TV'S VERDICT ON SPY DUST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605320005-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 2, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: August 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/02 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605320005-4
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~____ ROTI3Y _RABINOV: _ _ [T_. _ `_;
.~ ~ --
TV's verdict
on spy dust
Soviets somehow not to blame
ith the disclosure that
NPPD, a potentially dan-
gerous chemical sub-
stance, was being used
on our .embassy personnel, it
seemed for a time certain that Soviet
public relations had suffered a mor-
tal blow.
For, in employing hazardous
chemicals, the Soviets had put them-
selves in a spotlight no malefactor
can hope to escape -had brought
themselves, that is, to the attention
of media talents honed on scandals
about toxic waste. chemical leaks,
nuclear drips, and various similar
calamities.
Thus, from their watch over the
landfills of New Jersey, the nation's
nuclear plants. the gates of Union
Carbide, an army of reporters would
surely descend - figuratively
speaking - on the Soviet Uhion.
How could the Soviets have made
such a miscalculation?
,anyone enjoying speculation
along these lines would soon, of
course, understand that he had
failed to reckon with a certain ele-
mentdeeply ingrained in our media,
a shining example of which was to
appear that very evening in the com-
mentary of John Chancellor, "NBC
Nightly News:'
The Soviets' use of the "spy dust:'
~Ir. Chancellor assured us, vas,
"basic to the tradecraft of espi-
onage:'
There were all sorts of these
devices, he would have us know, in
use by all sorts of governments: and
further, he had the word of an
"expert" on such matters, who could
testify that the Russian spy dust w?as
"rather primitive:'
There eve had, then. the picture: a
spy war between the United States
and the Soviet Union. -both sides of
which emplo}? the same tactics, mak-
ing them, by extension, morally
indistinguishable from one another:
a war emplo}?ing professionals who
simply go about their business, of
~ehich chemtcal trace dust. carcinu-
genic or other-
wise, is a part.
This is, of
course, roughly
the view of the
conflict to be
found in the fic-
tion of John
LeCarre, in which
the agents of the
Nest equal -
??hen they do not
exceed - the
squalid degener-
acy and cynicism
of their KGB
counterparts.
Something is.
of course. musing
from the picture of c~onts ,o
equably presented on ??\BC \i~~htly
News"-that being the purposes for
which the Soviets had intended thew
"spy' dust:' which purposes \Ir.
Chancellor, for one reason or
another, neglected to mention.
For that spy dust was, to fact, a
chemical spread about the C.S.
Embassy and its em u?ons for the
sole purpose of enabling the Soviets
to trace contacts between their cui-
zens idissidents or those seeking to
emigratetand U.S. Embassy person-
nel.
Indeed, this chemical, then.
represented here as but another
weapon in one spy system against
another spy s}stem -just another
in ever}'bod}?'s bag of tricks - is, as
it happens, as perfect a symbol as w?e
could wish of that unique and most
distinguishing feature ot'totalitartan
dictatorship: namely the effort to
control every facet of its citizens'
lives, their movements, their con-
tacts with the outside world.
Having now advanced Theme 1 on
the spy-dust story, our "Nightly
News?'commentary proceeded to its
central monf: the motives which the
C.S. ;overnment had for dt;clo;tng
such a stop nuw.
These, tt could not by nuw have
surprised anyone to learn. ~~ere - to
qtr. Chancellor's way, of thtnktng -
"political:' apoint of view ~+e were
to hear all through the course of a
long night and into the morning.
On CBS's "Nightwatch:' a L' S.
intelligence expert, under the
impression that he had come tin the
program to discuss Soviet spy tech-
niyues, was soon put right about this
misapprehension.
WASHINGTON TI~1E5
z6 August 1985
eked not less than five succe;-
'sive questions about why the
United States was disclosing
this story, a succession led off with
anchor Fred Graham's urgent
inquiry: "Is the U.S. government put-
ting on a 'Chicken Little' act -the
sky is falling?" (followed by "Is this
a tempest in a teapot?" i, the guest
was soon brought round to an under-
standing of the main theme to be
explored.
Whereupon it was not long
before we learned that the Soviets'
rise of this chemtcal was Itkcly.
in fact, a response to the incrcu;-
ingly aggressive activities of the
C.S. Central Intelligence .-~~enc~ -
in short, the familiar theme that
what the Soviets do i; a respun;e.
a necessary response. engen-
dered by ;time
threat by the
Cnited States.
The mornin,?
shows. in turn.
hrought us corrc-
spondent Elobert
Kier of Thy
lti'cl;htn~turt F'u?r.
appearuig tin _thc:
..CBS ~Iornin_
News...
-fhere, that
reporter con-
fessed ht; "baffle-
ment" over tchat
the Reagan ad-
mtnistranon ?a,
trying to do -
;iven that it had sent "three ;ucce;-
;tve negative signals" to the Soviets
in dust a few days. and all prior to the
summit.
On NBC's "Today" show, along
about the same time, anchor Bryant
Gumbel was providing an analysts of
his uwn, suggesting that the l.'nited
States might be attempting to dis-
tract the world from the negative
effects of its anti-satellite experi-
ments.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/02 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605320005-4
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/02 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605320005-4
Thus had the story on the use of
chemical agents by the Soviets been
transformed into a story of U.S.
motives. (.?.S. deception.
.end here we leave it? but not with-
out first pausing to note, as we have ~
had reason to so often, the meaning j
of such com?ersions. For to have i
watched the progress of this story
was to have seen clear proof, again. ;
of a singular incapacity -the inca-
pacity of our media to focus their
cannons of distrust on targets other
than the government closest ro
home.
.-~I! this has been explained, again
and again, as the obligation of a free
press, a militance pursued in the
noblest of causes.
What it is, far more certainly, is a
form of illness peculiar to the
democracies of our time.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/02 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605320005-4