'BUGGED' EAGLE IS PRIZE EXHIBIT IN ANTI-SPY 'CHAMBER OF HORRORS'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP92B01039R002204340006-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 25, 2013
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: May 1, 1960
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/04/25 :CIA-RDP92B01039R002204340006-7
~~
Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, at ieft, looks
as United States Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge shows
the United Nations Security Council in 1\Tew York a listen-
; ing device which Lodge said Soviet authorities had plant-
~ ed in the office of the American Ambassador in Moscow.
Assisting Lodge is Richard Pedersen, of the U. S. dele?
gation. In center at table is Sir Pierson Dixon, and be?
hind Gromyko (laughing, with hand to mouth) is Arkady
Sobolev, Soviet delegate to the U. N. The device was
concealed in a replica of the United States Seal.
Ambassador Lodge, left, shows equipment
tivhich was concealed in the carving. The
replica of the Great Seal of the United
States was a gift to a U. S. Ambassador.
`Bugged' Eagle Is Prize Exhibit
In Anti-Spy `Chamber of Horrors'
By Warren Rogers Jr.
Herald Tribune News Service
The "bugged" eagle dis-
layed yesterday at the
nited Nations as evidence
of Soviet spying was one
f the toughest casks ever
cracked by American counter-
espionage agents. `
The reason is that the hid-
den microphone was extreme-
ly small and used no wiring.
Even today it is considered
to be an extremely advanced
piece of electronic equip-
ment. +
The eagle, part of a 2-foot
wooden replica of the Great
Seal of the United States,
came from an underground
room in \~Vashington called
"the Chamber of Horrors" by
the State Department Office
of Security.
About 80 of the office's 300
employes work abroad, and
20 of those 80 are electronic
specialists. The job of these
specialists is to tap walls, test
locks, search ceilings, disman-
tle electrical sockets, tear
down telephones-in short to
go over every inch of build-
ings occupied by American of=
ficials.
In Iron Curtain countries,
they make such exhaustive
checks whenever a new build-
ing is acquired and frequently
thereafter. In Czechoslovakia
one time, when the American
military 'attache rented a
house, the security check
turned up 14 hidden micro-
or early 1946, when he was
ambassador to Moscow. It was
not unmasked as ~ a listening
device until 1952, according to
these informants.
By that time it had hung on
the wall through at least four
American ambassadors-Har-
riman, Walter Bedell Smith,
Alan G. Kirk, and George F.
Kennan: It was taken, offi-
cials said, from the 'office of
the ambassador's residence,
Spasso House, and not from
the Embassy itself.
[The story of the micro.
phone hidden in the Great
Seal was first reported in The
Washington Post by column-
ists Joseph and Stewart Alsop
on Oct. 30, 1955. They reported
that a routine inspection of
State Department security phones.
men. The eagle is the Cham-
ber's prize exhibit, but there
are many others.
Ferret Out `Bugs'
This reporter toured the
basement, which is kept
looked under maximum secu-
rity. There is even a peephole
in the door.
Two men, whose names can
not be disclosed, work among
'the subterranean treasures.
'Their job is to tinker with the
captured cameras, radios,
transmitters, wire recorders
and so on, and to try to figure
out a defense against them.
They have developed elab-
orate devices to ferret out
hidden microphones and trans-
office help as well as top diplo- cow in 1952 revealed the
mats, are taken to the "Cham_ matchbox-sized device which
ber of Horrors" before being had been broadcasting Am-
sent on Iron Curtain assign- bassador Kennan's p r i v a t e
ments. conversations for many months
There, they are shown what to listening Soviet ears.
to expect when they get to [Kennan yesterday declined
their posts. They see tele- to discuss the incident in de-
phones, radios, books, purses, tail, saying he was not sure
light sockets, lamps. wall pic- what particulars still might
tures, doors windows and be classified.
many other seemingly inno- [In New York, Harriman
cent paraphernalia of every- confirmed that he had re-
day life. ceived the replica as a gift
They are challenged some- in 1945 from a Soviet official
times to try to find the hid- but did not think it was bug-
den microphone. Often they ged at that time, United Press
can not. The security men International reported. Them
then point it out to them, have been reports that the
The best available recollec- spying .device may have been
mitters. ~tions here are that the Great installed when the replica was
These men are among the Seal replica was given to sent out later to be refur-
than 300 emnloves oflAverell Harriman in late 1945 bished.l
Approved For Release 2013/04/25 :CIA-RDP92B01039R002204340006-7 _