CIA Activities by Region: Russia and Europe

This article deals with activities of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the Russian Republic and European Continent.

European Regional

Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a radio and communications organization funded by the United States Congress. It was founded in 1950 by the National Committee for a Free Europe.

This Free Europe Committee, headed by John Foster Dulles, was an instrument of the CIA until RFE received its funds from the Congress of the United States and until 1971 they were passed to RFE through the CIA. During the earliest years of Radio Free Europe's existence, the CIA and the U.S. State Department issued broad policy directives, and a system evolved where broadcast policy was determined through negotiation between the CIA, the U.S. State Department, and RFE staff.

This system continued until the controversy surrounding Radio Free Europe's broadcasts to Hungary during the 1956 revolt. There is some evidence, however, that the CIA did involve itself in RFE projects at least through the mid-1950's.

The CIA funding of RFE ended in 1971 at which point the organization was rechartered in Newton as a non-profit corporation, oversight was moved to the Board for International Broadcasting (BIB), and the budget was moved to open appropriations.

Western Europe

After World War II, there was serious concern that the Warsaw Pact, led by the Soviet Union, would attack and overrun Western Europe. From 1945 to 1948, there were ad hoc military stay-behind plans (see Clandestine HUMINT and Covert Action). In 1948, the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) was formed, under interagency but not CIA direction, to run behind-the-lines operations, probably including covert action behind the Iron Curtain. The separate Office of Special Operations had intelligence-gathering responsibilities.

A clandestine "stay-behind" operation was set up to counter a Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe, using US and UK unconventional warfare specialists in the NATO participants. "Gladio" specifically referred to the network in Italy. Various Wikipedia articles assert the creation of Gladio-linked operations, see the articles for Belgian stay-behind network (Belgium), François de Grossouvre (France), Column 88 (UK), Grey Wolves (Turkey), and Projekt-26 (Switzerland).

Note that Switzerland was not in NATO. Projekt-26 personnel took courses from MI6, but there is no indication that MI6 had any operational control over Projekt-26..

In 1952, the CIA Directorate of Plans was formed from the merger of OPC and OSO. United States Army Special Forces were established in June 1952, with the 10th Special Forces Group deploying to Bad Tölz, West Germany, in September. Special Forces had stay-behind unconventional warfare as one of their basic missions.

In 1967 it was revealed that the Congress of Cultural Freedom, founded in 1950, had been sponsored by the CIA. It published literary and political journals such as Encounter (as well as Der Monat in Germany and Preuves in France), and hosted dozens of conferences bringing together some of the most eminent Western thinkers; it also gave some assistance to intellectuals behind the Iron Curtain. The CIA states that, "Somehow this organization of scholars and artists — egotistical, free-thinking, and even anti-American in their politics — managed to reach out from its Paris headquarters to demonstrate that Communism, despite its blandishments, was a deadly foe of art and thought".

On 24 January 2006, [...] Marty, the Council of Europe (CoE) Rapporteur on alleged secret detentions and transport of [...] suspects by the CIA, delivered his interim report concluding that European countries were almost certainly aware of CIA activities in Europe. On 22 February, the CoE Secretary General Terry Davis announced that most Member States had replied to his questions concerning alleged CIA activities in Europe and that he would present his analysis on 1 March.

Belgium

Belgium 1951

CIA forms the Belgian branch of Operation Gladio.

Belgium 2006

The CIA had been obtaining financial information from Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication(SWIFT), searching for [...] financial intelligence (FININT). Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt announced that Belgium's Data Privacy Commission found that that SWIFThad improperly turned over data from millions of global financial transactions to U.S. anti-[...] investigators. "SWIFT said in a statement that it had relinquished data to the U.S. Treasury Department only after it had been "subject to valid and compulsory subpoenas" from U.S. authorities."

The Prime Minister called the anti-[...] monitoring "an absolute necessity" and said U.S. and European negotiators should find a way to bring it into compliance with European law. "The Bush administration has called its secret international banking surveillance program a vital tool in uncovering [...] networks. When newspapers first reported the program's existence in June, President Bush called the disclosure "disgraceful."

