$5 BILLION PLAN AIMS TO PROTECT U.S. EMBASSIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302590010-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: September 29, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302590010-5
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ON PAGE
$5 Billion Plan
Aims to Protect
U.S. Embassies
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 -The State
Department has proposed a five-year,
$5 n program to overhaul se-
cun y 57-19--embassies and to counter
i - oc espionage overseas, i-
aartment officials said today.
They said a new proposal, now
awaiting approval of the Office of Man.
agement and Budget, included money
to replace more than half of the 200
Soviet citizens who work for the United
States Embassy in Moscow and for the
consulate in Leningrad.
The decision stems from the recom-
mendations o a special advisory panel
headed by Adm. Bobby R. Inman, for-
mer Deputy Director of Central Inteli-
gence, as well as from Congressional
pressure, the officials said.
Arthur A. Hartman, the United
States Ambassador in Moscow, was re-I
Darted to be unenthusia,.tic about the
plan. He was said to fear that it might
-cake it more difficult for the embassy)
to function effectively, while not neces-1
sanly thwarting Soviet espionage of-I
forts. Moreover, Mr. Hartman was
said to be concerned that new Amer-
iran contract employes would become
"targets of opportunity" for Soviet ef-
forts at enticement.
in the coming week, the State De-
partment plans to use unspent funds to
award a first contract, under which an
American company would hire 22
American maintenance supervisors
and workers to go to Moscow to replace
Soviet nationals.
Later this year an additional con-
tract, for up to 60 American transla-
tors, supply clerks, consular clerks and
workmen is to be signed with an Amer-
ican company. All the American con-
tract employees will require security
clearances before they will be sent to
Moscow, the department said.
Similar steps are to be taken to phase
out local employes in other American
embassies in Warsaw Pact oountries,
the officials said.
A Congressional source said that
Ambassador Hartman, in a private
meeting last week on Capitol Hill, re-
marked that Soviet surveillance of the
embassy in Moscow is so extensive that
substituting Americans for Russian
employees would have only the most
marginal effect. He joked that having
Soviet agents on the premises some-
times makes it easier to communicate
with the Soviet leadership.
NEW YORK TIMES
29 Septmeber 1985
The Ambassador, to Illustrate an ex-
axr~nle of tne presence 51 Soviet
said that he believed his Soviet driver
was a colonel the K. the et
into gene and internal-security
ages
ere are no current plans to replace
the embassy's corps of Soviet drivers
with American chauffeurs, the State
Department said. American Embassy
officers often drive by themselves
when going to places they do not want
Soviet officials to know about, officials
said.
The decision to substitute Americans
for Russian employees was made by
Secretary of State George, P. Shultz
earlier this year, officials said.
Renovations Included
The $6.5 billion program includes
about $3.5 billion to replace or renovate
more than 300 buildings and offices
abroad to make them safer against ter-
rorist attacks. The $3.5 billion figure
was cited by the State Department last
June after the release of the Inman re-
port, and the special $6.3 billion bill is
called "the Inman supplemental
Budget request."
In recent months, during which there
have been many news articles about es-
pionage agents and defectors, some
members of Congress have become
particularly concerned about the num-
ber of Soviet citizens assigned to posts
in the United States and the number of
Soviet nationals working for the United
States in Moscow. Traditionally, the
United States hires local residents for
staff jobs abroad for ease of manage-
ment, to save on costs and to prevent
the embassy from becoming isolated
from its surroundings.
By comparison, Soviet embassies in
Washington and elsewhere are staffed,
almost exclusively by Soviet citizens,
even in the most menial jobs.
Limit an Soviet Personnel
A State Department official said that
after Soviet forces swept into Afghani.
stan in 1979, the United States set a
total of 320 as the maximum number of
Soviet employees allowed at the em-
bassy here and the consulate in San
Francisco. The Soviet Union now is just
below the limit, he said, with about 270
employees in Washington and fewer
than 50 in San Francisco.
The United States has assigned fewer
than 200 Americans to Moscow and
Leningrad, he said, and there are 200
Soviet nationals in the two missions.
Several hundred more Soviet nationals
work at the Soviet mission to the
United Nations, but the department
does not count them when it makes its
co Parisians.
In addition, several hundred Soviet
citizens work at the United Nations
Secretariat, he said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation,
which regards all , Soviet mad East
European citizens in this country as
potential spies, no matter where they
work, is alarmed at the disparity in the
number of Soviet-bloc citizens in this
country when compared to the number
of Americans in Moscow.
i Moves
Representative James A. Courter,
Republican of New Jersey, has sub-
mitted a bill that would bar all Soviet
citizens from working at the United
States Embassy and consulate in the
Soviet Union after Sept. 20, 19B1. The
State Department opposes this bill. Mr.
Hartman, in a talk with Mr. Courter
and his staff, argued against barring
all Russians from working for the em-
bassy, according to Philip Peters,
legislative director for Mr. Courter.
According to Mr. Peters, Mr. Hart-
man argued that some of the new
Americans But he said that the Congrps
wi-
man believed that "if you have 100
Americans and five are compromised,
it is not the same as having 100 K.G.B."
can nun
of Soviet di ~C
~oaaelitl.t
tied Sta
e e" with the nun
offici al Americans n t e V Tn an
words. er to a nun n 5
percent nun ber of cans.
UmIted Access at Embassy
State Department officials stressed
that rip Soviet employes are permitted
in any part of the American Embassy
above the ground floor, where consular
and informational activities are run. A
new embassy chancery is nearing com-
pletion, and no Soviet personnel will be
allowed in that building at all because
non-sensitive offices will be in another
part of the embassy grounds.
Soviet nationals working is the em-
bassy, now handle a number of jobs.
They . include laborers who move
crates, auto mechanics and clerks who
order theater and travel tickets for em-
bassy personnel. Other Soviet nationals
work for the administrative section of
the embassy, dealing with Soviet or-
ganizations to such tasks as handling
accounts with Soviet utilities.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302590010-5