
Evidence That a Diplomat
Engaged in Espionage
STAT
STAT
By MICHAEL T. KAUFMAN
Special to The New York Times
WARSAW, April 22 - Polish Govern-
ment officials accused an American
diplomat today of spying and backed
up the charge with a videotape purport-
edly showing the man as he turned
over money, code tables, and computer
programs to a Polish contact.
Jerzy Urban, the Government
pokesman, identified the diplomat as
Albert Mueller, who for the last two
years rv
ed as a second secretary in
the Polish Embassy. He said the Amer-
ican was seized Saturday night.
The videotape, which was shown to
foreign reporters and was later broad-
cast on the national news, showed shad-
owy and indistinct images of two men
walking in a park at night and then
being seized by men in plain clothes.
The scene shifted to show Mr. Mueller
being questioned in Polish about the
items he was accused of turning over to
the contact, who has not been named
"I am an American diplomat, please
telephone the U.S. Embassy," Mr.
Mueller said on the tape, firmly but
calmly repeating the phrase in answer
to each question.
Interrogation and Departure
Paul Smith, a spokesman at the
American Embassy, said Mr. Mueller
had been interrogated for six and a halt
hours before he was released. Mr.
Smith said Mr. Mueller left Poland for
the United States Sunday morning.
Before ?4r._U0jn said a word about
Mr. Mueller's etent on at his weekly
news conference this morning, he de-
vsza
Bored the publication of the memo rs o
Polish co one
who was a spy for the United States
while serving on the Polish general
staff until November 1981. His account
of Soviet pressures leading to the impo-
sition of martial law has been pub-
lished in a Polish emigre journal
printed in Paris and is being carried
here on foreign shortwave broadcasts.
"Momentous changes taking place in
I he Soviet Union have added depth and
a new glamour to Polish-Soviet rela-
tions," Mr. Urban said. "It is for these
reasons that right at this moment, U.S.:
intelligence has decided to prepare its
own version of the events of 1980 and
1981 in a way designed to incite anti-
Soviet sentiments and inculcate the
Polish people with mistrust of their
state leadership and armed forces."
Only after echoing recent Soviet ac-
cusations that the United States was
preoccuppied with "espionage mania,"
did the Government spokesman re-
lease the news of Mr. Mueller's deten-
tion. "The Interior Ministry's counter-
intelligence caught the U.S. Diplomat
red handed," he said.
Reason for Detention
Mr. Urban did not respond directly
when asked if the seizure of Mr. Muell-
er, who appeared to have been under
surveillance for some time, was in-
tended as a response to the publication
of the Kuklinski memoirs.
Some Western diplomats here said
they considered it significant that the
Polish Government has not asked that
Mr. Mueller be declared persona non
grata, though it has protested his ac-
tivities to John Davis, the American
charge d'affaires. Mr. Davis protested
the six-and-a-half hour interrogation of
Mr. Mueller. A spokeswoman for the
Polish Foreign Ministry said the Gov-
ernment here did not demand Mr.
Mueller's expulsion because, "He left
and the situation did not arise."
But other officials here suggested
that Poland was eager to register a
measured note of pique in reaction to
the Kuklinski memoirs without provok-
ing either retaliatory expulsions of Pol-
ish diplomats or jeopardizing the grad-
ual improvement of United States-Pol-
ish relations. Last June, Stephen Mull,
also a second secretary, was accused
of espionage on Polish television but
was not expelled.
After the videotape was shown to re-
porters, Capt. Roman Karczewski of
the Interior Ministry showed what he
said were the contents of a leather
handbag that Mr. Mueller was said to
have switched with his contact. Among
the items were 20 one hundred dollar
bills, a -programmed computer disk
and questionnaires about worker re-
sponses to economic revisions.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403300001-4