EMBASSY SECURITY: PROBLEMS EXIST FOR U.S. AROUND THE WORLD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000500230006-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 30, 2000
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: April 22, 1987
• Content Type: NSPR

ARTICLE AP NEW YORK TIMES
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;embassy Security: Problems Exist
for U.S. Around the World STATINTL
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
Special toThe New York Times'
WASHINGTON, April 21 - Some of
the security problems that have arisen
at the American Embassy in Moscow
are present in a number of other Amer-
ican missions, around the world, ac-
cording to Administration officials, in-
ielligence experts and current and for-
mer American ambassadors.
Missions -in China, Eastern Europe
!and other areas with a large Soviet
'Presence have been particularly vul-
aerable, American security officials
1$aid. But they said there were also
roblems in certain Middle Eastern
p$nd African countries.
Americans serving in friendly coun-
tries where internal security regula-
ons are more relaxed are also suscep-
ble to Soviet and other subversion,
"ttinysaid.
Security lapses elsewhere have not
drawn the same attention as those in
Moscow, the specialists acknowledged,
'although many of the problems have
;existed for decades and are considered
'as serious. Nor has, the. attention di-
,Irected at the problem in Moscow been
dtipijlcated elsewhere.
edged by many officials.
"The basic rule, especially in the
Eastern bloc, is 'Sleep NATO,' but
that's not always followed," a former
Foreign Service officer said.
American officials working at the
United States Interests Section in
Havana and the embassy in Managua
have been sent home in recent years
after they were caught dating local
women. In Havana, investigators be-
lieve there was a serious intelligence
loss because of an incident three years
ago.
It is common practice for the Soviet
intelligence services and their surro-
gates to use their nationals to seduce
Americans in Countries outside the
Eastern bloc, where there is a tend-
ency to be less suspicous and where so-
cializing may not be forbidden.
Bill Would Ban Locals
In many emerging nations, where
salaries are low, local employees have
been particularly susceptible to offers
to a lesfor serDextent extent, ostensibly friendly
countries.
This month, Representative Jim
Courser, Republican of New Jersey,
submitted a bill that would ban all local
workers from American posts in East--
ern Europe. ent OP-
poses the State Department
the bill, it is working on a plan
that would eliminate local employees
from sensitive areas of American of-
fices in Eastern Europe. It is also In-
-.. i-*ino *vintlations that would fur-
'Problems Are Widespread' around the world. In some countries, i
`What the incident in Moscow should the difference was dramatic. In Japan,
!awaken us to is that the problems and for example, local employees n,um-
vulnerabilities are widespread" said- bered 407, compared with 269 Amer-
iAllm. B b ired, a for- icans. In France there. were 583 local
imer rector of Central Intelli- employees and 291 Americans, and in
,gene, who headed a special State De- Morocco 268 locals and 96 Americans.
apartment advisory panel that invests- LocSl-~~employees,
some natn in Ease
n
- -- I t?- - p----
i "While the Soviets most skillfully ex- ern Eui~~? _
PIoit them, they are not the only ones ample, 46 locals worked for 27 Amer- ; Reducing the number of local em-
trying," he added, "and vulnerabilities icans, while in Poland there were 119 ploys would require budgeting enor
ire at least as large if not larger in locals and 52 Ameeriiccaasnscans worked at moos resources to substitute Amer-
other places where the guard is not so In Moscow, icans in many jobs. It would also shrink
ham.,. the American Embassy, but all have significantly the services offered to
' An Assistant Secretary of State for been withdrawn. I Americans abroad.
)Diplomatic Security, Robert E. Lamb, Because of language and cultural his Called Vital
pcknowledged that hostile espionage is barriers, American posts in China em-
a ,global problem confronting United ployed 336 locals and 155 Americans. Extensive renovation or replace-
The United states can hire its own ment of more than 100 embassies to
States diplomatic facilities.
"Moscow has a threat level un- local employees in countries with large deter terrorism and espionage, as
f matched in the world, but there are numbers of Soviet officials, such as recommended by the Inman panel,
other places that are just as vulner- Cuba, Nicaragua, Iraq and Syria, but it would be even more expensive.
able," he said. "Espionage is a world- is assumed that some of them are intel- But despite the concern about the
wide problem and not confined to just . ligence agents and that all must report widespread use of locals, many diplo-
o their governments. mats argue that on the whole they
Ihosnildi sing countries." ff problems In November 1985, for example, the benefit the Foreign Service.
