http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6664BEB6-2CAE-44CA-854B-E98E8FA3A744.htm (Excerp:)
How the CIA conned the Soviet Union
Friday 27 February 2004, 15:21 Makka Time, 12:21 GMT
The blast caused significant damage to the Soviet economy
Tools:
Email Article
Print Article
Send Your Feedback
The CIA exploited the Soviet Union's desire to pilfer western technology to send it flawed software that resulted in a huge explosion on a natural gas pipeline in 1982.
Nobody was killed in the blast, but it did significant damage to the Soviet economy, the Washington Post said on Friday quoting the memoirs of Thomas Reed, a former Air Force secretary who served in the National Security Council.
Approved by then US president Ronald Reagan, the plan was part of "cold-eyed economic warfare" against the Soviet Union that the Central Intelligence Agency conducted under Director William Casey, said Reed, whose book, "At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War," will be published next month.
Reed said the Soviets in 1970 had created a special KGB section to plumb western research and development for badly needed technology.
The secret programme was later disclosed by a Soviet engineer to French intelligence, who in turn alerted the Reagan administration in 1981.
Shocked by the knowledge the Soviets were stealing abundant western technology and aware the United States at the time was trying to block Western Europe from importing Soviet natural gas, the CIA came up with the idea of slipping the Soviets technology that would work for a while, then fail.
And the source IS aljazeera -- the propaganda machine.