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Lost nuclear device atop of Nanda Devi

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Re: Lost nuclear device atop of Nanda Devi

#6

The more one learns, the more it seems like the CIA spent the whole cold war poorly executing silly stunts,

UK too.

Bond movies give an impression of British intelligence intelligence that is unwarranted.

Riddled by KGB spies with very little inside Moscow themselves.

Re: Lost nuclear device atop of Nanda Devi

#7
In a nice bit of symmetry, another RTG is lost in an ocean trench: The fuel cask from the SNAP-27 unit carried by the Apollo 13 mission currently lies in 20,000 feet (6,100 m) of water at the bottom of the Tonga Trench in the Pacific Ocean. This mission failed to land on the moon, and the lunar module carrying its generator burnt up during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, with the trajectory arranged so that the cask would land in the trench. The cask survived re-entry, as it was designed to do,[18] and no release of plutonium has been detected. The corrosion resistant materials of the capsule are expected to contain it for 10 half-lives (870 years).[19]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_for_Nuclear_Auxiliar...

Re: Lost nuclear device atop of Nanda Devi

#9
post #6

The more one learns, the more it seems like the CIA spent the whole cold war poorly executing silly stunts,

UK too. Bond movies give an impression of British intelligence intelligence that is unwarranted. Riddled by KGB spies with very little inside Moscow themselves.

British Intelligence was a complete clusterfuck roughly until Peter Wright's generation came of age within the services and were finally able to institute things like Vetting(!!!!!!!!!!).

After that, however, starting slightly dubiously with Polyakov (Possibly a dangle) and highlighted by Gordievsky they were "winning". I don't have a citation on hand, but I believe Gordievsky stated that a set of diplomatic expulsions in the mid 1970s absolutely crippled KGB operations in the UK and the station never really recovered.

I personally just about (70/30) believe that Hollis was ELLI, it's just too good to be true with the lack of offical resolution and correlation with SONYA. If he was really a double agent, then the Russian's would have nearly had the heads of both MI5 and SIS in their control (Philby was in line for the throne).

I am currently writing a hands on (Zachtronics-style even, e.g. build your own https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)) dialogue-y game set roughly in this time period set inside MI5, I hope to be able to capture how crap they were.

Re: Lost nuclear device atop of Nanda Devi

#10

The more one learns, the more it seems like the CIA spent the whole cold war poorly executing silly stunts,

The KGB were definitely the shrewder operation (this is why people effectively giving their modern counterparts the benefit of the doubt via blind equivalency irks me). The CIA did some absolutely insane things during the Cold War (and after), but the KGB was in some ways the backbone of the Soviet Union - it doesn't even begin to compare.

The saying "No one does it better" is apt when it comes to things like active measures and the Russians.

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