Talk:Farewell Dossier

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Cold War Wiki Project Farewell Dossier is part of the Cold War WikiProject, an effort to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to the Cold War on the Wikipedia. This includes but is not limited to the people, places, things, and events, and anything else associated with the Cold War. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
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This eventually resulted to the sabotage and blast of the Trans-Siberian gas pipeline, compared to a 3-kiloton bomb.

I think this sentence needs to be reworded. Did this really happen? When did it happen? No reference is made to it in the CIA link. Edward 21:57, 12 May 2004 (UTC)

Okay maybe it did happen June 1982, Google provides some more sources:

Edward 22:00, 12 May 2004 (UTC)

Yeah, and what about this source? [1] C'mon people!

The sole source for the articles you cite - and anything else I can find on the subject - is Thomas C. Reed, who is promoting a book in which he makes these claims. I have not read Reed's book, but at least one reviewer [2] claims that much of it is hearsay and anecdotal. The declassified CIA report, as you note, does not support the claim; for a start it says only defective hardware was supplied, not Trojaned software. I think we need to reword this to make it clear that it's just one guy's claim. Also, BTW, "Farewell Dossier" does not seem to be the name of an operation at all, but a document: the report on Soviet "Line X" espionage prepared by a French agent codenamed FAREWELL. Securiger 07:03, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I'm still not following the connection between slipping trojan horses into data, and causing a massive explosion. I'm going to make an edit along the lines of "In his book, Thomas C. Reed claims that the operation blah blah blah"Sockatume, Talk 03:13, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Okay, I just made a fairly major edit based on the content of that CIA document and google searches for the bits the CIA document was vague on. CIA document? Not completely clear on events? Well I never. Turns out it has little to do with trojan horses in the computer sense, but a lot to do with their mechanical analogues. Sockatume, Talk 03:33, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Cold War Section

This article contains far too much detail about what the Cold War was and how it affected US/Soviet Policy. Though it is appropriate for placing the article in context, this can be accomplished much easier through an internal wiki link to Cold War. Djma12 17:54, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

This acticle calls for the detail about the Cold War, becuase because it was the U.S./Soviet diplomacy AND policy that caused the Farewell Dossier and all incidents tied to it to happen. Not to mention that the "Farewell Dossier" was a person, not the actuall Trans-Siberian Pipeline incident.--Mark D. 01:24, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

  • The Farewell Dossier was the actual collection of files handed over by Vladimir Vetrov, not the person. Also, I think any reader who was savvy enough to find this article has a decent comprehension of the Cold War. Finally, the Trans-Siberian Incident was directly related to the Dossier. Regards, Djma12 (talk) 19:01, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

"...In the present day, the world is threatened by a devastating economic crisis. The United States government is using unimaginable economic means to defend a right that violates the sovereignty of all the other countries: to keep on buying raw materials, energy, advanced technology industries, the most productive lands and the most modern buildings on the face of our planet with paper money" this is an opinion.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.34.246.37 (talk) 16:56, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree it is opinion. Specifically, it is the opinion of Fidel Castro, to whom it is sourced. Howard C. Berkowitz (talk) 17:15, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Safire

Who is "Safire"? Referenced several times without introduction nor clarification... MentAl (talk) 09:23, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

William Safire. Original citation must have been deleted. I'll fix it; thanks. While the article itself is organizationally messy, TECHINT may well go into more detail on some of this topic. Howard C. Berkowitz (talk) 15:53, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Intelligence Myth?

Okay, for the last time: does anybody have a second source for "the greatest non-nuclear explosion ever seen from space"? Anything that doesn't quote Safire or Reed? Any Russian sources saying that there was an explosion? Any seismological measurements? Someone from NORAD actually saying "Yup, we detected something, and it was in the area of the pipeline." Just because everybody keeps quoting that story is not proof it ever happened. Lars T. (talk) 21:49, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Can't give you a negative source, but there's no particular way to determine an explosive yield from space. Thermal energy, yes. Ionizing radiation, yes.
Explosive yield comes from seismometers or microbarographs, which need to be on the planet.
See Ammonium nitrate disasters; there were larger accidental explosions. I'd have to check the yield of a very large high explosive test in the Hawaiian Islands, done as part of ballistic missile defense research. Howard C. Berkowitz (talk) 22:02, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
Errm, so the fact that he claims it was seen from space would debunk itself? Lars T. (talk) 00:09, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
I tend to think so--at least if it's being stated in terms of blasts. You might want to look at National means of technical verification. OTOH, it's perfectly plausible that the thermal pulse of a large pipeline explosion would be detected by the staring infrared detectors, which pick up the heat of single rocket motors--some of the debate about using military satellites over the US is misdirected at using this class to characterize large fires; they don't take pictures but make graphs. Did someone take journalistic license and focus on blast instead of heat? Howard C. Berkowitz (talk) 01:31, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
http://old.russ.ru/culture/network/20040307farewell.html — an article in Russian debunking the story. The main statement is that USSR didn't use computers to control the pipeline and even if it did it is virtually impossible to raise the gas pressure to dangerous levels. Some people quoted are mentioning [[3]] catastrophe as the real one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by EndlessWorld (talk • contribs) 08:06, 17 May 2008 (UTC)