HPSCI BRIEFING, 20 SEPTEMBER 1983

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85B00263R000200170002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2007
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: September 2, 1983
• Content Type: REPORT

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T 1983 2 SEP
Briefing, 20 September 1983 , 7 a-
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Moscow and its friends and allies are increasingly active
'throughout the world using both overt' and covert means to bolster~
Soviet policies and to undermine those 'of the US. v~r
On the overt side, Moscow capitalizes on a vast diplomatic,
economic, and military presence:
? Moscow is the world's leading arms exporter, with military
equipment sales of $68.2 billion during the last decade.
There are also now more than 18,000 Soviet military
advisors in the LDCs, up from 10,000 five years ago.
Another 40,000 Soviet civilian technicians work in the
LDCs, and the Soviets and East Europeans have established
a network of more than 400 companies in Western and Third
World countries.
? Over 80,000 LDC students and 10,000 foreign military or
economic specialists were being trained in Soviet Bloc
facilities last year.
? Radio Moscow now beams programs worldwide in more than 60
languages and is on the air nearly 1,200 hours each week.
On the covert side, Moscow has a vigorous program of "active
measures" and other clandestine activities. This program is for
the most part carried out by the KGB under the direction of the
Central Committee of the CPSU. We estimate that some 25 percent
of the 18,000 official Soviets abroad are KGB or other
intelligence personnel.
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To conduct their covert operations, the Soviets:
? support and guide the activities of more than 70 nonruling
Communist parties;
exploit ties to international and local front groups;
? penetrate and manipulate mass movements, leftist parties,
and labor and student organizations;
influence foreign media through controlled journalists,
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misleading articles, and forgeries;
? operate four clandestine radio stations that broadcast
from the Soviet Union and East Germany;
? use agents of influence to manipulate private channels of
communication and exploit unwitting contacts; and
train and support insurgent and terrorist groups with
significant help from Cuba and Libya.
Using such mechanisms, the Soviets and their allies have
developed programs to undermine US interests in every region of
the World.
Europe remains the major focus of US-Soviet competition.
Moscow's primary goal is to block or reduce US INF deployments.
To this end:
The Soviets have fostered and supported the European peace
movement and encouraged West European and international
opposition to US and NATO deployments.
? The Soviet-controlled World Peace Council and other
international and local fronts have sponsored innumerable
meetings and assemblies to discredit US plans.
? At Soviet direction, the Communist parties of Italy,
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Spain, Greece, and West Germany have organized
demonstrations and stepped up propaganda efforts.
Soviet diplomats and Novosti press personnel have
conspired with local opponents of INF deployment.
? West Germany, Norway, Austria, and Belgium have been
targets of Soviet forgeries anc disinformation about US
plans and intentions.
Moscow has also sought to weaken NATO by disseminating
forged documents aimed 'to raise public anxiety about NATO
activities and to demonstrate US interference in local
politics. Indeed, in 1981 the Soviets surfaced a forged letter
from President Reagan to King Juan Carlos warning the King of
internal opposition to Spain's entry into NATO.
Several other forgeries have appeared this year that exploit
sensitive US-European political and economic issues:
? In Austria last January, then-Chancellor Kreisky received
a Soviet forgery of a State Department cable calling for
secret US efforts to eliminate Communist parties in non-
Communist countries.
? A tape of an alleged conversation between President Reagan
and Prime Minister Thatcher during the Falklands war was
sent to two influential newspapers in the Hague. The
tape, which portrays Thatcher as blood-thirsty, has the
mark of a Soviet forgery.
? In July, an Italian newsweekly published two fabricated US
Embassy Rome telegrams acknowledging that the effort to
publicize a Bulgarian and KGB role in the papal
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assassination was a US disinformation campaign.
Soviet fabrications have also played a major role in
Moscow's effort to justify martial law in Poland and to imply a
US role in Poland's unrest. For example:
? A forged State cable suggested that CIA funded Solidarity;
? A Madrid newsweekly published a fake memorandum that
proposed a US destabilization policy in Poland; and,
? A forged letter from a US labor official suggested that
the AFL-CIO was sending funds clandestinely to
"Solidarity."
In Latin America, Moscow supports leftist revolutions as
part of its effort to undermine US interests. Cuba aids and
abets Moscow's goals while pursuing its own aims. As elsewhere,
the Soviets have used front groups, covert support to Communist
and leftist parties, press placements, forgeries, and
disinformation:
? The World Peace Council and its affiliates held several
meetings last year in Central America to denounce US
policy.
? The Soviets used misleading press articles and a forged
DoD press release to capitalize on anti-US feelings
generated by the Falklands war.
? Soviet media assets charged that US policy in Latin
America included assassination and the use of biological
and chemical warfare.
Cuba provides arms, training, and financing for the
Sandinistas and the insurgencies in Guatemala, Honduras, and El
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Salvador. Cuba also supports the M-19, the FARC, and ELN
terrorists in Columbia. Havana has also infiltrated Cuban-
trained terrorists to Chile, and is in contact with the Sendero
Luminoso insurgents in Peru.
