Operation Rosewood
| Date | 1989 |
|---|---|
| Participants | Stasi, CIA, Alexander Principalov, Rainer Wiegand |
| Description | One of the greatest coups of Cold War espionage: the CIA secreting away in 1989 of the complete original files from East Germany's foreign spy operations, including the true identities of its thousands of agents, most in West Germany and other NATO countries. |
Operation Rosewood (German: Operation Rosenholz) was the "one of the greatest coups of Cold War espionage": the CIA secreting away to the USA, sometime after 1989, of the complete original files from East Germany's foreign spy operations, including the true identities of its thousands of agents, most in West Germany and other NATO countries.[1]
Contents
The records identified citizens of the United States, West Germany, Britain and other NATO companies who worked for the HVA. Each of thousands of cards in the files contain an agent's real name, address, code names, pseudonyms used on passports, date of birth, marital status and file number. The files also disclose missions performed by each agent, communications from the field, and pay records.[1]
Timeline
The operation was carried out immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. A senior Scandinavian intelligence officer recalled to Dirk Pohlmann that he was informed that a US helicopter had landed on the roof of a building at the Stasi headquarters in Berlin. This operation was impossible without preparation, consultation and securing by the highest Stasi officers.[2]
Use
Rosewood was probably not the only information transfer of a special kind. What this data made possible was the extortionate contact with all the Stasi agents, that the CIA could now give the choice of either working for the US services in the future or rotting in prison. The East German agents who had worked against the Western states were therefore still active under new leadership from now on.[2]
The files were initially utilized by the United States only, but finally returned to Germany in 2003 after long negotiations.[3] Since June 2003 the files have in theory been open to the general public and can be viewed following a request, but many requests were turned down.[4]
Records from the files were used in the espionage trial of Theresa Marie Squillacote and Kurt Alan Stand, who were convicted in 1998. In an affidavit, FBI special agent Katharine G. Alleman said she had "inspected copies of certain HVA file records and I have been provided information concerning other HVA file records," without noting where or from whom she obtained the records.[1]
German intelligence official were allowed to "review the records at Langley on several occasions, as have representatives of other Western security services. The files were used in the attempt to control the Norwegian Lund Commission in 1994, but probably failed.
In 1994 the West German economist, [Rainer Rupp] was convicted of spying for the Stasi under the code name "Topaz," passing NATO secrets for more than a decade. He was given 12 years in prison. Credit for uncovering his past activities was given to German officials who reviewed "Stasi archives".[1]
Known Participants
All 4 of the participants already have pages here:
| Participant | Description |
|---|---|
| CIA | The most high profile of the US intelligence agencies, a covert agent of foreign policy. Funded by a 'black budget' derived from the global drug trade, the CIA is experienced at assassination, blackmail, instigating coups and other such covert deep state actions. Its scrutiny in the early 1970s however led to the development of more secure bases for the most sensitive deep state operations. |
| Alexander Principalov | KGB officer who might have sold the entire archive of East German agents in Western Europe to the CIA after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. Died a few years later of mysterious heart attack sitting in his car. |
| Stasi | The East German intelligence agency |
| Rainer Wiegand |
References
- ↑ a b c d By the spooky Walter Pincus https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/11/22/cold-war-footnote-cia-obtained-east-germanys-foreign-spy-files/d1f48d4c-9c7c-473b-b7d9-011aa353b71c/
- ↑ a b https://www.manova.news/artikel/triumphalismus-und-totalversagen
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/28/stasi-files-row-britain-germany
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120221233751/http://www.docexblog.com/2012/01/debate-over-return-of-stasi-rosenholz.html
