FBI Wiretaps on Bloch Legal, Judge Rules
The State Department won court permission Friday to use electronic surveillance of suspected spy Felix S. Bloch in proceedings to dismiss the veteran diplomat.
U.S. District Judge Stanley S. Harris ruled that the FBI’s electronic surveillances of Bloch had complied with Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requirements.
Harris rejected Bloch’s attempt to prevent the State Department from using two conversations and an excerpt from a third as evidence in proceedings to fire the suspended diplomat from the Foreign Service.
The FBI has said that it suspects Bloch of selling secrets to the Soviet Union while he was posted in Europe. However, he has never been charged with espionage.
The State Department placed Bloch on administrative leave last June and in February initiated efforts to fire him. The 30-year Foreign Service veteran, who served as a high-ranking official in the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, is challenging his dismissal.
Papers unsealed in U.S. District Court indicate that Bloch’s apartment, telephone and car have been under electronic surveillance for as long as two years.
Harris denied a request by Bloch’s attorneys to obtain tapes and transcripts of all the conversations recorded by the FBI. Defense lawyers have been told the contents of two conversations and part of a third that the State Department plans to use as evidence.
Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh signed an affidavit opposing the release of any further surveillance information, citing national security.
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