Eastern d Europe, s the officials said that State Department issued a.strong pro- They provide valuable services that
embassy buildings Prague, Buda- test when Nicaragua subjected local in some cases could not be duplicated
ac-
pest, East Belin and Sofia, Bulgaria, employees of the American Embassy by American contract employees, ac-
are next to buildings and some in Managua to several hours of intense cording to State Department officials.
are next ad by the that is oer cases interrogation. American diplomats in And without local employees, they say,
are rane the host government. both Baghdad, Iraq, and Damascus, American embassies could turn into
Ameri evidence of f break-ins Investigators in have buildings in n Syria, have reported problems with closed fortresses with little connection
evide electronic surveillance. to the populace.
Eastern Europe and electronic bug- Government investigators assert The officials say that native employ-
gin that the problem of socializing between ees know how to resolve problems with
Outside the Eastern bloc, the least American embassy staff members and local bureauctacies, know the lan-
~cknowl__.ged_but the most serious se- local employees and residents is more; guage and dialects and often provide
widespread than is generally acknowl-, I insight into culture and politics.
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curity_problems ar at American fa-
cilities in China actor to inte i-
pent nificials.
When Senate Foreign 'Relations
Committee nvestt ators v s t e
t ree a 'in em ass u n s ast
year, they discovere a maze o tun-
nels from a basements to o er Dui -
ed
ipg._Doors-,o t e tunnels were loco
but did not have a arms. One tonne ed
into tTie basement of the zec_ os ova
Embass -`sa~firone comm eea f
mem6e; wTioent on tr .
The consulate in anton; meanwhile,
is considered impossible to protect,
since it is situated on several floors of a
high-rise hotel and even "secure
areas" where only Americans are al-
'lowed are guarded by the Chinese Po-
lice, not American marines.
American installations are also
made vulnerable by the extensive use
loca7lemployees. While West Germa
France and Britain hire an average
of one local employee for every three of
its own officials, the average number of
local employees at American posts far
exceeds the number of Americans.
Last December there were 10,766
Americans and 15,327 local employees
Contoued
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"There are tremendous enefits to
being surrounded by foreign nationals,
and if one is careful the benefits out-
weigh the liabilities," one Foreign,
Service officer said.
"There's a lot of sentiment in Con-
gress for building new embassies when
you're saving lives, but not for espio-
nage," Mr. Lamb said, referring to the
readiness of Congress to make embas-
sies more secure against terrorism. "If
this Government is going to make em-
bassy security a priority, this Congress
can help."
Mr. Lamb is expected to raise this
and other issues in testimony before
the House Foreign Affairs Subcommit-
tee on International Operations on
Wednesday.
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 STATINTL
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WASHINGTON POST
11 April 1987
The Workaday world
Of Listening Devices
U.S. Diplomats Are Used to East-Bloc-Bugs'
ing of a classified nature to them,"
By Bill McAllister said Greg Guroff, a United States
W,,,,,m?t,,,, it st, rt Writer Information Agency specialist who
has been assigned to the Soviet
When two members of Congress
returned from Moscow this week Union "off and on for 20 years."
and suggested that Soviet listening Rep. Daniel A. Mica (r Fla.),
who said the new UMi Embassy in
devices had made the U.S. Embassy Moscow may have to be demolished
inoperable, Soviet KGB agents because of the number of listening
were not the only ones laughing. A devices it contains, acknowleged in
number of career Foreign Service an interview that it may be unre-
officers, intelligence officers and alistic to hope to maintain an office
former ambassadors were, too. building in the Soviet Union that is
To them, living with "bugs" has free of bugging devices.
for decades been a well-established "Most buildings could be pene-
and accepted way of life for diplo- trated," said Mica, head of the
mats sent into the Soviet bloc and House Foreign Affairs' subcommit-.
many other countries. tee on international operations. He
"You assume a high degree, of said the United States needs a
microphones" is the way former building in Moscow with "a mini-
Central Intelligence Agency direc- mum number of floors" free of bugs.
for William E. Colby put it. Bugging devices are hardly new
ions that the United in Soviet-bloc countries. During the
States close its Soviet operations Eisenhower administration, U.N.
are "damn foolish," said former Su- Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge
preme Court justice Arthur Gold- displayed a large hand-carved U.S.
berg, who served as an ambassador- Seal-a gift of the Soviet Union-
;tt-large during the Carter admin- that had hung in the U.S. Embassy
i5tration. "You can operate, provid- in Moscow from 1945 to 1952 and
"d you take safeguards." was found to contain listening de-
,* "The idea that you can't operate vices.
there is just nonsense," said Robert A U.S. diplomat assigned to Ro-
fj A. (Robb) Inma ormer head of mania in the 1960s once sent his
e a Iona ecurity Agency, dep- shoes to be repaired. They came
tlty director of central intelligence
and chairman of a panel that studied back with a radio transmitter in the
6roblems at the Moscow embassy heel, recalled Colby, who added of
.ih 1984. the inventor of the miniature de-
? Diplomats assigned to posts vice: "I'd like to give that man a
.,Jbroad, including some in countries medal."
