Reagan hints of action against spying

Press, 1 July 1985, Page 10

Reagan hints of action against spying

NZPA-Reuter Washington The American president, Mr Ronald Reagan, warned the Kremlin yesterday that he intended to curb what he called widespread spying and the theft of United States military and industrial secrets by Soviet spies. He hinted in his weekly radio address that he would order a cut in the number of Soviet and East European officials who, he said, were intelligence agents in the United States. There is serious official concern about the activities of an alleged spy ring, whose leader has been named by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a retired Navy chief warrant officer, John Walker, jun. The case prompted the House of Representatives on

Friday to approve a bill that would permit military courts to impose the death penalty on persons convicted of spying in peacetime.

“Some 30 to 40 per cent of the more than 2500 Sovietbloc officials in this country are known or suspected Intelligence officers, and all can be called upon by the K.G.B. (the Soviet secret police),” Mr Reagan said. “We need to bring the number of their Intelligence officers to a more manageable number.” “... We intend to take steps to accomplish this and we need to better control foreign Intelligence agents working at the United Nations who have utilised that organisation as a spy nest.”

The Soviet Union and its East European allies were

engaged on “a rash of spy activities that threaten our security and interests at home and abroad.” He accused the Kremlin of embarking on a big effort to catch up with the West by stealing or buying secret information about United States satellites, weapons systems, and some of America’s most advanced high-technology. Moves to counter spying could be taken without repressive measures affecting the freedom of Americans but “we need to deal severely with those who betray our country,” he said. “To equate the K.G.B. with the C.I.A. (United States Central Intelligence Agency) is a grave mistake.” Far more than an Intelligence organisation, the K.G.B. is a political police organisation.”