European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 23, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page id columns the stars and stripes thursday april 23,1987 William Safire it s time to Call a halt to the espionage race the medium Range missile treaty it All but wrapped up Short Range missile reduction is a Sweet ener Jum Hwd in the Deal a Pace exploration treaty awaits signing at a Summit inc old abm treaty Wilt be saved in inc next year when a new treaty is agreed on to permit space shield testing. In this treaty Happy Era. With both superpower Lead ers eager to distract attention from big Domestic prob lems the Lime has come to address an escalating source of tension. We have to marshal our energies to put an end to the costly mindless debilitating espionage race. The superpowers already have stockpiled enough Intelli gence secrets about each other to scandalized inc world a Hundred times Over. Consider first the sheer waste of Money caused by the espionage race. The superpowers alone spend s43 billion a year on the overt and Covert collection and evaluation of secret data. France s Force de Snoop and Britain s my fifth Man Lake Down 2 percent of those nation on p. Japan gains an economic advantage by unfairly refusing to share the intelligence Burden next examine the damage done to world peace by this mad spending. Diplomats in Moscow and Washingion Are unable to move into already built fancy tors because of the presence of built in listening pcs. Just when detente should be Blooming a us. Secretary of hate is forced to denounce the penetration of our embassy grounds by Kab agents impugning the Good Faith of his interlocutors. Not to be overlooked even in this cynical world is the moral effector he espionage race. Mora equivalent links like John be Carre find no difference Between Lubianka and Langley the Shady techniques of illegal eavesdropping anti amoral polygraph torture Breed in the intelligence services of democratic govern ments and corrupt their other institutions virtuous Young russian women arc forced to prostitute them selves in cold Marine sentry boxes. And All for what do we have the slightest inkling of no interns ume top secret my Jinq a just in file tres1-itw has our Wei Fol a mss Union we a Ftp bom Genfi in of a minutes Flora Lewis How tenuous is Mikhail Gorbachev s hold in the Kremlin did inc denizens of Der Insky Square have any warning about the Cla t use of the Csc with the Money we spend on nuclear warheads at least we gel to hear a Tell bang now and when Wilh espionage spending it seems All we gel is defections blown agents uncovered moles and a Trio of cuckolds thai Call themselves the intelligence oversight Board. Unless the voices of reason Are heard now the world will be afflicted with an even More dangerous round of the espionage race technology breakout Are in the making. The big Eye satellites Mil tee All from the sky the big ear parabolic vacuum cleaners will be capable of picking up conversations in chief of state bedrooms individual scents will be monitored and each one of us kept under constant computerized surveillance by the bit note that is Why concerned american Are joining with reformist russians and embarrassed israelis in recognizing that the time has come for a world espionage treaty wet. We Are rial naive. Gentlemen do not read each other s mail is not our motto. Wets elements Are realistic no nation shall Send an agent into another nation s embassy. Wiretapping shall be limited to of fice hours in the tapping country. No payment in excess of 110,000 shall be made in any one year to a National of another country Selling secrets no nation May have More than 300 agents in another country at any Lime. Blackmail shall not be permitted in the sub or Nalion of agents and sexual seducers must be blood tested by the penetrating Agency. As this idea gains the support of professional spies we can expect the usual Nitzsc picking from the world s secrets merchants. Some real obstacles Wise a limitation on numbers of agents in the Field would work a genuine hardship on the soviet Union and some Grandfather clauses would be needed to prevent a surge of unemployment. Obstructionists and cold warriors Are sure to say what about verification How do we know that some third world spy service with a Sierra hotel computer Hacker won t clean our mainframe clock on sue inspection is the answer an official mole in every Spoo Kery pledged to pass Back violations to Headquarters but not informed of the unofficial Mote watching him. Perhaps wet is Ait idea whose Lime has not yet come. But in the Rush to make treaties maybe we could slip it through. Why should spying be the Only form of International conflict without a cottage Indus try advocating arms control