The young woman accepted, not only because she was afraid, but also because she was still in love with her Karliczek, despite his recent revelations! As extraordinary as it may seem, Gaby did not blame him for using seduction in order to recruit her and the two lovers would later tie the knot. Here we have a young woman who was thrown to the wolves and not content with being chewed up by them, even decided to marry the very man who had abused her affections.
As far as the HVA were concerned, the recruitment of this brilliant, young political science student represented a form of investment and promised her a bright future. Indeed, on her return to West Germany, she was officially recruited as a research officer by the very intelligence agency that her thesis supervisor belonged to, the BND. Gast had to write summaries on East European countries for her bosses at the BND, as well as the West German government. To do this, she was provided with BND documents from its honourable correspondents or diplomatic personnel, which were naturally extremely confidential. Before being hired, the BND had investigated Gast, just as any other intelligence agency would have done. For some reason, the fact that she had stayed for such a long time in the GDR did not seem to pose any problems.
It goes without saying that thanks to their spy's continued collaboration with the HVA, the East Germans had a top-drawer source for information. However, they needed to develop a system that would allow her to keep in touch and be able to deliver this vital information to them. They decided they would send a couple of HVA agents into West Germany to act as couriers, who would then employ the standard espionage techniques in order to collect the information from Gast. As for the husband, Karliczek, Gast cut all ties with him after six months. From now on, they would only meet during gatherings organised under the upmost security by Markus Wolf himself, at holiday camps. Gaby met Wolf several times and the master German spy was clearly delighted by his agent's excellent work. He was attracted to by the personal and intellectual qualities of this young woman, and in a holiday mood, they chatted to each other easily.
Unfortunately, everything has to end and in September 1990, months after the fall of the Berlin Wall and when no longer working for the HVA, Gabriele Gast was arrested. The HVA had been dissolved and Markus Wolf had resigned five years earlier on the grounds that he did not share the same political beliefs as the more conservative leaders of his party. It was a former HVA agent who denounced Gast and she was apprehended when trying to cross the Austrian border, most likely in an attempt to join her husband.
She was tried for high treason, but even though she was sentenced to several years in prison, it was not long before she regained her freedom. Yet another inconsistency and one which questions the official version that Gast was a spy for the East.
Without denying at any point that Gast had liaised with communists, should we not first stress the importance of the services she rendered to the BND? Her meetings with Markus Wolf, for example, would she not have reported these to the BND? She was a spy for the West as well as for the East. After her release from prison, she maintained that she was nothing more than an agent for peace. The truth lies in the HVA archives. Strangely enough, one of the men officially responsible for clearing out these archives, and of course for clearing them up, was none other than Gottard Schramm: Gaby Gast's case officer and the best friend of her dear Karliczek! Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, everything had to be done to hide the extent of communist infiltration in West Germany, as well as the many secrets, including that of Gabriele Gast, who was either an eastern spy or a double agent for the West.
The most likely theory is that Gabriele Gast was manipulated by the BND: why else would her teacher send her to the GDR?
Christopher Andrew
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‘She needed to feel that I needed her, and would give her my personal attention’, Wolf was to write. ‘Sometimes her messages carried the hurt tone of a wounded mistress who now just felt like part of the furniture.’ Wolf met her personally seven times. Mutual respect was richly given. ‘Gaby did an impeccable job for us. She gave us an accurate representation of what the West knew and what they understood of the entire eastern bloc. This proved vital for us when we had to face the rise of the Solidarity movement in Poland, in the early 1990s.’
Chapter 15
Pham Xuan An: America’s False Friend
Pham Xuan An has never denied being a spy, but he is coquettish about it and does not like being labelled as one. Rather, he prefers to be called a ‘strategic intelligence agent'. Whatever the nuance used, this courteous, discreet and modest old man was nevertheless one of the most important spies of the last century. He was a Vietnamese patriot who, more than any other, played a key role in his country's destiny.
Pham Xuan An had for a long time worked as a journalist and correspondent for the western press. However, no one could have guessed that he was also the best agent in Hanoi and had transmitted information to North Vietnam that was so important that the fate of the Vietnam War was changed. In his twilight years, the former journalist jokingly acknowledges that he led a very compartmentalised existence. He told Jean-Claude Pomonti, the long-standing special envoy of the Monde newspaper and who also wrote a book about him, this summary of himself: ‘A journalist is always looking for news to publish, while a spy is looking for the same thing but to keep
