U.S. Recalls Its Moscow Security Chief

The State Department Thursday called home the security chief of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Frederick Mecke, as part of the spreading investigation of the Marine spy scandal.

State Department spokesman Charles Redman said that Mecke, who will leave Moscow as soon as his replacement arrives, will confer in Washington “with various security officials.” The Marine Corps earlier this week ordered all 28 Marine guards to return to the United States for interrogation in the espionage case.

Mecke is the civilian supervisor of the Marine embassy detachment. Redman said that department investigators intend to question all staff members who worked in the embassy at the same time as Sgt. Clayton J. Lonetree and Cpl. Arnold Bracy, two former Marine guards accused of passing secrets to the Soviets and of allowing KGB agents to roam at night through sensitive areas of the embassy.

Visit by Shultz

Meanwhile, Redman said, State Department security officials are determined to make sure that the embassy is secure by the time Secretary of State George P. Shultz arrives there on April 13 for talks with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze.

“The secretary will be able to do what he needs to do,” Redman said.

The Times reported Wednesday that security at the embassy might have been so compromised that Shultz would not be able to talk there without fear of being overheard. U.S. officials confirmed that the Marine scandal has increased the danger of Soviet eavesdropping, although they said Soviet surveillance is always so widespread that diplomats in Moscow must routinely take precautions against hidden microphones and other devices.