Taking Back Our Stolen History
CIA Sabotaged Soviet Pipeline to Europe with Trojan Horse Software
CIA Sabotaged Soviet Pipeline to Europe with Trojan Horse Software

CIA Sabotaged Soviet Pipeline to Europe with Trojan Horse Software

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.

“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 resulting explosion in the summer of 1982, said Reed, was observed from space by US satellites and caused concern among the US military who feared it was a missile liftoff.

A CIA agent quickly told the military what had happened.

“While there were no physical casualties from the pipeline explosion, there was significant damage to the Soviet economy,” Reed writes.

“Its ultimate bankruptcy, not a bloody battle or nuclear exchange, is what brought the Cold War to an end.”

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1982, the CIA found Russia’s plans to start selling gas to western Europe. When Russia started using the pipeline it caused one of the biggest explosions ever seen. The explosion was so big it was seen from space.

In 1982 the pipeline finished construction and also started worries amongst America about what it could mean or the future and what other plans Russia could have.

Many believe that it was the software in the pipelines system that caused the explosion. The software was reported faulty and caused the values and the pumps inside the pipeline to malfunction. Because of this the pressure built up in the pipeline and the faulty software not stopping, the line exploded and was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever to happen. This cost the  Russians millions in damage and had a huge impact on their economy(1). There was speculation as to why nothing or no one had stopped the operation while the faults were happening, this may have also been to the

It is rumoured that it was in fact planned by the CIA. They had manipulated the Canadian software that they knew Russia wanted to buy, knowing their plan to start selling gas the whole intention was to stop them. Somehow the CIA managed to hide the faults so that upon inspection, there was no foreseeable issue but once it was put into operation, it would purposely fail. This was right in the middle of The Cold War so it was a bold move, yet there was no way it could be linked back to them apart from in the historical joint report about the CIA/DOD/FBI operation that talked about a code named “Farewell”(2).

Ethically this is not what software should be used for. It should be used to build, not destroy, it raises many questions about how software can and should be used. In this case it was used in war, and today that is sadly what happens. We use computer systems and programs instead of troops which is saving people but ruining more lives on the other end. It has become a difficult topic when talking about software usage in war and still causes debates to this day.

Thomas Reed, senior US national security official, claims in his book “At The Abyss” that the United States allowed the USSR to steal pipeline control software from a Canadian company. This software included a Trojan Horse that caused a major explosion of the Trans-Siberian gas pipeline in June, 1982. The Trojan ran during a pressure test on the pipeline but doubled the usual pressure, causing the explosion. (#1, #2)

“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. (#3)

The scheme to plant bugs in Soviet software was masterminded by Gus Weiss, who at the time was on the National Security Council and who died last year. Soviet agents had been so keen to acquire US technology, they didn’t question its provenance. (#4)

Russian newspaper sources deny the report, saying an explosion did take place, but it was caused by poor construction, not by planted software. “What the Americans have written is rubbish,” said Vasily Pchelintsev, who in 1982 headed the KGB office in the Tyumen region, the likely site of the explosion described in the book.” (#5)

The software sabotage had two effects, explains Reed. The first was economic. By creating an explosion with the power of a three kiloton nuclear weapon, the US disrupted supplies of gas and consequential foreign currency earnings. But the project also had important psychological advantages in the battle between the two superpowers.

“By implication, every cell of the Soviet leviathan might be infected,” Reed writes. “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.”

This was originally posted at the Washington Post on February 27, 2004.
By David Hoffman

In January 1982, President Ronald 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 memoir by a Reagan White House official.

Thomas C. 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,” published 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 J. Casey during the final years of the Cold War.

At the time, the United States was attempting to block Western Europe from importing Soviet natural gas. There were also signs that the Soviets were trying to steal a wide variety of Western technology.

“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 recalls, adding that U.S. satellites picked up the explosion. Reed said in an interview that the blast occurred in the summer of 1982.

There are even photos online of the explosion site in Siberia.

Sources:

  • https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2004/2/27/how-the-cia-conned-the-soviet-union
  • https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/10/flashback-cia-sabotaged-soviet-pipeline-europe-1982-us-software-caused-massive-explosion-siberian-pipeline-seen-space/
  • https://www.risidata.com/Database/Detail/cia-trojan-causes-siberian-gas-pipeline-explosion
  • https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1455559/CIA-plot-led-to-huge-blast-in-Siberian-gas-pipeline.html (11:10 12/11/18)
  • https://thenewsrep.com/7999/the-myth-of-the-cia-and-the-trans-siberian-pipeline-explosion/ (17:13 22/11/2018)