WATCHWORD FOR FOREIGNERS IN MOSCOW: THE WALLS HAVE EARS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88G01116R001402570009-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 20, 2011
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: October 28, 1986
• Content Type: LETTER

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US NEWS & WORLD REPORT
September 29, 1986
U.S. Embassy is surveillance target No. 1
The new U.S. Embassy Is being built on a low, vulnerable site
Watchword for foreigners in
Moscow: The walls have ears
Moscow
Relentless Soviet scrutiny of Nich-
olas Daniloff did not end when he
moved from prison to the U.S.
Embassy. The KGB can still watch
and listen through an Orwellian
surveillance net covering all West.
erners-though none so stiflingly
as those judged especially suspect.
At the American Embassy in
Moscow, U.S. technicians ceaseless.
ly search for electronic bugs planted
in equipment and walls.
[For ultrasensitive conversations,
the embassy has at least one win-
dowless room that has been encased
in a shell impenetrable to listening
devices, sources in Washington say.
Kept free of air-conditioning vents
as an extra precaution, the room can
be unbearably stuffy.
U.S. diplomats once complained
In Soviet Union, a yellow
license plate with K 004
Identifies U.S. correspondent
that the KGB had sprinkled offices
with "spy dust" to track people by
telltale residue. On another occa-
sion, the U.S. found devices in elec-
tronic typewriters that transmitted
what was typed to receivers in near,
by walls-and then to Soviet agents
outside. Diplomats routinely pro-
test the health threat from micro-
waves aimed at disrupting Soviet
electronic surveillance.
The problems may worsen when
the U.S. moves into a new embassy
next year-thanks to a bad U.S..
one of the lowest points in the city, is
surrounded by tall buildings. This
will make it harder for the embassy
to eavesdrop on communications in
Moscow, while making it easier for
the Soviets to spy on the Americans.
In contrast, a new U.S.S.R. Embas-
sy in the U.S. sits on one of \Vash-
ington's highest hills, again giving
the Soviets the advantage.
As construction of a new Ameri-
can Embassy continues, listening
devices are regularly discovered.
Sources say steel bought from So-
viet firms is riddled with devices
implanted during casting. As a re-
sult, extra crews have flown in
from the U.S. to finish the work.
The usual suspects in most bug-
ging are the 200 Soviet citizens who
work in the embassy and Leningrad
consul general in low-level jobs.
They could be fired-no Americans
work in the Soviet Embassy in the
United States. But replacing them
with U.S. citizens has been ruled
out, at least for now, as too costly.
Outside the embassy, most for-
eigners are housed in one of 20
buildings scattered around Mos-
cow. Militiamen guard noodlit
gates, ostensibly to protect occu.
pants from crime but actually to
discourage Soviet visitors and re-
cord \Vesterners' movements.
Tenants assume their apartments
are bugged. And foreigners who try
to evade scrutiny are easy to follow,
since their cars bear distinctive
plates-red for diplomats, yellow
for business people and journalists.
A yellow plate with a K and the
numbers 004 means a U.S. reporter.
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US NEWS F WORLD RJiPO R'I' fb Oc. 86
America's white clephant in Moscow
The new U.S. Embassy being built in
Moscow is so riddled with Soviet eaves-
dropping equipment and structural
flaws that construction may be halted
indefinitely, threatening a fresh snag in
U.S.-Soviet relations.
The seriousness of the problems, un-
masked by U.S. investigators combing
the eight-story building in September,
prompted the State Department to agree
to congressional demands for a top-to-
bottom inspection by outside experts.
Sophisticated listening devices have
been implanted in everything from pre-
cast floors and prefabricated concrete
columns to steel beams-Congressional
investigators also think the structure is
dangerously flawed because little, if
any, lime was used in mortar cement-
ing the brick facade and frame, raising
fears that it will absorb moisture, freeze
and crumble.
Alarmed by reports from the latest
on-site inspections, Senator Lawton
Chiles (D-Fla.) seeks to mandate sus-
pension of work pending review of the
project, which, along with other build-
ings in the complex, is already five years
behind schedule and S80 million over
budget. Some experts on Capitol Hill
and in the CIA are even lobbying behind
the scenes for demolition of the building,
U.S.News & World Report has learned.
