How The CIA Duped The Soviets' Line X Network

sundling writes "There are interesting articles here(1) and here(2) on software espionage against the Soviets. In the Ronald Reagan era, a Soviet spy network (Line X Network) was looking to steal software to run oil pipelines. The CIA found out what they were trying to steal and fed them bogus versions. This is of course not the only time the CIA has done this. ... An article on the ethics of programming mentions this very topic and the moral implications." Update: 03/02 09:22 GMT by T : Oops -- this is a dupe.

Comments

Original Article

[Ray Radlein]

If anyone wants a link to the original New York Times (#include "free_reg") article by William Safire about this incident, here it is. Now you don't have to hunt down the dupe to read it.

Re:Dupe. Even warned Timothy.

[timothy]

ediron2:

Thanks for sending the notes; it looks like the note-to-editor system is down at the moment, unfortunately. It *is* bedtime for me, but I was actually sitting there waiting, reading email ...

Sorry, I missed this one the first time around.

timothy

corroboration

[JeremyALogan]

there's a bit of information on the CIA's website about it too. no explosion info though

Bullshit or massive lawsuits. Take your pick.

[IgnoramusMaximus]

As many people pointed out in the previous incarnation of this duped story, the whole thing is a total hogwash and "feel-good", "ain't we just the cat's ass" type of drivel for the gung-ho right wing "hawks" in the US public. No factual basis, 100% hot air and a lot of flag waving. The actual explosion (June 1989 near Bashkir) was caused by an operator error and had massive (400+) casaulties since the flame engulfed two trains near the pipeline.

And I really wouldnt like to be in the shoes of the morons who manage to convince people that they planted that software. If by some weird coincidence that thing was within 10 miles of any of the control rooms of that pipeline which exploded. I can just imagine 400 beraved families suing the Uncle Sam under the Patriot act for ... ahem... terrorist acts.

Oh and to make things more interesting, as this medical journal indicates, the US actually sent doctors to treat the poor burned children...

Re:Bullshit or massive lawsuits. Take your pick.

[IgnoramusMaximus]

Oh and I forgot, the depth of this "intellectual" vomit from that idiot Safire at NYT can be also ascertained by the fact that back in 1982 Soviets were very fond of pneumatic (air-driven) control systems for their industrial base. Computer control of industrial processes was very rare at that time even in the US. Besides anyone who ever worked in the industry knows that at that scale all the systems are custom made for the plant, with all the control "loops" designed for the specific task.

Also as some former Soviet officials mentioned when questioned about this nonsense back when the original story broke, said that if that story were true, as Safire indicated the software easilly traced back to its source (USA), in 1982 political climate the Soviet leadership would respond to something like that as an act of war and would at the very least destroy US operated oil plants within easy reach of Soviet bombers or even let loose ICBMs if things went out of control.

Re:Bullshit or massive lawsuits. Take your pick.

[IgnoramusMaximus]

No. The story is not true and the date is wrong. The "story" is a pitiful and reckless attempt to write revisionist history. What I mean is that in order to peddle his bullshit, Safire had to change the dates so the big bang would not correspond to that horrific disaster with all those casaulties. But the 1989 explosion was the "inspiration" for this half-assed Tom Clancy wannabe.

Dec 7.

[Duhavid]

There were a number of reasons why the US Navy thought Pearl was safe.

1: Range. Japanese ships were not thought to have the range to come all the way to Pearl. Much less undetected. They developed refueling techniques to make this possible.

2: Bombs vs Battleships. Conventional bombs of the day were *not* able to affect a Battleship ( the ship used to project power in those days, the day of the carrier was not yet there, they were mainly seen as good for scouting ( battlecruiser replacements ) ). The deck armour was too thick. So, what about Arizona, you ask? Good question. They converted 16" Battleship shells ( the very items designed to go through the deck armour, *and* the much thicker side ( hull ) armour into bombs by adding fins. Then they dropped them from approx 10k meters so that they would have the KE to do the job. In that day, only torpedoes were thought to have what it took to sink a battleship. Which leads me to:

3: Topedoes. The harbor was thought to be safe from attack by torpedoes, as it was only about 40 feet deep ( just a bit deeper than the draught of the ships, IIRC ). This is important as the torpedoes of that day usually sunk to about 75 feet after being dropped from the airplane. The British had pulled off a similar raid at Taranto against the Italian navy using this, but that harbor was deeper than Pearl. The Japanese attached breakaway fins to the torpedoes to arrest their fall on hitting the water, keeping them from sinking so far, and thereby made the attack possible.

Not to mention that the CIA did not exist in those days.

And while I too would like to see our intellegence agencys perform better, I would suggest that it is altogether too easy to armchair QB what they do. I am sure that you have been through something that you did not see coming, but in hindsight, you kick yourself because it was blindingly obvious ( from that side of the event ). Go try to do that job before you kick them too hard about how they have done it.