':jssumed to be friendly to the Unit- When the United States first rec-
?ed States, say that they long have ognized the Soviet Union in 1934,
4perated under the assumption that the first American diplomats posted
many of their offices were bugged in Moscow assumed that the first
and that the foreign nationals work- Soviets who applied for jobs there
ing in U.S. missions-FSNs as they "had come to us with the blessing of
are called-are reporting to their the Soviet authorities," according to
local governments. the memoirs of the late Loy W.
But this, say the diplomats, is Henderson, a career diplomat.
hardly cause to abandon State De- Little has changed, according to
partment operations in Soviet-bloc Gerald Lamberty, a State Depart-
countries. ment economics officer and pres-
"What you have to understand is ident of the American Foreign Ser-
that a whole range of operations go
Association.
i
Lamberty, who recently served
in Poland, said diplomats there as-
sumed their drivers had contacts
with the secret police "because they
had access to goods not available to
the general public" and that their
maids were reporting as well.
"Sometimes they would come to
us and ask for papers, just so they
could give something to the secret
police," he said. "So you'd give them
something from The New York
Times."
"There were jokes about so-and-
so is the colonel" of the KGB secret
police, recalled Thompson R. Bu-
chanan, a retired Foreign Service
officer who spent two tours in Mos-
cow and one as the consul general
in Leningrad.
It was not difficult to spot the
senior KGB officer in the embassy,
Buchanan said. "He was the one,
perhaps cleaning the toilets, who
everyone snapped to attention
when he passed by."
Inman said it was well known in
Moscow that "the woman who gave
out the theater tickets and the wo-
man who made airline tickets"
worked for the KGB.
But for reasons of "efficiency" the
embassy decided to keep them on,
he said.
Learning what to say-and not to
say-in bugged premises requires
discipline, all of the diplomats said.
"I operated under the assumption
that everything is overheard-un-
less I am told otherwise," Guroff
said.
"If you want to talk about some-
thing sensitive, you talk in the
streets," Colby said. The reason is
that traffic noises render most lis-
tening devices useless, he said.
Mica said his experience in Mos-
cow suggests that the Soviets may
have surpassed the Americans in
bugging technology-an idea that
James Bamford disputes.
"Both sides make essentially the
same types of listening devices,"
said Bamford, author of the "Puzzle
Palace," a book about the National
Security Agency.
ce
v
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None of the diplomats inter-
viewed sought to minimize the po-
tential damage allegedly caused by
the Moscow Marine contingent, but
one former intelligence expert, who
asked not to be named, was philo-
sophical about the Moscow incident
and the outcries for new security
rules.
"Really what we're dealing with
is peaks and valleys," he said.
After every major security
breach in the United States, the
government will attempt to crack
down on security violations, he said.
Over time the controls will grow
lax and finally become sloppy, Then
another breach and another crack-
down. Why?
"That's the American way, peaks
and valleys," the intelligence expert I
said.
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QN PAGE; WASHINGTON
F first lady Nancy Reagan and
her old pal, Time Editor in
Chief Henry Grunwald,
slipped into the Jockey
Club Wednesday for a quick
chicken-salad lunch.
Ollie North, dressed comfortably
in plaid shirt and jeans, smiled and
exchanged niceties with neighbors
as he pulled up in his pickup truck
to dump the family garbage Satur-
day morning at the Great Falls Ele-
mentary School parking lot in Vir-
ginia.
Absolutely no one could tell if
those sacks were filled with
shredded paper and undistributed
copies of the Weekly Reader, carry-
ing the cover story on the colonel.
