A GAGGLE OF SPIES TO GIGGLE AT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504100019-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: September 8, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504100019-5
ARTICLE ApEAIED
eN PAGE ~
WASHINGTON POST
8 September 1985
---L..!ARY McGRORY
A Gaggle of Spies To Giggle At
T IIESE ARE dark days for spies.
Everywhere you look. they are in
trouble; and so are the governments
which engaged them.
In New Zealand. two officers of the
French are in jail, with
blowing u the nuc ear protest ship, the
sin w Warrior, aand murdering one of
its passengers. Three alleged
confederates fled back to France. New
Zealand, the world's most antinuclear
nation, plans to put the birds in hand on
trial on Nov. 4. Authorities promise an
airtight case.
France is mortified. An official report,
commissioned by the government aid
written by Bernard Tricot, erstwhile chief
of staff to Charles DeGaulle, has
occasioned the worst reviews in the genre
since John Dean's inside account of the
Watergate covet tip. Essentially, it said,
"Moi?" and there is nuich derision of the
type the French Iii id hard to hear.
Tricot concedes that the Secret Service
sent frogmen to investigate the peaceniks
and that there were explosives on the
yacht they rented for their endeavors, but
no smoking gun was found.
Perhaps the French CIA has its share of
rogue elephants - of the breed that
sou t to poison Fidel Castro 's cigars. At
any rate, the government o 1 rancois
Mitterand is tottering as the scandal
unfolds.
The chagrin of France,
however, has been exceeded by
that of West German whose
chief counters Hans-Joachim
Tie e, has jumped the wall,
following our other coupspies,
who were secretly working for
East Germans.
The secretary of the president
of the West German Republic also
has been arrested, and 11 of her
sister secretaries are under
suspicion. East German
counterintelligence has special
omeo agents traine o ro nce
lone Freitag a c hen as Girls
Friday would be known in
Germany.
The recriminations are flying.
Tormentors of Chancellor Helmut
Kohl are demanding to know why
Tiedge, an overweight, debt.
ridden drunkard, who hasn't
turned in an East German spy
since 1979, was kept on the job so
long.
Spying in West German is a
growth industry. en thousand
areg there now, and more
are being trained. There is no
easier job in the world - no new
language or culture to learn, no
gaps in the knowledge of current
events.
But now that the East Germans
and their Soviet masters know all
about the West German
operations, Bonn has two choices.
One is to fire everybody and start
all over again. The other is to
declare a moratorium on
espionage until they can sort
things out and get all their
secretaries accounted for.
America was number one in
the great worldwide spy
uncovering. The spy family
Walker led the way, when o n
a er, a am ant private
detective who served in the Navy
or years, was apprehended
having been turned in by his ex-
wife . His son John turned a on
the carrier imitz with 15
pounds of classified papers in his
session ready to turn over to
a . a ker s brother Arthur,
also a Navy man, a retired
lieutenant commander, was taken
in tow for passing confidential
documents to rot er o hn.
friend named Jerry Whitworth
also has been charged.
The Walkers did it for money,
although not a great deal.
Another American swho
worked or the enemy did it for
love. Sharon Scram a 29. of the
CIA, gave her Ghanaian lover "as
a favor" documents of interest
which came into her hands tu t e
course of her duties as a support
assistant in the CIA station in
Ghana. She was arrest u y 11.
Charles Peters of the
Was ington Mont y as s the
most Pertinent question bout
er. "Why does the CIA need
spies inside the Ghanaian
government a7 t threat does
tans pose to our national
security
The Soviets have not gone
scot-free. They, too, have red
faces. onald Reagan recently
revealed that thevted
Americans in Moscow with a s
powder that ma a it easier or t e
T~ to teak t m. team o
U. doctors was ispatched to
the Kremlin to check the
substance for lethal properties.
Soviet spies are just as crude
and stupid as their ers. ey
might recoup by proving their
powder has peaceful uses, can be
benevolently applied to truant
boys, errant husbands and no-
show plumbers and add years to
the lives of their trackers.
If Reagan and Gorbachev
cannot negotiate a test ban in
Geneva, they could work out
some sort of a ban on espionage.
Verification, which has been a
stumbling block in warheads,
would be relatively easy. All the
exposed spies could be put back
spying on the spies they used to
shadow.
Reagan will claim that the
Soviets are ahead. And for once,
he will be absolutely right. With
the haul from the Walkers, the
perfidious Germans and their
lonely secretaries, the Kremlin is
awash in our state secrets. But
they will immobilized for quite
some time while they try to file it
all.
There may never be a better
time to think about a freeze on
spooks.
Mary McGrory is a Washington Post
columnist.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504100019-5