KGB, Information Nr. 2742 [to Bulgarian State Security]

Approved [Handwritten]

Information Nr. 2742

In 1972, the International Convention on the Prohibition of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons was concluded, among whose parties was the United States. However, according to the world and even the American press, the USA is continuing secret work to develop bacteriological (biological) weapons in violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol and this UN convention. Particularly the right-wing groups in the Reagan Administration and in the Pentagon are promoting bacteriological weapons produced on the basis of new technologies, including gene technology. At the same time, the USA, participating in the Geneva negotiations to conclude a convention on the complete and total prohibition of chemical weapons and the elimination of its stockpiles and adopting a "stagnant" position there, has practically begun the mass production of binary chemical weapons, although this may threaten the success of the negotiations and the conclusion of a convention.

All this creates the possibility and makes it necessary for us to implement active measures with the participation of the friends [i. e., Bulgarian State Security – DS] with regard to a whole range of issues connected to the chemical and bacteriological rearmament of the USA, as well as its NATO allies. For example, the USA, according to numerous sources, is using the territory of Turkey for the storage of its chemical weapons.

In this regard, it seems expedient to exploit the possibilities of the friends to promote materials that expose the chemical weapons race of the USA and its allies, including Turkey, especially with regard to the deployment of American chemical weapons on its territory. It is also desirable to reach an agreement in some cases regarding the use of their [i. e., the friends’ – DS] materials for the preparation of appropriate active measures.

In the past, our activities in this area have had a good effect and pressured the enemy to react.

The AIDS issue

A complex of [active] measures regarding this issue has been carried out since 1985 in cooperation with the [East] German and to some extent the Czech colleagues. In the initial stage, the task was resolved of spreading in the mass media the version regarding the artificial origin of the AIDS virus and the Pentagon’s involvement in by means of the military-biological laboratory at Fort Detrick.

As a result of our joint efforts, it was possible to widely disseminate this version. Independent of us, it was picked up by a number of bourgeois newspapers, in particular, the English “Sunday Express,” which gave it additional credibility and authority. The articles and brochures of Jacob Segal, a professor at the Humboldt Institute at a Berlin university [sic]^[1], attained great renown. The aforementioned version gained considerable resonance in African countries, which have persistently rejected as racist the theory propagated by the Americans that the AIDS virus originated in African green monkeys.

We are currently resolving the task of bringing the [active] measures down to a more practical level, and in particular, to attain specific political results by exploiting the “laboratory version” for AM [active measures] on other issues. So, efforts are being made to intensify anti-base sentiments in countries where American forces are deployed by using slogans suggesting that U.S. soldiers are the most dangerous carriers of the virus. By demonstrating the defeat of the “African version” [of AIDS’ origins], we can whip up anti-American sentiments throughout the states of the continent. Public attention has been focused on the dangerous prospects of a biological arms race and the necessity of placing research in the fields of biotechnology and genetic engineering under rigorous international control.

Given that operational information has recently come to light regarding the possible actual involvement of the USA in the origins of the AIDS pandemic, a scientific argumentation is being prepared for new accusations against the USA in order to force them to admit their guilt.

It seems that Bulgarian friends could make a certain contribution to these AM. In particular, it would be expedient to discuss the prospects for using the possibilities of the friends in Turkish communities and their channels of access to the Turkish public and political circles in order to activate anti-American, anti-base sentiments in this country.

Work on the topic of biological and chemical weapons.

This line [of work – DS] does not have the same priority as the one described above. At the same time, informational guidance is being prepared and communicated to Western politicians and public figures in order to draw attention to the problem of CBW [chemical and biological weapons] and to strengthen statements calling for a more rapid conclusion of an international convention prohibiting chemical weapons. In parallel, the task is being solved of exercising a positive influence upon the Geneva negotiations regarding this issue.

The main areas of work in the military-political field are [as follows]:

1.  Assisting the policy of the USSR in the field of military détente.

2.  Unmasking the military threat from the USA with regard to other states of the “Third World.”

3. Exposing the aggressive nature of NATO, the concrete plans and activities of this bloc.

With the goal of affirming in public opinion abroad that the implementation of the “Strategic Defense Initiative” represents a qualitatively new increase in the American military threat, and that Washington’s declarations regarding the defensive character of the SDI are a deliberate deception, we are implementing a series of measures including documentary actions, the promotion of solid argumentation and informational guidance among leading and politically influential circles in the West, the inspiration of statements in the mass media, etc. So, we have the idea that the true goals of the Star Wars program are to provide the USA with political, military and technological advantages over the rest of the world, to create conditions for the further growth of profits for the American military-industrial complex.

Considering the ambiguous assessment of the West Europeans with regard to SDI and their fears of being left defenseless, we have been providing representatives of influential circles in Western Europe with materials confirming that SDI is part of the USA’s aggressive military doctrine, which envisages a buildup of military potential both through the modernization of nuclear weapons and through the creation of space-strike weapons. The inevitable consequence of such a course by Washington is the destabilization of the military-political situation in the world, [and] the approach of the danger of nuclear war.

A special place in our work has been given to the catastrophic military-political, socioeconomic and other consequences arising from the implementation of SDI. Arguments and calculations are being promoted in Western scientific circles demonstrating that errors and failures in a complex computer system that is supposed to control space-based ABM [anti-ballistic missile] defenses are more likely to lead to an unauthorized nuclear conflict. Analytical materials of a scientific nature are being disseminated in support of the thesis regarding the "plutonium blanket" (contamination of the atmosphere and the earth's surface with highly toxic plutonium as a result of the destruction of nuclear warheads by ABM devices).

^[1] Translator’s note: Should be the Humboldt University of Berlin.