CIA Caches Worry U.S. Diplomats -- Weapons, Perhaps Gold, Hidden At 80 Sites In Austria During Cold War

------------------------------------------------------------------ GOLD, GUNS AND GRENADES buried in secret locations in Europe: It sounds like the plot of a paperback novel. But it's the true story of weapons and gold caches hidden by CIA agents as long as 50 years ago. And the final chapter is just now unfolding. ------------------------------------------------------------------

WASHINGTON - More than 80 caches of U.S. weapons, hidden by CIA agents in Austria a half-century ago, are posing a problem for U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers.

The caches, containing machine guns, explosives, radio equipment and perhaps even gold, were part of a network of "stay-behind" supplies tucked away throughout Western Europe and intended to supply local guerrillas in the event of a Soviet invasion.

But no one told the Austrians they were there, administration officials say, raising concerns that the weapons could fall into the wrong hands - something that might have occurred in other Western European countries - or could harm people who stumble across them.

The caches, dating from the early years of the Cold War, are said to contain a wide assortment of weapons, from mortars and submachine guns to explosives and communications equipment. Officials are vague about the size of the caches, though one retired CIA officer, before denying any knowledge of the operation, remarked this would be "a lot of weapons."

One member of the current administration noted that the U.S. model for creating partisan units involved groups of up to 150 guerrillas. The weapons caches presumably would have been enough to supply at least that many people.

Local paramilitaries, many with World War II resistance backgrounds, were trained to use them. These have been a cause of intermittent scandal in Europe. In Italy, allegations have surfaced that the would-be guerrillas used their skills and perhaps their weapons to advance their political agenda.

The stay-behind organizations remained in existence in a number of European countries - among them Belgium, Germany and Switzerland - at least until 1990. Late that year an uproar over the Italian stay-behind group, code named Gladio, embarrassed NATO and triggered announcements in several other countries that the groups were being phased out.

The Austrian caches, however, appear to have rested undisturbed for 50 years. The U.S. government would now like to come clean to the Austrians. Officials from the State Department and the CIA are consulting on the best way of doing so. The CIA reportedly has the locations of the caches and would divulge them to the Austrians.

Asked about the Austrian caches, the Central Intelligence Agency declined comment; a spokesman said the affair was a diplomatic issue. The State Department had no immediate reaction.

The weapons-hiding operation goes back to the first years of the Cold War when Vienna, divided between the Western allies and Russia, was the main battleground of what Kim Philby later called "the silent war" between Western and Russian spies. It was the city of Graham Greene's "The Third Man," and of the Mozart Express, the U.S. military duty train that shuttled supplies, and sometimes spies, in and out of the country.

At that time, the U.S. government believed, the risk of Stalin ordering an invasion of Western Europe was real.

The CIA began to prepare for wide-scale partisan warfare, usually recruiting former members of the anti-Nazi resistance or people of firmly anti-communist credentials.

In Austria, officials say, the caches were dug during U.S. military exercises. Covered by the confusion and noise of maneuvers, CIA operatives would stash weapons and equipment.

Anthony Cave Brown, an author who has written extensively on intelligence matters, said one favored location for the stay-behind caches was Allied war cemeteries. Few locals would pay attention to people digging in a graveyard, and the cemeteries were often cared for by a retired serviceman.

Old CIA hands said many of the caches contained gold, either British sovereigns or French Napoleons, intended to finance the operation of stay-behind units.

At one point in the early 1950s, Cave Brown said, gold coins were hard to acquire in Europe. The CIA, he said, "appeared to have cornered the market." It's not clear whether the Austrian caches contain gold.

The caches and paramilitaries were maintained for many years, well after the danger of a surprise Soviet attack faded. A retired CIA operative who worked in Austria in the 1950s said recently that he had always been concerned by the prospect that the guns would be put to other uses.

The CIA man said that to his knowledge it had not happened in Austria. In other countries, however, suspicions persist that the weapons and the paramilitary training were put to illegal use.