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Information on Moscow Signal is sketchy in the public domain, but a recent book, “Phenomena,” published in 2017, by Annie Jacobson, adds in some new information on how the Moscow Signal issue was handled – or mishandled -- in the 1960s and 1970s.
Following the discovery that microwaves were being beamed at the US Embassy in Moscow, “scientists with Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory were assigned to oversee research into the phenomenon. An elaborate facility was constructed inside the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Forest Glen Section. Here, inside an anechoic chamber (an echo chamber designed to completely absorb reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves), primates were irradiated with microwave beams with a power density similar to that of the Moscow Signal. ARPA’s Richard S. Cesaro was in charge of what was called Project Pandora. Within a few months of beaming the signal at the monkeys, Cesaro became convinced of its harmful nature, deciding that it adversely affected the internal organs of primates, including the brain. “In our experiments, we did some remarkable things. And there was no question in my mind that you can get into the brain with microwaves,” Cesaro later said. It was later determined that the microwave beam produced Alzheimer’s disease.” [It should be noted, however, that Cesaro’s findings were highly disputed, as were all findings that the microwaves caused harm to humans. Cesaro himself was fired from ARPA in 1969.]
During the 1960s, secret studies were carried out on Embassy Moscow personnel, who were not told about the microwaves, but were given the cover story that “viral studies” were being conducted.
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| U.S. Embassy Moscow, 1964 (Bettman Archive) |
There was much controversy about whether microwaves were harmful. Dr. Samuel Koslov, a Navy scientist who worked on the ARPA project, contended the signals were harmless. Many others did not agree, but Koslov’s view eventually prevailed.
A few government scientists broke ranks and discussed the government’s shortcomings in the area of electromagnetic weapons. They included the biologist Dr. Allan H. Frey, who made a number of important contributions to the study of microwaves, including the discovery of the “Frey effect,” or the ability of subjects to hear microwaves at certain frequencies and interpret the sound as clicks.
A colleague, Dr. Robert O. Becker, resigned from his position because he thought the research the US government was conducting was immoral. At this time, the government was still keeping Moscow Signal secret from Embassy Moscow employees, and reportedly had used microwaves to experiment secretly on U.S. Navy personnel at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. “Becker’s government work convinced him that a microwave signal such as the Moscow Signal ‘could affect the central nervous system, put people to sleep, interfere with decision-making capacity and induce chronic stress,’ he said, and noted that the Soviets had been ‘using embassy employees as test subjects for low-level EMR [electromagnetic radiation] experiments.’
“The government had succeeded in keeping the programs secret, from the discovery of the Moscow Signal in 1962* until February 1976, when the Los Angeles Times broke the story. The unraveling had begun in 1973 when a new and more powerful set of Soviet microwave beams were picked up by the CIA in Moscow. Like the original Moscow Signal, these new electromagnetic beams were aimed at the upper floors of the embassy, where the ambassador and top intelligence officials had their offices.
“Finally, fourteen years after its discovery, in January 1976, U.S. Ambassador Walter Stoessel was briefed on the Moscow Signal. Stoessel filed a formal protest with the Soviets and…informed embassy personnel about their exposure to high-powered microwave beam radiation. ‘Several members of the embassy staff display symptoms that are non-specific but have been reported frequently in patients chronically exposed to non-ionizing radiation,” a State Department doctor reported. Symptoms included severe headaches, inability to concentrate, and fatigue.
“One hundred U.S. Embassy employees previously stationed in Moscow filed $250 million worth of lawsuits against the government for exposure related to Moscow Signal. In response, the State Department funded a [$300,000] study by the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, the same institution that had created the synthetic Moscow Signal against the monkeys. The study, released in November 1978, found ‘no convincing evidence that any employees suffered ‘adverse health effects as of the time of this analysis.’ According to State Department medical consultant Dr. Herbert Pollack, who advocated on behalf of the victims in a Senate subcommittee investigation, every suit was eventually withdrawn, ‘without a penny being paid.’
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*Note: Just as it took seven years for the US to discover that radio waves were activating a bug in Spaso House (1945-52), it is likely that the Soviets were using microwaves on Embassy Moscow long before they were first noted in 1962. This is why, for example, the 1978 Johns Hopkins study surveyed Embassy personnel going all the way back to the opening of the OOB at Tchaikovsky 19 in 1953.
It also raises the question, which will probably never be answered, of
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| 13 Mokhovaya |
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