This evening, the Rachel Maddow show starts now. Early for a change. I have something to spend this time doing. Exactly. Thanks, my friend, appreciate it. Thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. Very happy to have you here tonight. Who here is old enough to have ever used a typewriter . I took typing class and it was on a typewriter. Im that old. Typewriters started off with a mechanism that looked like this. You pressed a button on a keyboard for a specific letter, but then a little arm, a little bar would swing up from the guts of the keyboard and smack that letter into the inked typewriter ribbon, and thereby pressed the imprint of that letter on to the paper, right . So that was the mechanism. Each keystroke on the typewriter would cause a piece of metal to fling itself up toward the paper. A different little bar with a different letter on it for each keystroke. That was how they started out. But then in 1961, ibm changed all of that. Ibm invented a whole new kind of electric typewriter, where instead of each letter, each number, each character having its own little type bar that would swing up and on to the paper every time you hit a keyboard a stroke on the keyboard. Instead, Selectric Typewriters had this little ball, like a little kiwi or golf ball, they called it the font element and you could change out that ball for a different ball if you wanted to have a different font to type with. And the innovation here was that with the selectric, instead of a distinct and different piece of individual piece of metal, flinging itself up at the paper for every letter that you typed, now it was just this one piece of metal. This little ball that would rotate and pivot to position the appropriate letter or number or character in line with the ribbon to make its mark on the page. It was a big engineering advance in terms of the way typewriters worked. And it definitely changed typing. But it turns out it also changed spying. Because starting in the 1970s, soviet union invented secret Small Technology that could be fitted inside an ibm Selectric Typewriter. And they disguised it really well, so the only way you could find this thing was by xraying the typewriter and knowing what you were looking for. But what their Spying Device did inside of a Selectric Typewriter is that it could detect the movement of little arms and pushrods inside the Selectric Typewriter that pivoted and rotated that ball as you typed the letters and numbers that you wanted to put on the page. They put a device inside Selectrss Typewriters that could detect the change. If you were sensitive enough to detect the movements inside that
little arms and pushrods that moved the selectric ball. And for eight solid years, for those eight years, everything typed on those 16 ibm Selectric Typewriters was beamed directly to the kg. And the only reason the u. S. Figured it out in 1984 is because another country that had been bugged this same way by the kgb figured it out in one of their own facilities and since they were our ally, they tipped us off that maybe that we should check this. Hey, you guys using Selectric Typewriters . Particularly at your embassies and coonsulates in russia . You may want to get them xrays and check for that particular sophisticated bug that the russians made up and we have found them using against us. So those compromised those 16 compromised ibm Selectric Typewriters, those were an intelligence disaster for the United States for eight solid years as they broadcast everything typed inside the embassy. But they were finally discovered in 1984. And when that got found out in 1984, that was the time when we were finding out a lot of other things that were very, very bad about our embassy and the russians spying on us and spying on that embassy around that time. One of the biggest scandals, one of the biggest failures ever on the part of the United States when it came to spying and russia started in 1969, when then president Richard Nixon came to hardfought agreement with the soviet union. And the agreement was that the soviets would be allowed to build a new soviet embassy in washington. And we, simultaneously, would be allowed to build a new American Embassy in moscow. That was agreed to after much negotiation in 1969. They werent actually ready to Start Construction itself in moscow until a decade later in 1979. But if you think about that time in modern u. S. History, this was a very chilly part of the cold war, right . And by the time the u. S. Was ready to Start Construction on our new embassy is no guo in 1979, the sure fact that that
embassy would be a target of advanced russian spying operations was very much on american officials minds. It was very much in american news. I mean, this was this was a front and Center Concern about building a new embassy in moscow. Not just because u. S. And russian spies were always targeting each other, but also because, right before we started construction, we had just discovered a major russian intelligence operation for them to spy on our existing facilities in moscow. This is a news report from 1978, the year before we started building the new embassy. Part of the reason i want to show this is because its relevant to this story, but part of the reason i want to show it is because of the amazing graphics in this news report. Watch. The most recent soviet American Rift involves the discovery of yet another soviet Listening Device in the American Embassy in moscow. Events of this kind are not always made public, but this one, discovered on may 25th, was disclosed by american officials
