The Great Seal bug.
Espionage and intelligence gathering is also mentioned in Sun TzusThe Art of Warand ChanakyasArthashastra.
Russias notoriety for eavesdropping and espionage goes back to the times of the Czars.
it’s possible for you to scarcely hire a servant who is not a secret agent of the police.
Open view of a replica of the Great Seal bug on display at the National Cryptologic Museum.
We believe the garden also may be monitored.
Your luggage may be searched two or three times a day.
Nothing is ever stolen and they hardly disturb things.
The Thing, or the Great Seal Bug, contained no power source of its own nor any wires.
Instead, the unit was illuminated by a strong radio signal from the outside, which powered it on.
The working principle of the Thing was somewhat similar.
Construction of The Thing.
The house was searched, but again, no bugs were found.
The work was carried out by Soviet workers without the presence of any American personnel.
But still, nothing was found.
The Spaso House where the bug was planted.
When this failed to satisfy him, he turned these destructive attentions on the seal itself.
I, continuing to mumble my dispatch, remained a fascinated but passive spectator of this extraordinary procedure.
In a few moments, however, all was over.
Henry Cabot Lodge showing ‘The Thing’ at the United Nations on 26 May 1960.
Kennan recalled that the gear represented, for that day, a fantastically advanced bit of applied electronics.
Despite the seriousness and shadiness of the incident, Kennan managed to find humor in it.
Who, I wonder, did they think was with me?
Or did they conclude I was trying to make fun of them?
