Agent Farewell and the Siberian Pipeline Explosion-1982 (Great read)

Around Halloween 1982, an explosion occurred in the middle of Siberia, vaporizing a large segment of the newly-built trans-Siberian pipeline. The explosion –which was reported to be 1/7 the magnitude of the nuclear weapons dropped on Japan during WWII– severely damaged the pipeline, which was set to produce $8 Billion in petroleum revenue annually for the USSR. Only recently has this silently successful CIA operation been disclosed to the public.

In 1981, disillusioned by Soviet life, Vetrov suddenly sent French Intelligence, le Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST) – a collection of over 4,000 pages of highly classified Soviet documents pertaining to industrial espionage ventures. It was immediately clear that the intelligence was vital. The data included the names of 250 KGB agents (located abroad and well covered), tasked with stealing Western technology, but the most useful item was a “wish list:” the technologies most sought by the Soviet intelligence.

At a summit in Ottawa in July 1981, French President Mitterrand shared the intelligence with President Reagan, and by August, the intelligence was in the hands of the CIA. The files, which were “incredibly explicit,” showed that for years, the KGB had been expertly infiltrating US factories, government agencies and laboratories to steal technology needed by the Soviet Union.