today. Ford rowan has the details. The russian kgb agents operated out of an Apartment Building just across the street from the American Embassy. They used a cable which ran from the Listening Post through a secret tunnel under the street into the Embassy Basement and up a ventilating shaft to the seventh floor. American personnel found surveillance equipment in the shaft, including a discshaped antennalike device. During the search, the americans surprised a russian agent who fled from his Listening Post. So in 1969, nixon had agreed with the russians that they would get to build a new embassy here. And that we would get to build a new embassy there. And all through the 70s, we continued to discover the russians bugging our existing embassy in our kbloediplomatic facilities in russia, including them having a secret tunnel under the street into our embassy as late as 1978. But then in 1979, we started building our new embassy in moscow. And its now clear in retrospect
that in that decision, we made what is now quite obviously, in retrospect, an absolutely ridiculous error as a country. Right . And this was a highlevel negotiated thing. The highest levels of the administration were involved in negotiating this fact that the russians get to build their embassy and we get to build our embassy and its simultaneous and theres a big team of highlevel people negotiating the exact terms that the construction will be managed. This is something the government worked really hard on for a number of years. But somehow at the end of that progress, the u. S. Agreed to a process that had a major flaw. See if you can figure out what it was. On the russia side of the equation, when they were building their embassy ining, their part of the deal said that all Building Materials would be constructed on site. They had soviet officials on site overseeing every aspect of the construction, down to the level of every single beam, every single board. Everything that went into that embassy was cut and cast and
assembled at the Building Site under their own peoples supervision. And just to be doubly safe, every component that went into building the rnks gembassy in washington, d. C. Was xrayed piece by piece as it was put together to make sure there was no funny business, no cia bugs for the russian embassy. Nothing had been concerted into the Construction Materials somehow. That was the russian side of the deal. The american side of the deal was different. The american side of the deal, for our building in moscow, u. S. Government negotiated that, yes, American Workers and american officials would be responsible for all the finish work, like, the fine work inside the building, but when it came to the basic guts of the building, like the beams and the concrete and the precast floor panels and all the columns, those would all be prefab manufactured in soviet facilities by Soviet Workers and then brought complete on to the Construction Site where the u. S. Would watch, basically, while the russian workers assembled our new embassy for us in moscow. Who made this deal . So, yeah, like, American Workers got to put in the windows and the doors and stuff. But when it came to the actual building building, that was built by the russians for us. Ah, that was very nice of them. They controlled the design, all the fundamental construction, building of that embassy in moscow started in 1979. By honestly, by 1979, by 80, by 82, the u. S. Realize we had a serious problem on our hands with that building. The 7,000pound precast pieces of the building were arriving at the Building Site to be installed in the new embassy. They were arriving completely made. People who were in charge of making sure the embassy wasnt going to be spied on said from the very beginning, whoa, this is going to be a problem. The u. S. Had Security Engineers reviewing the Construction Materials as best they could, but the russians were running the design and the Construction Process. By 1982, the u. S. Government was so worried that we had secretly dispatched a specially trained team of Bug Detectors for the
still under construction building. And i kid you not, they were trained Rock Climbers. They put dudes in Rock Climbing Harnesses and special Cold Weather Gear that had been supplied by eddie bauer and in the Dead Of Night, in the dead of the moscow winter, with temperatures dipping to 40 degrees below zero, they had these guys, these specialists, repelling down the sides of the building under construction with specially made xray machines to try to find all the russian bugs. And boy, did they find a lot of russian bugs. New york times did a great recap in 1988 as to what had gone wrong with the case of the bugged embassy. Quote, they discovered Interconnecting Systems so sophisticated they couldnt be removed from the steel and concrete columns, the beams, the precast floor slabs, the sheer walls between the columns. They found electronic packages where a piece of steel reinforcement in the flooring should have been. They found resonating devices that allowed the russians to
