Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit excerpt from... INTELLIGENCE ISSN 1245-2122 N. 41 New Series, 15 July 1996 Publishing since 1980 Editor Olivier Schmidt (email intelligence-adi@wanadoo.fr; web http://www.blythe.org/Intelligence; tel/fax 33 1 40 51 85 19; post ADI, 16 rue des Ecoles, 75005 Paris, France) Copyright ADI 1996, reproduction in any form forbidden without explicit authorization from the ADI. A one year subscription (23 issues) is US $315. FRONTPAGE "BULGARIAN UMBRELLA" STILL NOT CLOSED In our first issue this year, "Intelligence" published the results of an investigation by Richard H. Cummings, former head of security at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (INT, N. 29/16), into the "Bulgarian Umbrella" assassination in London on 11 September 1978 of leading Bulgarian dissident, Georgi Markov (INT, N. 28/1). "Intelligence" has continued to follow the affair which is far from closed for the simple reason that former three-star general and Interior Minister, Atanas Semerdzhiev, and State Security Brigadier General Nanka Serkedzhieva, the woman then in charge of State Security archives, can only be tried for destroying State Security documents related to Markov's murder by judges of the same or higher rank. Recently, as had happened several times over the past five years, the trial was postponed and rescheduled so that a court of three military judges with the rank of general can be constituted. According to a specialist contacted by "Intelligence", the "Bulgarian Umbrella" and other files disappeared in three phases. The first "clean up" phase came in early 1990, a few months after the palace coup that ousted long-time President and Communist Party Secretary General, Todor Zhivkov. A total of 1,767 files disappeared from State Security archives in the most heavily guarded place in Sofia: the Interior Ministry. This first lot of documents included files on Zhivkov's personal enemies who had been persecuted, fired or sentenced from 1965 to 1988. The second and major phase took place a few weeks later after the Bulgarian Communist Party and democratic forces had started round table negotiations on the formation of a new government and Zhivkov had been placed under "house arrest". The third and final phase of the "clean up" of State Security archives followed the issuing of a 25 January 1990 top secret order by Gen. Serkedzhieva, the newly appointed Interior Minister. According to the order, "the complicated political and operative situation calls for some changes in the State Security archives ... All personnel files and operative files of all secret collaborators and agents are to be destroyed ... Card index #4 of secret collaborators and agents is to be destroyed after being microphotographed and the tapes to be kept ready for speedy destruction ... Persons who are assets of higher value are not to be registered at all". Gen. Serkedzhieva allegedly carried out these orders. In the political arena, after voting the new Constitution, the Bulgarian Great National Assembly attacked the problem of opening State Security archives to examine the files of informants. A parliamentary State Security Files Committee was set up with the objective of going through the files to establish which MPs and other political figures had been associated with State Security. The committee was also mandated to prepare legislation on opening the files to the public. But a multi-party consensus developed and every effort was made to postpone a final decision on the archives. Finally, Parliament opted for the easy way out and passed an amendment to the Penal Code in 1994, making it a crime to "disclose in any form the names of present or former officers and collaborators of the secret services". Former State Security Files Committee chairman, Georgi Tambuev, has stressed that "the files have been combed through and cleaned up to such an extent that whoever gets them can discover absolutely nothing of any use". However, certain specialists doubt that the State Security Archives have been "cleaned up". According to Radoslav Raykov, former deputy director of National Intelligence Service foreign intelligence, "not a single file was destroyed. However, I am not saying that the