Colleagues and friends of Felix Bloch, a senior U.S. diplomat suspended from his post for suspected espionage activities, expressed surprise Saturday over his alleged dealings with Soviet agents.
In Vienna, Austrian Foreign Minister Alois Mock said he learned of the investigation into Bloch's alleged Soviet contacts three weeks ago through "Austrian channels," the Austrian newspaper Kurier reported in its early Sunday editions.Mock said he was "deeply shaken" by news that his former classmate had come under official investigation and stressed that he always was "very careful" not to divulge secret or sensitive information to his close friend.
The foreign minister said it was "unimaginable" he had unknowingly passed secrets to the Austrian-born career diplomat.
Bloch, 54, a 30-year career U.S. diplomat, allegedly passed a briefcase to a Soviet contact in Vienna while the incident was videotaped by agents who had him under surveillance, ABC News reported Friday night.
The network did not say when the alleged incident took place but reported that Bloch had his first known contact with the Soviet Union three years ago.
State Department sources who asked not to be identified confirmed that a compromise of security had occurred and said Bloch's identification as a Soviet contact was a devastating setback for the foreign service.
The FBI, which is in charge of counterintelligence operations, identified Bloch as having unauthorized contacts with the Soviet Union, the State Department said. The department, in confirming the FBI charges, did not say Bloch was under arrest.
His whereabouts were not immediately known.
Bloch, who until 1987 was deputy chief of the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, was suspended from his duties in the State Department's bureau of European affairs because of alleged unauthorized dealings with Soviet agents, department officials said.
Mock suggested Bloch may have been tempted into espionage over his anger at being overlooked for an ambassadorship.
"In a long political career some people cannot resist the temptation" to spy, Mock said, describing his longtime friend as an "overambitious career diplomat who had suffered under politically appointed ambassadors and never himself became ambassador."
In New York, mayoral candidate Ronald Lauder, who became ambassador to Austria in April 1986, said he sent Bloch home in July of 1987 because of insubordination but added that he never suspected the diplomat of spying.
Bloch, who had served several ambassadors before Lauder, had served as charge d'affaires for six years in the Austrian Embassy.
"He had been promoted to the number two slot (deputy chief of mission) prior to my arrival," Lauder told reporters outside a restaurant where he was meeting with Irish-American community leaders.
"I grew increasingly dissatisfied with Mr. Bloch's performance," Lauder said.
Lauder accused Bloch of "going around" him and directly contacting the Austrian foreign ministry.
"I thought he was a poor member of the staff, so I got rid of him. If I thought he was a spy, I would have had him arrested," Lauder said.
Lauder said, however, that he was surprised by the investigation of Bloch and didn't know anything about it until last night. He said he had not been contacted by the FBI but has talked to the State Deptartment and agreed to keep those conversations confidential.
"I had no indication he was involved with spying," Lauder said in noting that Bloch has not been charged with spying.
The investigation took colleagues and friends in Vienna by suprise.
"He's the last person you would suspect of spying for the Soviet Union," one source in Vienna said. "This is a shock not so much because he could have been involved, but because it was someone you got along with well."
One diplomatic source in Vienna called Bloch "a very serious, very professional man."
"You would go through the fire for him," he said.
Bloch was born in Vienna, joined the State Department in 1958 and served in his home town several times as well as in Berlin. He speaks fluent English and German and a smattering of French.
Bloch is married with children. His wife Lucille is the secretary-general of the Austrian Foundation in New York.
The FBI's apparent delay in charging Bloch and the case's subsequent leak to the media suggest investigators could be facing difficulties in accumulating credible evidence, said Maurice East, dean of international affairs at George Washington University.
"It could mean it's not terribly serious a case. But it could also mean they are handling the case in a manner where they don't have to clap him in irons and march him away. They have means of keeping people out of circulation," East said.
In the past four years, the FBI has charged 16 people with spying for foreign governments, according to a Washington Post tally.