Snowe, Mica May Urge Razing of Both U.S., Soviet Embassies : Moscow Probers Suggest Guards Not Be Marines

Two members of Congress probing security lapses in the sex-for-secrets scandal said today they might recommend that the new American Embassy in Moscow and the Soviet Embassy in Washington both be destroyed.

They said security arrangements at the current U.S. Embassy are seriously flawed and problems involved in making a new embassy complex fully secure are severe.

“We might recommend that it be demolished,” said Rep. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Me.), adding that the United States could consider destroying a new Soviet Embassy in Washington as well.

Snowe and Rep. Daniel A. Mica (D-Fla.), in Moscow to assess security risks after the arrests of U.S. Marines charged with spying at the embassy, also said American missions in East Bloc countries should no longer be guarded by Marines.

Apathetic to Security

Mica and Snowe said they found serious shortcomings in the current embassy’s alarm system and a lax attitude toward security among key personnel.

The legislators, who arrived in Moscow on Sunday, were reviewing security ahead of a visit by Secretary of State George P. Shultz next week for talks on arms control and other sensitive issues.

They told reporters they had visited every area of the old embassy, had scrutinized the procedures of the Marine guards and had concluded the mission could not be considered secure.

“We continue to think . . . that we should operate on the basis that that facility is fully compromised, indeed that it has been penetrated,” Mica declared.

10-Year Project

He added that he believed it would take up to 10 years to ensure total security at the new $190-million embassy complex under construction behind the current facility.

Senior U.S. officials have been quoted as saying that the new complex, built of Soviet-made prefabricated construction modules, could be implanted with electronic listening devices.

Mica, whose House subcommittee on international operations oversees U.S. diplomatic security around the world, and Snowe, also a member of the panel, declined to describe the security problems at the new complex.

But they said the earliest possible date for its completion is at least five years away, and given security problems at the current facility they would recommend that Shultz urgently examine interim measures to improve present conditions.

Alarm System Inadequate

Among their major findings, they listed the lack of event recorders in the embassy’s alarm system, making after-hours security dependent on the trustworthiness of duty guards who could give unauthorized individuals access to sensitive areas.

“It all came down to a point where only two people could override the entire system, all the electronics equipment, all the physical security and all the clearances and training that went with the people who had the documents,” Mica said.

They said they had also found a negative attitude toward the Marine guards among key embassy personnel, with 137 security violations recorded last year including safes left open overnight and classified documents left unattended.

The legislators recommended that State Department security personnel and Marines be required to take lie-detector tests upon their assignment to embassy posts, and said the use of Marine guards could be unsuitable in sensitive regions.