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CIA opens files on project to raise sunken Soviet submarine
Zee News ^ | 1/13/2010 | Zee News

Posted on 02/13/2010 12:59:40 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for the first time has revealed details about an ultra-secret Cold War-era project to raise a sunken Soviet submarine from the depths of the Pacific Ocean in 1974.

The high-risk salvage operation, code-named ‘Project Azorian’, had been shrouded in secrecy for decades but the spy agency broke its silence in newly-declassified documents published yesterday by an independent watchdog, the National Security Archive.

The documents, drawn from a 50-page article written for an in-house CIA journal, recount the daring bid approved by then-president Richard Nixon to raise the submarine using a specially-designed ship, the Glomar Explorer.

Newspaper articles in 1975 first uncovered the operation but the Central Intelligence Agency initially refused to confirm its existence and had declined requests for information even after the Cold War ended.

"They've been holding on to it for years," John Prados, an author and analyst at the National Security Archive, said.

"The release of this article greatly advances our knowledge of Project Azorian."

The episode began after a Soviet Golf-II submarine, the K-129, sank in 1968 in an accident 1,560 miles northwest of Hawaii, the cause of which remains unclear. The Soviet sub, which was carrying three ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads, offered a potential boon to US intelligence agencies if it could be lifted out off the ocean floor and examined

(Excerpt) Read more at zeenews.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cia; coldwar; dieselsubmarine; glomarexplorer; golfii; howardhughes; k129; pacificfleet; pacificocean; russiannavy; sosus; sovietmilitary; sovietnavy; sovietsubmarine; sovietunion; submarine; usintelligence
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To: sonofstrangelove

“The project was nearly cancelled over its mushrooming costs”.
In reality this was one of the most cost effective projects the U.S. has undertaken.
Reason to obtain the sub was to obtain Russian Top Secret
Crypto Codes used in their and our Top Secret Communications.
It succeeded.
Soviiest had no idea for a few years that we’d in fact obtained their codes.


21 posted on 02/13/2010 5:00:43 AM PST by Joe Boucher ((FUBO) Obammy is little more than a quota boy.)
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To: Joe Boucher

“Soviiest had no idea for a few years that we’d in fact obtained their codes.”

Naval codes. The USSR’s air and ground forces codes - using one day pads and five alaphabet letters in a grid formation (example: ABNRO BYXAA CCAAB RRAAY BABYO) - had been broken since the late 60s.


22 posted on 02/13/2010 5:17:37 AM PST by PIF
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To: Star Traveler

Wonder how much / if the Glomar Explorer’s chances of success could have been enhanced by the availability of GPS ...


23 posted on 02/13/2010 9:07:17 AM PST by TXnMA (D'Aleo re Hansen's "GISS" temperature database: "Non Gradus Anus Rodentum!")
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To: TXnMA
You were saying ...

Wonder how much / if the Glomar Explorer’s chances of success could have been enhanced by the availability of GPS ...

I'm not sure. I don't think that the Russians were saying much about their sub, so I don't think they were giving away information about the location. I don't know how much difference it would have made for the Americans, once they found the sub, in the first place. And then, I don't know if GPS would have helped in regards to the problem of the sub breaking apart when they were lifting it up.

I sorta think it would not have made any difference.

24 posted on 02/13/2010 9:37:29 AM PST by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: Star Traveler
I was thinking along the lines of more precise station-keeping while making the lift, etc, Reduced lateral displacement should reduce the likelihood of payload breakup...

With a combination of today's technologies (GPS, deep submersibles, ROVs, etc,) I would think our chances for success would be considerably improved.

25 posted on 02/13/2010 10:01:15 AM PST by TXnMA (D'Aleo re Hansen's "GISS" temperature database: "Non Gradus Anus Rodentum!")
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To: TXnMA

Yeah, I see what you mean and in that respect, then yeah, it could have made a difference. But, if you read another FReeper’s post, we got the “whole thing” anyway ...

