Word: techs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Stealing high-tech secrets is nothing new; the Soviets have been doing it since at least the 1930s, when Communist agents made off with Western inventions like Eastman Kodak's formula for developing color pictures. In the late '40s the Russians even managed to steal atomic secrets. But in the 1960s, as the U.S. outmatched the Kremlin's big missiles with more accurate ones, Soviet spies were ordered by their masters to make high tech their No. 1 target. It is U.S. computer technology that the Soviets truly covet, for the ability to process masses of information in milliseconds...
From such public documents the Kremlin technocrats draw up shopping lists for the KGB and GRU, the chief intelligence directorate of the Soviet military. Last year, for instance, German officials uncovered a secret guide of high- tech items requested by the Kremlin. It was the size of a telephone book. KGB agents, like salesmen with a quota, were required to produce at least four items a year from the list...
...High-tech spying can seem relatively innocuous, at least to those predisposed not to ask too many questions. The Soviets regularly use European middlemen to buy high-tech gadgetry, which itself often seems harmless. "People rationalize," says Herbert Clough, a security consultant. "This little thing can't do any damage. It won't start World...
...Customs officials found the garage of Millie McKee, a divorcee living in the San Francisco suburb of Redwood City, stuffed with high-tech gear. Charged with illegally exporting laser components and sophisticated electronics to Switzerland, where authorities believe it was transshipped to the Soviet Union, McKee was given a six-month work release sentence for making a false statement. She described the crime as "all technical violations," like driving 60 m.p.h. in 55 m.p.h. zones. "There's been little fear of heavy sentences. It's more often a slap on the wrist," says Robert McDiarmid, a Santa Clara County private...
...feds are trying to crack down, however. A bureaucratic struggle between free traders in the Commerce Department and Pentagon officials appalled by high-tech transfer has been resolved by the Reagan Administration in favor of tougher export controls. The military won the right to review export licenses, and has blocked sales like the shipment of machinery to test concrete strength to the Soviets, on the grounds that the equipment could be used to help harden missile silos. Since 1981 the Customs Service's Operation Exodus has stopped at the docks some 4,000 illegal shipments abroad, including crates destined...