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444 INTO THE THATCHER ERA
worked in 'A5', NSA's sensitive Soviet section. With a photographic
memory, Pelton proved even more disastrous to Western
code-breaking than Geoffrey Prime. At almost the same time
the Walker family, a whole group of spies working within US
naval intelligence and communications, was uncovered. Edward
Lee Howard, a CIA officer, was also revealed to be working for
the Russians. To cap it all, in November 1985 it was discovered
that Jonathan Pollard, a Mossad spy inside the Pentagon, had
been handing over very sensitive material to the Israelis. The
Americans had not yet uncovered the two best covert sources
employed by the Soviets, namely a CIA officer called Aldrich
Ames and an FBI officer, Robert Hanssen. 22 These frightening
cases of KGB espionage had a direct impact on the British, since
they made Bill Odom all the keener to see the polygraph
deployed by GCHQ at Cheltenham. 23
Alongside KGB espionage, the other big issue of the time was
relations between the Western sigint allies. In 1985 the United
States cut off the intelligence flow to New Zealand, one of the
'second party' members of UKUSA. Similarly to the 'cut-off'
that Kissinger had imposed on Britain in 1973, this was triggered
by wider defence issues, rather than sigint specifically.
New Zealand was sensitive about nuclear weapons, given that
the south-west Pacific had been used for many years by both
the Americans and the French as an atomic test zone. In 1985
David Lange's Labour government introduced a general ban on
ships carrying nuclear weapons entering New Zealand's
harbours. This effectively excluded many American naval vessels
which routinely carried nuclear depth charges. Washington was
keen to deter other countries from following a similar course -
perhaps creating a Pacific nuclear-free zone - and earmarked
New Zealand for exemplary punishment. Intelligence was the
chosen instrument. 24
A remarkable confrontation now occurred. Paul Cleveland,
the American Ambassador in Wellington, informed Lange that
henceforth his country would not be receiving NSA's precious