Walking Around Town: Spying in Upper NW

WITH THE POISONING of an ex-KGB spy in London stirring up memories of Cold War-era espionage, we thought we'd take a look at some of the lesser-known landmarks from Washington's Soviet-American past. Many people know about Cleveland Park's Yenching Palace and the role it played in settling the Cuban Missile Crisis, but some more recent historic spots have been lost recently in Georgetown and Glover Park — particularly the mailbox infamous spy Aldrich Ames used to tip off his Russian handlers. And then there's that U.S.-dug tunnel under the Russian Embassy's Mount Alto compound, pictured here. It's not a secret that it exists, but where it starts still something of neighborhood curiosity.

Below, you'll see a Wayfaring map pinpointing a handful of landmarks, but there are many more. This writer highly suggests taking the "Spies: North by Northwest Walking Tour" offered by Carol Bessette, a retired Air Force intelligence officer who knows the secret history of the area surrounding the Russian Embassy, Alban Towers and Garfield House apartment buildings just up Wisconsin Avenue.

After the jump, we'll hit three places of interest from the late Cold War.

» (ALLEGED) RUSSIAN EMBASSY TUNNEL: If you walk around the Russian Embassy complex in Glover Park and then walk south toward 37th Street NW, you may be walking over a tunnel dug by the United States government — led by the National Security Administration and FBI — to spy on the Soviet Union, which built its embassy complex during the 1970s and '80s, but didn't fully move its diplomatic operations to the building from 16th Street NW until the 1990s. The disclosure of the tunnel in 2001 was related to the arrest of Robert Hanssen, the FBI counterintelligence officer who was found guilty of spying for Moscow. The government remains tight-lipped about the tunnel, which is still a hot topic in neighborhood lore.

» AMES' MAILBOX: As you're making your way toward Georgetown University, there's something missing at the corner of 37th and R streets NW — a mailbox that convicted spy Aldrich Ames would visit when he wanted to contact his Russian handlers. From Senate Intelligence Committee testimony, November 1994:

Once he returned from Rome, after years of regularly passing classified information via face-to-face meetings with his Soviet intermediaries, Ames no longer had such meetings in the United States. Instead he began relying on "dead drops" and signal sites, and personal contacts abroad. Ames would leave a signal — such as a chalk mark on a mailbox to indicate to the Soviets that he would "load" a dead drop site. Then he would provide classified information and messages to the KGB by placing a package somewhere in a hidden, secure area in the Washington, D.C. area. Similarly, the KGB used signals and dead drop sites to pass money and instructions to Ames. Ames and the KGB identified the sites in messages back and forth by using cover names to protect their locations in case a dead drop site was ever compromised.

» OUT THE WINDOW: And then going into the heart of Georgetown, the old Au Pied du Cochon at Wisconsin Avenue and Dumbarton Street was the scene of one of the CIA's more embarrassing counter-defections. In 1985, a KGB agent, Vitaly Yurchenko was having a meal with his CIA handlers when he went to use the bathroom. Promptly, he climbed out the window onto Dumbarton Street and counter-defected by walking to the Soviet Embassy. Today, you can enjoy your Five Guys burgers and fries there.

» "Russian Poison Suspects 'Cannot Be Extradited'" [Telegraph]
» "U.S. Thinks Agent Revealed Tunnel at Soviet Embassy" [NYT]
» "An Assessment of the Aldrich H. Ames Espionage Case and Its Implications for U.S. Intelligence" [FAS]
» "Espionage's Greatest Hits — Live!" [St. Petersburg Times]

Photos by Michael Grass/Express

Posted By Michael Grass at 4:22 PM on December 5, 2006 Tagged in Free Ride , Georgetown , Glover Park

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