BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/03/2008

Temporary US embassy head in Minsk denies accusations of diplomats spying against Belarus

The Charge d'Affaires ad interim of the United States of America in Belarus, Jonathan Moore, has denied accusations of spying leveled against the embassy's officers, online edition of the daily Belarusky naviny reports.

"We have no spies operating in Belarus," Moore announced in an interview with the BelaPAN news agency.

The Belarus government-controlled First National TV Channel reported on March 23 that a US spy ring had been revealed in Minsk; the report named two American embassy officers, Bernard Nixon and Curt Finley, allegedly involved in the spying ring.

Jonathan Moore said in the interview that the mentioned diplomats were part of the embassy's security service and had contacts with the Belarussian police as part of their duties. He stressed that Bernard Nixon had left Belarus last July and Curt Finley was expected to leave the country this week. The diplomat said that the two were not FBI officers. FBI officers who work with US embassies abroad hold the position of legal attache, however, the embassy in Minsk has no such position, he explained. A legal attache for this region works in Kiev, he visited Minsk, had meetings including those with representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. So, the Belarusian authorities are well informed about the real state of things. Jonathan Moore said that the US embassy had provided a list of all Belarussians working with the embassy to the country's foreign ministry. - There is no secret and no conspiracies, - the US Charge d'Affaires marked.

Online paper Belarusky partisan adds that it was not the first time when Belarus state TV has revealed alleged intelligence activity of Americans. On February 28, 2001 the program Resonance told about activity in Belarus of the US CIA agents under diplomatic covering of the US embassy. KGB operative shootings made in 1996-98 and 2000 were showed. It was said that diplomats-spies actively participated in mass actions of opposition and were engaged in recruitment of its young activists. One of the diplomats described in the TV program was Serzh Alexanders who was expelled from Belarus in 1997.

Source:

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1518

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