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A Swallow Named Zina
Though the KGB's foreign directorate has a smaller staff, it fields more agents than its American counterpart. Says a U.S. intelligence official: "The Soviets not only are very good, but they also outnumber the U.S. by a factor of at least two." Both agencies are adept at dirty tricks. "We still try to get them with broads, or find out the homosexuals, or if they have debts," admits a top CIA man. One U.S. agent became friendly with a man he knew to be a top Soviet operative in Africa. The Russian ran into financial trouble. Eventually the two became steady—and heavy —drinking partners, usually at the American's flat. "It suddenly struck me that I was getting so stoned that the next morning I couldn't remember anything either of us had said," the American recalls. U.S. technicians "wired the whole damned apartment for sound," and every word was subsequently recorded. But, the American adds: "Even dead drunk, he didn't give anything away. The only thing I can brag about is that I was just as drunk—and I didn't blow anything either."
A grimmer case involving efforts to compromise an enemy concerns former
British Naval Commander Anthony Courtney. A onetime chief of the Soviet section of naval intelligence, Courtney retired, began a successful business as a consultant on East-West trade, and won election as a Tory Member of Parliament. In Commons, Courtney seized on the dangers of Soviet spying as one of his big issues. That irritated the KGB. Before he came up for reelection, the KGB reached into its files and produced a 1961 photo showing Courtney in compromising positions with a comely, blonde, hazel-eyed Intourist guide named Zina, a "swallow" he had met on a business trip to Moscow following the death of his first wife. The photos were widely distributed and Courtney soon lost his second wife, his business and his seat in Parliament. He is now remarried and running a touch-typing school in Wiltshire.
The cases of four Soviet agents in Britain, all attached to the Soviet embassy or trade delegation, illustrate the range of routine intelligence activity.
All four were asked to leave Britain within the past three years. One, a collector of industrial documents, was caught picking up material left for him by another agent in a dead-letter box. Another specialized in obtaining embargoed goods, and attempted to bribe engineers to give him electronic and computer equipment. A third promised a Briton S money if he would get a job in the Ministry of Defense, and a fourth tried to ac? quire a classified telephone directory r from a Defense Ministry employee.
Hits and Misses
Qualitative comparisons between spy systems are difficult to make. The CIA, which receives input from all parts of the U.S. intelligence establishment, is probably more expert, but Western intelligence officials give the KGB high marks for its professionalism and discipline. Despite the famed defections of the postwar period, British intelligence is highly regarded by most of its U.S. counterparts; so, to a somewhat lesser extent, is French intelligence. Many experts agree