Excerpts from Drudge:

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The bureau, known as OES, deals primarily with environmental and maritime issues.

``This was `Save the Whales' kind of stuff,'' said one official.

[...]

The State Department also has not indicated if the United States had arranged misleading conversations in the bugged room so as to feed disinformation to the Russians

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OK, let's read between the lines a bit.

If you wanted to hold *sensitive* discussions, where would you hold them?

You'd probably hold them in a room that was the *least* likely to be bugged. A "save the whales" room, perhaps.

Then, we see that they're dropping teasers about whether or not they fed disinfo to the Ruskies.

That's *exactly* what you'd expect someone to do that got caught with their pants down, isn't it? If they *did* hold *important* discussions there, and they knew (after the fact) that they *were* bugged, they'd start rumors about having fed disinfo, in an attempt to contaminate the bugged info.

It makes *no* sense to even *think* about it if the only thing the room was used for was "save the whales" crap. Gimmeabreak.

"Ya, yankski greenski say 'whale be saved, here is planski.' Tape is on way to Moskva, tovarish! Whale NOT be saved, yankski greenski be surprised for shock in his life of!"

Yeah, right. Save the whales. Sure.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), December 10, 1999

Answers

Shut up Ron. If I go to the toilet, you would consider that an international incident.

-- for real (for@real.com), December 10, 1999.

Actually, when you go to the toilet, it appears to be a *posting* incident.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), December 10, 1999.

Best place in the world to hide anything is right out in the open ... in plain sight. So obvious it is overlooked.

Sooo ... IMHO, the best place to hold a *sensitive* discussion would be in the middle of a public restaurant, during lunch or dinner rush hour.

Why else do you think so many executives have those 'business' lunches?

For the food? ... yeah, RIGHT!

-- hiding in plain (sight@edge. of no-where), December 10, 1999.

Some things I found interesting... from the Bill Gertz article.

"The FBI official said that sweeping the building for electronic bugs was a huge job that was beyond the manpower limitations of the agents assigned to secure America's diplomatic headquarters."

Uh.... didn't we read that the FBI has mounted one of the largest efforts in history looking at Y2K prep folks so they can identify us millennial crazies? Uh... shouldn't sweeping the State Dept. and White House for bugs on a regular basis be at least as important as documenting who is buying beans and rice at Costco? Couldn't they pull a couple of trolls off this forum if they need some more manpower?

``This was `Save the Whales' kind of stuff,'' said one official.

However, investigators are looking into whether the Russians gathered sensitive information from the bugged conference room on the space and advanced technology office, which is part of the OES bureau. Russian agents have targeted American technology for decades.

No.. duh... ya think?

Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service secretly placed an electronic eavesdropping device inside a strip of wall molding....Officials described the device as a near replica of a piece of molding that was painted a slightly different color than other molding in the room. Also, the screws that kept it in place were different.

Does anybody recall the article about how backlogged the Pentagon? Justice Dept.? is on security checks? Any connection? Backlogged due to software problems? Any connection to Y2K?

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), December 10, 1999.

If they can't successly sweep for these bugs at the State Department, why should we think they managed to get many of the other (Y2K) bugs?

-- (snowleopard6@webtv.net), December 10, 1999.