[BC] Is That a Radio Station In Your Pocket, Or...

[James B. Potter]

That ain't the way I heard it.  In either Bamford's Puzzle Palace or The
Codebreakers,  it was explained that the US Embassy in Moscow was bugged by
the Ruuskies transmitting powerful CW microwave RF at the office windows,
then receiving the reflections off the glass. Conversations inside the
embassy would vibrate the glass and thus mechanically modulate the CW RF.
The microwave RF was so intense that US diplomatic personnel suffered injury
from the exposure. Symptoms included cataracts, sterility and skin
deterioration, among others. 

In the all-new replacement American Embassy it was discovered that the
concrete being poured had zillions of diodes in it.  Reason: real Soviet
bugs would be disguised by the frequency multiplication action of the diodes
when shock excited with RF -- a technique for bug detection. The completed
building was sold off as an office building to Russian locals and considered
unusable by diplomatic personnel because they couldn't sweep for bugs.  

Sometimes we're "Sadly in search of and one step in back of (Our)selves and
(our) slow moving dreams" from Cowboys by Willie Nelson.  

Regards/J 

>I remember hearing this story decades ago...A new American embassy in
Moscow was suspected to be bugged. conversations thought to be secret were
found to be not secret.

>These were not strong enough to be harmful to persons nor did they
interfere with any communications.