To: Wayners who wrote (647129 ) 10/18/2004 2:29:04 PM From: Lazarus_Long Read Replies (1) | Respond to So you cite activities of Japanese agents in China as applying to the US? The Germans made use of Nazi parties and agents in Austria and eastern Europe to aid their conquest. Why doesn't that count just as much?As early as 1936 Korvetten-Kapitaen Pheiffer, a veteran of the German Navy of World War I, who had returned to active duty as an Abwehr officer in 1935, was collecting information from the United States of interest to the German High Command. Pheiffer was in charge of the naval section of Nest Bremen and as such in a position to establish close contacts with the extensive German shipping interests centered in that port. At first he worked through the "Aussenhandelstelle," or foreign trade office, where all German businessmen going overseas were registered, interviewing returning travelers on their return for any interesting observations they might have made, especially in foreign ports. From, these casual contacts Pheiffer subsequently recruited agents for the express purpose of seeking information abroad. At the same time he was enlisting the assistance of officers of the Merchant Marine both in reporting their own observations and seeking information from contacts in foreign ports whose reports they would turn over to Pheiffer. The latter has stated the German intelligence files had become so out of date during the 1920s and early 1930s that when the period of rearmament began it was necessary to seek information of all types from abroad–much of it by no means secret–in order to compile up-to-date data. Nevertheless, Pheiffer was particularly interested in new technical developments in the fields of ship design, armament, and special equipment. history.navy.mil