archives are in Bulgaria. I have information that the archives were sent by air to China and to Malta". This would include files from all intelligence services on "human resource assets, both full-time assets and part-time informants, including 'sleepers' who have never been used in operations". Some specialists believe the files were sent to Russia for keeping by the KGB. This custodianship is supposedly temporary since President Boris Yeltsin stated in Sofia in 1992 that, "Bulgaria will get all KGB documents that are relevant to your country". The truth may be somewhere between these two opinions, as in the case of the East German Stasi archives. Copies of all Bulgarian State Security files were probably automatically forwarded to the KGB as the files were built up. "Cleaning up" files in Sofia with the physical destruction of documents could therefore be officially considered as "making room" in the filing cabinets, since copies of the original documents were "stored elsewhere" ... in Moscow. Moreover, official inquiries or parliamentary commissions can therefore be permitted to "comb the files" in Sofia where there's nothing of interest, but they would never have the right to inquire about "third party" shared intelligence. Even if the presence of Bulgarian State Security documents in Moscow could be ascertained, "difficulties of transmission" would surely last well into the next century. * also in this issue: TABLE OF CONTENTS, N. 41, 15 July 1996 FRONTPAGE BULGARIA - "BULGARIAN UMBRELLA" STILL NOT CLOSED p.1 TECHNOLOGY & TECHNIQUES PROFOUND CHANGES IN FBI NEGOTIATION TECHNIQUES p.2 PGP PUBLIC KEY ENCRYPTION BECOMES "USER FRIENDLY" p.3 "OPEN SOURCE" ENCYCLOPEDIA ON INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM p.4 OLYMPICS - High Stress and High Tech. p.5 DNA DATA BANK - U.S. Launch with Major "Psy Ops". p.6 P-TRAK - Too Much Publicity Bad for Business. p.7 JAVA - Poor Security for ... Law Enforcement. p.8 ELECTRIC SHOCK - REACT Produces a Reaction. p.9 FIREWALLS - A "Consumers' Guide" Testing Program. p.10 AIRBORNE INTELLIGENCE - French-American "PR" Rivalry. p.11 NUCLEAR TERROR - From "Massive Destruction" to Mafia Arm. p.12 SATELLITE IMAGERY - Technology Out Paces Politics. p.13 HOT SECTION TECH - China Has Set Its Sights. p.14 DRUGS - World Reference Guide. p.15 PEOPLE GORDON FOXLEY - GREAT BRITAIN p.16 JEFFREY SPEED - GREAT BRITAIN p.17 EMMANUEL CONSTANT _ HAITI/U.S.A. p.18 MUHAMMED AL-MASSARI - SAUDI ARABIA/GREAT BRITAIN p.19 U.S.A. - Richard N. Haass. p.20 U.S.A. - Gary W. Aldrich. p.21 GREAT BRITAIN - Mathew Bevan. p.22 FRANCE - Serge Lecanu. p.23 FRANCE - Philippe Feval. p.24 SPAIN - Pepe Rei. p.25 MEXICO - Enrique Tomas Salgado. p.26 COLOMBIA - Marco Tulio Gutierrez. p.27 ISRAEL - Yossi Alper. p.28 PHILIPPINES - Rolando Abadilla. p.29 AGENDA COMING EVENTS FROM NOW TO 30 SEPTEMBER 1996 p.30 INTELLIGENCE AROUND THE WORLD U.S.A. - ATF ADMITS BIAS AND TRIES TO MAKE PEACE p.31 U.S.A./GREAT BRITAIN - FORMER DEA AGENT MAKES HIS CASE p.32 Anti-Pentagon CIA Report. p.33 White House Sells Off Security. p.34 CANADA - MYTHICAL "SUPER MOLE" TURNS INTO A REAL LAWSUIT p.35 After Closing in Paris, RCMP Opens in Moscow. p.36 GREAT BRITAIN - CHINOOK CRASH "MYSTERY" DEEPENS p.37 PRISON SERVICE REVOLT AT THE TOP & THE BOTTOM p.38 APACHE DEAL BACK ON THE AUCTION FLOOR p.39 NORTHERN IRELAND - STILL NOT ON THE BRITISH LIST OF "VICTORIES" p.40 FRANCE - PLAYING "BLUFF" POKER WITH GERMANY OVER HELIOS-2 p.41 Germany and Its Friend in the DRM. p.42 BELGIUM - OPERATION REBEL REBOUNDS ON GENDARMERIE p.43 NETHERLANDS - EAVESDROPPING GETS GOOD PRESS p.44 GERMANY - SPD's Wienand Convicted as Stasi Agent. p.45 GIBRALTAR - BRITISH BUGS ON THE ROCK p.46 NORWAY - MASSIVE DOMESTIC SPYING INTO THE 1980S p.47 WESTERN EUROPE - EU SUMMIT AGREES ON SETTING UP EUROPOL p.48 Secrecy "Gadfly" Stings the EU. p.49 ESTONIA - A DOOR THAT "SWINGS BOTH WAYS" p.50 RUSSIA - HONEY TRAPS PAST AND PRESENT p.51 A "Last Hurrah" Before Election Fall Out. p.52 ISRAEL - A Busy First Day for Netanyahu. p.53 PALESTINE - Intelligence Cooperation Struggles to Survive. p.54 CHINA - Getting Ready for ... the FBI. p.55 ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org =================================================================