The Nation : Report Scores Envoy to Moscow, Marines

A secret presidential study harshly criticized State Department officials, the U.S. ambassador and the Marines for neglecting security at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, where a sex-for-secrets scandal erupted last year. “A fundamental reorientation of the way we do business in the Soviet Union is critical,” said the report by a blue-ribbon panel appointed by President Reagan last spring and headed by former Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird. The report was submitted to the State Department, which has refused to release it. The Associated Press was shown a copy of the report, the result of the panel’s work from May 7 until July 17. The report scores the ambassador for his “aloof” management style, calls working conditions at the embassy a “national disgrace” and says Marine guards tolerated and then covered up incidents of misconduct.