Lie Tests Urged for Guards at U.S. Embassies

Marine guards at embassies should be subject to random lie detector tests, an internal Navy study has concluded, Pentagon sources said Monday.

In addition, the Marine Corps and State Department should abandon their practice of relying on senior noncommissioned officers to head up embassy guard units, said the study ordered in the aftermath of a sex-and-spy scandal involving the Marine guard force at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

American intelligence agencies should also work to improve their sharing of information on potential espionage threats to U.S. personnel abroad, and the State Department should better delineate its policies regarding contacts with foreign citizens, the report added.

Those recommendations, disclosed by Pentagon officials who asked not to be named, are contained in a recently completed internal study performed by the Navy’s inspector general.

The sources said the study was forwarded within the last week or so to Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and to the State Department.

The inspector general’s study was conducted independently of the Naval Investigative Service, which is spearheading the investigation that so far has led to the arrests of three Marines on spying charges.

Navy officials have been overseeing both efforts, because the Marine Corps is part of that service.

The inspector general’s recommendations are expected to be incorporated into a new plan to tighten embassy security, particularly in communist countries, now under formulation by the State Department, the sources added.

Pentagon and Navy spokesmen refused to discuss the inspector general’s report Monday, describing it as confidential.