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| International |
| The "Farewell Dossier" -- the spooks get one right |
| 2004-02-02 |
| by William Safire, New York Times EFL. Hat tip: Brothers Judd. With all the "intelligence failures" in the news these days, it’s comforting to know that there are also Tom Clancy-style "intelligence successes." Maybe in 20 years, we’ll finally hear about some of them... Col. Vladimir Vetrov provided what French intelligence called the Farewell dossier. It contained documents from the K.G.B. Technology Directorate showing how the Soviets were systematically stealing — or secretly buying through third parties — the radar, machine tools and semiconductors to keep the Russians nearly competitive with U.S. military-industrial strength through the 70’s. In effect, the U.S. was in an arms race with itself. Reagan passed this on to William J. Casey, his director of central intelligence, now remembered only for the Iran-contra fiasco. Casey called in Weiss, then working with Thomas C. Reed on the staff of the National Security Council. After studying the list of hundreds of Soviet agents and purchasers (including one cosmonaut) assigned to this penetration in the U.S. and Japan, Weiss counseled against deportation. Instead, according to Reed — a former Air Force secretary whose fascinating cold war book, "At the Abyss," will be published by Random House next month — Weiss said: "Why not help the Soviets with their shopping? Now that we know what they want, we can help them get it." The catch: computer chips would be designed to pass Soviet quality tests and then to fail in operation. Diabolically clever! In our complex disinformation scheme, deliberately flawed designs for stealth technology and space defense sent Russian scientists down paths that wasted time and money. The technology topping the Soviets’ wish list was for computer control systems to automate the operation of the new trans-Siberian gas pipeline. I remember the pipeline being a big deal because it was said to have been built, on the Soviet side, with slave labor. When we turned down their overt purchase order, the K.G.B. sent a covert agent into a Canadian company to steal the software; tipped off by Farewell, we added what geeks call a "Trojan Horse" to the pirated product. "The pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines and valves was programmed to go haywire," writes Reed, "to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to the pipeline joints and welds. The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space." . . . Ka-BOOM! Farewell stayed secret because the blast in June 1982, estimated at three kilotons, Ye Gods! took place in the Siberian wilderness, with no casualties known. Nor was the red-faced K.G.B. about to complain publicly about being tricked by bogus technology. But all the software it had stolen for years was suddenly suspect, which stopped or delayed the work of thousands of worried Russian technicians and scientists. Vetrov was caught and executed in 1983. A year later, Bill Casey ordered the K.G.B. collection network rolled up, closing the Farewell dossier. . . . Fred, Old Spook, was this one of your projects, back in the day? |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #13 Tales of the explosion were probably the inspiration for some scenes in Clancy's Cardinal of the Kremlin. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-2-2 8:15:31 PM |
| #12 I can't believe the classification on this has expired or been rescinded yet, 21 years isn't nearly enough time. Maybe it's a warning to various other hostile nations that like to steal our tech. Make them spend billions of Any body have a link on the 3kt blast in siberia? |
| Posted by: 4thInfVet 2004-2-2 7:34:36 PM |
| #11 Never EVER underestimate the creative minds in the U.S. And that boyz and girlz is how you destroy an evil empire without firing a shot. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2004-2-2 6:52:07 PM |
| #10 Dar, I think those jammers were designed to jam the new Russian/Euro GPS system. Got to be careful about what you write on teh purchase order. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-2-2 6:05:27 PM |
| #9 Fred, Old Spook, was this one of your projects, back in the day? I think they'd tell ya, but then they'd have to kill ya... |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-2-2 4:47:07 PM |
| #8 estimated at three kilotons That's how good the Reagan people were. They didn't even need a nuke to bomb the Soviets into shitting their pants. We probably have intelligence success like this today(without the boom), but it won't come out for years. Still, this made me grin maniacly and think about what chips the Chinese are using for the Three Gorges Dam. |
| Posted by: Charles 2004-2-2 4:44:01 PM |
| #7 "three kilotons" Holy boom-boom,Batman. |
| Posted by: Raptor 2004-2-2 3:58:03 PM |
| #6 Was that the same explosion that woke up the Velas? |
| Posted by: Lassie 2004-2-2 2:04:43 PM |
| #5 Anybody want to buy some cheap, slightly-used GPS jammers? Very effective against those imperialist Yankee JDAMs! (Your mileage may vary) |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-2-2 1:47:33 PM |
| #4 Great story, but I hope that, post cold war, one of our wise acres didn't buy and use some of that surplus 'Soviet' technology. |
| Posted by: Gasse Katze 2004-2-2 1:41:14 PM |
| #3 That's so beautiful, I think I'm gonna cry. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-2-2 1:21:26 PM |
| #2 awesome, truly awesome. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-2-2 1:15:33 PM |
| #1 That book on the Cold War, "At the Abyss" by Thomas C. Reed, looks like it's gonna be good! Nice post! RIP, Vetrov. |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-2-2 1:09:35 PM |