Lawmaker Accuses State Dept. of Gross Ineptitude

A member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee today accused the State Department at a congressional hearing of “gross ineptitude (and) gross stupidity” for allowing foreign contractors without security clearances to work on U.S. diplomatic missions in Moscow and the Middle East.

And the chairman of the subcommittee on International Operations, Rep. Daniel A. Mica (D-Fla.), said he understands that it will take “between five and 10 years” to clear the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow of electronic listening devices allegedly implanted by Soviet construction workers.

Assistant Secretary of State Robert Lamb acknowledged that “until the end of last calendar year,” the department had allowed foreign engineering and construction firms without security clearances to work on overseas U.S. missions.

Angry Questions

Rep. Larry Smith (D-Fla.) asked angrily: “Which means that we don’t know that any of these couldn’t have given all the blueprints . . . to anybody who might have paid them or didn’t even pay them? So the Soviets could have the blueprints for everything that was being built for the United States overseas for the last 10 years?”

“Yes, sir. That’s a possibility,” responded Lamb.

“Then I am going to tell you that, for one congressman, I think that the State Department has acted with gross negligence, gross ineptitude, gross stupidity,” thundered Smith.

“You are playing with people’s lives. These admissions are disgraceful,” he said. “I think that anything that happens is laid squarely on your doorstep. You are responsible for these security breaches.”

The department came under fire from Mica, as well, who said that members of Congress who visited Moscow last week were told by an embassy official that “we don’t really handle all that much classified material.”

‘That Burns Me Up’

“That burns me up. . . . I am going to find out who that was, if I can,” said Mica.

Lamb said in response that, “The classified work that is done in Moscow is both substantial and important.”

Mica visited Moscow earlier this month with the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, Rep. Olympia J. Snowe of Maine.

“The best experts . . . told us it would take one to two years to make an absolute technical determination as to whether or not the building could be used. Contractors told us it would be at least three years to complete the job,” said Mica. And he said the experts agreed that “somewhere between five and 10 years” was a realistic estimate for occupancy.