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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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073189
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07318900.031
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1990-09-17
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NATION, Page 16High Spy At State?A U.S. diplomat is suspected of working for the Soviets
Though a string of spy cases in recent years has involved naval
men, embassy guards and intelligence analysts, U.S. officials could
take comfort in the belief that none had implicated an American
diplomat -- until now. The State Department last week confirmed
that the FBI is probing whether Felix S. Bloch, a 30-year Foreign
Service veteran and the No. 2 man at the U.S. embassy in Austria
from 1981 to 1987, has been working for the KGB.
State Department spokesmen say the FBI is investigating
unspecified "illegal activities" to determine "the extent of the
compromise of security that has occurred." Bloch, who was born in
Austria, is believed to have been recruited there by the Soviets
at least three years ago, according to an ABC News report. Posted
back to Washington, in 1988 he became director in charge of
relations with the European Community and other international
economic bodies for the State Department's Bureau of European and
Canadian Affairs.
There, as in Vienna, Bloch had access to classified reports on
the Soviet Union and sensitive cable traffic, as well as data on
U.S. policy options and negotiating positions. Once in Washington,
he was authorized, for example, to read the National Intelligence
Daily, a compilation of intelligence reports. During a trip to
Vienna earlier this year, he was allegedly videotaped handing a
briefcase to a suspected Soviet agent on a city street. Bloch has
been under 24-hour FBI surveillance for a number of weeks.
Neighbors say that in early July they began to see men in parked
cars staking out the fashionable Washington apartment building
where Bloch lives with his wife and daughter.
Though he achieved the rank of minister-counselor, the
department's third highest career level, Bloch is said to have been
disappointed by his failure to become a full ambassador. He boasted
to friends that he virtually ran the Vienna embassy under former
Ambassador Helene von Damm, a Reagan appointee he regarded with
scorn. Bloch got on the wrong side of Von Damm's successor, Ronald
Lauder, who sent him packing. Colleagues praise Bloch's work in
Washington, though some describe him as dull ("A boring little
man," says one). He has been placed on leave and his security
passes have been withdrawn while the investigation goes on.