Spycraft - Melton [73]
Tolkachev had access to an unprecedented array of technical documents, but lacked a way to copy them.21 A film-based, easily concealed camera was the best solution available. The Minox Model III had functioned well for Penkovsky twenty years earlier, but was best suited for copying documents in a studio or office where the user could work free from worries about security. 22 Except for their size, these commercial subminiature cameras were not designed for covert use. With their noisy shutters, no automatic film advance, and lack of capability to discreetly photograph a document, the commercial products did not make good spy cameras for high-risk operations. 23
What Tolkachev needed was a camera that could be concealed and operated while seated at his desk, like the one used by TRIGON. Unfortunately, for an untested and untrained agent, the agency did not want to risk the technology. OTS came up with an alternative, constructing a small, concealable camera and light meter, which was passed to Tolkachev via a dead drop glove in February of 1979.24
While the camera had worked perfectly in the OTS laboratory, Tolkachev identified a number of operational limitations. The slow film speed, although faster than the original, commercially available Minox film, required more light than was readily available inside his office. The “click” noise of the shutter also caused him to worry about attracting unwanted attention. He found it awkward and impractical to hold the camera steady for the required exposure time. Of more than a dozen rolls of film that Tolkachev passed to case officers in April and June of 1979, most of the images turned out to be blurred and unreadable.
At Tolkachev’s suggestion, until a better camera could be provided, he was given a Pentax ME 35mm SLR with a commercial “copy clamp” that could be affixed to the back of a chair to hold the camera steady over the document. The arrangement produced excellent images, but was suited for use only when he could find a few moments of privacy in his apartment. 25 Even given these restrictions, the camera didn’t dampen his enthusiasm or slow production. In October and December of 1979, he passed 150 rolls of 35mm film that contained high-quality images taken with the Pentax.
After nearly a year of experience with Tolkachev, the CIA determined that he could be trusted with more advanced and sensitive gear. OTS then provided two of its best custom 4mm-lens subminiature cameras in October of 1979 and four more in December. The cameras, which produced fifty frames, were “packaged” in active concealments and could be disguised as almost any commonly carried item, such as a pen, a cigarette lighter, or a tube of lipstick.
More problems arose in December of 1979 when Tolkachev’s institute introduced new security procedures. Under the new guidelines, he could no longer check out an unlimited number of classified documents from the institute library promising they would be returned by the end of the workday, then run home for an impromptu photo session. With the new procedures, classified documents could still be checked out, but only if the borrower’s building pass—propusk—was left in the library. This ended his ability to photograph documents at home.
Improvising, Tolkachev began photographing documents inside a bathroom stall during working hours. By February he had filled four of his six subminiature cameras with over 200 exposures, but remained dissatisfied with the small camera, complaining that it “still required too much light,” was difficult to hold steady, and sometimes malfunctioned.
In order to return to his home photography, Tolkachev suggested the CIA fabricate an exact reproduction of his propusk (building pass) to leave in the library while he used his genuine pass to enter and exit