W. GERMAN SPY SCANDAL WIDENS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201720009-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: August 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201720009-4
ARTICLE APPEAR 0
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON POST
26 August 1985
recently in the company of the
agent.
The prosecutor's spokesman also
said investigators were looking into
a possible espionage case at an
Army weapons procurement office
in Koblens but said no arrests had
been made yet.
West German security experts
have warned that the spreading spy
scandal could induce other East
German spies to flee. They said
that counterintelligence officials
would have to move quid* to seise
suspected agents before they tried
to reach sanctuary in East Ger-
many.
All spy suspects known to author-
ities, including some other Bonn
secretaries, are said to have been
placed under close watch in case
they attempt to leave West Ger-
many. Security experts forecast
more arrests in the coming days.
As Chancegor Helmut Kohl's
government pursued an emergency
security review to cope with the
damage inflicted by the far-reaching
espionage case, security officials
said there were indications that
Hans Joachim Tiedge, who was in
charge of tracking East German
spies inside West Germany, prob-
ably became a Communist agent
two years ago.
The sources said that Tiedge is
believed to have passed along infor-
mation since 1983 that led East
German authorities to seize nearly
200 western intelligence contacts
in East Germany.
Besides the wave of arrests, inves-
tigators said other factors suggest-
ing that Tiedge may have switched
allegiances two years ago were his
decline into debt and drinking prob-
lems after his wife's death in 1982
and his department's failure to ap-
prehend any important East German
spies in that time.
The crash security review, over-
seen by Interior Minister Friedrich
Zimmermann since Friday, has fo-
cused on steps to curtail the dam-
age that could be wrought by
Tiedge's cooperation with East.
German intelligence.
Zimmermann said today that "a
new concept for combating East
Bloc espionage, in particular against
the activities of East German ser-
vices," will be required to overcome
the effects of Tiedgs'6betrayal.
The minister said he had in-
structed the country's counter.
intelligence chiefs to begin imme-
diately a complete reorganization of
the internal security network and to
develop "new operative investiga-
tion methods."
Security experts said that apart
from betraying West German intel-
ligence strategy and techniques.
Tiedge was in a position to inform
East German authorities about dou-
ble agents, estimated to number
200, dispatched to the West by East
Berlin and turned by Bonn's coun-
terspy operatives.
Zimmermann, who is to report to
Kohl Monday on the implications of
the spy scandal, said that a major
personnel shakes-up in the intelli-
gence services probe* would be
carried out next week.
West German commentators pre-
dicted today that Heribert HeHem
broich. who until this. month headed
all counterspy operations and served
as Tiedge's supervisor, was almost
certain to be fired from his new po-
sition as chief of foreign intelligence.
Hellenbroich, a respected figure
in his profession. knew of Tiedge's
difficulties but reportedly refused to
heed warnings from Tiedge's neigh-
bors and coworkers that he was
becoming a security risk. The two
men conducted their early training
together and had been friends for
two decades.
As the third-ranking official in the
Office for the Protection of the Con-
stitution, Tiedge was in charge of the
work of about 100 people, including
several top counterspies who now
may have to be reassigned.
Tiedge's decision to defect, it is
now believed, may have been trig-
g re ed by an order from the new
counterintelligence chief, Ludwig-
Hol r Pfahl to conduct rigorous
new security checks on key staffers-
Besides his known alcoholism and health troubles. Tiedge is said to
have left debts in excess of
$80,000. Police searching his house
after his flight discovered unpaid
bills amounting to nearly $14,000.
W. German
Spy Scandal
Widens
Secretary in Office
Of President Held
As Suspected Agent
/ By William Droadiek
we mPot PaSOON
BONI+. Aug. 25-A maior soy
scandal is West Germany widened
today wilan govea;nrnent preeecu-
ton aninamced that a serve in
the president's office had been ar-
reated on aenoicion of so iniL
The secretary's arrest, which
took place yesterday, followed the
defection last week of one of the
country's leading counterintelli-
gence officers and the disappear-
ance of three other suspected East
German agents.
A. spokesman for the federal
prosecutor specified that the sec-
retary did not serve as a personal
assistant to President Richard von
Weiszaecker. One of the vanished
spy suspects, Sonja Lueneburg,
worked for 12 years as the private
secretary and political confidant of
Economics Minister Martin Bange-
mann.
But security sources said the
presidential staff secretary, who
worked under von Wieszaecker's
chief aide for defense and foreign
affairs, had access to highly classi-
fied matriaj.. T h" sold sbs would
have seen ap coaununicatio a from
West German embassies and re-
ports on the president's talks with
foreign leaders and dignitaries.
The secretary; described as in
her early fifties and u>ras
kept under surveillance for several
weeks after it was learned she was
acquainted with a known East Ger-
man intelligence agent, security
offidale said. She is said to have
spew two.. weeks- Lit ' Cnpsohagen..-
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201720009-4