Felix Bloch (diplomatic officer)
| Felix Bloch | |
|---|---|
| Born |
19 July 1935 Vienna, Austria |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Former Director of European and Canadian Affairs in the United States Department of State |
Felix Bloch (born 19 July 1935) is a former director of European and Canadian Affairs in the United States Department of State. He is known for his connection to the Robert Hanssen espionage case.
Hanssen, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who was a spy for the Soviet Union and later Russia, reported to his KGB handlers about ongoing FBI investigations of Bloch and Reino Gikman in order to save them from possible arrest. Gikman escaped to Moscow and made a warning phone call to Bloch only later. The FBI intercepted this and other espionage-related phone calls, but was unable to collect enough evidence to charge Bloch with any crime. Bloch served a total of 32 years at the State Department.
In May 1989, Bloch had a dinner meeting in Paris with a man he says he knew as "Pierre Bart," a fellow stamp collector. Bloch at this time was stationed in Washington, D.C., but was one of the top European specialists in the State Department. The meeting occurred during an official visit by Bloch to France. "Bart" was a Soviet agent who lived in Paris and had previously lived in Vienna under the name Reino Gikman. Unbeknownst to Bloch, the entire meeting was closely watched by French counterintelligence agents. Surveillance showed that Bloch had taken a shoulder bag of unknown contents to the meeting, which Bloch left with "Bart" at the end of the dinner. Bloch would later state that the bag contained stamps which he left for Bart.
Bloch would later have a meeting with Gikman in Brussels, but the American authorities did not ask Belgian authorities to observe the meeting, in part because of fears the Belgian intelligence service was penetrated by the Soviets. The CIA observed parts of the meeting but could not determine if Bloch passed any documents to Gikman. Shortly afterward, the surveillance project came to an end: Bloch received a phone call from Gikman, taped by the FBI, alluding to an "illness" on Gikman's part and the expressed hope that Bloch did not receive the same thing. As this call came three weeks after their last meeting, it appeared highly unlikely the true subject of the call was a communicable ailment such as cold or flu. It would later emerge that the veracity of "Gikman's" claimed birth date and other identity details could not be verified. Gikman and Bloch were known to have lived in Vienna at about the same time, and American officials would come to suspect Gikman had been Bloch's handler. However there is no proof the two men met at that time.
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