EMBASSY STAFF IN MOSCOW WARNED OF RADIATION LEAK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88B01125R000300120108-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 108
• Publication Date: February 8, 1976
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

1?Ti J4$ I mrI T 11!I11; l II Lill- I- 1
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP88BOl 125R000300120108-2
intelligence Panel: Out of Business
The House Intelligence Committee goes out of busi-'
ness Wednesday after a stormy six-month battle with
President Ford's top aides over Congress' power to
investigate and even expose U.S. secret activity.
Along the way the committee has documented five
major U.S. intelligence failures, estimated annual
intelligence costs at about $10 billion and exposed at
least two covert political operations overseas.
The committee lost a major battle when the House
sided with Ford and voted either to keep information
in the final report secret or"get Ford's approval to re-
lease it. ~ -
The House also is unlikely to approve all the com-
mittee's sweeping recommendations to impose tight.,.
controls by Congress over 11 U.S. intelligence and cov-
ert activities. ,. ;' ;~. '': .. .
` IT WAS NOT clear what : radiation had been a prob.
' -lem at the embassy, use of
By :,r ence Hurt
b
h
e
t
type of device mig
producing the radiation but Powerful electronic equip-
Am_ric3n Embassy staff the U.S. government. has ment is part of the game
memo rs in Moscow have been able to identify the _every side plays.'
been warned they may have Soviet equipment._ =EMBASSY personnel re-
levels exposed to dangerous A source said embassy-. rtedl were asked not
levels of ':radiation stem- officials became concerned ortedl Sereel's bd not t
mina from some type of. so- about.: detection of .hiegh discuss .
The American Embassy
oviet listenirg radiation levels. in Decem- in Moscow is housed as a
phisacated. Soviet'
or damming equipnet:t~. ber. and tried-to: pia down is in
,: , .:,sprawl co 10-story build..
sources said y esterday, the source:', o it contains about 50
State Dep artment The source said the a artments ,and four floors
spokesman Robert Funseth -.: investigation , was. compli-e offices f and f embassy
. 'said he could not comment cated by the fact that - the 'members. - 25
on the subject. .embassy was surrounded staff Roth the United States
But other sources said by Soviet buildings,' any of
the embassy staff was told!.which might have been.the and the Soviet Union plan to
,-.buid new embasso
in a secret briefing by source of the radiation. `-complexes in.I~ mow and
AArnbassador.. Walter . J. The investigation showed sMoscow oc d
Stoessel Jr. that the 'Washington
re may. that the radiation was the 1 but construction work I
be a potential medical result- of Soviet electronic has not started yet. . . ?r I
problem because of the devices, "but how, they're ?1
Soviet equipment. doing: it.. and why they're
One source, said shields doing it is still' up in the'
are being installed in . air," the source said.;- i.
embassy windows to Pro- He' said that although this
te~ct American personnel.: .; was.first time high levels of
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP88B01125R000300120108-2