US Army Intelligence gathering in the unified Germany (160)

Cold War Conversations

We continue the story of Bill, a US Army Intelligence Analyst with Combined Analysis Detachment-Berlin (CAD-B) from episode 127. Germany has now been re-unified and Russian troops have withdrawn from East Germany. Bill tells us of the little known story of continued US Army involvement in intelligence gathering alongside the German security services, the BND.

We hear about "Operation Giraffe", described as the largest intelligence service procurement campaign of the West since the end of World War II, how Russian sources recruited during the Cold War were managed and, how Britain’s MI6 was cut out of receiving the information they had received freely during the Cold War.

Bill tells us of a joint BND/CIA mission to monitor the disposal of Russian nuclear weapons.

It’s a fascinating look into the murky world of human intelligence gathering, corruption, and rivalry in the immediate post Cold War period.

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I am delighted to welcome Bill to our Cold War conversation…

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0:00 Introduction and Overview of the Episode

1:50 Sponsor: Patreon and How to Support the Podcast

3:30 Bill's Story of Intelligence Gathering and Shift in Work Post Cold War

9:00 Fear of Soviet Agents within BND and Discussion on Rosenholz Files

14:11 CIA and BND's Joint Mission and Tracking Movement of nuclear warheads out of East Germany

18:52 Cooperation with the CIA, Role of Aldrich Ames, and Friction over Source Management

24:04 Potential Risks of Espionage and the Downsizing of the Unit

28:46 Arrest of BND Team Members for Espionage and the Subsequent Trial

33:38 Bill's Visit to Zossen-Wünsdorf, Former Soviet Forces Headquarters in Germany

38:33 Bill's Aspiration to Write a Book about CAD B and the Organization Post the Allied Missions

40:02 Sponsor: Acknowledgment of Sponsors and How to Support the Podcast

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