KGB SPYING IN BAY AREA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600080053-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2004
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: May 20, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

preciaitously in-the past few
Somewhere between 14 and. 27
the consulate's 42 employees are,
w believed by American officials
best intelligence outfit
Among their 'activities, they
e using electronic monitoring,.
long-distance -telephone calls
de by private citizens in the Bay
ngress and the Carter adminis-
tion have told The Chronicle.
The interception.and?recording
phone calls relayed by. micro-
ve which constitute the bulk _
U.S. long-tistance traffic, -~-
rtedly are also being conduct-
at the Soviet embassy in Wash.
ton and a field office in New
"We discovered"several years
that they had this capability,
we did not fully realize the
nitude- of what was going on
some time," said a White House'
cial who, like many other U.S.
emment sources interviewed,
It also appears' that U.S. elec-
tronics intelligence experts moni-
toring the Russians can. themselves
conduct massive eavesdropping on
private American citizens at the.
same time.
i$ tnonitOrlnd w a @ ~cez~nc are
hearino-" sairi a
' `1kpprove!l For Re
-- Y I r'E ED SAN FRANCISCO CCRRO? ICL
r--t-Approved For Release M4Y1A7t7t 7 lA-RDP81 MOO
By. William 1loore
1 iew ed from the outside, the*:
even-story brick building ' that.
he very picture of detente. It looks
ouuc1 ng Pacific -Heights neighbor-.
But in this unlikely setting, the
my Soviet consulate in the coon-
ry outside of Washington has .
ctivity that. U.S. counterintellig-
nee authorities report has escalat
Inte - --u
Bence ommi ee. pparent
1 ty he NSA has a wa of-i)i ggyback
-TheYI;i2Qw h is being.;
? ____ ~y the R?~a;a&machines;?
nri shoe .. ., .,rte it'? '
Asked to confirm or deny this
,
a White House official responded
only "no comment" ' ' _ ._ a rxilE
 " 's really scary to me that
- "If transmissions are in its line
NSA, has this eavesdropping caps. f slab pt o
blity on our own c,'p '.o rar. Ref $u Ali' i'ff r?te ~ ib1r
= former stall counsel to the Senate than 100 miles away," Senator
Foreign Relations Committee 'And Daniel Moynihan tDem-iV.YJ told
it's U perfectly legal be because monitori they
are supposed to The Chronicle yesterday. Moynihan
t is a member of the Senate Intelii
Soviet signals, including those with is a member of t
Amariran vniroa
Since each microwave tele.
phone transmission includes the
phone number being dialed by the. fi
caller, tapes of the communications
can be fed into a computer that can
key into- any phone number of 1
The main tower in ' the Bay
Area where phone traffic is sent by
microwave is on Bernal Heights in
San Francisco. Much of the traffic.
is relayed. through- another tower
across the Bay on Grizzly Peak
interest and record it behind Berkeley. ; , .. ? . : -
? 1 Authorities believe th
t
ese
rans-
Computers can even sort swift missions can 'be intercepted from
ly through the conversational mate. the Soviet consulate here. 'This
i
l
r
a
and key in on designated words
of interest. That technology is
already in use by both the Soviet
? Union. and the US.
In the Bay' Area the prime
,target of the KGB's conventional
= and midcrowave spying are the
;international oil companies, 'the
city's science meetings, and the
computer and electronics indus-
tries and research complexes, on
the Peninsula,
"With their microwave phone
eavesdropping., it is almost as if the
Soviets are casting out a great net
to absorb all that is within range of
interception," says tTohn Barron, a
former U.S.- military intelligence
officer who maintains many repor-
torial contacts with the American
counterintelligence community.
A rapidly growing number -of
U.S. phone communications ' are
sent by microwaves, which are
--ultra high-frequency radio signals
.that can carry many hundreds of
conversations simultaneously.?_,-
A spokesman fo -'P- Tale-
phone here said at least half of-the
Tong distance calls in the-Bay-Area '
are now transmitted by microwave.
As White House and Congres-
sional communications experts e- x..
plained it, microwave traffic is
being intercepted- by the Russians
with a parabolic antenna. No
such
.
devices are visible on the consulate
-enclosures atop the building t hat
experts believe could house the
interceptor.. .
