FLAW WAS PLANTED TO SABOTAGE SOVIETS
By David E. Hoffman
Washington Post
WASHINGTON - In January 1982, President Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural-gas pipeline, according to a new memoir by a Reagan White House official.
Thomas Reed, a former Air Force secretary who was serving in the National Security Council at the time, describes the episode in ``At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War,'' to be published next month by Ballantine Books. Reed writes that the pipeline explosion was just one example of ``cold-eyed economic warfare'' against the Soviet Union that the CIA carried out under Director William Casey during the final years of the Cold War.
KGB insider's tip
At the time, the United States was attempting to block Western Europe from importing Soviet natural gas. There also were signs that the Soviets were trying to steal a wide variety of Western technology. Then, a KGB insider revealed the specific shopping list and the CIA slipped the flawed software to the Soviets in a way they would not detect it.
``In order to disrupt the Soviet gas supply, its hard currency earnings from the West, and the internal Russian economy, the pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines, and valves was programmed to go haywire, after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds,'' Reed writes.
``The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space,'' he said, adding that U.S. satellites picked up the explosion. Reed said in an interview that the blast occurred in the summer of 1982.
``While there were no physical casualties from the pipeline explosion, there was significant damage to the Soviet economy,'' he writes. ``Its ultimate bankruptcy, not a bloody battle or nuclear exchange, is what brought the Cold War to an end. In time, the Soviets came to understand that they had been stealing bogus technology, but now what were they to do? By implication, every cell of the Soviet leviathan might be infected. They had no way of knowing which equipment was sound, which was bogus.
``All was suspect, which was the intended endgame for the entire operation.''
`Farewell Dossier'
Reed said he obtained CIA approval to publish details about the operation. The CIA learned of the full extent of the KGB's pursuit of Western technology in an intelligence operation known as the Farewell Dossier. Portions of the operation have been disclosed earlier, including in a 1996 paper in Studies in Intelligence, a CIA journal.
The paper was written by Gus Weiss, an expert on technology and intelligence who was instrumental in devising the plan to send the flawed materials and served with Reed on the National Security Council. Weiss died Nov. 25 at age 72.
The sabotage of the gas pipeline has not been previously disclosed, and at the time was a closely guarded secret. When the pipeline exploded, Reed writes, the first reports caused concern in the U.S. military and at the White House. ``NORAD feared a missile liftoff from a place where no rockets were known to be based,'' he said, referring to North American Air Defense Command. ``Or perhaps it was the detonation of a small nuclear device.''
``Before these conflicting indicators could turn into an international crisis,'' he said, ``Gus Weiss came down the hall to tell his fellow NSC staffers not to worry.''