Tour uncloaks Washington's spying past

The old Soviet Embassy on 16th Street is a key stop on the tour

In this story: Marked mailboxes, restaurant rendezvous 'Classified pillow talk' 'Playground' for spies RELATED STORIES, SITES

From David Ensor
CNN Correspondent

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It's not just the capital of the United States. It's the capital of espionage.

Beyond Washington's museums and presidential monuments, just about anywhere you look you can see the ghost of intelligence collection. And the SpyDrive's there to guide you, offering a unique monthly tour through Washington's cloak-and-dagger past.

VIDEO CNN's David Ensor reports on a bus tour that showcases history of espionage in Washington Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   VIRTUAL TOUR Go for a ride on the SpyDrive   MESSAGE BOARD Where in the world do you want to travel?

The guides of the SpyDrive tour know what they're talking about. One is David Major, a former FBI counterintelligence officer who also served in the White House. The other is Oleg Kalugin, a retired major-general who was the Washington-based chief of KGB international counterintelligence.

A key stop on the $55, two-and-a-half-hour tour is the old Soviet Embassy on 16th Street.

On their way to commit treason, three of the most damaging American spies walked through its doors: the Central Intelligence Agency's Aldrich Ames, Navy Warrant Officer John Walker, and Ronald Pelton of the National Security Agency.

Marked mailboxes, restaurant rendezvous

Just a few blocks away is the house where Pelton lived. Then there's the mailbox Ames used to mark with chalk when he had secrets for the Soviets and wanted to meet.

Oleg Kalugin, a retired major-general who was the Washington-based chief of KGB international counterintelligence, shares his perspective on the SpyDrive tour

Another point of interest is Chadwick's, the restaurant where Ames gave the Soviets a list of Russians spying for the United States, leading to at least 10 executions.

"I can think of no place in Washington in which more damage had taken place than there," Major said.

Then it's back to the 1950s and the home of State Department official Alger Hiss. Was he really a Soviet spy? Kalugin thinks so.

"One day he wrote to me -- I was in Moscow at the time -- asking to state publicly that he was not a KGB agent, and I did state publicly that he was not a KGB agent, because he was a GRU agent," Kalugin said, referring to Soviet military intelligence.

'Classified pillow talk'

But it isn't just the Russians who spy in Washington. The tour passes by the apartment building that Cuban spy Jennifer Miles, working undercover as a South African diplomat, used to receive gentleman callers.

"Her mission in the diplomatic staff of the South African government was to meet people from the State Department and get involved in classified pillow talk," Major said.

At Chadwick's restaurant, CIA agent Aldrich Ames gave the Soviets a list of Russians spying for the United States -- information which led to at least 10 executions

It also shows where Navy intelligence analyst and Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard came -- thinking he would be safe -- at the Israeli embassy.

"And the guard said, 'You have to leave.' … When he was forced out of the compound, he was arrested," Major said.

'Playground' for spies

But back to the Russians. No spy tour is compete without a look at the French bistro, Au Pied de Cochon. This is where a U.S. security man took Vitaly Yurchenko, the KGB defector, to dinner.

"So he gets up and goes to the bathroom, but in fact he goes out the side door, and the security officer sits and waits and waits, and he never comes back," Major said.

Yurchenko went to the new Soviet Embassy and proceeded to undefect, or redefect. So was he ever a real defector?

"He was a genuine defector. Yurchenko was a real traitor," he said.

And just one of the many international spies who have seen and still see Washington as their playground.

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November 27, 1996

SpyDrive
Official Tourism Web site of Washington, D.C.

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