The Kgb Could Take Lessons

By Janice Castro

Moles are recruited. Agents seduce the enemy to gain access to secrets. Sound like the cold war? In FRIENDLY SPIES, which will be released this week, author Peter Schweizer richly details how the companies and governments of such U.S. allies as South Korea, Japan, Canada, Germany and France are engaged in intensive espionage against American firms. The Japanese space agency, for example, uses U.S.-based lawyers and employees to pepper nasa with Freedom of Information requests on rocketry and the space shuttle on behalf of Japanese firms. A French spy is caught planting moles at IBM and Texas Instruments. U.S. intelligence officials, divided on how an open society can fight back, are anxiously awaiting guidance from the Clinton Administration.