Great Falls sits on the other side of
the river where plain folk who don't
pay extra for home pickup, do their
own Saturday morning garbage
run.
dm. Both I
s a u-g to fellow Texans
as part of the Smith-
sonian Resident Associ-
ates program the other evening, re-
flected on his Texas heritage and
the "can-do spirit" of Texans in
politics. "When I ended up in the
intelligence community where they
wanted absolutc fact, I lost the fla-
vor for humor, just as Washington
19
10 April 1987
sified intormation. Secretary of
State George Shultz accepted 91 of
the 93 recommendations of that
panel, said Mr. Inman, or snooping
would be an even worse problem
than it is today.
The situation in the Soviet Em-
bassy, he said, has been going on
for decades. "Espionage cases in
the '30s and '40s involved blackmail
for lifestyle or ideology," said
Bobby, "whereas in the 1980s it's
hard to blackmail anybody, [except
maybe the Pollard casel. Now, it's
cash, drugs, or women, things to
make one's lifestyle more pleasant."
He added: "The sad thing is the
Americans volunteer it."
The former deputy CIA director
said Bill Case didn't work with
Con soma a oversight effec-
tive, hence his failure as CIA direc-
tor. On the arms-to-Iran hullabaloo:
"It was terribly short-sighted. The
government doesn't ask what if it
doesn't work? Or what is the cost of
failure?"
Another Texan, playwright Larry
King, is.thinking ahead. He says his
58th birthday, just a few months
ago, inspired his latest play, "The
Golden Shadows Old West Mu-
seum;" about an 88-year-old, crip-
pled former rodeo cowboy trying to
recapture his youth. He wrote the
play, which takes place in an old
folks' home in Texas, in just 17
days. It opens at Memphis State
University April 30. He hopes to
have his novel "War Movies:' about
the World War II homefront, com-
pleted by that date, and off to Vi-
king press.
STATINTL
Steve Tlrott, the assistant at-
torney general, joins his old
gang, The Highwaymen, for
a 25th-reunion concert in
June at his alma mater, Wesleyan
University in Middletown, Conn.
He was a member of the group that
received a gold record for their
1961 recording of "Michael Row
Your Boat Ashore.'
TedKen watchers are amazed
that the senator has stuck to his
diet and shed about 50 pounds. In
the of days one would have swore
he was running.
- Karen Feld
has;' observed the former deputy Attorney Adam Yar-
CIA director, who now as chief ex- molinsky, provost of the
ecutive officer of the Austin-based University of Maryland
company, Wesmark, can once again in Baltimore, sold the
revel in Texas folklore. book completed by his late wife,
George Mahon of Texas, the Jane, just before her death last De-
longtime chairman of the Defense cember. "Angels Without Wings: A
Appropriations subcommittee, left Tragedy Created A Remarkable
a strong impression on the admiral. Family," will be published by
In 1975, the chairman introduced Houghton Mifflin in the fall. It's the
o r ' f the intelligence com- story of how she and her then hus-
mittee into an ongoing function of band, writer Kurt Vonnegut,
Congress. brought up their four nephews
Adm. Inman was one of the early whose parents died within a day of
witnesses detailing submarine re- one other, along with their own
connaissance at those closed hear- three children. One of them, Mark
ings. "We got our budget, and there . Vonnegut, wrote "Eden Express."
were no leaks out of those hear-
ings;" he recalled. When asked if he
has considered running for political
office, Bobby said the fund-raising
process today has discouraged him,-
Adm. Inman chaired a panel in
1984 to look at security of overseas
missions, specifically terrorism,
but also the potential loss of clas-
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 STATINTL
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NORFOLK, VA
A former director of the National Security Agency who chaired a panel
studying embassy security in 1984 said Wednesday he believes the breach of
security at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow is not an isolated incident.
"You can be reasonably sure that (U.S.) embassies in the Eastern bloc ..,
will have-been subject to similar compromises," said retired Navy Adm. B.R.
"'Bobby " Inma L
Inman said, however, he was unaware of other embassies with security problems
involving Marine guards, but said he was confident the same espionage traps
could be laid for civilians.
Inman, who retired from the Navy in 1982, also served as director of Naval
Intelligence and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
He now serves as chairman and chief executive officer of Westmark Systems
Inc., an Austin, Texas-based defense industry holding company.
Inman said he was briefed in Washington on Tuesday about problems with the
new U.S. Embassy in Moscow, which is said to be riddled with eavesdropping
devices, and the breach of security at the old embassy involving two Marine
guards who have been charged with espionage.
Another Marine was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of spying and having
contacts with Soviet women while at the American consulate, the Pentagon said.
He has not yet been charged with a crime.
