SFChronicie

DEC

2 5 r 7 5 8

,aruncisco ClK

onicle * Thur., D

ec. 25, 1975

C-

A

ico

ug

h L

eave

CIA

Ag

en

ts A

re P

layin

g in

a

Paris W

hile violating the Am

erican understan

din

g o

f the lim

its of

espio

nag

e activities, th

e U.S

. C

entral Intelligence Agency is not

a m

av

eric

k in

the sh

ad

ow

y

intern

tational fratern

ity o

f the

world's m

ajor spy networks.

CIA

involvement in assassina-

tion 'plots, domestic surveillance

and ex

ported

subversio

n as d

is-closed by the U

.S. S

enate appears to fall w

ithin the normal rules of

the g

ame as it is p

layed

by th

e w

orld's most pow

erful espionage agencies, a survey by W

ashington P

ost correspondents of the Brit-

ish, French, W

est Germ

an, Soviet

and Chinese services indicates.

Rangin

g in

size

from

France's 2000-mem

ber official spy agency to the S

oviet Union's vast

KG

B apparatus of half a m

illion, foreign cloack-and-dagger organi-zations appear to play the gam

e at least as roughly as the C

IA.

The publics they serve or spy

for do not appear to be as easily shocked by intelligence-style dirty tricks as the A

mericans are. T

he m

ajor foreign services come out

of societies with long histories in

which B

yzantine conspiracies are assum

ed to be an integral, part of public life.

The m

ajor agencies of the Old

World have all been quick to use

the d

agger w

hen

their in

terests w

ere threaten

ed. E

ach o

f the

Western spy agencies considered

has a history of straying beyond its legal charter and of indulging in - dom

estic spying; which is one

of th

e KG

B's p

rincip

al tasks in

the Soviet U

nion.

Th

e size of th

e dirty

-tricks

bag each service has employed in

disrupting or overthrowing for-

eign governments- seem

s to vary w

ith .the money and m

anpower

available to it as well as w

ith th3 econom

ic and strategic import-

ance of the country targeted f or action.

British

intellig

ence stag

e-m

anag

es coups, b

urg

les safes, black

mails th

e vuln

erable an

d

practices many of the curious arts

that th

e CIA

inyestig

ation h

as brought into public view

, Bernard

D. N

ossiter reports from L

ondon. "W

e know very w

ell that men

who go into this dom

ain are not little angels," says a F

renchman

once d

eeply

involv

ed ,in

his

country's dirty, tricks sector. "And

we w

ould not want them

to be. T

hey would be w

orthless against th

e kin

d o

f enem

y w

e must all

fight." T

he o

ther m

ajor serv

ices h

ave m

anag

ed to

keep

their

cloaks in place much better than

the C

IA h

as. None h

ave b

een

subjected

to th

e rough p

ublic

questioning and disclosures that hav

e mad

e the C

IA a m

ajor

public issue in the United States.

There h

ave b

een in

ternal

investig

ations an

d p

urg

es after intelligence scandals broke into the open in B

ritain, France and

West G

erman

y, b

ut th

ey h

ave

been handled inItetu3e for the most

part. The W

est Germ

an public and P

arliament appear to have higher

tolerance of questionable activi-ties b

y its ag

ency

, the B

ND

, M

ichael G

etler reports fro

m

Bonn.' T

he generally conservative tilt of the adult population and the co

untry

's uniq

ue g

eograp

hical

positio

n o

n th

e front lin

e with

C

om

munist E

astern E

uro

pe

dampen the desire for the kind of

public review undertaken by the

U.S. Senate.

In France, the dirtiest tasks

hav

e been

giv

en to

strongarrn

groups outside the governm

ent fram

ework

and, acco

rdin

g to

critics, o

utsid

e of g

overn

men

t control in m

any instances. This

has provided comfortable insula-

tion for French leaders from

the nastier aspects of the craft, but it has also led tp repeated scandals an

d th

e involv

emen

t of,

the country's intelligence groups in drug sm

uggling, blackmail and

gangland murders.

Brita

in a

ppears to

have

strong governmental control over -

its Secret In

telligen

ce Serv

ice. F

oreign Office advisers sit in on

discussion of covert operations and m

ust give their approval. In

the S

oviet

Unio

n, th

e question is not just w

hether the governm

ent controls the KD

GB

, but also w

hether the KG

B con-

trols the government.

The S

oviet agency is not just another instrum

ent of the state, as th

e CIA

clearly is. It is an

in

teg

ral p

art o

f the w

ay

the

country

is run, P

ete

r Osn

os

reports front Moscow

.

Its agents and informers have

infiltrated every, sphere of Soviet

life, including the top levels of the governm

ent.

Political assassin

ation ap

-pears to be a far m

ore comm

on-place tool in international espio-nage than the A

merican reaaction

to th

e CIA

's involv

emen

t in

plotting against Patrice L

umum

-ba and F

idel Castro w

ould indi-cate.s

mailer countries, w

ith fewer

resources and narrower security

marg

ins in

which

to o

perate,

appear to

reso

rt to p

olitic

al

murders even m

ore often than the m

ajor powers.

Israel's M

ossad has tracked dow

n and assassinated more than

a dozen

Arab

operativ

es and

Palestin

ian lead

ers outsid

e of

Israel in the past three years. A

rab se

cre

t serv

ices a

re

more often used to m

urder their ow

n. Iraq

, South

Yem

en an

d

Morrbcco have ordered dom

estic political opponents assassinated at hom

e and abroad, as has non-A

rab Iran. W

ith the exception of West

Germ

any, which focused its earli-

est destabilizing efforts on East-

ern European C

omm

unist nations,: th

e oth

er majo

r services, h

ave :

join

ed th

e CIA

in m

akin

g th

e w

eak states of Africa, the M

iddle E

ast, and Asia the w

orld's main :

espio

nag

e battleg

round. L

atin.

Am

erica appears to

hav

e been

left as a C

IA preserve.

Britain has m

ade a specialty of sm

oothly deposing incompetent

tribal sheikhs in the Persian G

ulf to preem

pt successful leftist revo-lutions against them

. During the

rule of Charles de G

aulle, France

toppled or preserved with relative

ease the g

overn

men

ts Fran

ce itself had installed in

its former

colonies in Africa.

Britain

and

Fran

ce , were

acting within the pow

er spheres created

by th

eir colo

nial m

an-

date

s and u

sually

to p

rote

ct

important econom

ic and strategic interests ranging from

petroleum

dep

osits in

Abu D

hab

i to larg

e F

rench air bases in Chad.

. T

he Chinese, H

. D. S

. Green-

way

writes fro

m th

e Far E

ast, seem

to concentrate on, defensive operations against the S

oviets and even seem

willing to cooperate

with the W

est in this endeavor. W

ashington Post -