Spycraft - Melton [241]
Inside the halls of the CIA’s Original Headquarters Building, a historical display from the Directorate of Science and Technology shows the inventiveness of CIA scientists. One device, a robotic catfish named “Charlie,” was designed to be indistinguishable, when viewed from the water’s surface, to channel catfish commonly found in rivers around the world. It appeared so lifelike while swimming in the water, that some feared that it might be consumed by even larger predators. Charlie’s mission was unspecified, but experts speculated he could be used to swim into freshwater rivers and canals to gather water samples near foreign nuclear power facilities. The mobile aquarobot could also serve as an underwater platform for eavesdropping devices.25
CIA officers abroad lived, worked, and operated under the constant awareness that at any time they could come under surveillance. Officer training included weeks of surveillance detection runs to develop and practice skills in recognizing and dealing with surveillance, either obvious or discreet.
Obvious surveillance was used when a foreign security service chose to send a message to an officer that his activities were being closely watched. Such surveillance could become aggressive, verging on harassment and intimidation. Tactics might include “bumper locking,” in which a trailing surveillance vehicle stayed so close that its bumper actually touched the target car. On the street, surveillance watchers could walk directly in front of, behind, or adjacent to the target, staying in close proximity even in shops and buses. Slashed tires, broken windshields, and stolen car batteries conveyed the same message: “We know who you are, and whatever you are up to, we don’t like it.”
Aggressive actions are sometimes taken by surveillance teams to retaliate for a provocation or to thwart an operational act.26 This happened to an active young CIA officer whose operational activities aroused suspicions of the local service. The officer received an unscheduled late-night visit at his home by the country’s chief of counterintelligence. After a tense discussion, the foreign chief left behind a parting compliment coupled with an unstated warning, “Mr. Paseman, you are very good. However, I suggest the remainder of your tour should be rather boring.”27
Discreet surveillance, while not physically intimidating, was difficult to recognize and more to be feared. Failure to detect counterintelligence watchers could lead to operational compromise and loss of an agent. Early in the 1970s OTS engineers created tiny body-worn receivers to intercept the radio transmissions of Soviet surveillance teams. These concealed receivers, unrecognized by the KGB for several years, gave CIA officers operating in Moscow a prized capability for detecting surveillance activity.
Well-trained surveillance teams, operating in familiar areas where they control the turf, will attempt to lull the officer into the false belief that he is “black” (free of surveillance). Should the officer fail to detect such surveillance and proceed to “go operational” he could unwittingly lead surveillance to his agent or be caught during an operational act. Discreet Soviet surveillance played a key role in the compromise of major operations and the expulsion of CIA officers from the USSR.
The Hearing Device-2 countersurveillance device, with a neck loop antenna and body-worn receiver, allowed an officer to hear nearby hostile radio communications through bone conductivity by biting down on the pipestem.
Disguises offered one method of defeating the KGB’s overwhelming surveillance advantages. OTS sculpted and fitted disguises for use by case officers and agents to evade surveillance and avoid