Marine Says He Warned of Lax Security 4 Years Ago

The State Department was warned four years ago that security problems existed at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow but nothing was done about the situation, a retired Marine officer told Congress on Wednesday.

David Mabry, a retired colonel who was formerly commander of the Marine security guard battalion that supplies guards for U.S. embassies, said he issued the warning in August, 1983, after he visited Marines at the Moscow embassy.

Mabry said he talked with a dozen Marine guards during a five-day stay at the embassy, and “all of them felt that security was not important at the embassy, that there were problems that weren’t being addressed.”

Embassy Informed

Mabry said “the information was turned over to the embassy,” but he believed nothing was done.

State Department spokeswoman Jo Harbin said the department had heard of Mabry’s comments but had not yet issued a statement in response.

Mabry testified before the House Armed Services military personnel subcommittee as part of the panel’s investigation in the Marine spy scandal at the Moscow embassy. Four guards were arrested for allegedly passing information to the Soviets.

Mabry said that during the time he headed the Marine security guard detachment, he visited 108 posts where Marine guards are stationed and “without a doubt, Moscow was the worst.”

“The issue was, there was no security at that post,” he told the panel.

Meanwhile Wednesday, an investigator testified at Marine Sgt. Clayton J. Lonetree’s court-martial in Quantico, Va., that the former U.S. Embassy guard in Moscow fabricated part of his confession to espionage charges last December.

Special Navy investigator David Moyer also said Lonetree told him during an interrogation last Christmas Eve in Vienna: “The one thing that concerns me, I let my buddies down in the Marines.”

Moyer’s testimony came during cross-examination by defense lawyers for Lonetree, who is being court-martialed in the sex-for-secrets scandal that led to the recall of the entire 28-guard contingent at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

Lonetree is the only Marine facing espionage charges in the scandal.