FOIAWEAR — GOLDEN CIGAR CONNECTOR / Moscow Embassy Column Tee

FOIAWEAR / ARCHIVE SERIES 056

GOLDEN CIGAR CONNECTOR — for years, columns in the U.S. Embassy office building in Moscow secretly carried devices built to collect intelligence on the Americans working inside. This gold- and silver-plated connector was an integral part of that collection system. It was placed near the top of a column, inside a dense rebar cage, where items that reflected X-rays masked its location — hidden from survey by the building's own structure.

The artwork reads the device the way it escaped detection: as a radiograph, pale against black, with the rebar cage crossing the frame behind it.

The QR code on the front opens the source: https://www.cia.gov/legacy/museum/artifact/golden-cigar-connector-out-of-us-embassy-in-moscow/ — the CIA Museum's own artifact page.

Garment: Comfort Colors 1717, 6.1 oz garment-dyed cotton, S–4XL. Front print only; plain back. Artwork approximately 10 × 10 in, QR approximately 1.8 × 1.8 in.

Colours: the shirt is offered in both dark and light garment colours — the pale radiograph print on Black, Graphite, Espresso, Navy and Pepper, and a deep blue ink drawing of the same device on White, Ivory, Butter, Chalky Mint, Blossom, Light Green and Chambray.

Care: machine wash cold, inside out, tumble dry low. Do not iron the print directly.

FOIAWEAR is an independent brand and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Central Intelligence Agency or the United States government.