"The program was begun without congressional or court approval shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. With SWIFT's cooperation, U.S. investigators tapped records from the cooperative's banks, a total of millions of transactions, looking for suspicious patterns and links to terrorists...The prime minister added, "Fundamental differences exist between the E.U. and the U.S.A. concerning legislations and the principles governing the treatment of personal data, mainly in the domain of the level of protection, which is higher in Europe..."

France

While the CIA cooperates with its French counterpart, the DGSE, the countries do collect information on one another, especially in the economic and scientific areas.

France 1950

CIA forms the French branch of Operation Gladio.

France 1992

"According to the Director of Central Intelligence, Bob Gates, at least 20 nations from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America are involved in intelligence activities that are detrimental to our economic interests. Some of the specific cases are shocking. According to a recent New York Times article by Peter Schweizer, `between 1987 and 1989, French intelligence planted moles in several U.S. companies, including IBM. In the fall of 1991, a French intelligence team attempted to steal `stealth' technology from Lockheed.' Other accounts report that French intelligence units conduct 10 to 15 break-ins every day at large hotels in Paris to copy documents that belong to businessmen, journalists, and diplomats. According to other accounts, the French have been hiding listening devices on Air France flights in order to pick up useful economic information from business travelers.

France 1993

"In 1993, R. James Woolsey, then a new Director of Central Intelligence, publicly announced that economic intelligence was now a CIA program. French intelligence had been aggressively going after information from American executives. Woolsey said "No more Mr. Nice Guy."

Shortly afterwards, the CIA Paris station had at least five officers working on understanding French national trade policy, and countering French economic espionage against the US. Four were under diplomatic and one under nonofficial cover.

France 1995

The CIA Inspector General delivered a report on CIA clandestine service (CS) work on economic intelligence, which is likely to end the careers of several officers, including Paris station chief [...] Holm, European CS division chief Joseph DeTrani, and at least four case officers.

France's Interior Minister, Charles Pasqua, revealed the problem in February 1995. The officer under nonofficial cover as a foundation representative made two errors in coperative posing as a foundation representative made fundamental mistakes: communicating too openly with the C.I.A. station and communing too secretly with her target, a French official. Mr. Holm, the station chief, found out about the love affair she was conducting with the official. It was clear that the romance could compromise the operation. Holm convinced his chief to continue the operation.

The French, however, broke the usual agreement among Western services and announced what they had learned, expelling the embassy-based officer "incompatible with their diplomatic status." Controversy flared over questions about whether spying on allies for economic data is a worthy pursuit for the CIA, even if the allies do it to the US, or if other missions have a higher priority. While there were tragicomic aspects, the issue of what espionage is tolerable among nominal allies remains complex, especially when involving clear security issues as with Jonathan Pollard.

France 2006

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the League of Human Rights (LDH) filed a complaint urging the French Public Prosecutor to investigate the alleged use of French airports by secret CIA flights transporting [...] suspects. On 19 February, the UK National Air Traffic Services acknowledged that three CIA jets had travelled through the UK on a number of occasions, indicating that the UK authorities were aware of the so-called CIA torture flights. The UK police have reportedly started inquiries into the allegations.

Germany

Germany 1945

The former head of German intelligence for the Eastern Front, Reinhard Gehlen, approached US intelligence, in which the CIA did not yet exist. Gehlen offered to continue his operations against the Soviet Union. Gehlen, who had played a minor part in the 20 July Plot to kill [...], was not considered a political [...]. In 1945-6, he went to work with US and allied organizations, forming the Gehlen Organisation to penetrate the Iron Curtain. Gehlen also informed the US of certain Office of Strategic Services personnel who worked for the USSR.

Germany 1953

See Operation Gold.

Germany 1956

The Organisation moved to German control, as the core Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND or Federal Intelligence Service)

Germany 1990

CIA acquired the Rosenholz files, containing the list of foreign spies of the Stasi, in the former GDR.

