The Thing (Soviet listening device)

[Grey Havoc]

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250826-the-soviet-artwork-that-spied-on-the-us

A listening device hidden in an artwork in 1945 was undetected by US security for seven years – and it's not the only example of art having been manipulated for subterfuge.

Eighty years ago, during the final weeks of World War Two, a troop of Russian boy scouts presented the US Ambassador in Moscow with a hand-carved Great Seal of the US, at his official residence – Spaso House. The gift symbolised cooperation between Russia and the US during the war, and the US Ambassador W Averell Harriman proudly hung it in his house until 1952.

But unbeknownst to the ambassador and his security team, the seal contained a covert listening device, later dubbed "The Thing" by US technical security teams. It spied on diplomatic conversations, completely undetected for seven years. By using a seemingly innocuous artwork to infiltrate the enemy and gain strategic advantage, the Soviets had pulled off the most ingenious stunt since Odysseus's Trojan Horse. But this is a true story, even if it sounds like the stuff of spy fiction.

How did The Thing work? John Little, a 79-year-old specialist in counter-surveillance, has long been fascinated by the device, and even built his own replica of it. A documentary about Little's incredible work was released this year and, following its sell-out first live viewing in May, is due to be screened on 27 September at the National Museum of Computing, at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire.

He describes the technology of The Thing in musical terms – as being composed of tubes like organ pipes and a membrane "like the skin of a drum, that will vibrate to the human voice". But it was compacted into a tiny object that looks like a hat pin – and with the advantage of passing unnoticed by counter-surveillance screening because it had "no electronics, no battery, and it doesn't get warm".

The engineering of such an instrument was also painstakingly precise – "a cross between a Swiss watch and a micrometre". Historian H Keith Melton has claimed that, in its day, The Thing "elevated the science of audio monitoring to a level previously thought to be impossible."

Within Spaso House, The Thing was only activated when a remote transceiver, based in a nearby building, was switched on. This sent out a high frequency signal which reflected back all the vibrations coming from the bug's antenna. It was only when a British military radio operator working in Moscow in 1951 accidentally tuned into the exact wavelength used by The Thing, and heard conversations from a far-distant room, that it was detected. The next year, US technicians swept the ambassadorial residence and – after no fewer than three days' search – realised that the hand-carved Great Seal was an invisible ear, eavesdropping on behind-the-scenes ambassadorial discussions.

[snip]

 

[Flyaway]

This new podcast I recently listened to is kind of related.

The spy next door: Moscow's century-long plot to infiltrate the west​

Shaun Walker casts light on Moscow's shocking 'illegals' programme - a daring feat of espionage that saw Russian spies going deep undercover

In 2010, the world was stunned when the United States exposed a covert Russian spy network operating on its soil. Seemingly all-American families living in white-picket-fenced suburbia were in fact deep undercover Russian agents. Many had been living under assumed identities for decades, lying even to their own children. In this episode, journalist Shaun Walker speaks to Danny Bird about Moscow’s longlasting ‘illegals’ programme – perhaps the most audacious chapter in the history of espionage. He reveals how the roots of the operation reached back more than a century to before the Bolshevik Revolution; how the Soviet Union deployed it against supposedly ‘friendly’ states; and how today’s Russia reveres these spies as patriotic heroes.

https://www.historyextra.com/membership/moscow-illegals-programme-podcast-shaun-walker/

 

[Justo Miranda]

According to reports published on the radio program "Mañanas en Libertad", the journalist Luis del Pino, citing "The Objective" as a source, the intelligence services of my country are very concerned about the installation of electronic devices and cameras from a certain Asian country that, in the (unproven) case that they were equipped with remote access devices, they would allow a certain Asian country to access all police databases, interrogations for judicial purposes, communication systems of the Air Force, security cameras installed in the House of Government in Madrid and on the border of our African cities.

In today's issue, the ABC newspaper expands on the information by citing sources from twelve other countries that have allegedly suffered cyberattacks from a certain Asian country through imported electronic devices.

Frankly, I preferred the old image of the attractive Russian spy speaking in code through a radio installed inside her powder case.

 

[Owens Z]

Soviet listening device

According to reports published on the radio program "Mañanas en Libertad", the journalist Luis del Pino, citing "The Objective" as a source, the intelligence services of my country are very concerned about the installation of electronic devices and cameras from a certain Asian country that, in the (unproven) case that they were equipped with remote access devices, they would allow a certain Asian country to access all police databases, interrogations for judicial purposes, communication systems of the Air Force, security cameras installed in the House of Government in Madrid and on the border of our African cities.
In today's issue, the ABC newspaper expands on the information by citing sources from twelve other countries that have allegedly suffered cyberattacks from a certain Asian country through imported electronic devices...

