Ten minutes later, while returning to the embassy, he got his answer. When his car stopped at a red light, once again surrounded by the four KGB escorts, Gandy caught a blur of motion to his left, then heard a loud screech of brakes and the dull thud of one car slamming into another. An elderly woman with a young girl, closely resembling the pair who’d been barred from the Beriozka store, had tried to cross the street in front of Gandy’s group of five cars, when the KGB car on his left had abruptly accelerated, then collided with the rear of the car in front of it, blocking the woman’s path. The woman and little girl turned and sprinted down a side street.
Observing the agility and speed of the old woman, Gandy realized she wasn’t old at all. And now that he thought about it, he realized she didn’t just resemble the woman from the Beriozka store, she was the babushka from the Beriozka store.
I get it, he thought. The KGB put on a show, complete with a woman in disguise, to deliver a message: we own this town, and, if the message of cigarette butts wasn’t clear enough, we own you, too.
4. The Chimney
The next day, as they had done about once a week since Gandy arrived, Jon LeChevet and his wife, Dawn, invited Gandy to breakfast at their residence, where they chatted about Charles’s Beriozka adventure.
Breakfast over, Jon said, “Got something for you—follow me.”
The two walked over to the South Annex and climbed to the seventh floor, which housed apartments for State Department employees. LeChevet stopped in front of the door of a west-facing apartment and knocked.
The door opened almost immediately, and a mustached man wearing white coveralls smeared with reddish-brown dust poked his head out and motioned them in before closing and locking the door.
“John Bainbridge,” the man introduced himself, offering his hand. Bainbridge wore long brown hair that Gandy thought had gone out of style a decade earlier, and he was excited, a distinct gleam in his eye.
“John is from our Frankfurt operation,” LeChevet said. “We asked him here to check out the chimney.”
But Gandy hardly heard Jon, his attention riveted on a crude, two-by-two-and-a-half-foot opening that had been carved out of the brick in the west wall of the apartment. Beneath the opening were fractured bricks, dust, and debris, along with a sledgehammer, a massive chisel, and an electric demolition hammer, which Bainbridge had apparently used to smash through the apartment wall.
The opening in the wall, which extended almost four feet through a mass of mortared bricks, had a patch of old gray carpet laid on its lower lip, with cables and ropes running from the apartment into a black void.
Pointing into the void, LeChevet said, “That’s the chimney I told you about, except it’s not actually a chimney.”
Gandy poked his head through the opening and looked up and then down the shaft but could see little.
“Got a flashlight?” Gandy asked.
LeChevet and Bainbridge exchanged knowing glances, then Bainbridge handed Gandy a light from his utility belt, saying, “Be careful not to fall in.”
Lying on his stomach on the crude ledge Bainbridge had carved out of the brick wall, Gandy wormed his way into the opening and played the flashlight along the inner walls of the shaft. About one floor above him, he spotted a glint of aluminum and focused the flashlight’s powerful beam on it.
A three-element, Yagi-style beam antenna was mounted in the shaft, aimed up and to the right. An aluminum box about the size of a carton of cigarettes was attached to the antenna, connecting to it through a short coaxial cable. Another cable emerged from the box and dropped to the bottom of the shaft. The mechanical assembly holding the antenna had simple pulleys, with cords hanging down, all the way to the shaft’s bottom.
Gandy backed out of the shaft and dusted off the redbrick dust from his shirt and pants. “The pulleys and cords are interesting,” he offered, handing the flashlight back to Bainbridge. “Like they are used to pull the antenna up and down and to tilt it. The mysterious ‘bird’ scraping noises that your secretary heard the previous year before the fire may have been the other side”—the KGB—“manipulating the antenna with those cords and pulleys.”
“You mean to aim the antenna?” LeChevet asked.
“Probably. If it’s a beam antenna, as it appears, it will have a main lobe of greatest sensitivity along its long axis. The pulleys could allow the other guys to aim the beam at different targets on different floors. Right now, it seems to be aimed at the upper floors of the southeast corner of the main building.” Gandy pointed in the direction he thought the antenna was aimed. “What’s over there?”
Again, LeChevet and Bainbridge exchanged a look. LeChevet said, “Among other things, the chief of mission’s office.”