We may be reading misinformation about this subject... :-)


26 posted on 02/13/2010 10:06:02 AM PST by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: TXnMA
I'm sorry, it wasn't on this thread... here's the link to the other thread that says what happened (from another FReeper)...

Post #16

Gone fishing: Secret hunt for a sunken Soviet sub


27 posted on 02/13/2010 10:09:57 AM PST by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: Star Traveler

Interesting article, but it always bugs me when reporters get the most basic facts wrong:
“ By June 1974, after extensive preparations, the Hughes Glomar Explorer and the submersible barge were ready. By now Howard Hughes was a madman in failing health, and President Richard Nixon had resigned in disgrace. The Cold War raged on.

The Hughes Glomar Explorer moved into position over the wreck in July. But President Ford didn’t grant permission to begin the operation until August 11.”

Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, not in June. Thus, Ford effectively granted permission as quickly as feasible under the circumstances.


28 posted on 02/13/2010 10:43:04 AM PST by DrC
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To: Star Traveler
There is an extensive article on the K129 recovery at

http://www.mikekemble.com/ misc/k129.html

It includes a detailed scanned article, but, unfortunately, some of the pages appear to be truncated by premature EOFs, leaving only blank gray on the bottom portions.

The article does include a sketch of the "Clementine" lifting device, etc...

29 posted on 02/13/2010 11:07:18 AM PST by TXnMA (D'Aleo re Hansen's "GISS" temperature database: "Non Gradus Anus Rodentum!")
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To: TXnMA
That link (although provided by Google Images) no longer works. Here's how I actually got there:

1) I searched for "sea shadow" "HMB-1" in Google Images.

2) I clicked on this image:

3) I allowed the whole page to load...

That's " the long way 'round", but it works - I tried it out to be sure...

30 posted on 02/13/2010 11:27:43 AM PST by TXnMA (D'Aleo re Hansen's "GISS" temperature database: "Non Gradus Anus Rodentum!")
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To: sonofstrangelove
Interesting place for "nosing around" on this subject:

http://www.ttbrown.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=459&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=60

I got there by searching for the September, 2002 issue of "The Sub Committee Report Magazine" based on this lead from the mikekemble site:

"The following item was sent to me by its author Tom Docherty in November 2004. It was written for The Sub Committee Report Magazine. September 2002 Edition. Reproduced here with the author's permission. http://subcommittee.com/"

That is the "scanned article with the bottom parts of many pages "grayed out" by apparent "early EOFs" (End-Of-File characters). Probably computer glitches -- but, possibly, a crude means of "redaction"...

31 posted on 02/13/2010 12:08:51 PM PST by TXnMA (D'Aleo re Hansen's "GISS" temperature database: "Non Gradus Anus Rodentum!")
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To: Star Traveler

Comments 30 & 31 were intended for you, too...


32 posted on 02/13/2010 12:14:33 PM PST by TXnMA (D'Aleo re Hansen's "GISS" temperature database: "Non Gradus Anus Rodentum!")
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To: Joe Boucher

I read it brought up two nuclear torpedoes and six bodies.According to a Lockheed engineer on site, the recovered section did not contain nuclear missiles nor the cryptographic equipment or codebooks that would have been of such extraordinary value for U.S. military intelligence


33 posted on 02/13/2010 4:14:55 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld ("I have learned to use the word "impossible" with the greatest caution."-Dr.Wernher Von Braun)
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To: sonofstrangelove

If Lockheed engineers are anything like Pratt & Witney engineers I’d trade a the whole lot for a broken fungo bat.


34 posted on 02/13/2010 4:21:30 PM PST by Joe Boucher ((FUBO) Obammy is little more than a quota boy.)
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To: TXnMA

Thanks... :-)


35 posted on 02/13/2010 5:41:06 PM PST by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: Star Traveler
That's "Manganese (Mn)" -- not "Magnesium (Mg)" nodules...

Ignorant writers...

36 posted on 05/27/2014 7:39:50 PM PDT by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias... "Barack": Allah's current ally...)
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