-Caveat Lector-
December 10, 1999 --Wall Street Journal
Questions Arise Over Planting
Of Bug at State Department
By NEIL KING JR.
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- The Russian bugging of a State
Department conference room poses serious questions of
how a sophisticated eavesdropping device was placed in the
building and has raised suspicions that Moscow might have
had the help of an insider, federal officials said.
In an age of high-tech spycraft, some aspects of the latest
espionage flap between Moscow and Washington seem
almost comical. Federal agents who nabbed Russian
intelligence agent Stanislav Borisovich Gusev outside the
State Department Wednesday described his movements as
"crude," saying he had loitered around the building in
Washington's Foggy Bottom district since early summer,
sometimes sitting in his car wearing headphones.
Yet once federal agents realized what he was up to in the
early fall, it took them weeks to find what they call a
sophisticated "listening and transmittal device" planted in
a seventh-floor conference room. How the gadget got there,
agents said, remains the investigation's chief mystery.
Only a professional could have planted the device, which
U.S. officials said was made to order and would have
required at least two visits to install. Investigators
said they were weighing all possibilities as to how the
bug got there including the chance that it was an inside
job.
"The mere fact that the Russians did this is extremely
sensitive," said one U.S. official. "This is a very bold
operation."
Although planted in a room on the department's executive
floor, the device wasn't located within the suite of Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright or any of her top deputies. U.S.
officials say that there were 50 to 100 meetings in the room
before they detected the device, though they are still
investigating who attended and what subjects were
addressed.
Officials say the bug would begin to transmit only after the
54-year-old Mr. Gusev activated it by remote control from
outside the building.
The brief detention of Mr. Gusev, who was given 10 days to
leave the country, comes a week after Russian officials
apprehended an American diplomat in Moscow whom they
say was spying for the Central Intelligence Agency. U.S.
authorities said Mr. Gusev's capture Wednesday wasn't
retaliation for the incident.
It also isn't known why Mr. Gusev appeared to make little
effort to disguise his activities. He appeared outside State
Department headquarters several times a week, usually
driving a car bearing diplomatic license plates, officials at
the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. He often took
pains to jockey his car into a position ideal for picking up
transmissions. When not sitting in the car, Mr. Gusev would
hang around in a nearby park or relax on a bench.
Intelligence experts said the listening device was clearly too
weak to send its signals farther than a few blocks, therefore
requiring Mr. Gusev to get as close to the building as
possible. The FBI declined to provide details about the
bug's size or precisely how it functioned.
Typical of the diplomatic niceties that
surround international espionage, the
FBI held Mr. Gusev for only three
hours before turning him over to
Russian Embassy officials.
Described as a veteran of the Russian
successor to the Soviet KGB, Mr. Gusev has diplomatic
immunity and can't be prosecuted in the U.S.
Russian-U.S. ties have been sour in recent months,
following the Kosovo war and Russia's offensive in
Chechnya. In a meeting with Chinese leaders in Beijing,
Russian President Boris Yeltsin lashed out at President
Clinton, reminding Washington that Moscow still has
nuclear arms.
Diplomats at the Russian Embassy in Washington refused to
comment on the Gusev case, other than saying he hasn't left
the country yet.
FBI Assistant Director Neil Gallagher said the case was
further indication of a "very aggressive Russian intelligence
presence" inside the U.S. Officials have complained for
months about what they assert is a surfeit of spies in the
Russian Embassy.
Officials said they had no evidence that Mr. Gusev knew
beforehand what was going on in the conference room,
making the success of his eavesdropping operations a
matter of chance. Investigators are now interviewing
hundreds of State Department employees to determine how
the bug got there. Officials said their records show that
Mr. Gusev himself never entered the building.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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