SENATOR SAYS RUSSIANS SHOULD PAY TO CLEAR NEW EMBASSY OF BUGS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706110005-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: April 6, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified
in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706110005-5
ARTICLEAP'PF.~t~O NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE ~
6 April 1987
SenatorSays Russians Should Pay
C
To Clear New Embassy o,f Bugs
By DAVID K SHIPLER?
special to The New York T1mn
WASHINGTON, April 5 - A leading
Senate Democrat said today that be-
fore the Soviet Union opens its new em-
bassy in Washington it should be re-
quired to reimburse the United States
for the cost of making the new Amer-
icanEmbassy in Moscow secure.
The proposal. by Senator Patrick J.
Leahy of Vermont, followed reports
that the new embassy in Moscow,
which is stW under construction, had
been laced with listening devices, im-
planted in prefabricated concrete pil-
lars and panels that were made by
Soviet crews
"The fact is, this embassy can never,'
ever be made secure, ever," Senator
Leahy said on the CBS News program.
"Face the Nation."
Senator Leahy, a former vice chair-
man of the Senate Intelligence Com-
mittee, said his proposal revived an
idea he had offered two years ago with
Senator Lawton Chiles, Democrat of
Florida. "I think we ought to do what
Senator Chiles and I said a couple of
years ago, and require payment from
the Soviets for the damages that have
been caused in that or not allow them
to go into their own new embassy here
in Washington," he said today.
3 Marine Guards Arrested
The recent concern over embassy se-
curity also stems tram the arrest of
three United States marines who have
been guards at the current embassy.
Two of them are accused of having let
K.G.B. agents into the building and are
charged with espionage.
The new United States Embassy,
Arthur A. Hartman, a former Am-
bassador to Moscow, said on "Face the
Nation" today that it would be wise to
wait for James ?R. Schlesinger, a for-
mer Director of Central Intelligence, to
complete a study of the new building
before deciding whether it had to be
torn down or could be repaired. Under
the terms of the Soviet-American
agreement on the embassies, Mr. Hart-
man noted, both countries' diplomats
are to move into their new buildings si-
multaneously.
Some members of Congress and in-
telligence specialists have sought ways
of preventing the Soviet move, Hating
that the new embassy sits on the sec-
ond-highest point in Washhtgton,~
Mount Alto, 350 feet above sea level,
from which sophisticated devices are
believed capable of interceptht` elec-
troniccommunications.
"The Soviets are allowed to play by
entirely different rules than we do,"~
Senator Leahy said "Our embassy
over there, the new embassy's that
being built, is in a swamp surrounded
by buildings controlled by the K.G.B.
Their embassy is sitting up on Mount
Alto here in Washington with antennas
that can go into the Pentagon, the
White House, Treasury, C.I.A., every-
thingelse."
which was scheduled to be occupied in
1989, has already cost;190 million, and,,
technical experts estimate that ;201,
miWon to i~0 million more will be re-
quired to deactivate or remove bug-
gang devices.
Senator Leahy said Saturday that be-'
cause there was "no way possible to
make that embassy secure," the only
solution was to "tear it down and start
aU over again."
STAT
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706110005-5