DATE=10/27/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=KGB FILES
NUMBER=5-44627
BYLINE=ED WARNER
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The Cold War lives on in the United States in
a potentially explosive way, according to testimony at
a recent U-S Congressional hearing (Tues., Oct.26).
The records of a former Soviet intelligence official
indicate caches of arms were concealed in various
places in the United States and other western
countries in preparation for a possible war. There
they remain in deteriorating and dangerous condition.
V-O-A's Ed Warner reports on these unsettling
reminders of the Cold War.
TEXT: For more than a decade, KGB archivist Vasili
Mitrokhin risked his life to take notes of secret
files of the Soviet spy agency. He then buried
several trunks containing them underneath his dacha
(country home). From there, he smuggled them to
Britain - the largest collection of KGB documents ever
obtained by the west.
A professor of modern history at Cambridge University,
Christopher Andrew, has just published a book, "The
Sword and the Shield," based on the files. They reveal
the identity of thousands of Soviet agents operating
around the world, many of them so-called "illegals,'
who posed as ordinary citizens of the country they
were spying on.
Testifying at a U-S Congressional hearing, Professor
Andrew said the until the late 1970's Soviets sent
weapons and communication equipment to Western nations
to be concealed until the outbreak of a possible war.
Then agents on the spot would make quick use of them.
So far, three caches have been uncovered and removed
in Belgium, and one in Switzerland, which was attached
to explosives. So dealing with them can be hazardous.
None has been uncovered in the United States, said
Professor Andrew, though the Mitrokhin notes make
clear some have been hidden there:
/// FIRST ANDREW ACT ///
KGB files reveal, for example, that in 1966 KGB
sabotage and intelligence groups, largely
composed of Sandinista (Nicaraguan)guerrillas,
were established on the Mexican-U-S border.
Among the chief sabotage targets across the
border were military bases, missile sites, radar
installations and the oil pipeline which ran
from El Paso in Texas to Costa Mesa in
California. A support group was tasked with
using the movements of migrant workers to
conceal the transfer of agents and munitions
across the border
/// END ACT ///
The files indicate there were similar activities on
the U-S-Canadian border, with the aim of destroying a
large dam in Montana in the event of war.
Professor Andrew said the Mitrokhin files do not
provide the exact location of the caches in the United
States, although two are considered to be in Northwest
Montana and two in Minnesota. He cautions that the
Mitrokhin notes are just a fraction of the KGB files
and do not include any from the GRU, Soviet military
intelligence.
Also testifying before Congress, KGB defector Oleg
Gordievsky said he had participated in burying a cache
in Sweden and digging up another one. For a long time,
the Kremlin leadership actually feared the United
States would deliver a first strike with nuclear
weapons. They would not even believe their own agents
who said there was no evidence of such a plan. So
Moscow was led to draw up all kinds of sabotage
schemes with exotic weapons.
But they were not necessarily carried out, said Mr.
Gordievsky, who was revealed as a British agent by the
CIA spy Aldrich Ames and narrowly escaped execution:
/// GORDIEVSKY ACT ///
For example, I am under sentence of death. So
theoretically speaking, they can kill me. But
they are not killing me. I am still alive. What
they have in their plans, what they have on
their desks, what they have in their files is
one thing. What they are doing practically is
not the same.
/// END ACT ///
Professor Andrew said Russia today has an obligation
to disclose the location of all the arms caches with
their varieties of weapons, including possibly nuclear
ones:
/// SECOND ANDREW ACT ///
What we have a right to know surely is that
anyone who even considered doing these monstrous
things - even if the chance that they succeeded
in doing so is extremely remote - they have an
absolute duty to tell us what it is they planned
and how far they got along the process of
implementing it.
/// END ACT ///
Representative Curt Weldon, who chaired the
congressional hearing, said he is troubled that the U-
S Government has not asked Moscow for the location of
the weapons' sites. (Signed)
NEB/ew/gm
27-Oct-1999 16:57 PM EDT (27-Oct-1999 2057 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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