The three men were silent for a moment, pondering the implications. The KGB had obviously hidden the antenna in the false chimney to get close to a target of interest, probably to pick up weak signals from a bug or data implant. If the antenna truly were pointed at the ambassador’s office, it was possible that conversations in his office were being routinely monitored and recorded. Or a covert KGB implant in an information appliance, such as a fax machine or typewriter, might be sending data that was typed or faxed in the office straight to KGB headquarters.
Given the ultrahigh classification and sensitivity of ambassadorial conversations, this possibility was too horrible to even think about—especially because LeChevet’s frequent TSCM scans of the embassy, including the ambassador’s office, had not found any implant or bugs. Was it possible the Soviets had developed an entirely new generation of undetectable bugs? If so, was any part of the embassy safe, including the box?
Gandy felt an involuntary shudder as he thought about the American assets who had been arrested, tortured, and executed over the last year. “When can I hook into the antenna to hear what it’s hearing?”
“Well, you see, that’s the thing,” LeChevet offered. “It could be booby-trapped, so whoever touches it could have body parts blown off. It’s happened twice before with TSCM operators who tried to check out Sov implants: once in England and once in the U.S. And then there’s the normal diplomatic BS. The Soviets may claim it’s on their territory.” The U.S. embassy was officially American soil, but exactly where the embassy ended and Russia began was sometimes a topic of hot debate with the Soviet Foreign Ministry.
“Okay,” Gandy said. “Please let me know when I can get my hands on it.” Thanking the two men, Gandy retreated to his office in the temporary quarters to think about the new discovery and to chart his next steps.
* * *
Later the same day, a series of cables passed between the State Department in Washington, D.C., and the Moscow embassy. The back-and-forth communication continued for several days as State Department officials grappled with how to react to the discovery of the chimney antenna.
The following account of what happened after the initial communication between Moscow and Washington, D.C., is pieced together partly from declassified archives from the Carter Library (Jimmy Carter was president in 1978) that provide a historical, blow-by-blow official account of what happened—along with reactions of senior White House officials to the discovery—in chronological order. Some of the archival records are copies of cables between the Moscow embassy and D.C., while others are memoranda from State Department officials describing conversations with the Soviets regarding the chimney antenna find and real-time observations of national security staff members in the White House commenting on the chimney antenna discovery.1
The account is also based upon interviews with Jon LeChevet, Charles Gandy, and an officer stationed at the embassy during the chimney discovery (whom we’ll call Carl), along with oral accounts drawn from The History of the Diplomatic Security Service of the U.S. Department of State.2
In the cable traffic from Moscow, note that the signatory of the cables from Moscow was Jack Matlock, deputy chief of mission, because Ambassador Malcolm Toon had flown to D.C. for talks between Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gro
myko and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. Also, Jon LeChevet wrote the technical descriptions of the chimney antenna discovery, which were forwarded under Matlock’s signature.
Missing from the official communication is the original message from the Moscow embassy to the State Department in D.C., which was transmitted through the SY (state security) channel and remains classified.
In contrast, all the following cables were transmitted through the diplomatic/political channel, which is why they are available in the Carter Library.
MOSCOW, MAY 25, 1978, 1407Z
11713. SUBJECT: PROBABLE PENETRATION. REF: MOSCOW 11684.
1. ANTENNA APPEARS TO BE A MODIFIED 3 ELEMENT YAGI (SIMILAR TO SOVIET TV ANTENNAE) DIRECTED IN A NORTH EASTERLY DIRECTION. POLARIZATION IS VERTICAL.
2. ANTENNA IS LOCATED APPROXIMATELY AT THE TOP OF THE SEVENTH FLOOR INSIDE THE CHIMNEY.
3. ANTENNA FEEDS A WHITE BOX ABOUT 4″ × 2″ × 10″ THAT IS PROBABLY A PREAMP SINCE “12V” [12 volts] IS CLEARLY VISIBLE. [This white box contained electronics that filtered and amplified received signals, presumably either from bugs in the embassy or from intercepted U.S. RF communications.]
4. SECOND WHITE BOX ABOUT 3″ × 1½″ × 6″ IS TAPED TO ABOVE BOX AND MAY BE A COMBINING NETWORK [mixing multiple RF signals together].
5. OTHER WRITING VISIBLE IS “1361XOJ” AND “N003.”
6. ANTENNA HAS BEEN LEFT IN PLACE AND CABLES ARE INTACT. IT HAS BEEN SECURED BY LINES AND STEEL BARS TO PRECLUDE ATTEMPT AT RECOVERY BY OPPOSITION [KGB].
