Irate House Panel Subpoenas Files on Embassy’s Security

A House subcommittee today accused the State Department of withholding information on security problems at the Moscow embassy and subpoenaed department files on the matter.

“I am shocked and chagrined that the State Department would act in this way when they had indicated that they would cooperate,” said Rep. Daniel A. Mica (D-Fla.), chairman of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee on overseas operations. He accused the department of forming a special task force to interfere with the panel’s investigation.

The State Department confirmed that a task force had been formed, but its spokesman said the intent is to help the panel.

The panel voted 6 to 0, with three absent, to issue the subpoena for files dealing with security procedures at the present U.S. Embassy in Moscow, with the building still under construction to replace it, and possibly with other American missions in the Soviet Bloc.

Mica and the ranking Republican on the committee, Rep. Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, launched their investigation after allegations that two U.S. Marines allowed KGB agents into the current embassy and that Soviet workers had implanted so many listening devices in the new building that President Reagan may order it torn down.

‘Effort to Bury Us’

Mica strode into the hearing room 15 minutes late, followed by an aide carrying a box of documents that he said State Department officials sent over this morning in an attempt to ward off the subpoena.

“In the last 20 minutes, I think in an effort to maybe bury us in paper work rather than get a subpoena, they just sent over this batch of documents. My staff has quickly gone through them, and it appears that in some instances that some of the documents we are looking for are not in here either,” said Mica.

“Most of this is classified, but some of it we are aware of is damning to certain individuals, about their role with regard to security. I think I better stop right there,” he said, declining to name the individuals.

‘Tabs Were Empty’

“We asked for documents from the State Department over the last several weeks regarding security at the Moscow embassy. And they sent us two three-ring binder notebooks,” he told the hearing.

“In looking through the notebooks, we found that the tabs were empty,” Mica said. “We have information from several sources that these tabs did indeed contain information, and that in their haste to pull the information out, they forgot to erase the index. So they have given us copies of booklets from which the information has been pulled out.”

At the State Department, spokesman Charles E. Redman said that a computer search had produced thousands of documents about embassy security and that a task force was assigned to determine which were relevant to the committee’s request.