I remember that "The Thing" inside the Great Seal on the wall of the US ambassador's office in Moscow, and the author's successful effort to copy its design for UK use, was discussed in Peter Wright's bestselling 1987 book Spycatcher (pp25-30).

I am very far from an apologist for that certain Asian country, Justo. But let's be careful about misdirection. We know from the history of espionage that if the KGB approached a mark (intended victim) whose known desire was to support Israel, then the KGB agent would seem plausibly Jewish. If the KGB's mark wanted to funnel secret tech to China, then their agent would be a Han person who claimed to want the same. If the mark's burning goal was to keep France in Algeria, then the KGB agent would appear to be even more burning for that goal. And so on. And if the KGB planted a listening device or timebomb outside the Soviet Empire where it could be found by others, then for deniability the parts would be sourced from US/German/Japanese/etc. manufacturers, with writing and serial numbers in English/German/Japanese/etc., never Cyrillic letters. A check for fingerprints would find none. Standard tradecraft for Soviets (and now the FSB), but also other well-funded professionals.

I trust Spain's Centro Nacional de Inteligencia, who know the above better than I do, to see through any deception and uncover the facts. But I discount the reportage of journalists, who are too often fools.

 

[Justo Miranda]

I remember that "The Thing" inside the Great Seal on the wall of the US ambassador's office in Moscow, and the author's successful effort to copy its design for UK use, was discussed in Peter Wright's bestselling 1987 book Spycatcher (pp25-30).

I am very far from an apologist for that certain Asian country, Justo. But let's be careful about misdirection. We know from the history of espionage that if the KGB approached a mark (intended victim) whose known desire was to support Israel, then the KGB agent would seem plausibly Jewish. If the KGB's mark wanted to funnel secret tech to China, then their agent would be a Han person who claimed to want the same. If the mark's burning goal was to keep France in Algeria, then the KGB agent would appear to be even more burning for that goal. And so on. And if the KGB planted a listening device or timebomb outside the Soviet Empire where it could be found by others, then for deniability the parts would be sourced from US/German/Japanese/etc. manufacturers, with writing and serial numbers in English/German/Japanese/etc., never Cyrillic letters. A check for fingerprints would find none. Standard tradecraft for Soviets (and now the FSB), but also other well-funded professionals.

I trust Spain's Centro Nacional de Inteligencia, who know the above better than I do, to see through any deception and uncover the facts. But I discount the reportage of journalists, who are too often fools.

I liked that definition of a spy who feigns affinity to enter your ideological circle, that strategy has reminded me of the alien in the movie "The Thing" who pretends to be an unjustly chased dog to enter the Antarctic base.

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7463962164991184134

View: https://www.tiktok.com/@angel.d.montalvan/video/7463962164991184134

 

[aim9xray]

Oh, that THING. I was thinking of this THING.

 

[Justo Miranda]

I was thinking of this THING.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWrkENGbkNs

 

[Flyaway]

A lot of people would think of this when you say The Thing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(1982_film)

 

[publiusr]

I liked that definition of a spy who feigns affinity to enter your ideological circle, that strategy has reminded me of the alien in the movie "The Thing" who pretends to be an unjustly chased dog

At least Johnny Walker's face didn't split open.

 

[martinbayer]

Oh, that THING. I was thinking of this THING.

View attachment 782949

What *was* that thing though?

 

[BlackBat242]

I was thinking of this THING.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWrkENGbkNs

 

[publiusr]

Blair then pulls them over--not pretty.
Now I know where Wednesday's severed hand friend came from:

 

[BlackBat242]

Blair then pulls them over--not pretty.
Now I know where Wednesday's severed hand friend came from:

Thing T. Thing, often referred to as just Thing, is a fictional character in The Addams Family] series. The Addamses call it "Thing" because it is something that cannot be identified, being originally an unseen creature in the original cartoons (1954). Starting with the live-action TV series (1964-66), it was settled to be a disembodied hand.

The cartoon I posted is much, much later than the appearance of Thing on The Addams Family.

The Thing is a fictional superhero character appearing in Marvel Comics. He is a founding member of the Fantastic Four. The Thing was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and he first appeared in The Fantastic Four #1 (cover-dated Nov. 1961).

Thing One (1) and Thing Two (2), also known as Bim and Ben, are the first two of the Number Things from One and Up from The Cat in the Hat book (1957) by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel ).

 

[publiusr]

Sadly that Seuss take has been ruined by that crazy couple that had their kids wear shirts like that—but starved them. I know—I’m a Debbie Downer…