The Art of High-Tech Snooping

How nigh-invisible devices can get under an embassy's skin

For the past several weeks, American technicians have been feverishly searching the U.S. embassy in Moscow for bugs that might have been planted by Soviet agents let in by Marine guards. So far, they have found nothing tangible. "Not a microphone, not a transmitter, not even a wire," says one knowledgeable source.

Reassuring? No, chilling. American experts are virtually certain that the bugs are there, all right, but are so tiny and cleverly hidden that they are next to impossible to uncover. Sources familiar with the situation say technicians have detected audio-frequency emissions that they think originate in the electronic-coding equipment....

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