The media incites a mob mentality |

The speed with which the ‘free press’
can drop its liberal pretensions and re-
vert to an ideological lynch-mob can
sometimes be astonishing. Witness the
vitriolic reaction of the media to the ar-
rest in Moscow of American corres-
pondent Nicholas Daniloff on charges of
espionage.

There is no doubt that this is acomplex
case. High politics is certainly involved.
It may, or may not, be linked to the case
of Soviet UN employee Gennady Zak-
harov, who was entrapped and charged
with being a spy by the FBI last month.

Yet our big media, which normally
poses as the guardian of such righteous
Western axioms as *‘a person is innocent
until proven guilty’’, has acted as judge,
jury and executioner of Zakharov. He is,
apparently, a ‘‘real spy’’ and an ‘‘on-line
KGB officer’. This despite the fact the
FBI has admitted that Zakharov, a scien-
tist whom they have watched for three
years, is “not a serious secret agent’’. An
FBI spokesman last week related, with
pride, the story of how Zakharov was
seduced with promises of scientific data
— using a student in the employ of the
FBI — and how his arrest was carefully
stage-managed. It is not even clear that
Zakharov was aware he was receiving
classified material.

Last week Zakharov pleaded not guil-
ty to espionage in a New York court-
room.

Indeed, it seems likely that Zakharov’s
arrest was carried out for political, not
security reasons. The Reagan adminis-
tration, as part of its program to down-
grade the United Nations, has been de-
manding the USSR reduce its UN con-
tingent by 40 per cent. Arresting a mem-
ber of the Soviet delegation on a‘ spying
charge’ may be nothing more than an
arm-twist to back up these demands.

Late last week the U.S. stepped up this
pressure by expelling 25 members of the
Soviet UN delegation.

‘Spies and hostages’

As much as Zakharov has been
deemed guilty by the big press, Daniloff

News
Analysis

Fred Weir

has been presumed to be pristinely in-
nocent, and any evidence to the contrary
unworthy of attention. Last week Presi-
dent Reagan, displaying his genius for
propaganda rhetoric, described Daniloff
as “‘our hostage in Moscow’’. This
phrase, with all its inflammatory implica-
tions, was picked up by the media and
trumpeted from headlines and editorials
as if it were an accurate description of
reality.

American journalists with experience
in Moscow, such as the Washington
Post’s Kevin Klose, have been given
full-page spreads to relate anecdotal hor-
ror stories about the dangerous life of a
U.S. correspondent in the Soviet Union.
Endless ‘‘elose calls’? with the KGB
figure prominently in these.(After read-
ing these harrowing tales, how surprising
it is to learn that Nicholas Daniloff is the
first big media U.S. journalist to be ar-
rested and held in the USSR.)

To this convulsive atmosphere has
been added a generally uncritical and
fawning attitude toward Daniloff. His
claim that despite excellent treatment in
prison he found the experience “‘mental
torture’’, was given uncommon play in
the headlines. How did Zakharov enjoy
his stay in a U.S. jail? Is it important?

Controversial Dealings.

Daniloff himself held a press con-
ference in Moscow following his release
last week and, irony of ironies, Soviet
journalists were excluded. Daniloff
warned his loyal media collegues that he
had had ‘‘some controversial dealings”’
during his five years in the USSR, and
hinted that things might not be quite as
clear cut as they have been made to
appear.

Elsewhere on this page, Tribune Mos-
cow correspondent Jack Phillips outlines
the evidence against Daniloff. It is quite

extensive, and goes well beyond the .

simple receipt of a package of docu-
ments. Since Daniloff will undoubtedly
get a fair trial, and the best legal defence
American money can buy, perhaps we
should all just wait and see?

The presumption of Daniloff's abso-

.

Equally unconvincing is the
pression the big media has tried to Com:
vey that it never gets itself mixed up with
intelligence agencies, or anything like
that. Conveniently forgotten — and ob-
scured — is a long history of both con:
scious and unwitting collaboration with |
Western espionage agencies that makes |,
a mockery of their oozing self-righteous- }y
ness on this point. ]

Tip of the Iceberg

The U.S. Senate Select Committee on}
Intelligence exposed at least the tip of

that iceberg back in 1977 when it noted
that the CIA had, for three decades, TOU hy,
tinely used journalists as spies, and used | i
the credentials of major news bureaus as
cover for many of its operatives.
For example, one of the CIA agents

Daniloff held a press conference in Moscow and a irony jx
of ironies — Soviet journalists were refused admittance.

