Spycraft - Melton [67]
“He would poke in his message, then go out for his walk, or on an errand. He had been informed of the general area, but not specific location, of the base station. Once he got into range, he’d push a button,” explained one case officer. “His message went to the case officer’s machine, which received the information and sent a message back automatically. Polyakov looked at BUSTER and saw a red light flashing that indicated the transmission was successful. Then he returned to his apartment and read our message.” In a primitive form, BUSTER possibly represented the world’s first text message exchanges.
BUSTER was a technical leap in covert communications equivalent to the telephone in public communications. The distance protected the identity of the communicators, while the short burst and encryption protected the communication itself. The major drawback was possession of the SRAC device, which would conclusively identify the owner as a spy.
The cost of BUSTER’s development required expenditures exceeding what OTS alone could afford. To cover the budgetary burden of such projects, OTS teamed up with other offices in the Directorate of Science and Technology, most often the Office of Development and Engineering and the Office of Research and Development. Many of ORD’s original scientists who had been part of TSS and TSD now focused on long-term research programs and technology with potential value to the Agency. OD&E engineers were responsible for satellite and overhead programs and the myriad technologies associated with their platforms, cameras, and sensors.
The consulting role OTS played with ORD and OD&E was not an entirely new function. George Saxe had performed a similar task a few years earlier, translating DDP operational requirements for technology to OTS engineers. Now, the OTS engineers were supplying operational requirements to scientists in ORD and OD&E—merging new technology with the stringent operational requirements of denied areas.
Just as a low-tech dead drop disguised as a brick had to come as close as possible to looking, feeling, and weighing the same as a real brick, similar types of pragmatic, operational design features had to be integrated into this new generation of high-tech devices. Whatever came out of the lab needed to be practical for an agent whose life could not be risked. It had to be easy and uncomplicated to use even under enormous stress.
These requirements were both obvious and not so obvious. For instance, BUSTER had to be small enough to conceal while transmitting. Two buttons to send a message was one too many, because the device had to be activated covertly with one hand inside a coat pocket. Its short-range, line-of-sight transmission would need to be the equivalent of a whisper, rather than a shout, since weaker transmissions were more difficult for counterintelligence receivers to detect.
Powering the device presented unanticipated problems. With commercial batteries frequently in short supply in Moscow, BUSTER’s batteries could be either rechargeable or resupplied via dead drop. The decision was made to go with rechargeable batteries, since every operational act, including loading and clearing a dead drop, was inherently risky. However, this meant the agent would need a battery charger and a way of concealing yet another piece of spy equipment at his home or office.
OTS provided the concealment for Polyakov’s BUSTER inside a stereo unit he purchased and shipped home before returning to Moscow in 1977. Other concealments were provided when he was outside the Soviet Bloc, together with spare BUSTERs. To attract less attention these concealments were often designed to fit inside existing objects the agent already owned.
There were logistical as well as operational challenges in Moscow to be solved. From what locations could the agent make a transmission without attracting suspicion? The TOOs ran covert signal path surveys to identify specific spots around the city