Greece

Greece 1948

President Harry S. Truman authorized CIA to support aid to Greek anti-communists in cooperation with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service. The US Army Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) also provided personnel, and successfully resisted the takeover attempt.

Greece 1975

Richard Welch, the CIA station chief for Greece, was assassinated by the November 17 group.

"The Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17N) was named after a 1973 uprising of students and workers. The group's doctrine represents a more traditional form of [...]. Rather than applying coercive pressure on governments through indiscriminate violence, 17N's strategy has been to target symbolic elements of government, foreign, and business interests in an attempt at promoting a climate of insurrection. Added to the U.S. State Department's official list of foreign [...] organizations in the mid 1980s, the group first launched its Marxist campaign in 1975 with the assassination of Richard Welch, the CIA's station chief in Athens. Its leaders blamed America, and especially the CIA, for supporting the Greek junta that had collapsed only a year earlier. It was also highly nationalistic and opposed to NATO, as well as for the expulsion of U.S. military bases from Greek soil, the removal of Turkish forces from Cyprus, and the withdrawal of Greece from all supranational institutions

Greece 2007

On May 4, a Greek appeals panel upheld the 2003 [...] conviction of Alexandros Yiotopoulos, who led a Marxist [...] group for 27 years. The group, 17 November, named after a 1973 student uprising that was suppressed by a military junta that ruled Greece, assassinated Welch as their first act, in 1975.

Italy

Italy 1948

CIA was successful in limiting native Communist influence in France and Italy, notably in the 1948 Italian election.

A clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy called Operation Gladio (see also Gladio in Italy), was set up to counter a Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe.

Italy 1960s-1980s

There are allegations that throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Operation Gladio operatives were involved in a series of "false flag" fascist [...] actions in Italy that were blamed on the "Red Brigades" and other Left-wing political groups in an attempt to politically discredit the Italian Left wing.

The US state department has denied involvement in [...] and stated that some of the claims have been influenced by a Soviet forgery, US Army Field Manual 30-31B.

Italy 1973

See Argo 16.

Italy 2006

On 23 December 2005, a judge issued a European arrest warrant against 22 CIA agents for allegedly abducting an Egyptian [...] suspect. On 22 January 2006, the Italian Foreign Minister forwarded to the US authorities a request for legal assistance. The CIA agents may be put on trial in absentia if the Italian prosecutors do not receive greater cooperation from the US.

United Kingdom

There is a long history of close cooperation between the US and UK intelligence services; see Clandestine HUMINT and Covert Action for WWII and subsequent relationships. There are permanent liaison officers of each country in major intelligence agencies of the other, such as CIA and SIS, FBI and Security Service (MI5), and National Security Agency(NSA) and Government Communications Headquarters(GCHQ).

Oleg Penkovsky, a Soviet military intelligence colonel who was a defector in place, was a joint US-UK espionage operation. Much of Penkovsky's product is available online at the CIA FOIA Reading Room (http://www.foia.cia.gov/) by searching on the code name IRONBARK.

A major source of tension between the two countries was Kim Philby, a senior UK SIS officer who was a Soviet agent. Philby, at one point, was the SIS liaison officer resident in the US. James Jesus Angleton, head of CIA counterintelligence, was surprised by Philby's activity, and, as a consequence, began molehunts within CIA.

Eastern Europe

Albania

Albania 1949

In October, 1949, Frank Wisner, head of the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), in conjunction with British intelligence, sent two small commando teams into Albania. At the time, CIA did not have its own covert action capability.

Both of these operations were betrayed to the Soviet Union by Kim Philby. Around 12 commandos were captured or killed. OPC was an interim organization before it was absorbed by the CIA when the CIA Directorate of Plans was formed. See Clandestine HUMINT and Covert Action for the history of the OPC and how it became part of CIA, under DCI Walter Bedell Smith.

