Becoming Like the Soviets - Part II

While researching The Oil and the Glory, an amusing story I heard again and again from the oilmen and diplomats who found themselves on the Caspian Sea was the ubiquity of eavesdropping. As they sought their lucrative deals or carried out statesmanship, they would find KGB microphones hidden behind portraits in their hotel rooms, and dug into the walls of their offices. Somehow the Azeris were able to surveil them even in five-star hotels all the way in London.

The Westerners described a resultant atmosphere that was paranoid, poisonous and wholly over the top.

Once, two Britons in Baku – BP’s Terry Adams and Ambassador Thomas Young – had something confidential to discuss, too confidential to risk being overheard indoors, and went for a rainy walk along the shoreline. Their privacy seemed assured — few cars or people were braving the nasty weather. Just then, a small Soviet-made Lada stopped fifty yards ahead of them, and a sheepdog with a big collar jumped out. The dog trailed after the men, making them suspicious. “When the dog’s tail would go up, Tom would say, ‘Careful, it must be transmitting,’” Adams told me. As bizarre as it sounded, the story took on a life of its own, and it helped convince many other oilmen that most if not all conversations were being recorded.

The foreigners began to treat it as a game. They would tailor their conversations with the express purpose of manipulating government negotiators. Some of the locals themselves tried to confound the bugging by dropping crumpled-up notes on the floor to caution foreign guests to watch their mouths.

Meanwhile the foreigners resorted to code names in hopes of confusing those listening in. One member of Azerbaijan’s loyal opposition was dubbed “Loyal Avis” by the Pennzoil team. Another who wore alligator shoes became “the Big Bopper,” and a third who owned a house near the president’s was known as “the Landlord.” A fourth who was in the local KGB was “the Lamp.”

As we see in today’s New York Times, the Bush administration set off on an eavesdropping campaign within two weeks of taking office, in February 2001. We can debate the merits of becoming like the Soviets, which I've blogged about previously.

But I can tell you after years of researching the KGB experience that in this respect it doesn’t work, at least not for long – shrewd listenees find a way to disguise their conversations, and conduct their genuine ones out of earshot.

Photo: tanakawho
Rights: Creative Commons