"We have two choices," says Repre-
sentative Dan Mica (D-Fla.), chairman
of the House Foreign Affairs Subcom-
mittee on International Operations:
The embassy "can be made secure or
we will have to blow it up." The State
Department is worried that lawmakers,
in pushing to hold up completion of
the embassy, will complicate East-West
diplomacy.
There is "overreaction" in Congress,
declares Ronald Spiers, under secretary
of state for management. "We are very
aware of the problems, and we have
plans to deal with them."
Soviet families have moved into the
new U.S.S.R. Embassy in Washington.
But, by agreement, Soviet diplomats
cannot occupy their offices in the com-
pound until work is finished on the U.S.
Embassy in Moscow. Some estimates
now suggest it will be 1989-and per-
haps much later-before that happens.
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r:ASi. TC: : IMES 29 SEP 1986 Pg.12
E inbassy in Moscow
infested with `bugs'
By Picnara Beeston
The unfinished U.S. Embassy in
Moscow- is suffering from a severe
plague or bugs - the electronic van-
etv.
The listening devices have been
discovered in steel girders supplied
yy Soviet firms, according to U.S.
otfictais. vno say they were im-
planted during the casting.
U.S- News & World Report. whose
Moscow correspondent Nicholas
Daniloff has been accused of espi-
onage by Soviet authorities. said yes-
terday that extra crews have been
flown in from the United States to
finish the work after construction
was delayed by discovery of the
bugs.
A Soviet microphone was once
found hidden in the U.S. seal above
the ambassador's desk in the present
embassy, and electronic devices ca-
pable of transmitting what was
typed were found in embassy type-
writers.
The site of the new U.S. embassy
in Moscow is on low-lying land.
In a much-criticized decision.
however, the United States has per-
mitted the Soviet Union to build its
new embassy in Washington on high
ground. It is located on Wisconsin
Avenue above Ceorgetow.vn - over.
looking the White House. the Pen-
tagon and the State Department -
an ideal arrangement for eaves-
dropping.
But the vast white fortress where
most Soviet diplomats and staff will
eventually live has had problems ut
its own.
During the early stages 'it con-
struction. Soviet supervisors iouna
that a large quantity of concrete Wad
been poyred by an American con.
struction company into the founda-
tions without embassy supervision.
Fearing bugs. they ordered it re-
moved, and the foundations had to be
repoured.
Washington Post 28 September 86
Washington Times
30 September 1986
Tough on buggers
"Now is the time for Congress
to get tough with the Soviet 'bug.
gers: Enough is enough:' said
Rep. William Broomfield,
Michigan Republican. He intro-
duced a resolution to put Con-
gress on record as opposing any
use of the new Soviet Embassy in
Washington until the bugging
problem is solved at the U.S. Em-
bassy in Moscow.
"According to recent accounts,
State Department technicians
found electronic devices planted
in the precast pillars, floors and
walls of the U.S. chancery in Mos-
cow. As construction of the new
building continues, listening de-
vices are regularly discovered
implanted in walls, steel beams
and other equipment:" said Mr.
Broomfield ina statement.
The Soviet Embassy in Wash-
ington has been completed but
cannot be occupied until the U.S.
Embassy in Moscow is finished,
under an agreement reached by
the State Department and the So-
viets. The U.S. Embassy is al-
ready five years behind a
schedule that called for comple.
tion in 1981.
Moscow Embassy Work May Halt
Over Implanted Listening Devices
Work may have to be halted in-
definitely on the new U.S. Embassy
in Moscow -because "sophisticated
listening - devices have been' im-
:planted in everything," U.S. News
& World Report reported yester-
day. .
The news magazine, in its Oct. 6
.issue, said the seriousness of the
problems was unmasked by U.S. in-
vestigators combing the eight-story
building in September. lations between the two coutrics.
The State Department was Soviet families have moved into a
prompted to agree to congressional new embassy complex in Washing-
demands for a top-to-botto- in- ton but, by agreement, diplomats
spection by outside experts. cannot occunv offices direr a ?til
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...... -.. .unto experts
in the intelligence conmutnity sug-
gest that the $167 million building
may have to be demolished before it
is completed.
"Sophisticated listening devices
have been implanted in everything
from precast floors and prefabri-
cated concrete columns to steel
beams," the magazine said.
The new problems with the em-
bassy could further complicate re-