Bosnia

Bosnia 1995

On July 13, 1995, Serbs kill an estimated 8,000 Bosniak boys and men in Srebrenica. A CIA satellite captures the execution in preparation, but is not analyzed. 2 weeks later, a CIA U-2 captures the graves on site. 3 weeks later, the photos are analysed. On August 4, 1995, a CIA report on the photos is sent to the White House.

Hungary

Radio Free Europe (RFE), a CIA-funded organization, broadcast to Hungary at least from 1950-1956, but operated on no directives to foment revolution.

Hungary 1956

CIA had one officer, Geza Katona, in Hungary from 1950 to 1957 period, and for several years that person spent "95 percent" of his time on "cover duties." "He mailed letters, purchased stamps and stationery ...," among other "support tasks," the history noted. At the time of the Revolution in fall 1956, he was preoccupied with official contacts, maintaining diplomtic cover, and doing interviews with Hungarian visitors.

CIA and was completely surprised by the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. A CIA Clandestine Service (CS) report of the events, written in 1958, said "This breath-taking and undreamed-of state of affairs not only caught many Hungarians off-guard, it also caught us off-guard, for which we can hardly be blamed since we had no inside information, little outside information, and could not read the Russians' minds."

After the revolt broke out, Katona asked for policy guidance regarding arms and ammunition. "On October 28, Headquarters responded, "we must restrict ourselves to information collection only [and] not get involved in anything that would reveal U.S. interest or give cause to claim intervention...it was not permitted to send U.S. weapons in." In fact, the implication in the histories is that transferring arms was never seriously contemplated: "At this date no one had checked precisely on the exact location and nature of U.S. or other weapons available to CIA. This was done finally in early December" of 1956."

Did US-sponsored group play a part in the revolution? From the CS Histories, they did not. "Small psychological warfare and paramilitary units came into being in the early 1950s, (including the Hungarian National Council headed by Bela Varga), and occasional reconnaissance missions took place at that time, the prospects for penetrating into Hungary deteriorated by 1953 when stepped up controls by Hungarian security forces and "the meager talent available" among potential agents made cross-border operations essentially untenable."

CS historians observe "The authors sarcastically write that "If we [the CIA] were in no position to act efficiently ... the military is, was, and always will be even worse off." ... in the future the CIA [should] keep the military "at arm's length" and only do what's necessary "to keep them happy.""

"Moscow was also taken by surprise by the Revolution despite the thousands of Soviet soldiers, KGB officers, and Party informants present in Hungary. Rather than understanding the sources of the discontent, it was easier for Soviet operatives and even the leadership to cast woefully misdirected blame on the CIA for the unrest. Klement Voroshilov remarked at the October 28 Presidium session: "The American Secret Services are more active in Hungary than Comrades Suslov and Mikoyan are," referring to the two Party leaders sent to Budapest to negotiate a modus vivendi with the new Nagy government. At that moment, the two Soviet Presidium had more active members in Budapest outnumbering the single CIA case officer there.

After a few days of independence, the Soviet Union moved in with massive force, crushed the revolution, and later executed the Communist but rebel head of government, Imre Nagy, and the head of the military, Pal Maleter.

Soviet Union and former European republics

Until its collapse, the Soviet Union was the primary target of the CIA, just as the US was the "main enemy" to the Soviet KGB and GRU. Hostility was developing as the Second World War ended.

Soviet Union

Soviet Union 1950

With Europe stabilizing along the Iron Curtain, the CIA tried to limit the spread of Soviet influence elsewhere around the world. Much of the basic model came from George Kennan's "containment" model from 1947, a foundation of US policy for decades.