Daniloff warned his media colleagues that during his stay "

in the USSR he has had some “controversial dealings’ ---

~

Jute innocence, which motivates all of
the outraged calls for his immediate and
unconditional release, is apparently not
based upon anything so unreliable as
mere evidence. Indeed, as ABC's Ted
Koppel told Soviet journalist Vladimir
Posner in an angry exchange on Night-

line, the President of the United States

himself has said that Daniloff is ‘‘not a

spy . ‘

This laughable assertion prompted
Posner to recall the 1960 U-2 affair, when
President Eisenhower swore to Krush-
chev that the plane the Soviets had just
shot down was not engaged in aerial es-
pionage — until Krushchev revealed that
the pilot had been captured. In fact, the

record of American presidents, as far as.

candor goes, is not very impressive at all.

who directed the 1953 overthrow of the )'¥
Mossadegh government in Iran was also
the New York Times correspondent 11
Tran. ~

Throughout the ’50s, 60’s and 70's,
CIA operatives were infiltrated into 4
major U.S. news organizations — often
with the cooperation of publishers —ane
CIA-authored articles regularly 2
peared in major newspapers.

Those, they say, were the bad old
days. That sort of thing doesn’t happ
anymore.

And that is about as credible as most
the pious drivel we hear in this, the six
year of the Age of Reagan. Let's just }
watch and wait. Maybe we’ll even find
out who’s a spy, and who isn't. :

MOSCOW — Nicholas Daniloff, cor-

- respondent for the magazine U.S. News

& World Report, was arrested here Aug-

ust 30. According to the subsequent

indictment, he was caught ‘‘performing a
secret act of espionage’’ and detained.

The indictment states the following
items were found in Daniloff’s posses-
sion:

e Part of a map of Afghanistan, with
notations showing the locations of Soviet
military units. (Classified as secret).

e A handwritten diagram of terrain,

showing the location of military equip-

ment. (Classified as secret).
eTwenty-six black and white photos
showing Soviet military equipment, sol-

diers, and officers of the Soviet Army. ~

Sources here say that enough evidence
has been obtained to demonstrate that
the 52-year-old journalist was connected
with U.S. secret services.

Daniloff’s release on September 13 re-
sulted from mutual agreement between
U.S. and Soviet authorities. Speaking at
a press conference the same day, Soviet
foreign office spokesman Gennady
Gerasimov said that Daniloff’s release
showed that ‘‘the Soviet Union does not
wish this trivial secondary incident to

have an adverse effect upon the devel-
opment of Soviet-American relations’’.

Gerasimov noted that Daniloff’s re-
lease seemed to have been the cue for a
new wave of anti-soviet rhetoric in the
Western media, and ‘“‘regrettably, this
included the U.S. secretary of defence
and the secretary of state’.

There is considerable evidence, said
Gerasimov, that the American journalist
had been linked to U.S. secret services,
and that he had acted under instructions
to gather classified information. Dani-
loff, he said, had admitted passing on
classified information on one previous
occasion, which had been passed to him
by a Soviet citizen.

The former CIA station chief in Mos-
cow, whom Gerasimov named as Murat

From Moscow
Jack Phillips

The evidence against Daniloff —

Natirboff, was Daniloffs ‘‘handler’’.
Under Natirboff’s orders, he said, Dani-
loff had gathered data on the location and
armament of Soviet military units, on
types of armaments, and classified
information about Soviet nuclear power
engineering. All of this, he said, has been
corroborated by witnesses and other
relevant material. ;
Gerasimov expressed regret that the
Daniloff incident was being used by the
American side to intensify Cold War
propaganda, and to divert attention from
the peace initiatives that have been ad-
vanced by the USSR. Although the
charges against Daniloff are very se-
rious, he indicated, the case is a ‘‘trivial’’
matter compared to the serious problems
facing U.S.-Soviet relations.

_ coexistence.

In relation to the paramount question
of halting the arms race and laying 4
foundation for total disarmament, he
said, the significance of the Daniloff af-
fair is very small. The Soviet leadership
does not intend to help the Reagan
administration use this case to divert
public attention from the Soviet Union s
program for disarmament and peace

Daniloff at news conference in Moscow | |
September 13 — Soviet press was |
excluded. ;

8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 24,1986