world. The CIA offered $1 million for a copy, but because the CPSU
Congress was so secret, it was impossible to get an agent inside. Ac-
cording to one version of the story, an Israeli Mossadagent was se-
cretly present at the meeting and obtained a copy of Khrushchev’s
speech. Another version credits Victor Gregevsky, a young Jewish
journalist in the Polish news agency. Forty years later, Gregevsky in
an interview on Israeli television told the story of how he had ob-
tained the speech.
Gregevsky had believed deeply in Marxism until he lost faith when
he learned of Stalin’s totalitarianism in the early 1950s. His family
had immigrated to Israel and he considered following them, but he
decided to wait for a while. Soon after the CPSU congress,
Gregevsky met Lucia Brenovsky, who had a senior job in the Warsaw
branch of the Communist party and became her friend. During a visit
to her office, Gregevsky noticed on her desk a 58-page copy of
Khrushchev’s speech. He asked her if he could borrow it, and she
agreed. After photocopying the pages, Gregevsky returned the origi-
nal to her. He examined its details and decided to hand the copy of
Khrushchev’s speech over to the Israeli embassy in Warsaw. It was
sent in a diplomatic bag to Israel, where it caught the attention of Is-
raeli leaders, who sensed that providing the West with a copy of the
speech could potentially promote the value of Israeli intelligence in
the CIA’s eyes. On receiving the document, the CIA at first suspected
a fraud. But within a few days, its value was grasped and the speech
was circulated over all the Western media, causing massive embar-
rassment to the Soviet Union.KIDON.See MOSSAD; WRATH OF GOD OPERATION.KILOWATT GROUP.International cooperation between intelligence
services is by default bilateral, but close coordination in and around
Europe is achieved informally through the so-called Bern Club,
formed in 1971. “Kilowatt” is the codename of the International
Counterterrorist Intelligence Network. This group was formed in
1977 at the instigation of Israel and largely in response to the 1972
Munich massacreof Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games. The pur-
pose of the Kilowatt Group was to ensure the free flow of intelligence
about terroristgroups and political extremists through a secure telex
clearinghouse network.KILOWATT GROUP• 14506-102 (03) H-P.qxd 3/24/06 7:24 AM Page 145