monitor electronic and verbal communications. One engineer who worked on the site from 1980 to 1982 said, quote, we found things that didnt belong there, based on the shop drawings. We found cables in the concrete. And it wasnt like some lowlevel hack job. It was very sophisticated. Ron kessler from the Washington Post later wrote a book that touched on this subject, a book called moscow station. He explained in his book how some of the bugs the russians put in in the Construction Process were found in places where metal beams were welded together and they would make the bugs out of materials that had the same density as the metal in the joint, so even if you did xray that joint, you wouldnt detect them. So, the u. S. Government negotiated for that building in 69, started build it in 79. By the early 80s, theyd gotten Rock Climbers to be rebelling down the outside of the building in the Dead Of Night saying, uhuh, this place is intrinsically bugged. By 1985, they stopped working on
it when it was twothirds done and kicked all the russian workers out. And then the government appears to have had no idea what to do with their partially built, r n ruinously compromised kgb Christmas Present that the u. S. Taxpayers had just funded to the tune of many millions of dollars right in the heart of moscow. And then on top of all of that, the kgb won again at the u. S. Embassy, when for the first time in the history of the United States a u. S. Marine was charged and convicted of espionage. Kgb had sent young female officers to seduce and then blackmail u. S. Marines who were providing security at the existing American Embassy facilities in moscow while the new one was under construction. Kgb knew it was illegal for the marines to fraeternize local russian women, so they did their best to get those marines to break that rule and then they squeezed them. They threatened to expose their wrongdoing unless these marines helped them out. So lots of young, attractive kgb officers got all sorts of access
to u. S. Embassy facilities. In the worst instance, the marine who was convicted of espionage and served nine years in prison, he apparently handed over blueprints for the embassy facilities. And then as Thatoney Trap Scand Public in 1987, the story also finally went public about the kgb Embassy Construction scam fiasco, and how russia was able to sew intrinsically compromise the basic Building Bones of our embassy. Reporter the new ambassador to moscow, jack matlock, arrived today. His first job, secure the embassy. The State Department has asked the nations topsecret National Security agency to sweep the agency before Secretary Of StateGeorge Schultz arrives in ten days. While marines allegedly compromised the current embassy, lack security was just as damaging next door at the new embassy now under construction. These officials believe the new offices are bugged top to
bottom. They recommend the building be torn down and rebuilt from scratch. The cost, more than 1 billion. When the soviets built their new embassy complex in washington, they insisted all Building Materials be constructed on site. Each beam and board was skr scrupulously xrayed. But according to intelligence sources, american officials in moscow, were quote, outplayed from the start. Soviet workmen precast the concrete offsite without american supervision. Workers onsite say security was a joke. The result, sophisticated Listening Devices embedded in foundations, floors, and walls. Nbc nightly news ann gairls reporting in 1977. This is a big deal. The senate voted more than two to one that then Secretary Of StateGeorge SchultzShouldnt Go To Moscow as long as our embassy couldnt be rendered safe for his visit. Led to a Big Tit For Tat fight with the rupssians where we bot
expelled lots of people in both countries. And also led to a very frustrated and angry Ronald Reagan. I wanted to come in here to tell you that im deeply concerned over the breach of security in our embassy. The United States will not occupy our new Embassy Building in moscow unless and until i can be assured that it is safe to move into a secure embassy environment. Mr. President , if the gorbachev changes his mind, will you then allow soviets to become reemployed at our embassy there . And how extensive is the problem in other soviet block embassy . We are investigating the whole area of embassies. So, listen, frank is going to take all of your questions, unfortunately, and im not ducking you, i tried to answer a fe few. If mr. Gorbachev changes his mind . I think we should have our own person. Would you rehire soviet person to rework there. No, we should have our own personnel. President reagan left office
after serving two full terms in january 1989, and in january 1989, as one of the last things he did as president , Ronald Reagan recommended that the entire u. S. Embassy in moscow just be torn down, razed to the ground, start over. Five years later in 1994, the u. S. Sort of, partially, did that. Some of the embassy was demolished and new top floors were installed. Top floors. Installed by u. S. Workers, using u. S. Materials, under u. S. Supervision this time. So at least those top floors of the embassy could be made secure. However, they did just pop those top floors on the top of the old infected base of the building th