Libya supports Soviet interests in the region as a way of
striking at the United States close tca home. In the past year,
Libya has provided cash to the Antigua-Caribbean Liberation
Movement, six Brazilian Labor Party candidates, Chile's exiled
Popular Unity Coalition, Guatemala's Guerrilla Army of the Poor,
and the Venezuelan Socialist League. Qadhafi himself met with
Salvadoran insurgents last September and offered more equipment
and explosives from Libyan stockpiles.
In the Middle East, Soviet activities have been aimed
primarily at depicting the US and its ties to Israel as
detrimental to the Arab world. The Soviets have also sought to
further distance Iran and the US and have tried to manipulate the
fundamentalist Muslim and Zionist movements. Libya's
activities--including direct involvement with terrorist
groups--are not directed by the USSR but serve Moscow's interests
by promoting regional instability.
Last year's Israeli invasion of Lebanon provides a prime-
example of a Soviet active measures campaign in force:
? Moscow's Arabic-language radio argued that the invasion
had been planned long in advance by "US imperialism and
its Zionist clique." To bolster these allegations, a
forged DoD document was used to suggest that the US
approved of the Israeli invasion in advance.
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? The World Peace Council held a special meeting in Geneva
calling for an international commission of inquiry.
? Palestinian Solidarity committees, with Communist elements
taking the lead, sprang up in many countries, followed by
a spate of demonstrations led by Communist fronts.
In South Asia, the Soviets have concentrated on justifying
their occupation of Afghanistan, countering US and Pakistani
support for Afghan insurgents, and stemming India's drift away
from the USSR:
? Disinformation and international fronts have been employed
to influence world opinion in favor of Soviet Afghan
policies.
? Pakistani officials believe that the Soviets have helped
aggravate differences among Afghan resistance leaders,
supplied weapons to Pakistani border tribes, and promoted
domestic opposition to President Zia.
? Prompted by Moscow, India's leftist media have attempted
to cast suspicion on US policies toward India and the
Third World. Early this year several papers ran a story
based on a Soviet forgery that purported to be a speech by
Ambassador Kirkpatrick. The speech presented a distorted
view of US policies in the Third World designed to offend
regional sensitivities.
Soviet active measures in sub-Saharan Africa have for the
most part been aimed at discrediting US policy concerning both
Black Africa ' and South Africa. Recently, forgeries have become
particularly prevalent. In Ghana and Nigeria forged documents
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were used to implicate US Ambassadors Smith and Pickering in
assassination plots. In southern Africa, a disinformation
campaign supported by forgeries was used to allege US military
collusion with South Africa. In addition, the Soviet Union,
Eastern Europe, Cuba, and Libya provide support to radical
regimes and insurgent and dissident groups in Africa, all of
which contribute to undermining Western influence in the region.
In East Asia, Soviet activities are directed primarily at
increasing US-Japanese tensions. Testimony before this Committee
last year by KGB defector
showed the Sovig@41
have made extensive use of fronts and influential assets in
Japan's political and media circles. During the last year we
have seen Soviet efforts to influence the peace movement in Japan
as well:
? Novosti representatives offered to provide Japanese
reporters with letters from "typical" Soviet citizens
touting the "Peace Program."
? Moscow sent a letter directly to Japan's socialist parties
urging them to oppose the deployment of US nuclear weapons
in Japan.
In Southeast Asia, the major thrust of Soviet active measures has
been defensive, aimed at diverting attention from Communist use
of chemical and biological warfare in the region.
In sum, Moscow's covert activities worldwide undermine US
interests and frustrate and complicate US foreign policy. The
Soviet active measures program has grown in intensity and has
become more bold. Their campaign to implicate US Ambassadors and
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other high officials in assassination plots is but one reflection
of this trend.
The technical quality of some forgeries has also improved,
and the phony Thatcher-Reagan tape may mark the beginning of a
new technique in future disinformation campaigns. A high-ranking
KGB officer last year was reliably reported to have applauded the
improved quality and increased effectiveness of active measures
in recent years. He singled out KGB residencies in Western
Europe, the Middle East, and Central and South American for
particular praise. These regions will continue to be prime areas
of Soviet attentions:
? In Western Europe, Moscow continues to monitor, stimulate,
and redirect flagging elements of the region's various
peace movements. Bloc efforts will undoubtedly intensify
as US INF deployments draw close.
? In the Middle East, the Soviets and their allies will
likely continue to play the "spoiler" role by trying to
discredit US peace initiatives and fueling anti-American
sentiment.
? In Latin America, Moscow is optimistic about the prospects
for increased success from active measures. The President
of the Soviet Peace Committee reportedly said last
December that the situation in Argentina and Panama is
especially "promising" and that "the time has come to take
the offensive." Cuba too will continue to frustrate US
interests by trying to spread revolution.
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