Regards, Ivan
Posted on 06/05/2005 12:25:34 AM PDT by MadIvan
TOP secret computer disks have revealed the huge extent to which East German Stasi spies were able to infiltrate the West during the Cold War.
The Rosewood file reveals that universities, national sports and the civil service had many more East German spies on their payrolls than previously believed.
Now the authorities are under pressure to out former spies who continued to work in their jobs after reunification.
The file was acquired by CIA spies in the heady days after the Berlin Wall fell as the Stasi's paper shredders worked overtime to destroy 90% of the records detailing its activities over four decades.
The file was kept by Washington until 2003. Now being decrypted, it is highlighting the security gaps which enabled the communists to spy with ease on the capitalist enemy on a scale hitherto unimagined.
The Rosewood file is something of a holy grail in the world of international espionage. Under the aegis of the Stasi archive, named the Birthler Behoerde after its director Marianne Birthler, a research group is concluding work on what experts believe is the definitive source on East Germany's infamous secret police.
Helmut Müller-Enbergs, in charge of decoding the nicknames of spies and details of their work contained on Rosewood, revealed that in the late 1980s up to 18 agents with the Stasi's centre for foreign espionage were active in the West German Foreign Ministry.
West German universities were also infiltrated with informers more densely than previously believed, with 43 spies operating at Berlin's Free University, and another 12 at the Technical University. As well as containing names of West Germans working for the Stasi, the report also lists some 20,000 to 30,000 East Germans working unofficially as Stasi informers in the 40 years until the fall of the Berlin Wall.
"Clearly, a file like this can clear up a lot of mysteries," said Christian Booss, spokesman for the Birthler Behoerde.
"When the Rosewood file came to light, a lot of authorities decided they'd take a last opportunity before the statute of limitations runs out in 2006 to screen civil servants. Most of the applications have come from [opposition party] CDU-ruled states in eastern German states. Since early 2004, we've had over 100,000 requests."
The CDU is currently ahead in the opinion polls for an autumn general election. Among those getting hot under the collar will be numerous figures from the world of sport.
In the mid-1990s, the National Olympic Committee and the German Sport Association (DSB) set up a commission made up of sport representatives, administrators and former DDR civil rights activists. Its task was to investigate the extent of the Stasi's role in East German sport.
But as a recent report presented by Marianne Birthler and DSB president Manfred von Richthofen confirmed, many feel its mandate has been too limited. One key problem is that the commission can only investigate individuals in response to specific requests.
Athletes who had close links to the Stasi included Katarina Witt, who won gold medals for figure skating at the 1984 and 1988 Winter Olympics. Her Stasi files were published in 2002 and revealed she co-operated with the organisation and had thanked them for their support just a week before the Berlin Wall came down.
Academics, politicians and Stasi victims have now joined forces to call for a more extensive investigation on similar lines to the three-year probe into communist infiltration of public broadcaster ARD.
Winfried Hermann from the Green Party agreed that the existing commission's research had been inadequate.
"Whitewashing the past is not fair to the victims," he said. "There is evidence to suggest that individuals who have been identified as Stasi agents are returning to sports."
Giselher Spitzer, initiator of the Berlin Declaration, a project set up in September 2004 by victims of Stasi intrigue and doping, maintains that by 1989 the Stasi had enlisted some 3,000 informers from within East Germany's sporting ranks. How many of them are still working in the industry today is unknown, mainly because few authorities have ever launched investigations.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
I found one of these spies teaching economics in Hawaii.
He gave himself away by saying that Government must step in to regulate prices because Capitalism is dangerously inhumane.
So, where do I turn him in? /sarcasm
When will we in the US get to see the list of Soviet spies in our universities, media outlets, and government? It's high time we demanded an "outing" before the culprits are dead.
How's this for a start?
In the 107th Congress 55 members of Congress are Democrat Socialists. That is down from 58 in the 106th Congress. The socialists in Congress are a minority, but are highly effective because they have easy access to the national media and their followers are well financed and organized.
OFFICERS
Dennis Kucinich - D-Oh 10 (Chairman)
Barbara Lee D-CA 09 (Vice Chair)
Cynthia McKinney D-GA 4 -(Officer)
Major Owens D-NY11 - (Officer)
Bernie Sanders-Democrat Socialist -VT (Officer)
Paul Wellstone D MN (Officer)
MEMBERS
Neil Abercrombie -D-HI1
Tammy Baldwin - D-WI2
Xavier Becerra - D-CA30
David Bonior - D-MI10
Corrine Brown D-FL3
Sherrod Brown -D-OH13
Michael Capuano -D-MA8
Julia Carson D-IN10
John Conyers -D-MI14
Danny Davis -D-IL-7
Peter DeFazio-D-OR-4
Rosa DeLauro-D-CT-3
Lane Evans -D-IL17
Eni Faleomavaega -D-American Samoa
Sam Farr -D-CA17
Chaka Fattah -D-PA2
Bob Filneer D-CA 50
Louis Gutierrez -D IL-4
Earl Hilliard -DAL-7
Maurice Hinchey - DNY-26
Jesse Jackson, Jr. -D-IL2
Stephanie Tubbs Jones -D OH11
Marcy Kaptur -DOH 9
Tom Lantos -D-CA12
John Lewis -D GA5
Jim McDermott -DWA 7
James P. McGovern-D-MA3
Carrie Meek -D-F:18
George Miller -D-CA7
Patsy Mink -D-HI2
Jerry Nadler -D-NY8
Eleanor Holmes Norton -D-DC
John Olver -D-MA1
Ed Pastor - D-AZ2
Donald Payne -D-NJ
Carlos Romero-Barcelo-D-Puerto Rico
Jan Schakowsky -D-IL9
Jose Serrano -D-NY16
Pete Stark -D-CA13
Good posting, Frater Britannis - and the window showing how our own has been infiltrated as well.
Hard to investigate when you must know the identity of the perp beforehand. I hope someone discloses all identities in a full report.
Bush does not guard our borders. Do you expect him to guard our secrets?
There is a vast army of Chinese spies in the U.S. that exceeds the spies from Russia and other nations. How many times are we going to hear about some security problem at Los Alamos, e.g. You would think that there would be a large force of security experts guarding that place, but there is not. It seems Bush has no interest in national security, be it border control or anti-spy efforts. I remain bewildered why Bush does not aggressivley protect internal security.
I seem to remember reading that the Stasi was keeping a very close eye on Witt and harassing her for some time in order to coerce her into helping their propaganda efforts. I definitely remember they bugged her bedroom and then played (or sent her) tapes of some of her sexual liasons. Was she really a hard core spy, and if so, what real data could she have provided to them?
Stassi, at one time, along with Cubas DCI who was organized and trained ny Stassi, was the largest and most active intel group in the world. Dwarfing western groups in size and activity.
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