ELECTRONIC SPY OPERATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000301640003-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/01/11 : CIA-RDP88-01070R000301640003-3
RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
PROGRAM CBS Evening News STATION WDVM-TV
CBS Network
DATE March 25, 1985 7:00 P.M. CITY Washington, D.C.
Electronic Spy Operation
DAN RATHER: In another U.S.-Soviet development,
Pentagon correspondent David Martin has been told how Soviet
secret police in Moscow have been getting the latest word on
sensitive U.S. Embassy documents even before U.S. officials read
them.
DAVID MARTIN: Informed sources tell CBS News that for
at least one year, and probably longer, the American Embassy in
Moscow was the victim of a sophisticated electronic spy operation
which gave Soviet leaders an inside look at what U.S. diplomats
were doing and planning. Soviet agents secretly installed tiny
sensing devices in about a dozen embassy typewriters. The
devices picked up the contents of documents typed by embassy
secretaries and transmitted them to antennas hidden in the
embassy walls. The antennas, in turn, relayed the signals to a
listening post outside the embassy.
The typewriters were in use from 1982 until the opera-
tion was uncovered in 1984. However, intelligence experts now
think Moscow was running an earlier version of the same opera-
tion. An antenna discovered in the cleanup after this 1978 fire
now appears to have been part of that earlier operation.
Depending on the location of the bugget typewriters, the
Soviets were able to receive copies of everything from routine
administrative memos to highly classified documents. One
intelligence officer said the potential compromise of sensitive
information should be viewed with, quote, considerable serious-
ness. Another intelligence expert said no one knows for sure how
many or what secrets were compromised. A third official called
the entire affair a fiasco.
OFFICES IN: WASHINGTON D.C. ? NEW YORK ? LOS ANGELES ? CHICAGO ? DETROIT ? AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES
Motedoisuppiiec' Approved For Release 2010/01/11: CIA-RDP88-01070R000301640003-3 d or exhibited.
 Approved For Release 2010/01/11 : CIA-RDP88-01070R000301640003-3
Officials say they do not know exactly how the Russians
managed to install the bugs. These same officials also say the
bugs might still be in place had it not been for a warning from a
friendly government whose own embassy had been the target of a
similar eavesdropping operation.
Approved For Release 2010/01/11 : CIA-RDP88-01070R000301640003-3