“#OTD in 1960 during a UN Security Council meeting, then-U.S. Ambassador to the UN Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. stunned the world when he revealed a covert listening device in a wooden carving of the U.S. Great Seal gifted to the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow.”
CIA Tweet (May 26 2020)
“Theremin did some of his best scientific work while imprisoned by one of the most repressive regimes of the 20th century. This brilliant scientist crossed path with the CIA more than once — to our detriment.”
Benjamin R. Fisher — CIA History staff
“History certainly isn’t averse to irony. Seventy-plus years later, descendants of a device invented by the Soviet Union to eavesdrop on its Western enemies are being flogged in an internal catalog of a U.S. intelligence organization.”
Maurits Martijn — The Correspondent (December 2015)
Clara Rockmore & Leon Theremin. Rockmore was a classical violin prodigy and a virtuoso performer of the “Theremin”, the grandfather of all electronic musical instruments.
May 28 2018 — Once upon a time, the Russians relied for many years on a technology unknown to the Americans to spy on the US ambassador in Moscow. The device — known as “The thing” — was the brainchild of an extraordinary genius: Leon Theremin.
I have long suspected that “Microwave Spying” was still a tool on the shelf of the modern spies. In the aftermath of Snowden’s revelations, Der Spiegel published a catalogue of surveillance technologies used by the NSA and CIA to eavesdrop on foreign spies and diplomats.
And indeed, these documents show that the U.S. Intelligence is using products — with names like LOUDAUTO and ANGRYNEIGHBOR — against foreign embassies. Those devices are generally considered as direct successors of Leon Theremin’s brilliant invention. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →
