Informed Sources

Yugo-Slaves of the State Department

Washington -- At the State Department, the unhappy souls in the Eastern European Bureau who are assigned to work on Bosnia are nicknamed "Yugo- slaves." So far, three have quit in the past year out of frustration with U.S. policies. The department's embarrassed high command recently held a meeting to head off any more defections. The solution is to at least reduce the physical discomfort involved in standing by at Foggy Bottom while genocide is committed in the Balkans: the Yugo-slaves will get better lighting and more space.

Clinton's Expensive Seawolf Promise

Washington -- The Seawolf attack submarine is built in Connecticut, and during last year's Connecticut primary, candidate Clinton promised to support a third Seawolf. Last week in his major Bottom Up review of military requirements, Defense Secretary Les Aspin reaffirmed the Administration's plans to build that submarine. The unmentioned price: $5.5 billion -- more than five times initial estimates. That is one reason why Clinton must renege on $13 billion of the $124 billion he planned to cut from the Pentagon's budget over the next five years.

Rent-A-Spy

Paris -- French counterintelligence sources say a high-ranking former KGB officer has been traveling through Europe offering, for a price, to set up private intelligence networks for anyone who can pay. Experts say the number of out-of-work spies shopping their skills is growing. "((Before)) we just had to worry about official services. Now we have to keep up with dozens of new outfits," says one French agent.