Socrates Kokkalis and the STASI

20 January 2002. Thanks to PP.

These two articles were provided in response to request for information on Socrates Kokkalis in this file:

http://cryptome.org/kokkalis-rfi.htm

Author and date of the English articles not provided.

Original .DOC format document: http://cryptome.org/kokkalis-stasi1.doc (1.6MB)

A Cold War-era mystery, that surrounding the life of the prominent Greek businessman Socrates Kokkalis, president of Intracom S.A. (a leading telecommunications and electronics firm in the Mediterranean) and soccer team Olympiakos, has been solved by the reliable news magazine Anti.

Anti shows in its two last issues (Nr 705 of 4 February 2000 and Nr 706 of 18 February 2000) secret documents from former East German (DDR) secret service MfS or "Stasi", which confirm that Socrates Kokkalis was a Stasi secret agent. The "Gkaouk Service", or "BstU", the German Federal Bureau, which is entrusted by the government with the preservation and indexing of Stasi files, ascertained the authenticity of the facts concerning the Kokkalis activities as a Stasi secret agent.

Son of a cabinet minister of the "democratic government" during Greek Civil War (1945-49) and worthy scientist Petros Kokkalis, Socrates joined his family as refugees after the end of Civil War, who after living in Romania for a brief time settled permantly in East Germany. Professor Petros Kokkalis was soon accepted by the ruling class of East Germany, and became personal physician to the Walter Ulbricht, the country’s leader.

The young Socrates traveled regularly to West Berlin, due to the permits that his family name guaranteed and returned with his car filled with "goodies" (whisky, gin, perfumes, etc.). At a certain point during his travels the Stasi seized him, confiscating his car and all the smuggled goods. Stasi took advantage of the incident and sent Lieutenant Karl Haids Detzer to contact Socrates in order to recruit him.

Detzer met with Socrates Kokkalis on 25.1.1963. After the meeting S. Kokkalis was recruited to Stasi and was assigned to division XV under the code name "Rocco" and code name number "953/63" (See Document 1). His Stasi file bears the code identification "MfS XV 953/63/" . He received for his services, depending on the circumstances, between 50, 100 and 200 marks (See Document in Anti, Nr 705, page 22).

The fact that Kokkalis was hiding behind the pseudonym "Rocco" was established by the Berlin’s District Attorney – magistrate Berhard Broher, in January 1997.Broher added that during the critical decade of the 80s, the "warming collaboration" Kokkalis – Stasi reached another level.

Socrates Kokkalis settled permanently in Athens in 1965, and after a short time began appearing as the representative of East German companies RFT and Elektrotechnik. Today these names appear on a list of companies that channeled in capital from abroad. In the mid-70s, S. Kokkalis established, in partnership with East Germans the Integra Company and a little later he established Intracom in its place.

In August 1992, the German magazine Capital disclosed that Socrates Kokkalis "went to Greece after Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski ordered him to establish Intracom." Golodkowski was a leading personality of KO KO (Kommerzielle Koordinierung) and Komplexprogramm 2000, which had the aim to fill the technology gap between East and West countries, after embargo. In November 1996, Uve Smidt, officer of the special police task force ZERV-1 (in Berlin) said, testifying before a special German Parliament committee, that German authorities were investigating the possibility that Intracom belonged to East Germany. He added that German authorities sere also investigating the links between Kokkalis and the activities of Golodkowski, who was prosecuted for deception and defalcation of East German assets.

As Hagen Fleisher, history professor at Athens University writes, following the Andreas Papandreou party PASOK's rise to power in October 1981 «the already good relations between two countries that belonged to a competing coalition, Greece and East Germany (DDR) became warm». A series of events indicate that the decisive turn in Greece-DDR relations was noted in 1984. Socrates Kokkalis, who in meantime had been upgraded from "Rocco" to an important operational agent under the code name Kaskadeur, is shown to have played a determinative role in the upgrade of relations between Greece and DDR. The respective operational infiltration into Greece and NATO had assumed the code name Operation Kaskade (See Anti page 23). Fleisher again writes that Papandreou’s Greece was considered "the weakest link in the Atlantic Alliance" for Honecker’s East Germany.

On 9.2.1996, J. Papier, president of the "Unabhangige Kommission zur Uberprufung des Vermogens der Parteien der DDR" based in Berlin, spoke publicly for the first time of an "Operation Kaskade" which concerned the relationship of East Germany with Socrates Kokkalis and the then Papandreou government in Greece.

A report in the Stasi files, signed by Major Koch, refers to the fact that the Operation Kaskade’s goal was the infiltration into the Greek political leadership so as to obtain secret information not only regarding Greece and its defense, but also chiefly regarding NATO and the USA. Another goal was to violate the embargo and to channel the forbidden western technology to DDR by means of Intracom.

The Kokkalis – Kaskadeur mission is clarified in the wording of another Stasi document, dated 18.12.85 (See Document 2). The document's title is "Conclusions on DDR political security during 1985" and it concerns the annual report of the XVIII/8 division, where Kokkalis belonged. Amongst other things, the document states that during the collaboration between divisions HA/III (the Stasi division concerned with foreign espionage) with Kokkalis were utilized the Kokkalis close relationship with the top Greek leadership and the Greek secret services.