7. CHIMNEY SHAFT MAY INCLUDE MULTIPLE CABLES AT LOWER LEVELS THAT APPEAR TO ENTER BOTH THE EMBASSY AND SOVIET BUILDING. CABLES CONTINUE DOWN SHAFT AND ENTER SOVIET BUILDING AT BASEMENT LEVEL.
8. WE WILL SOON ENTER SHAFT TO INSPECT LOWER SUSPECTED CABLING.
MATLOCK
In order to enter the chimney shaft and descend to its bottom, LeChevet had the Seabees make a boatswain’s chair, which allowed a man to be lowered on thick ropes from specially constructed braces at the top of the chimney shaft, down through the shaft. Only John Bainbridge, who had a slight build, could use this flimsy contraption because, according to LeChevet, “neither mine nor Carl’s corpulent bodies would have fit.”
On John Bainbridge’s first excursion into the shaft on the boatswain’s chair, he looked closely at the cords holding up the antenna and discovered that they were actually thick fishing-line nylon monofilaments.
Dropping farther into the shaft, Bainbridge reached the bottom, where he discovered a rotor control mechanism attached to the nylon monofilaments, which allowed a KGB technician to raise and lower the antenna and to change its orientation. The monofilaments ran through heating coils that, if activated, would melt the nylon control lines for the antenna, causing the antenna to fall to the base of the shaft, where it could be retrieved in an emergency.
At the base of the chimney, Bainbridge also found a headset and microphone, presumably for a KGB operative manning the chimney listening post to communicate with other KGB technicians as he manipulated the controls on the antenna. Whatever the KGB was listening to, the technicians listening to the antenna inside the Soviet apartment building next to the U.S. embassy must have wanted the man manipulating the antenna with nylon leads inside the chimney to hear their feedback: “A little left,” “A little right,” “Higher,” “Lower,” and so on.
Playing his flashlight along the brick walls of the shaft, Bainbridge discovered an oval-shaped tunnel leading toward Russian sovereign territory: an apartment complex adjoining the embassy. There appeared to be a trapdoor access from the floor of the changing room where the Soviet maids and janitors (the char force) changed clothes at the beginning and end of each work shift.
Rather than proceed farther, aware that the tunnel might be booby-trapped with explosives, Bainbridge stopped his exploration and pulled himself back up the shaft.
Jon LeChevet was waiting for him in the apartment, where Bainbridge and the Seabees had created the original access hole into the shaft. Carl, the security officer, was also present.
“What did you see?” LeChevet asked.
Dusting off his white coveralls, Bainbridge described his discoveries. He concluded, “I’m not sure the Russians know we’ve broken into the shaft. The control lines haven’t been severed yet.”
LeChevet rubbed his chin. “That’s hard to believe. They had to have heard us hammering away in here.”
Carl added, “It’s not like them to leave the space without monitoring microphones. Why have an antenna retrieval system without intrusion sensors to activate the heating coils? They did have at least one mic in there, right?”
“Yes,” Bainbridge said. “It looked like a standard Uher [handheld] mic, but I think it was for communicating between the LP [listening post] and antenna tech in the chimney.”
The three men considered this for a moment.
LeChevet broke the silence. “Maybe the heating coils malfunctioned.”
“Maybe,” Carl said. “But whether they malfunctioned or not, it’s only a matter of time before those guys discover our discovery and come for their antenna. We need to go back into the shaft now.”
LeChevet and Bainbridge looked at Carl but did not say anything. Dropping to the bottom of the shaft inside American territory was one thing, but venturing into a tunnel that almost certainly led to sovereign Soviet territory was another. The State Department employees, even security personnel, were essentially diplomats. The derring-do shit was clearly in Carl’s lane.
“Okay, I’ll do it. But I’ll have to find another way into that tunnel. I can’t fit into that,” Carl said, pointing through the hole in the wall at the boatswain’s chair hanging limply inside the shaft. “I’ll wait until the end of the day shift, then try to get into the tunnel from the trapdoor you saw in the changing room.”
