ABOUT 30 electronic listening bugs have been found in Ministry of Defence (MoD) buildings, including its Whitehall headquarters in London.
The devices are understood to have been hidden in offices, including rooms used by intelligence staff, within the past 10 years. They were uncovered during recent refurbishment work, having remained in place despite regular sweeps by security staff.
Visitors such as builders and foreign journalists, many of them working for foreign intelligence agencies, are believed to have planted them in walls, ventilation systems and other hiding places. Despite the end of the cold war, the Russians are the most likely culprits.
The disclosure has prompted warnings to MoD staff to be vigilant. They have been told they are still being targeted by foreign intelligence agencies and must not drop their guard.
The scale of the bugging was revealed at a lecture for senior MoD staff on electronic security. It was given by an expert from RAF Digby in Lincolnshire, which is linked to GCHQ, the government's eavesdropping centre in Cheltenham.
According to ministry sources, some devices had been bought from specialist firms. Others were custom-made, possibly by foreign intelligence services. Most were batteryoperated and capable of transmitting for at least a month.
Two of the bugs were found at Turnstile House, an MoD building in London where electronics experts designed surveillance devices used for covert operations by intelligence agents.
The bugs were discovered by workmen renovating the property after it was sold by the MoD to developers. The company which carried out the refurbishment said last week that it had been told not to say anything about the find.
An unspecified number of devices was also found at MoD headquarters in Whitehall where ministers, chiefs of staff and about 3,000 staff are based. The offices sit above a secret underground nerve centre from which operations around the world can be directed.
Last week a senior MoD source said: "There have certainly been finds, mostly during work to modernise the building. We are a prime target and from time to time we accept that things will get in. It's why we spend so much time and money making sure we can find them."
None of the bugs was in the most sensitive areas of the building. The sixth-floor offices of senior officials and ministers have in-built equipment which sweeps constantly for the radio signals and magnetic pulses that are emitted by listening devices. The offices cannot be entered without security clearance. Security elsewhere in the building is less tight. Visitors' bags are searched at entrances, but workmen and foreign journalists with valid credentials are admitted.
Although electronic sweep teams tour the building, it can be more than a month between visits. Visitors are not swept with hand-held devices that could detect bugs - a practice used at the headquarters of MI5 and MI6.
One of the most recent finds came during an MoD sweep of a room at the Royal College of Surgeons, which was being used for a meeting between MoD procurement staff and a British defence company. The MoD rents such rooms for business meetings because of the poor state of its headquarters. Details of the find, made last year, were passed to MI5.
The MoD's head of security refused last week to confirm or deny that agents had managed to plant the devices. A spokesman said the MoD would not comment on specific security issues, but kept its procedures under permanent review: "We have rigorous security procedures and we update them constantly."
Defence sources suspect that Russians planted the bugs. Only three weeks ago Tony Blair complained to President Vladimir Putin about aggressive spying. Putin, a former head of the now-defunct KGB, recently told senior Russian intelligence officers to get back to work, promising that they would be crucial to "the development of the new Russia".
The disclosures raise the question of whether the bugs were missed. One explanation may be that they were active for only a few days. Most bugs are placed for a specific purpose at a set time because of the difficulty of having to lurk nearby to receive the signal. The haul is not thought to include long-term bugs which can be wired into the electric mains and operate for years.
Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, said he was unaware of the finds, adding that he was not routinely informed of security incidents unless there was a known breach of secrets. "I will certainly be asking about this," he said. "I am confident that we do not have a problem."