In December 1950, with the Korean War in progress, National Intelligence Estimate 15 was issued: "Probable Soviet Moves to Exploit the Present Situation". It began with the estimate that "USSR-Satellite treatment of Korean developments indicates that they assess their current military and political position as one of great strength in comparison with that of the West, and that they propose to exploit the apparent conviction of the West of its own present weakness." At this time, there was no assumption that China and the USSR would differ on any policy "Moscow, seconded by Peiping with regard to the Far East, has disclosed through a series of authoritative statements that it aims to achieve certain gains in the present situation:

a. Withdrawal of UN forces from Korea and of the Seventh Fleet from Formosan waters.

b. Establishment of Communist China as the predominant power in the Far East, including the seating of Communist China in the United Nations.

c.Reduction of Western control over Japan as a step toward its eventual elimination.

d. Prevention of West German rearmament.

"It can be anticipated that irrespective of any Western moves looking toward negotiations, assuming virtual Western surrender is not involved, the Kremlin plans a continuation of Chinese Communist pressure in Korea until the military defeat of the UN is complete. A determined and successful stand by UN forces in Korea would, of course, require a Soviet re-estimate of the situation." Such a stand did take place, and the war ended in a stalemate.

"The scope of Soviet bloc preparations and the nature and extent of Soviet Communist official statements and propaganda raise the' question of Soviet or Satellite moves in other areas. The points that appear most critical are Berlin and Germany, Indochina, Yugoslavia, and Iran.

Regarding what was to become Vietnam: "An intensification of Communist efforts to secure Indochina is to be expected, regardless of development elsewhere. The Viet Minh has clearly indicated that its objective is to drive the French from Indochina at the earliest possible date. The Chinese Communists have at the same time repeatedly expressed their support of the Viet Minh. They have, moreover, officially claimed that Western resistance to the Viet Mmli is directed against Chinese Communist security. The Chinese Communists are already furnishing the Viet Minh with material, training, and technical assistance. If this assistance proves inadequate to enable the Viet Minh to accomplish its objectives, it is estimated that it will be supplemented, as necessary, by the introduction of Chinese Communist forces into the conflict, possibly as "volunteers." The extent of this Chinese Communist intervention, and whether it takes overt form, will probably depend on the degree of outside assistance furnished the French and the extent of Chinese Communist commitments elsewhere."

Soviet Union 1956

The Soviets put down a revolution in Hungary, using considerable force.

Soviet Union 1958

Following the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, the USSR put increased pressure on its satellite countries, and made it clear to the West that it did not want interference. This 1958 estimate by the IC, under CIA, explored the US understanding of the Soviet policy and actions.

"We believe the basic motivation behind Moscow's current tough line to be its grave concern over its power position in Eastern Europe, where it considers revisionism to have developed to dangerous proportions/Note 1. This concern has led the USSR to attack Tito [of Yugoslavia] and to cause the execution of Imre Nagy [the rebel Hungarian leader]--measures intended, at least in part, to put pressure on Gomulka [leader of Poland]. We believe that the Soviets will exert greater efforts to obtain Gomulka's compliance with Bloc requirements or, failing that, perhaps even to replace him. The analysts felt the USSR has not abandoned the idea of peaceful coexistence with the West, but it probably believes there is little chance for East-West negotiations favorable to it. If, however, these events reflect " differences within the Soviet leadership and a degree of Communist Chinese influence. If this is so, it may portend a new and stiffer policy towards the West as well as the Satellites."

"We believe that recent events do not indicate that the USSR has ceased to desire a conference at the summit or lower level negotiations on matters in which the Soviet leaders have an interest. At the same time, the Soviet leaders may have concluded prior to undertaking their recent moves that, since the chances of an early summit conference on their terms were waning, they could more easily accept the political losses they would suffer in international affairs by pursuing a harder policy in Eastern Europe."

Soviet Union 1959

GRU officer Dmitri Polyakov walked in to offer his services to the US. He transmitted information to the US until his retirement, as a Soviet general in 1980, although he was compromised, probably by Aldrich Ames , and executed in 1986.

A November 1959 NIE, with the benefit of U-2 imagery, identified Soviet ground-to-ground missile capabilities from 75 nmi to intercontinental range. The ICBM, with a CEP of 3 nmi, was expected to reach operational status in January 1960.

