is them filling any new underground "operations center" (and even the ballroom above) with Russian listening devices.
People might recall the fiasco in the '80s of the "new" U.S. Embassy in Soviet Moscow, planned and under construction since the late '60s at the time, and the concerns. I remember the news stories back then as a fed and the final, exorbitant decision -
Reagan Decides to Raze Bugged Moscow Offices
By NORMAN KEMPSTER and ROBERT C. TOTH
Oct. 27, 1988 12 AM PT
Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON — President Reagan has decided that the only way to prevent the KGB secret police from eavesdropping on the U.S. Embassy in Moscow is to tear down the new chancery and rebuild it from the ground up, Administration officials said Wednesday. Reagan reached his decision after several security and engineering studies showed that the partly constructed building is so riddled with sophisticated listening equipment that it could never be safe from Soviet espionage.
(snip)
The United States and the Soviet Union agreed almost 20 years ago to build new embassies in each other’s capitals.
In the strict reciprocity that governs diplomatic relations between the superpowers, neither embassy can be put into service until both sides are satisfied. As a result, the Soviets have been unable to occupy their new building on Mount Alto in the District of Columbia, even though construction has been finished for years.
The U.S. Embassy complex was built by Soviet workmen using prestressed concrete materials cast in Soviet factories. As the building was nearing completion, U.S. security officials discovered that the concrete castings were honeycombed with microphones. The Administration decided to recommend rebuilding the facility from the ground up after a major Washington consulting firm, BDM, completed a study of the embassy options two months ago.
(snip)
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