intelligence related to Great Britain. Married to a Japanese woman,
he was also an important source of information during his posting
in Tokyo. It was not until after the fall of the Berlin Wall that an
ex-HVA officer, Werner Roitzsch, revealed Blau’s double iden-
tity to authorities. On 15 November 1990, he received a six-year
prison term.BLAUMEISE. A clandestine relationship that the West German
Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) established with the Israeli
Mossad, Operation blaumeise (Bluetit) began at the initiative of Rein-
hard Gehlen in 1957, eight years prior to official diplomatic ties
between the two countries. Despite the large number of former Third
Reich officials engaged by the BND, Mossad head Isser Harel be-
lieved that Israel’s security requirements outweighed any emotional
or moralistic considerations. At the same time, the BND realized that
the huge influx of immigrants from the Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe into Israel could aid in the quest for information about the
military activities of the Warsaw Pact, especially after having lost
so much of its network due to Heinz Felfe. Some U.S. intelligence
officials thought that incriminating evidence about ex-Nazis in the
West German government was being suppressed by Mossad in return
for favored treatment by the BND.
The BND liaison was Wolfgang Langkau, a confidant of Ge-
hlen, while Shlomo Cohen, the chief of station in Paris, represented
the Mossad, succeeded later by David Kimche. Mossad proceeded
cautiously at first and tested the BND to ascertain whether other
East bloc penetrations had occurred. According to Markus Wolf of
the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, however, the Israeli services
remained completely impervious to his efforts. Gehlen granted the
Israelis operational freedom on West German soil as well as excerpts
from his agency’s daily briefings to the Chancellor’s Office, while
BND officers soon became frequent visitors to Tel Aviv. This inti-
mate cooperation between the two services continued under Harel’s
successor, Meir Amit, and achieved special significance in matters
of counterintelligence, radio surveillance, and laser technology. To
help track members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in
Europe, Mossad also maintained close contact with the Bundesamt
für Verfassungsschutz.
BLAUMEISE • 41