Doc 1.1

Document 1

Document 2

Anti, number 705 page 20

Anti, number 705 page 21

Anti number 705 page 22

Anti number 705 page 23

Second article provided. While much of this article duplicates the one above, there are additional text and images.

Original .DOC format document: http://cryptome.org/kokkalis-stasi2.doc (347KB)

Stasi, headquarters, Anti Nr 706 p. 28

The reliable Greek investigation magazine Anti published in last issues secret documents from former East German secret service MfS or "Stasi", which confirm that the well-known Socrates Kokkalis was a Stasi secret agent. "BstU", the German Federal Bureau, which is entrusted by the government with the preservation and indexing of Stasi files, ascertained the authenticity of the facts concerning the Kokkalis activities as a Stasi secret agent.

Son of a cabinet minister of the "democratic government" during Greek Civil War (1945-49) and worthy scientist Petros Kokkalis, Socrates joined his family as refugees after the end of Civil War, who settled in East Germany. Professor Petros Kokkalis was soon accepted by the ruling class of East Germany, and became personal physician to the Walter Ulbricht, the country’s leader.

Detzer met with Socrates Kokkalis on 25.1.1963. After the meeting S. Kokkalis was recruited to Stasi and was assigned to division XV under the code name "Rocco" and code name number "953/63". His Stasi file bears the code identification "MfS XV 953/63/" . He received for his services, depending on the circumstances, between 50, 100 and 200 marks (See Document in Anti, Nr 705, page 22).

Socrates Kokkalis settled permanently in Athens in 1965, and after a short time began appearing as the representative of East German companies RFT and Elektrotechnik. Today these names appear on a list of companies that channeled in capital from abroad. In the mid-70s, S. Kokkalis established, in partnership with East Germans, the Integra Company, and a little later he established Intracom in its place.

In August 1992, the German magazine Capital disclosed that Socrates Kokkalis "went to Greece after Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski ordered him to establish Intracom." Golodkowski was a leading personality of KO KO (Kommerzielle Koordinierung) and Komplexprogramm 2000, which had the aim to fill the technology gap between East and West countries, after embargo. In November 1996, Uve Smidt, officer of the special police task force ZERV-1 (in Berlin) said, testifying before a special German Parliament committee, that German authorities were investigating the possibility that Intracom belonged to East Germany. He added that German authorities were also investigating the links between Kokkalis and the activities of Golodkowski, who was prosecuted for deception and defalcation of East German assets.

As Hagen Fleisher, history professor at Athens University writes, following the Andreas Papandcreou party PASOK's rise to power in October 1981 «the already good relations between two countries that belonged to a competing coalition, Greece and East Germany (DDR) became warm». A series of events indicate that the decisive turn in Greece-DDR relations was noted in 1984. Socrates Kokkalis, who in meantime had been upgraded from "Rocco" to an important operational agent under the code name Kaskadeur, is shown to have played a determinative role in the upgrade of relations between Greece and DDR. The respective operational infiltration into Greece and NATO had assumed the code name Operation Kaskade. Fleisher again writes that Papandreou’s Greece was considered "the weakest link in the Atlantic Alliance" for Honecker’s East Germany.

On 9.2.1996 J. Papier, president of the "Unabhangige Kommission zur Uberprufung des Vermogens der Parteien der DDR" based in Berlin, spoke publicly for the first time of an "Operation Kaskade" which concerned the relationship of East Germany with Socrates Kokkalis and the then Papandreou government in Greece.

The Kokkalis-Kaskadeur mission is clarified in the wording of another Stasi document, dated 18.12.85 (See document 2). The document's title is "Conclusions on DDR political security during 1985" and it concerns the annual report of the XVIII/8 division, where Kokkalis belonged. Amongst other things, the document states that during the collaboration between divisions HA/III (the Stasi division concerned with foreign espionage) with Kokkalis were utilized the Kokkalis close relationship with the top Greek leadership and the Greek secret services.

According the documents released by Anti, Stasi supervisors praised Kokkalis because he successfully infiltrated Greek political leadership and he had very close relations with Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and other leading Greek politicians. One of these documents outlines a proposal of Dr. Beil, in chief of East German external commerce ministry (Ministerium fur Aubenwritschaft) to bribe Papandreou party, PASOK, "with the 2% of all the contracts" between Intracom and Greek government

Today INTRACOM participates in the design and the development of defense systems as well as management and control systems of NATO. In May 1998, INTRACOM signed with the National Defense Ministry of Greece an important contract to modernize the Hellenic Armed Forces’ battle communications.

After Anti revelations, New Democracy deputy Mr.Panos Kammenos asked Greek Defense Minister to investigate S. Kokkalis relation's with Stasi, because "S. Kokkalis is a key supplier of the Greek Armed Forces and also because he has close relations with Greek Prime Minister" (see Kameno’s statement in Parliament, 23 February 2000).

Mr. Kokkalis is also the benefactor of "The Kokkalis Program on Southeastern and East-Central Europe at the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University." The program was established in September 1997 "with the aim of building bridges - networks for peace - across Southeastern and East-Central Europe and between the region and the rest of the world" and "to support the transition to democracy now under way in the Balkans» (see http://ksgwww.harvard.edu/kennedy.shtml).

US Ambassador in Athens, Nicolas Burns, is cordial supporter of former Stasi agent S. Kokkalis' activities in United States.

From Anti nr 708, page 32