Pickup7thgraf: "
"I am not surprised at any of the stories about the new building ... but I
was surprised about the evidence of the suborning of the Marines,'' Inman said.
''This failure goes right at the heart of their primary mission for being on
station'" the retired admiral said. "I still have some concerns that we are
not yet at the bottom this.''
Inman was in Norfolk to address a seminar at Virginia Wesleyan College.
Afterward, reporters aueried him about security problems at the U.S. Embassy.
Inman expressed support for President Reagan's position that the new embassy
in Moscow will be torn down if it cannot be protected from eavesdropping. Until
security questions about the building are resolved, Reagan has indicated that
Soviet diplomats will not be allowed to occupy their new embassy in Washington.
In 1984, Inman chaired a panel that studied the terrorism threat and the
security of U.S. embassies.
The panel made 93 recommendations to the State Department, including one to
withdraw all Soviet employees from the U.S. Embassy. The proposal, Inman said,
met with resistance.
The two former Marine guards are accused of allowing KGB agents to enter
top-secret areas of the mission.
The Marines allegedly had sexual affairs with Soviet women working at the
embassy, and one such affair led to the security breach. The entire 28-man
contingent was called back to the United States for interrogation.
The United States may have to consider using older or possibly married
Marines as embassy guards so they will not be as easily swayed by the
inducements of female companionship, Inman said.
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Twl._
ON PAGE ~ CHICAGO TRIBUNE
6 April 1987
Security breac eer s STATINTL
spook U.S.
By Nicholas M. Horrock
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON-In the last
five years, foreign intelligence
agents have penetrated every
major U.S. national security de-
partment, but congressional
aides and security officials say
Reagan administration efforts to
guard secrets have been halting,
disorganized and ineffectual.
In the annals of Cold War
espionage, the record of recent
years is amazing. Spies have
been discovered in the FBI, the
CIA, the armed forces, the De-
fense Intelligence Agency, the
National Security Agency, a
range of private defense contrac-
tors and in U.S. embassies
abroad.
The recently uncovered exten-
sive Soviet penetration of the
U.S. Embassy in Moscow
through the Marine guards as-
signed there, according to these
sources, is only the latest in a
series of cases where counter-
intelligence officials and the
Reagan administration ignored
danger signals and recommenda-
tions to tighten security.
One congressional expert, who
asked not to be quoted by name,
said that in many cases there is
clear evidence that counter-
intelligence officials did not
properly heed strong warning
signs of espionage activity.
In the Marine case, for in-
stance, Robert Lamb, the State
Department security chief, ac-
knowledged that agents did not
follow up properly when Cpl.
Arnold Bracy told them he had
fraternized with a Soviet woman
employee of the agency.
But the Moscow embassy, key
sources said, may be only a
small part of the problem in
U.S. facilities behind the Iron
Curtain. An expert who has
made a major study of this
problem said that a whole range
of young Americans-secretar-
ies, Marine guards and younger
foreign service officers-may
have been entrapped into
espionage by communist intelli-
gence services.
He cited one instance in the
U.S. Embassy in Budapest,
where security officials dis-
covered that the barred window
to the Marine quarters in the
embassy had been modified to
permit people to enter the build-
ing.
The only guards were on the
Continued
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first floor, and this secret entrance
Cpl. Arnold Bracy
vast inconsistencies in the stan-
dards used for the various security
c arances and over who should
receive them.
After violent attacks on U.S. fa-
on the top floor permitted
Hungarian intelligence operatives
a free run of the upper floors. It
suggested that this had been done
with the assistance of marines who
wanted to bring in visitors.
These sources said there has
been wrangling in several instances
over how to improve security
abroad.
For instance, former CIA Direc-
tor Stansfield Turner had ordered
that marines who supervised secu-
rity at the construction of the new
U.S. Embassy in Moscow be given
polygraph tests upon their return
to the United States. Turner
hoped to discover whether they
had been compromised and the
new embassy penetrated. is out of the question."
