FBI CHIEF TELLS PANEL SOVIET BLOC SPIES ARE SHOWING 'INCREASED AGGRESSIVENESS'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403110008-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: October 23, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0403110008-8
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LOS ANGELES TIMES
23 October 1985
FBI Chief Tells Panel Soviet Bloc Spies
Are Showing `Increased Aggressiveness'
By ROBERT L. JACKSON, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON-A record
number of spies from Moscow and
Eastern Europe are showing "in-
creased aggressiveness" in the
United States, FBI Director Wil-
liam H. Webster told a Senate
panel Tuesday in supporting a
proposal to restrict the activities of
Soviet Bloc diplomats, businessmen
and journalists.
Up to 1,000 of the more than
2,500 Soviet Bloc officials posted in
this country are engaged in espio-
nage, Webster testified before the
Senate Governmental Affairs in-
vestigations subcommittee.
Indeed, he said, recent cases
indicate that Moscow is placing a
growing burden for spying on its
communist allies-including the
East German, Polish and Bulgarian
intelligence services-in the belief
that these officials' movements are
less closely monitored by the FBI.
Three Cases Cited
As examples, Webster cited the
case of Californian James D. Harp-
er Jr., sentenced to life imprison-
ment last year for passing missile
secrets to a Polish agent, the arrest
of a 68-year-old East German
tourist last year on charges of
transporting classified information
to the Soviet Union and the recent
arrest of a Bulgarian commercial
officer on charges of trying to enlist
a Columbia University student to
spy for him.
Webster endorsed a proposal by
Sens. William V. Roth Jr. (R-Del.)
and Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) to restrict
for the first time the movements of
Eastern European diplomats and
businessmen. The same curbs al-
ready apply to most Soviet officials,
who are required to obtain State
Department permission before
leaving a 25-mile radius of their
mission and who are banned from
certain areas of the country.
Webster also said that newly
enacted legislation sponsored by
Roth, the subcommittee chairman,
has been "very, very helpful" in
restricting the travel of Soviet
officials at the United Nations, who
previously were not covered by
these curbs.
At the hearing, Loth said that
Eastern European spies-some un-
der the guise of being corporate
executives-"can gain access to
firms producing our most sophisti-
cated technology merely by pres-
enting their business cards."
"Using such covers," he said,
"they may also gain access to
Americans' credit ratings and indi-
vidual financial data as a means of
determining the person's vulnera-
bility to approach for espionage
purposes. By restricting the activi-
ties of these foreign representa-
tives, we may well be able to stem
the outflow of national security
information."
Citing the growth in foreign
espionage activities in the United
States, Webster said that the FBI
has arrested 25 persons in the last
four years on charges of spying.
Seventeen have been convicted,
and the eight other cases are still
pending, he said.
"This four-year total is the high-
est rate of arrest and conviction of
espionage agents since World War
II," the FBI director said. "And
during this period the U.S. govern-
ment has formally or informally
expelled over 20 Soviet and East-
ern Bloc intelligence officers."
He noted: "But more important-
ly, we have observed through our
investigations an increased aggres-
siveness in their intelligence col-
lection efforts."
Richard N. Perle, assistant sec-
retary of defense for international
security policy, also recommended
that Congress "strictly limit the
numbers and activities of Warsaw
Pact visitors."
Perle said the Soviet Union, with
significant help from Warsaw Pact
spies, has "saved tens of thousands
of man-years of scientific research
through the systematic looting of
Western secrets."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0403110008-8