The Marine Spy Scandal: "It's a Biggie"

In Moscow as in other foreign capitals, the trim, blue-clad Marine is as much a fixture of the U.S. embassy as the flag. He stands in the reception area, resplendent in crimson-trimmed trousers, his hat bearing its gold corps insignia, a .38-cal. revolver at his side -- the very emblem of U.S. security and uprightness. His duties bespeak the nation's belief in his incorruptibility: after hours at major U.S. embassies, he and a Marine buddy go through the empty building securing classified documents that may have been left out, locking safes and disposing of the "trash," often top-secret papers, in the diplomatic "burn bag." They also check on each other. In the 38 years since the U.S. began posting Marines to guard duty, the system had seemed infallible.

Alas, it was not. Last week Corporal Arnold Bracy, 21, a former guard at the Moscow embassy, became only the second "ambassador in blue" ever to be arrested on espionage charges. The first was Sergeant Clayton Lonetree, 25, Bracy's accomplice at the Moscow embassy, who was apprehended three months ago. Lonetree is charged with 24 felonies involving security breaches, including two counts of espionage, which carry a possible death penalty. Bracy is being held in a Quantico, Va., brig until the accusations against him are clarified.

The Marine Corps charged last week that, as buddies on embassy night duty from July 1985 to March 1986, the two guards regularly let Soviet agents into the empty embassy late at night "to peruse" sensitive areas, including the embassy's communications center, for up to four hours at a time. Bracy, the corps' charge sheet claims, served as lookout and shut down security alarms set off by the Soviets. "These guys actually escorted the Soviets around the building," said a Pentagon official.

Following Bracy's arrest, the case rapidly spiraled into a spy scandal of major proportions. "It's a biggie," said one White House official. "A real biggie." Soviet penetration of embassy communications has been so extensive, officials fear, that U.S. negotiating positions were compromised before the Reykjavik summit last October. The security damage has also seriously hampered preparations for Secretary of State George Shultz's trip to Moscow April 13 -- and could cast a pall over prospects for a summit this year.

President Reagan was sufficiently concerned to order two briefings on the case, including a high-level Friday afternoon meeting that included Cabinet members. Shultz did not even wait to consult with Reagan before taking the unprecedented step of shutting down all sensitive electronic communications with the Moscow embassy. U.S. diplomatic posts around the world are now transmitting Moscow-bound traffic to Frankfurt, where select courier teams are on call to hand-carry material to the Soviet capital. Within the embassy, secretaries have been forbidden to use any machine that emits electronic signals, including electric typewriters and word processors. Even the Xerox machine has been shut down. Shultz has already asked Congress for a special $25 million appropriation to replace the security systems for the embassies in Moscow and Vienna, where Lonetree also worked.