But when the Reagan adminis- In the Walker spy ring case,
tration came into office, Defense Jerry Whitworth, a naval petty of-
Secretary Caspar Weinberger and ficer who sold codes and ciphers
Secretary of State George Shultz to the Soviets through retired
countermanded the order on the Navy Chief WO John A. Walker
grounds that marines shouldn't for hundreds of thousands of dol-
face such an indignity. lars, lived a luxurious life but
The breakdowns in procedure never attracted the attention of se-
have not been overseas alone. curity agents. In 1983, when many
Well-placed intelligence sources enlisted service people were living
said that Jonathan Pollard, the just above the poverty line,
naval intelligence analyst con- Whitworth's wife hired a Rolls-
victed of passing thousands of Royce and a chauffeur to pick him
documents to Israeli agents, lost up when the USS Enterprise dock-
his security clearance because of ed in San Diego.
emotional instability more than a In the 1970s, senior naval sub-
year before his spying was dis- marine experts became convinced
covered. that there was a leak in naval
"He was bananas," said one ex- communications because the Sovi-
pert, "but he managed to persuade
et forces were much more adept at
the Navy to restore his clearance tracking American ships than they
because he was going to accuse had ever been. But counter-
them of discrimination, anti-Semi- intelligence officers dismissed the
tism, if they withheld it. They danger. At that time, John Walker,
took the easy route and returned
it." the record now shows, was sup-
Edward Lee Howard, a CIA in- plying the Soviets with valuable
telligence officer who defected to data from Atlantic fleet headquar-
the Soviet Union after being dis- ters in Newport News, Va
missed by the CIA, had "an in- As the espionage cases mounted
credible record" of drug abuse and over the last few years, there has
alcoholism while at the CIA, ac- been one internal investigation
cording to these sources. Never- after another. When President
theless, he was given highly sensi- Reagan ordered a massive new re-
tive training and indoctrination to assessment of damage last week,
work at the CIA station in the em- one cynical security expert sug-
bassy in Moscow. He is now be- gested it was "simply to appear to
lieved to have assisted the KGB,` be doing something."
the Soviet security service, in plan- Retired Army Gen. Richard
ning ways to penetrate the embas- Stilwell, an intelligence expert in
sy through the Marine guard force. three wars, headed one commis-
Howard's vulnerability to ex- sion that wrote a scathing analysis
ploitation by the Soviets was ig- of the defense counterintelligence
nored by the CIA because of what efforts. It found duplication, thou-
an expert calls "arrogance [that] sands of unnecessary security
demonstrates a false sense of in- clearances and confused and poor-
vulnerability on the part of the ly directed regulations. tied by the Reagan administration.
tehsive investigation of embassy
security worldwide that found vast
gaps both in physical' security and
mi protection of communications
and codes.
A secret portion of his report
contained severe warnings about
security in the Moscow embassy
where the Soviets had been dis-
covered bugging typewriters with a
device that could record the mes-
sages they were typing. The rec-
ommendations contained in this
report have not been fully im-
plemented
The Senate Select. Committee on
Intelligence wrote a detailed report
on security gape and what should
be done about them- that was pub-
lished last year. It was not until
Tanuary that the Reagan adminis-
tr tion submitted a counter-'
intelli#ence plan sought by the
committee, and experts in Con- :
gress and within the administra-
tion privately admit that little has
been done.
One law-enforcement expert,
who asked not be the identified by :
name, agency or title, said the
central problem seems to be that
no one person in government is ?
responsible for catching spies.
"Counterintelligence people in
the agencies are dial twirlers; they.
check to see if safes are locked, they
:
the expert said. "They see their
job as racking up security clearan-
ces; you know, how many people
can they clear in a year."
The FBI, he claims, is an inves-
tigative agency that sees its role as
investigating espionage cases.
"They keep track of the Soviet
bloc agents, and considering the
time and money they have they
probably do a good job," he said.
"But they don't actively look for
Americans who have turned coat."
One key element, according to
congressional experts, has been the
absence of follow-up on what is'
happening to men and women
who have had access to top secret
material but have left their govern-
ment posts or other jobs.
Ronald Pelton, a communica-
tions specialist for the National
Security Agency, sold key pro-
grams to the Soviets after he left
the agency because he was down
on. his luck. Pelton also had severe
and alcohol problems.
This issue has been raised in sev-
eral - major reports, but never set-
agency. It i ~Ci drt yfps%p ifS nLl IT 71f 01 A .ft9 Tc~d l' 't :nt t Terry
you're in, 1 , ve ee ade,ter ar t co u o so
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ON PAGE ..it A ~
NEW YORK TIMES
3 April 1987
REAGAN WAS TOLD
IN '85 OF PROBLEM
IN MOSCOW EMBASSY
Advisory Panel Told Him That
Soviet Employees Posed
Serious Security Risk
~- By STEPHEN ENGELBERG
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, April 2 - A secret
report sent to President Reagan y his
advisory panel on intelligence w
.Zqars ago warned that the UniTe-d
fates massy in Moscow was
nera e to
men officials said ay.
