-Caveat Lector- SSUE 1577 Sunday 19 September 1999 Electronic Telegraph CND chief was Stasi secret agent By Andrew Alderson and David Bamber Professor Victor Allen A UNIVERSITY professor who was on the national council of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was a communist agent, The Telegraph reveals today. Vic Allen, a retired professor of economics at Leeds University, passed confidential information about CND to East German intelligence officers and manipulated the peace movement into taking a Soviet-friendly line. According to secret files compiled by the Stasi, the East German secret police, Mr Allen provided information on CND leaders and activists for several years during the Eighties and visited the East German Embassy in London. In 1985, he unsuccessfully attempted to succeed Joan Ruddock as the chairman of CND, which then had 400,000 members. The Telegraph has learnt that MI5 had a file on Mr Allen, 77, but it is not known if the security service was fully aware of his activities. He has admitted being an informer but denies betraying his country, acting illegally or receiving payments. He said: "I feel no regrets." Security experts said Mr Allen, who lives in Keighley, West Yorks, would have been regarded as an "agent of influence" by the Stasi. He is the fourth Communist asset to be unmasked within the past nine days - causing embarrassment to the security services and the Government. Robin Pearson, a lecturer at Hull University, was named as a Stasi spy on Friday. The Home Office said yesterday that although he was interviewed by MI5 in 1994, it was decided not to prosecute him as there was no "usable evidence". Yesterday, Ann Widdecombe, the shadow home secretary, demanded that the Government disclose details of all alleged communist spies. She said: "What I want Jack Straw to do is to stop what is now happening, which is that we are only finding out about these things through press revelations." CND, formed in 1958, said it was "appalling and disgusting" that Mr Allen fed information on its members to the East Germans. A spokesman said: "It is deeply concerning that anybody should be passing on information on our members. We were used to being targeted by MI5 and the Ministry of Defence, but now we find that former Soviet states were after information on us." Mr Allen, who packed CND meetings with Soviet sympathisers, aimed to promote Moscow's unilateral cause within the organisation, urging that Britain alone disarm its nuclear weapons. Rival factions wanted the Kremlin to disarm too. In an interview with BBC2's The Spying Game to be broadcast next month, Mr Allen admits that he provided information to East Germany. He said: "It was perfectly legitimate that I should do that as the faction I belonged to was the pro-Soviet faction, the pro-GDR faction . . . I have no shame. I feel no regrets about that at all. My only regret is that we didn't succeed and in the end we lost our influence in CND." A senior adviser to the Home Secretary said Mr Straw would not agree to Miss Widdecombe's demand to issue a list of names of those suspected of treachery. He said: "Hundreds of people have been investigated over the years and it would bring their identities into the public domain. We don't know who the press is going to name DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