Because the consulate is
perched high on Pacific Heights at
Recordings of the intercepted
conversations, according to a
knowledgeable Senate staffer, are
dispatched by courier to Moscow-
for computer sorting, or, if there is
some urgency, - via satellites that
can pick up and relay communica-
tions from the consulate.
Les Earnest, associate director
of the. Stanford Artificial Intelli-
gence Laboratory, said computers
can key in on as. many as several
hundred designated words of inter-
est in the recordings of. the trans.
missions. , - . - : .
-But under the state of the art;
he added, it is a tedious process in
which the computer has to be
programmed to recognize the
speech patterns of various speak
But an aide to Senatorbioytit-
han stressed that "what the CIA has
t)t) OOM0015 roach the
scale of what the Russians have
been doing - I mean the Russian
scale is enormous, with. hundreds of
thousands of calls in the U.S. being
Administration. officials -in re-
:cent months have 'broken away
.from-.the traditional secrecy that
has surrounded electronic surveil-
lance and are-now discussing the
matter somewhat publicly.-It isn't
entirely clear, why, although it may
be due, in: part, to Congressional.
pressure
Moynihani introduced legisla-
tion last July that would-authorize
the President to expell ' from the
country any foreign diplomat en-.
- gaged in electronic eavesdropping.
Under the legislation, any. Ameri.
can citizen whose right to privacy is
threatened. by foreign. intelligence -'
must be informed by :the . U.S.
. government of what is happening..
A -White House:.:communica
tions expert said classified govern-,
ment communications: are being
"protected by our own techniques,':
.-and most 'government 'calls- in
Washington, New. York and' San
Francisco are being rerouted from
microwave to more secure cable.
The rerouting project in San Fran-
cisco should be completed by the
end of this year, he said. . -
The official said the adminis-
tration is also conducting briefings
to. warn many businesses to avoid
discussing sensitive information
during microwave phone calls. He
said companies like PG&E and the
Southern Pacific here are particu-
-Iarly. vulnerable because they have
..their -own private microwave net- .
Works.
-Since their `calls are- aIwavs
routed along the same circuits, they-..
are easier to intercept..- = -==
_'. A spokesman for PG&E and a
communications employee of ? the
Southern Pacific said the adminis-
tration has not alerted their firms
- .to the risk.: - ?
"This government 'certainly
-
does not seem' to be vigorously
challenging the eavesdropping,"
.said a former counsel of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee.
"Hell, it ma3w be a quid pro quo for.
what we're monitoring in Russia.
has unobstructed access to the c, I intelligence agents always feel
'u .,.
atmesphere and U.S. is believed to h more comfortable when they I;now
.c.o~.aves Tl:e U
eve
.;
_drs are ug:
Then, too, it can Pick~r ~t11@d For F4 t asei'2 A/M7dfl iafc r4J?pa
M.Q' b W6Ogb d.b
i
remote signals that have bounced tion and computer sorting tech-
off nearhvnhiA.', wh;r1, ,e,.,r-~.ai.. z__ L_- - ~` `?"
radio energy slops out to the sides
for two to three miles (putting it. in
line of sight of the consulate)," said.-
Richard Hartman, editor of Elea
tronic Warfare/Defense Electron.
ics Magazine in Palo Alto;
' The technical publication plans
soon to publish a-report.that Soviet
spies on the Peninsula' are using
- portable "highly directional micro-
wave dishes" to eavesdrop on mi.
crowave traffic that cannot be
= picked up from the consulate
"The portable units are a very
well known technique.for intercep.
tion," Hartman said. "The units are
not more than four feet diameter
and can be hidden in vans."
A White House official, howev-
er, said "it's more likely and less
risky" for the Soviets to use equip.
? meat ' housed at the consulate,
.-.where it is protected by diplomatic
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Bu WU)"'D Y
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ILC#7&21 ~J
TO:
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Office of Legislative Counsel
Washington, D. C. 20505
Telephone:
14 une
Mr. Norvill Jones, Chief of Staff
Committee on Foreign Relations
United States Senate
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