MOSCOW, MAY 25, 1978, 1502Z
11720. SUBJECT: TECHNICAL PENETRATION OF U.S. EMBASSY MOSCOW. REF: (A) MOSCOW 11684, (B) MOSCOW 11713.
1. WE HAVE ENTERED THE CHIMNEY AND FOUND A TUNNEL AT THE BOTTOM. TUNNEL HEADS 30 FEET NORTH AND THEN TURNS WEST. HATCH ENTRANCE APPEARS TO ENTER SOVIET CHANGING ROOM IN EMBASSY.
2. LISTENING POST LOCATED AT BOTTOM OF SHAFT WITH HEADSET AND MICROPHONE. LINE BOX WITH 8 DUAL PIN JACKS ALSO FOUND. HEADSET PLUGGED IN AND APPEARS DEAD.
3. WE WILL ENTER TUNNEL AT THIS TIME.
4. STILL POSSIBLE THAT OPPOSITION [KGB] HAS NOT BEEN ALERTED.
MATLOCK
When Carl felt confident he would not be discovered, he dressed in coveralls, slipped into the char force changing room, quickly found the trapdoor, and lowered himself into the tunnel connecting to the chimney shaft. He snapped on his powerful light and looked around. A short distance into the tunnel, stretched across the sandy floor, his flashlight revealed a parallel set of taut piano wires.
Playing his light against the tunnel walls where the wires attached, he noticed a parcel with electrical cords running to a box where the piano wires terminated.
The package was almost certainly high explosive—probably plastique—attached to trip wires. Carl backed away a few steps and turned off his light. Better not to alert the Russians, who might decide to detonate the plastique remotely. An explosion in the confined space would collapse the tunnel and probably blow the antenna right through the top of the chimney.
Carl considered what to do next. The KGB must have a way of deactivating the trip wires when their technicians entered the tunnel to move the antenna around. Should he try to engage the deactivation mechanism and go farther? Upon reflection, he decided the move would be too risky. In the darkness of the tunnel, he squinted to see if light was leaking into the tunnel from another opening, through which opposition might materialize.
Peering into the darkness ahead, he saw light seeping through the cracks of an access door to the basement of the Russian apartment building. Recalling the layout of the south annex where the chimney he had just come through attached and the geometry of the adjacent Soviet apartment complex, Carl
concluded that that light was coming from a room in the apartment complex, offering a second KGB access route into the tunnel.
Turning on his flashlight once again, Carl advanced as far forward as he thought safe, taking note of the rough distance traveled, until he was certain he had left American territory and was trespassing on Russian soil.
Returning to the trapdoor, he gently pushed it up, saw that he was alone in the changing room, and exited the tunnel, closing the trapdoor after him.
He told LeChevet and Bainbridge what he had found, then said, “We can’t go through that tunnel farther or even try to wall it off. Who knows what will happen if they blow the explosives. We might be able to disable the explosives, but the explosives themselves could have anti-tamper circuits that would trigger an explosion.”
The other two agreed. LeChevet said, “But sooner or later, probably sooner, they’re going to realize we’ve broken into the shaft and burn the control lines to get their antenna back.”
Carl said, “Maybe they already know we’re in the shaft, but the heating coils have malfunctioned, as you suggested earlier. If so, they’re going to come for the antenna some other way. We need to get it out of there ASAP.”
“Hmmm,” LeChevet said. “Not that simple. My bosses, the diplomats here, haven’t decided whether we should pull the antenna out. That could complicate the diplomatic situation. The Soviets might argue we violated their sovereignty and stole their property.”
“Okay,” Carl said. “Let’s write up what we found for the chargé d’affaires”—Matlock—“and have him help us with the next steps.”
MOSCOW, MAY 25, 1978, 1933Z
11770. SUBJECT: TECHNICAL PENETRATION OF US EMBASSY MOSCOW. REF: (A) MOSCOW 11684, (B) MOSCOW 11713 (C) MOSCOW 11720.2
1. WE HAVE ENTERED AND EXPLORED TUNNEL. IT HEADS ABOUT 25 FEET DUE NORTH THEN MAKES A GRADUAL LEFT TURN AND FURTHER PROGRESS IS BLOCKED ABOUT 40 FEET FURTHER ON BY A SHEET METAL BARRIER. BARRIER APPEARS TO DEFINITELY BE OFF THE EMBASSY COMPOUND [meaning in sovereign Soviet territory].
The Spy in Moscow Station Page 8