Posing as diplomats, embassy officials and newsmen, Soviet intelligence agents have been conducting a determined effort to get classified information on Capitol Hill by bribing or compromising staff members in key positions. TIME has learned that in more than a dozen cases in the last decade or so the FBI has stepped in to "control" the relationship, fearing a staffer might begin giving out restricted data. In some cases, the FBI has used the aide as a double agent, allowing him to pass on worthless material while actually spying on the Soviet officials. To date, the FBI says, it has found no staffer who has given unauthorized information to the Russians.
Charming Official. The Soviet KGB agents—who constitute an estimated 40% of the embassy staff in Washington —concentrate on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, which receive secret testimony and intelligence briefings. The agents apparently make no real efforts to suborn the Senators or Congressmen on the committees. "The Soviets may be a bit clumsy, but they aren't fools," says an intelligence source. "They know that a Congressman or a Senator is pretty much a prisoner of his staff. What he knows, the staff knows, and it's easier to get the information from the staff."
The names of aides who are now double agents, or who have been systematically wooed by the Kremlin, are being kept under tight security. But one case has been uncovered that illustrates how the Soviets work the halls of Congress. James Kappus, 29, a printing consultant in Largo, Md., became an assistant to Wisconsin Congressman Alvin E. O'Konski in 1967. At the time, O'Konski, who retired from Congress in 1973, was a member of the House Armed Services Committee. Kappus recalls how he met a charming Soviet embassy official named Boris A. Sedov and was soon being invited to Soviet embassy parties. Kappus was genuinely dazzled. "I was just a kid," says he, "two years out of Eau Claire, Wis., and there I was—waiting to be introduced to the ambassador."
In ways that remain a mystery to Kappus, the FBI learned about his friendship with Sedov. With O'Konski's approval, the bureau began supervising Kappus' contacts with the Russian, who was actually a KGB spy. At Sedov's suggestion, Kappus first wrote a story for a Soviet newspaper about presidential candidates for the 1968 election. He was paid only $20, but in the months that followed, Kappus received some $2,000 more for passing on unclassified information that had first been screened by the FBI. "We both knew that I had been 'compromised,' " says Kappus. "Sedov didn't talk about it and neither did I, but we both understood it."
Sedov began pressing Kappus for classified information. Where did O'Konski keep classified documents? Could Kappus get at them? When Kappus hesitated, Sedov said, "You know, I helped you out when things were tough."
Kappus insists that he never did turn over any secret material to Sedov. Their relationship ended in 1970 when Kappus went into the Army and the Russian was called home.