DAMAGE SEVERE IN MARINE SPY CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504890003-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: April 1, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000504890003-6
'1 ARTICLE APP REO LOS ANGELES TIMES
P 1 April 1987
Damage Severe in
Marine Spy Case
Soviets Reportedly Read Embassy
Messages, Learned Names of Contacts
By MICHAEL WINES and ONALD J. OSTROW, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON-A Marine spy ring at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has
enabled the Soviet Union to intercept and read virtually all the embassy's
coded communications to Washington for as long as a year, sources close to
the espionage case said Tuesday.
The Soviets also used the access
to embassy offices given them by
the guards to obtain the identities
of virtually every Soviet contact
for American intelligence agents in
Moscow during that period, those
sources said. ,
The U.S. Embassy's communica-
tions with Washington were falling
into Soviet hands at the time of last
October's summit meeting between
President Reagan and Soviet lead-
er Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Iceland,
the sources said.
"We still do not have secure
communications out of Moscow
today." said one official, who asked
not to be identified.
Almost overnight, these discov-
eries have turned what was once
viewed as a routine security breach
at the Moscow embassy into an
American intelligence disaster of
the first order, knowledgeable offi-
cials said.
Worse Than 1985 Case
Sources said the damage from
the Marine case is now regarded as
much worse than that inflicted by
CIA turncoat Edward Lee Howard.
who gave an array of CIA secrets to
Moscow before defecting to the
Soviets in 1985.
Howard's disclosures led the So-
viets to execute at least one Ameri-
can contact in Moscow. But in the
latest espionage incident, said one
government official who has been
briefed on the case, the Marine
guards "gave them access to the
names of every American contact"
in the Soviet Union.
"A lot of things we attributed to
Howard may actually have come
out of this," that official said. "They
virtually shut down our intelli-
gence operations in Moscow."
Almost four months after the
Marine Corps quarantined Sgt.
Clayton J. Lonetree and nearly a
week after Cpl. Arnold Bracy was
jailed on suspicion of espionage. the
damage has not been contained.
"That ... embassy is one radiat- '
inMtenna," an official said. refer-
ring to the likelihood that Soviet
agents laced embassy offices with
listening devices.
Sp tenuous is the situation that
Sectetary of State George P. Shultz
mall be forced to use the coded
radio on his government jet to send
messages to the White House when
ne flies to Moscow this month for
preliminary arms-control talks,
urce said.
o1t
o partment spokeswoman
p s Oakley said Tuesday that
U.V officials "expect to have the
secure communications by the time
of trip" on April 13.
t one official called that pros-
p~ee' highly unlikely, saying it
weld require the embassy to re-
pla* most of its existing communi-
cations gear in less than two weeks.
News accounts have stated that all
embassy communications now are
being handled by diplomatic couri-
ers..
An assessment of the Marine spy
case was given to Reagan and a
"furious" Vice President George
Bush late last week. Bush, a former
CIA director, was reliably said to be
ur rig a "top to bottom" review of
U. counterspy measures at em-
baspies and within the U.S. intelli-
gence network.
Threat Was Not Seen
Officials last summer discovered
M*ne guard Bracy in the midst of
sexual relations with a Soviet
woman who worked at the embas-
Yet they failed to permanently
remove him from guard duty or to
reQpgnize the affair as a security
the, at.
#racy was demoted from ser-
g t to corporal for the violation
of urity rules Aug. 21, but he did
nc ,leave guard duty or Moscow
El Sept. 18. American officials
of link Bracy's indiscretion to
into custody in December,
source said.
he sources said'- Bracy was
food with the Soviet woman in the
atment of an unnamed U.S.
a the at the embassy. The wom-
ar has been identified by U.S.
of&ials as a KGB agent.
y offered sexual favors to
e Lonetree into spying, for-
SWa, was once crowned "Queen of
tike,' Marine Ball'" at