The officials, some.of whom have
'been critical of they State Department,
said that the report helped persuade
Mr. Reagan to approve a plan to reduce
the number of Soviet employees in the
embassy, but that it prompted few ap-
preciable changes in security proce-
dures.
The report was prepared by the
President's Foreign Intel ieence Advi-
sory Board a group of private citizens
iw io c on uctt independent reviews of in-
telligence issues.
guards as a security risk, these people
said.
Last year, the entire issue of Soviet
employees became moot when the
Soviet Government ordered all of them
out of the embassy in retaliation for a
United States order to reduce Soviet
diplomatic personnel in the United
States.
In the continuing Inquiry into possi-
ble security breaches by two Marine
embassy guards in Moscow, the State
Department announced today that all
embassy employees would be ques-
tioned Charles E. Redman, the State
Department spokesman, said the se-
curity officer at the embassy,; Fred-
erick Merke, was being recalleitt'o as-
sist in the inquiry.
After the intelligence advisory board
completed its report, another advisory
commission, on embassy security.
headed byAdm. Bobby R. Inmanlor-
mer Deputy ulYec r ntr Intelli-
gence, reached the same conclusions.
Its report prompted Secretary of State
George P. Shultz to order changes in
the Moscow embassy.
Department Called Resistant
But officials outside the State De-
partment contend that it was still
resistant, particularly when it came to
reducing the number of Soviet employ-
ees. The two Marine guards have ac-
knowledged to investigators that their
espionage activities began after they
were seduced by Soviet women work-
ing in the embassy.
A spate of espionage cases in thei
United States also led to demands by
members of Congress to eliminate the
practice of having Soviet citizens work-
ing in the embassy and to cut back on
the size of the Soviet diplomatic pres-
ence in the United States.
Isr Congressional testimony and in
private conversations, State Depart-
ment officials argued that the Soviet
employees helped the diplomats cope
with the Soviet bureaucracy on such
issues as arranging travel and expedit.
ing imports through customs.
They said Americans who would
have to be recruited to replace them
would be susceptible to enticement by
Soviet agents. Members of Congress
and Administration officials said that
Arthur A. Hartman, the departing Am-
bassador, was one of the strongest op-
ponents of the plans to reduce or elimi-
nate the Soviet employees.
"They were nonchalant about securi-
ty," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy-she -P
Vermont Democrat an ormer vice
chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee. "They let the Soviets have
free run of the embassy. They don't,
seem to realize that the Moscow em-~
bassy was the candy store for the
F-G.B."
Senator Leahy said a secret version,
of the committee's 1986 report on coun-
terintelligence had called the State De-'
partment lax in the embassy.
Robert E. Lamb, the head of the
State Department's Bureau of Diplo-
matic Security, acknowledged in a re-
cent interview that the various reports
had essentially called on the Foreign
Service to change long-held . view
about security. ATINTL
"
"
he said.
It is a question of time,
a major cultural change in the last two!
years, and it has been a painful change
as a result of the Inman report."
Government officials critical of the
State Department today provided new
'details about the planting of Soviet
monitoring devices in embassy type-
writers.
According to these officials, ques-
tions were first raised in the 1970's,,
"The Foreign Service has gone through
when other embassies in Moscow re-
ported having. discovered such devices.
In 1978, an antenna was found in the
chimney of the embassy, and officials
now believe that it was. probably
'moved up and down to pick up signals
from the devices in typewriters on
various floors.
A team of Investigators sent to Mos-
cow in 1979 found nothing, according to
the officials, who theorize that the Rus-
sians had been alerted.
The devices were finally uncovered
in 1984, but later, Soviet agents were
able to Introduce a new technology, in
which the signals from the electric
typewriters were carried out of the em-
bassy building through the typewriter
power cords.
Ross Perot Reportedly Resigned
A person familiar with the board's
work said today that H. Ross Perot, the
Texas billionaire, resigned from the
panel in disgust in the spring of 1985 be-
cause the Government had failed to
heed the recommendations about the
embassy in Moscow.
The source said that at one of the
board's hearings, a State Department
official said it would be too expensive
to replace the Soviet employees of the
embassy with Americans. Mr. Perot
replied that he would be willing to pay
for it out of his own pocket, the source
said. Mr. Perot declined to comment to-
day.