Soviet Union 1960

On May 1, 1960, a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, operated by the CIA was shot down over the US, and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, captured. At first, the CIA claimed it was a lost weather plane.

In speaking with President Eisenhower, Director of Central Intelligence Allen W. Dulles said that Powers, the U-2 pilot, "had been with CIA four years and before that had been with the Air Force for six years. He had been selected for this mission because of his knowledge of Arctic navigation. The President said that when reconnaissance over-flights had been explained to him, he had been told that the pilots on such flights were taught to destroy the plane rather than to let it fall into Soviet hands. The President believed that the blunder of our first statement...[assumed] the plane was destroyed, Accordingly, we thought the story that a NASA weather reconnaissance plane was missing was a good cover story."

Later in May, the President met with Congressional leaders. During that breakfast discussion, he said, " He said that intelligence and espionage were distasteful for many Americans, but that he as President … had to make decisions based on what was right for the United States concerning the fundamental intelligence knowledge that we had to have...Nevertheless the President has to accept responsibility for these decisions and also keep the knowledge of such activities in the fewest possible hands. Only a few people in State, Defense and CIA knew of this... The President said that he was responsible for the directive for the U-2... "There is no glory in this business," he said. "If it is successful, it can't be told.""

Eisenhower expressed concern that Congress "would try to dig into the interior of the CIA and its covert operation. Such attempt would be harmful to the United States and he was sure that the leaders of the Congress would realize this. He repeated that the Administration people would cooperate with the inquiry--he called it "investigation" several times.

Senator Mike Mansfield asked "What would the President think if there were to be established in the Congress a joint Congressional Committee which would oversee the activities of the CIA." Eisenhower objected "that the operation of the CIA was so delicate and so secret in many cases that it must be kept under cover, and that the Executive must be held responsible for it. He said that he would agree to some bipartisan group going down occasionally and receiving reports from the CIA on their activities, but that he would hate to see it formalized--indeed would be against the proposal made by Senator Mansfield."

Senator Richard B. Russell "said that they do have a Congressional group that periodically went over reports. He said that they knew the U - 2 planes were under construction a long time ago. The Senator added that he was not afraid of the Senators on security matters but that he was afraid of staff leaks."

Charles E. Bohlen, special assistant to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles asked Menshikov about Soviet policy toward Cuba, with the response "he had said to Senator Fulbrighy that Senator Johnson's statement about a submarine base was completely out of this world and provocative; the Soviet Union had no intention of establishing bases or any military arrangements in Cuba."

Soviet Union 1965

See Vietnam 1965: General Non-Communist Reactions for the US assessment of the USSR's reaction to an escalation in Vietnam.

Soviet Union 1974

Project Jennifer was a clandestine technical collection operation to salvage the sunken Russian sub K-129. While the submarine broke apart during the lift and the hoped-for complete recovery did not happen, the fact that the US was able to show the Russians the at-sea burial of K-129 sailors clearly indicated the US recovered, at least, the bodies. If the bodies were recovered, it is a reasonable assumption that other things may have been recovered as well.

Soviet Union 1981

The Farewell Dossier in 1981 revealed massive Soviet espionage on Western technology. A successful counter-espionage program was created which involved giving defective technologies to Soviet agents.

Soviet Union 1985

While the actual document has not been declassified, National Security Decision Directive 166 of 27 March 1985, "US Policy, Programs and Strategy in Afghanistan" defined a US policy of using established the US goal of driving to drive Soviet forces from Afghanistan "by all means available". Initially, this involved close cooperation with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence to assistmujahideen groups and in planning operations inside Afghanistan. Indeed, it was evident to residents in Islamabad and Peshawar in the 1980's that large numbers of Americans were present and involved in mysterious activities. This created linkages among hardened Muslim fighters worldwide. At first, the US supported the effort cautiously, concered that the Soviet Union would act against Pakistan. "Some time into the war, however, the US began to take a much more overt position and US supplied technology played a key role in defeating the Soviet war machine in Afghanistan.

Ukraine