Russian Gulf II-class submarine. (A sister ship of the K-129). Image: U.S. Navy
The intelligence fog around the CIA ship "Hughes Glomar Explorer" clears gradually
This January, the CIA for the first time released documents about the fabled "Project Azorian" In 1974, the American foreign intelligence service used a camouflaged special ship to recover a Russian submarine that had sunk under mysterious circumstances.000 m depth should have recovered. But one third of this summary report is still blacked out. Even if some questions remain unanswered, most of it has leaked out, though still not to the mainstream media.
"Glomarization" This is what American journalists call the very efficient strategy of keeping quiet about secret activities, some of which have become public knowledge. The name goes back to the fabled ship "Hughes Glomar Explorer" back, which in 1975 had been reported to have captured a Soviet submarine loaded with nuclear weapons from 5.000 m depth lifted. President Ford and his advisors agreed not to comment on the information circulating in press circles or on the newspaper articles that were finally published, even through diplomatic channels. #
An official statement had prompted the Soviet counterpart to react and caused tensions not to be underestimated, which were thus spared each other and the case was dismissed. Although the silence opened the door to speculation, serious authors and historiography preferred to nobly omit the chapter. Not even in the CIA chronicle by Tim Weiner is the action described with ca. half a billion dollars most expensive (known) CIA operation ever mentioned.
Hughes Glomar Explorer. Pictures: U.S. Government
It was not until 1993, as part of a general reappraisal of unexplained Cold War incidents, that the CIA handed over to Boris Yeltsin a film showing the burial at sea, with military ceremony, of recovered bodies of Russian sailors, indirectly confirming the mysterious operation. Finally, CIA chief Woolsey even handed over the recovered ship’s bell of the submarine.
The CIA’s internal report, released in partial black this January and distributed by George Washington University in early February, fails to answer many questions: Why did the submarine sink in the first place?? What actually happened during the salvage operation? Why was the cargo hold of the Glomar Explorer 30 meters shorter than the submarine?? What knowledge did the Americans hope to gain from a wreck that had lain in salt water for six years, that they went to such lengths?? Why, two decades after the end of the Cold War, the results still remain secret?
Why did K-129 sink??
On 11. In March 1968, the Russian submarine K-129 sank in the Pacific Ocean, killing 98 sailors. As far as is known, the Russian side has no knowledge of the cause. K-129 was a diesel-powered submarine commissioned in 1960, armed with three ballistic missiles, the most advanced at the time, with a range of 1200 km and two nuclear torpedoes.
Often the loss of the K-129 is related to the USS Swordfish stationed in Hawaii, which called at the port of Yokosuka shortly after the disappearance of the K-129. There, passersby could clearly see a bent periscope, whose damage allegedly came from the collision with a chunk of ice near Japan. The Swordfish had already been involved in risky reconnaissance missions earlier. Some even reported damage to the tower of the nuclear-powered submarine. Had occurred below the water surface a collision of the Cold Warriors?
This theory is still widespread in the Red Army. Russian Admiral Victor Dygalo, for example, hinted that the superpowers had agreed to a mutual standstill, as had been done in the case of the American nuclear submarine USS Scorpion, which had also allegedly sunk in 1968 without outside interference. More imaginative Western writers saw the incident as a kind of "Hunt for Red October", in which the KGB, in rivalry with the Red Army, planned a nuclear attack on Pearl Harbor in order to blame this on China, which at the time was threatening to break away from the Soviets.
Contrary to such speculative claims, however, the K-129 was not on its way to Pearl Harbor, but sank from Hawaii ca. 1.500 miles away. The site of the accident is even closer to its own base Petropavlovsk than Hawaii.
The logbooks of the Swordfish, which were handed over to Russia in 2007 after a long request, also indicate that the American submarine was somewhere else at the time in question, namely together with the Pacific fleet in the waters off North Korea, where the spy ship Pueblo had just been captured by the enemy together with the NSA equipment.
Had the Swordfish really rammed K-129 and had this to be covered up, the submarine had hardly called at an openly visible port, where the ship with bent periscope was even pictured in the newspaper. The photo in question does not show any damage to the tower.
According to the U.S. military’s acoustic surveillance system, which the U.S. uses to listen to the world’s oceans through a vast network of underwater microphones and locate ship movements, two explosions occurred aboard the K-129. Underwater footage suggests an accident in the torpedo bay.
