316
The Body Electric
nal was a composite of several frequencies, apparently aiming for a syn-
ergistic effect from various wavelengths, and it was beamed directly at
the ambassador's office. Thus it may have been used at least partially to
activate bugging devices, but it wasn't consistent with one of the other
subsequent official American explanations—a jamming signal to disrupt
the U.S. eavesdropping equipment on the embassy roof.
The intensity isn't known for certain. When the State Department
admitted the signal's existence, officials claimed it never amounted to
more than 18 microwatts. However, although released Project Pandora
records don't directly reveal a higher level and the relevant documents
have allegedly been destroyed, research protocols aimed at simulating
the Moscow signal called for levels up to 4,000 microwatts.
In the mid-1960s published Soviet
research indicated that such a
beam would produce eyestrain and blurred vision, headaches, and loss of
concentration. Within a few years other research had uncovered the en-
tire microwave syndrome, including the cancer potential.
By all accounts except the official ones, the Moscow bombardment has
been highly effective. In 1976 the Globe reported that Ambassador Wal-
ter Stoessel had developed a rare blood disease similar to leukemia and
was suffering headaches and bleeding from the eyes. Two of his irradi-
ated predecessors, Charles Bohlen and Llewellyn Thompson, died of can-
cer. Monkeys exposed to the signal as part of Project Pandora soon
showed multiple abnormalities of blood composition and chromosome
counts.
In January 1977, the State Department, under duress, announced re-
sults of a series of blood tests on returning embassy personnel: a
"slightly higher than average" white blood cell count in about a third of
the Moscow staff. If 40 percent above the white blood cell counts of
other foreign service employees (levels common to incipient leukemia)
can be considered "slightly higher than average," then this technically
wasn't a lie. The finding has been officially ascribed to some unknown
microbe. Unfortunately, there's no such doubt about the veracity of ex-
planations about some earlier research. As part of Project Pandora in the
late 1960s, the State Department tested its Moscow employees for ge-
netic damage upon their return stateside, telling them the inner cheek
scrapings were to screen for those unusual bacteria. No results were ever
released, and they're reportedly part of the missing files, but one of the
physicians who conducted the tests was quoted by the Associated Press
as saying they'd found "lots of chromosome breaks." The embassy staff
had to learn this when the rest of us did - in the newspapers nearly a
decade later.