The World - News from Feb. 14, 1989

The State Department rejected a claim in a just-published book that U.S. intelligence agents knew the American Embassy in Moscow was “bugged” but did not tell the State Department. The book, “Moscow Station,” by Ronald Kessler, alleges that the CIA and the National Security Agency found evidence that listening devices had been planted at the embassy but kept the information secret. The “bugging” led to the execution of 25 Soviet citizens who worked for the CIA and were subsequently exposed, according to the book. “We don’t have any evidence that that bugging took place, and we have been assured by the CIA and the NSA that no such evidence was withheld from us,” State Department spokesman Charles Redman said at a news briefing.