TUNNEL UNDER RUSSIAN EMBASSY IS MAJOR FINANCIAL FRAUD OF U.S. SECRET SERVICES








MOSCOW, MARCH 11, 2001. /RIA NOVOSTI'S CORRESPONDENT OLGA SEMENOVA/. The history surrounding the surveillance tunnel under the Russian embassy in the United States can be the largest financial fraud in the history of the American secret services. This viewpoint was voiced in a conversation with the RIA Novosti correspondent by a veteran Russian spy, who has for many years been handling overseas colleagues.


	According to this very competent source, whose name is not disclosed, Russia has indeed "over ten years ago discovered electronic shadowing on the Soviet embassy in Washington and taken steps against the leakage of truly important information". Unlike the notorious Berlin tunnel, outfitting the eavesdropping system in Washington did not take much effort because "the obtaining underground communication infrastructure was enough for installing required equipment", said the veteran spy.


	A connoisseur of the American secret services, he was surprised "not by the leakage of information, clandestine for any secret service, on its ways and means of electronic shadowing but, contrarily, by the insistent desire to attract public opinion to the ostensibly pricey, though useless as it has turned out, action by the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation". American newspapers are even referring to "high-ranking excursionists" to the tunnel, which the FBI used to boast of its "secret weapon". It is a flop, utterly unthinkable from the viewpoint of any counterintelligence, which broadens the range of potential sources for the adversary.


	It is absolutely clear for a spy that, alongside the chief goal of putting the blame for the tunnel disclosure on FBI man Robert Hanssen, arrested last February 18, the American secret services are pursuing another, more obscure though crucial goal for them. They want to convince American tax-payers and, possibly congressmen who monitor financing for the secret services, that the "hundreds of millions of dollars" /to believe the American media, this was the construction sum of the tunnel/ has not been pocketed by the then spy chiefs but was used for the good cause -- electronic espionage on foe No one.


	The Russian veteran spy said this version is favoured by new "leakages" on similar tunnels laid under the Russian consulate in St.Francisco and even under the Russian embassy in the capital of neighbouring Canada. 


	Even the possibility of a diplomatic scandal will not stop American secret services from further "espionage self-disclosures" in the face of the "financial fraud" threat: if these tunnels were not dug intentionally but merely existing ones were used, where have the millions of dollars gone? (nov/nog)