Panel Urges Demolition of U.S. Chancery : Structure in Moscow Filled With Listening Devices, Senators Say

The Senate Intelligence Committee, in a report that almost certainly will be adopted into legislation by Congress, Wednesday recommended that the new, $23-million United States chancery building in Moscow be demolished because it is riddled with eavesdropping equipment planted by the Kremlin.

The committee’s 18-page report also suggests that Soviet diplomats be forced to leave their new residence on the highest hill in Washington, D.C., because they are believed to be using it as a listening post to spy on U.S. government offices. Conservatives have branded the Soviet building as a “spy nest.”

Follows 1972 Agreement

The new U.S. chancery in Moscow, part of a $190-million embassy complex, is being built under the terms of a 1972 U.S.-Soviet agreement that also provides for the construction of the new Soviet Embassy complex in Washington. Diplomats from both countries now occupy the residential buildings, but the chancery offices are unoccupied.

Reagan Administration officials have been reluctant to tear down the new U.S. chancery in Moscow, even though State Department officials have been aware since construction began in 1979 that the Soviets were filling the structure with bugging devices. State Department security officials have contended for years that the Soviet bugs could be “neutralized” with U.S. technological expertise.

The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded, to the contrary, that the State Department should waste no more time in trying to undo with American technology the damage that Soviet construction workers did by implanting electronic eavesdropping devices in the structure of the U.S. offices. The committee said that an effort to remove the bugs would probably delay completion of the chancery longer than simply tearing it down and building a new one.

“The building is extensively and cleverly penetrated,” the report said. “While the details of this system remain classified, it is clearly sophisticated and will be extremely difficult--if not impossible--to counter fully.”

Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Me.) added that the building has been so thoroughly bugged by the Soviets that it is little more than “a giant antenna” for use by the KGB.

The committee’s recommendation was based on information provided to the committee by the State Department and the CIA. Cohen indicated that the CIA supported the proposal to demolish the building while the State Department opposed it.

No Cost Estimate

The committee offered no estimate of how much the demolition and rebuilding would cost the U.S. government. The government already has spent $23 million of the $65 million originally allocated for the building.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is soon expected to recommend withdrawing the unspent funds. Legislation requiring demolition of the building is likely to be passed by Congress as part of an emergency supplemental spending measure for the current fiscal year.

The original agreement for construction of the embassy facilities provided that both sides would move into the new facilities at the same time. The Russians have been prevented from using their chancery until the American Embassy is ready, although some private quarters in the compound are in use.

The Intelligence Committee reported that the KGB viewed the construction of a new U.S. Embassy in Moscow as “an extraordinary espionage opportunity” and “created an elaborate bureaucratic infrastructure to conceive, develop and implement a penetration program that would take full advantage of the opportunity.”

Meanwhile, according to the committee, the United States “did not employ a systematic, stringent security program to detect and prevent Soviet technical penetration efforts” of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Nor did U.S. officials insist on the same control over construction of their embassy in Moscow as the Soviets demanded in Washington, the report said.

Soviets on Site

The report listed a number of examples of ways that U.S. officials were--in the words of Committee Chairman David L. Boren (D-Okla.)--”incredibly naive” about the KGB’s surveillance abilities. Among other things, the Soviets had about 30 of their own personnel on the Washington construction site to supervise 100 American construction workers while the U.S. left 30 Navy Seabees to watch 800 Soviet workers in Moscow.

Boren said that the Soviets drove several American construction firms off the job with the exacting standards they placed on security at the Washington construction site while U.S. officials in Moscow “seemed afraid of offending” the Soviet citizens working on the building in Moscow. The report added that the United States was willing to sacrifice security to preserve the pace of construction and keep costs down.

In addition, Cohen said, U.S. officials grossly underestimated the Soviet’s ability to bug the chancery. While the precise bugging system used by the Soviets is still top secret, he indicated that it far exceeds the electronic capabilities of the United States.

“We are in the dark ages compared to what they’ve done,” Cohen said. “There is a constant problem that we underestimate the Russians in terms of technology.”

In addition to demolishing the building, the committee also recommended consolidation of embassy security into one office at the State Department, establishment of a Senate task force and an outside advisory panel to oversee embassy security and replacement of foreign nationals working as staff in high-risk embassies with Americans.

Guard Recommendations

Although the bugging of the U.S. chancery has received more attention since two U.S. Marines were charged with allowing Soviet spies access to the current embassy compound, the committee’s recommendation was not prompted by the incident. To prevent future spying incidents, the panel recommended that the State Department recruit married Marines for posts such as Moscow and prohibit them from serving longer than six to nine months.

The committee did not unanimously agree that the Soviets should be evacuated from their new embassy on Washington’s highest hill, Mt. Alto. But the report said that such a move should be considered by the Administration. Earlier in the day, Sen. Steve Symms (R-Ida.) and Rep. Dick Armey (R-Tex.) announced that they will introduce legislation requiring that the Soviet Embassy in Washington be moved to another site not more than 150 feet above sea level.