The report by the advisory board
said the 200 Soviet nationals then em-
ployed at the embassy were a security
threat. It said they could pick up infor-
mation by contacts with Americans or
by entering sensitive areas, according
to people familiar with its content. The
document did not single out the Marine
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 RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH (VA)
Approved For Release 2008/%W: Q ARDP91-00901R0005002~
Efforts to topple governments
often backfire, Inman says
By Overton McGehee
Times-Dispatch state staff
HAMPDEN-SYDNEY - Covert ef-
forts to overthrow foreign govern-
ments often backfire in the long run, a
former director of the National Secu-
rity Agency told an audience at
Hampden-Svdtlev Coles on Tuesday
"I think, by and large, when you set
out to try to bring about a change of
government, you run into trouble,"
according to retired Adm. Bobby Ray
1 Inm, who served as ere ctor o nnaa-
val intelligence and deputy director
of the Central Intelligence Agency, as
well as NSA disesS
"The shah came back with our help
and reigned a few years but are we
better off now in Iran as a result?" he
asked.
Inman tied together the U.S. expe-
rience in intelligence activities for
more than a century and commented
on situations around the globe and in
the White House.
Covert operations have a place, he
said, but attempts to overthrow gov-
ernments have often been counter-
productive.
"I am not nearly as much an enthu-
siast of covert operations as some of
my confreres down at the intelligence
agencies.
"I don't have any difficulty at all
with the basic concept of countering
Soviet propaganda efforts.... [but]
I'm not all that enthusiastic about
meddling in elections.
"I never saw an instance where the
idea of covert operations originated
at the CIA."
Usually, he said, interference in
foreign governments began with a re-
quest from State Department offi-
cials frustrated by an inability to cre-
ate change through political and
diplomatic channels.
Supporting unpopular govern-
ments has also caused problems for
foreign policy, Inman said. He used
Anastasio Somoza, former dictator of
Nicaragua, and ex-President Ferdi-
nand E. Marcos of the Phillipines as
examples.
1982 file photo
Adm. Bobby Ray Inman
'We never seem to learn'
"Nicaragua is a classic case ... of
the difficulty this democracy has in
detatching itself from a leadership
that is clearly about to lose power.
"We were luckier in the Phillipines
than we had any right to have ever
expected.
"The lesson I would learn out of
Vietnam ... is that it is very difficult
to get along with an unfriendly gov-
ernment but it's even harder to prop
up people ... who can't govern and
who don't have any support to govern.
Inman, 55, is a native of Rhones-
boro. Texas, where his father ran a
gas station. His military career was a
rapid climb from Navy decoder in the
early 1950s to head of NSA in the late
1970s. He reached the rank of full
admiral at 49.
Inman moved from director of na-
val intelligence to director of the NSA
in 1977 and became deputy director of
the CIA in 1981. He retired in 1982
after 18 months in the CIA.
This year, Inman left the consor-
tium to become president of West-
mark Systems, a holding company
that - seeks to acquire defense elec-
tronics contracting companies and to
develop products more quickly than
is normal at large corporations.
Although Inman advocated limita-
tions on the covert side of foreign
intelligence, he argued for the need
for more knowledge of "what's going
on around the world."
The strongest building period for
intelligence gathering was from 1947
to 1958, he said, and there were con-
stant reductions from 1967 to 1981.
Inman said he approached the am-
bassador in Iran in 1978 about putting
additional intelligence officers there
and was rebuffed. The ambassador
said he had all the information he
needed, Inman said.
"All it would have taken was some
good, bright people with language
ability to sit in the coffee houses and
mosques, to understand how quickly
the attitudes were shifting away from
the shah," Inman said.
"At the time of the hostage rescue
operation, within the U.S govern-
ment, available to the intelligence
community, there were 26 people in
total who spoke Farsi, and only three
well enough to understand two excit-
ed Iranians '5iking to each other."
Inman called the Iran-contra con-0
troversy "a classic case of the disrup-
tion of government when you put peo-
ple in jobs to be ideological
watchdogs, not for their degree of
competence as staff persons to devel-
op sound and sensible ideas and
options."
He said he doubts that Reagan
knew about the entire plan.
"Was he told? Probably, in the
course of a morning briefing, along
with 18 other items.
"Will people go to jail? I think prob-
ably so.
"Not because their early actions
turn out to be in violation of law but
for obstruction of justice, for destroy-
ing files. We never seem to learn.
"True confessions are not only good
for the soul but they're also good for
making sure you don't end up with
much larger problems later nn."
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