SOVIETE EMBASSY SITE SAID TO FACILITATE ELECTRONIC EAVES DROPPING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570043-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: September 16, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570043-8
ASSOCIATED PRESS
16 September 1985
SOVIET EMBASSY SITE SAID TO FACILITATE ELE
DEBORAH MESCE
WASHINGTON
Sen. Patrick Leahy recalls that in the 1960s, wh
highest ground in Washington, near the site of the n
friends used to marvel at the clear picture on his television set.
Now, Leahy fears that reception will be just as good for the Soviets, and
that their electronic eavesdropping and intelligence gathering will be
facilitated.
"It's sheer negligence ... collosal, institutional negligence," the Vermont
Democrat said of the State Department decision more than a decade ago to allow
the Soviets to build their embassy on the site. "There are times I wonder
whether the State Department is working on our side or the Soviets' side."
To make matters worse, Leahy said, the site of the new U.S. embassy being
built in Moscow is "in a swamp," near the Moscow River in one of the lowest
parts of the Soviet capital.
Soviet diplomats and their families are living at the 10-acre compound on
land 349 feet above sea level in the city's Northwest section, but the offices
are incomplete and business is still being conducted at the old embassy.
Asked about the height controversy, Vladimir Kulagim, a spokesman for the
Soviet Embassy, said the only advantage he sees is "fresh air," and he said that
to raise the issue of embassy sites is unfair.
"We were given this land by mutual agreement with the U.S. government. The
U.S. Embassy has very good land in the center of Moscow," he said. "Those who
raise this question ... just want to stir hatred to our embassy, to our
personnel."
Asked whether the site enhances Soviet abilities to intercept communications,
Kulagim said, "I refuse to discuss this because it's ridiculous."
The agreement giving the Soviets use of the site _ federal land where the
Mount Alto Veterans Hospital once stood _ and giving the United States its new
site in Moscow was signed in 1972.
The Soviets had looked at other properties in the Northwest section of the
city where most of the foreign embassies are located. But they usually ran into
opposition from residents concerned about a large compound being built in their
neighborhood, said James E. Nolan Jr., director of the State Department's Office
of Foreign Missions.
Mount Alto was available, the federal government owned it and since neighbors
were used to living near a large compound they had little opposition, said
Nolan, former counterintelligence chief for the FBI.
"I think that if everybody knew everything after the fact that they know now,
maybe they wouldn't have picked the Mount Alto site," Nolan said.
WW
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570043-8