American

In John le Carre's fictional world of spy vs. spy, the good spooks outfox the bad spooks by dealing in deceit and deception. In the real world of counterespionage, the FBI is taking a much more candid approach. This month it began running an unusual help-wanted ad in a Russian-language newspaper in New York City to make a very public plea: anyone having "direct knowledge of KGB methods or operations" should call or write the nearest FBI office. The ad provides telephone numbers, including that of a counterintelligence section conveniently manned by Russian-speaking agents.

The appeal is directed at the roughly 200,000 Soviet citizens who have immigrated to the U.S. since 1975, many of whom live in the New York area. The purpose of the ads, says FBI spokesman Milt Ahlerich, is the "identification of hostile intelligence activities." That includes the detection of approaches made to Soviet emigres by KGB agents. But couldn't the callers deliberately feed disinformation to the FBI? "That could happen," concedes Ahlerich. "We're prepared to address the problem." Despite the FBI's new glasnost, Ahlerich would not even hint at what respondents to the ad have been telling the bureau.