Projet Azorian
Since the U.S., unlike the Soviets, who were literally fishing in the ocean, knew the location from acoustic surveillance and had extensively photographed the wreck by submarine, the CIA now had a unique opportunity to examine firsthand Soviet submarine technology and their then state-of-the-art nuclear missiles. The CIA’s reconnaissance efforts behind the Iron Curtain had remained quite modest; on the contrary, it had often been fed disinformation. Now knowledge gains lay at the bottom of the Pacific, even if 5.100 m below the water surface. There was the prospect of studying Russian submarine technology, capturing cipher systems and codebooks, and above all, for the first time, getting hold of Soviet nuclear missiles, which otherwise were not even approached during the Cold War. The spies at Langley, who were under prere to succeed, sensed a major coup.
Submarines were of crucial strategic importance in the 1960s as mobile launching stations for ballistic nuclear missiles. Whereas in 1962 it had been seen as an immediate threat that the U.S. had deployed missiles on the Turkish-Russian border and the Soviet Union had deployed missiles in Cuba, this threat scenario was long outdated, since submarines could strike from anywhere with the nuclear inferno.
For several years, the CIA discussed with the White House concepts of whether and how to recover the accident victim. At a time when the U.S. wanted to send men to the moon, Washington knew the word "impossible" not. Although many thought the project had little chance of success and the cost was beyond any means, President Nixon finally decided in person that the ambitious operation should go ahead.
Hughes Glomar Explorer
Since the project required a large number of participants and was not likely to go undetected due to the rough order alone, a cover story was needed that concealed the mission and plausibly explained its visible parts. In addition to a staged oil drilling, a credible cover in the deep sea area could also be a scientific research mission, such as that of the "Glomar Challenger" went through. The drilling ship, which belonged to the group of the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, was capable of drilling to a depth of 7 km and had confirmed Alfred Wegener’s theory of plate tectonics through its investigations. However, the CIA needed a cruder special ship that also offered a huge cargo hold that could be loaded from water side.
Since Hughes had already been producing for the Pentagon since World War II, supplying the CIA with all its spy sites and making his facilities available as bases for covert operations, the billionaire, who has since retired, was won over as a trusted partner for camouflage.
It is not certain to what extent Hughes was personally involved. It was announced to the public that Hughes wanted to use a new ship similar to his Glo(bal) Mar(ine) Challenger to explore the usability of manganese nodules covering the ocean floor.
In 1973, the Hughes Glomar Explorer was completed at Pennssylvania, approx. accommodated 180 seamen and had a derrick suspended centrally so that it was not affected by the swell and remained vertical. For this purpose, the world’s largest ball bearings to date had been specially manufactured. Drilling elements were to be bolted to this tower one after the other, eventually to form a 5.000 m long pole on which the secret cargo was to be hauled up in the reverse procedure. Computer-coordinated engines countered sideways movements of the ship. Before the Glomar II approached the area of operation, it made several trips for camouflage, during which u.a. trained in handling radioactive material.
In addition to the drilling rig, the Glomar Explorer had two unusual superstructures that could be lowered vertically into the sea. Their secret function was to act as guide rails to facilitate the lifting of coarse cargo through the water hatch and to hoist it the last bit above the water surface.
"Clementine"
To fix the submarine, on the west coast, Lockheed, a rushmaker that should not be related to the Pennsylvania shipyard, made a giant claw that was given the pet name of "Clementine" received. This recovery device was to be lowered by the rod formed by drilling elements to grab the submarine, which was partially submerged in the seabed, and hoist it out of the mud, hydraulically propping itself off. The for the immense prere in 5.The structure, designed for a depth of 000 meters, was equipped with cameras and its own steering motors to lock on to the target.
In order for the claw to be mounted unseen in the otherwise innocuous appearing ship, it was delivered to the busy shore in a James Bond-worthy secret mission in a custom-built floating hangar. The "Hughes Mining Barge" also had the function of hiding the claw from spy satellites. As if that weren’t enough, the gymnasium-sized hangar was designed to submerge along with its secret cargo.
When the Glomar II called at Long Beach in early 1974, the mining barge, discreetly escorted by frogmen, dived offshore and sank to the bottom. The Glomar II placed itself at night above the submerged hall, whose roof opened and transferred the secret cargo to the open water hatch of the CIA ship. Overnight the "Research vessel" had become a secret CIA salvage ship, without any observer having noticed it.
By May 1974, all tests of the Glomar II had been completed. President Nixon, however, wanted to wait for the upcoming summit, which should not have been endangered by a pirate-like salvage of an enemy military ship.
In June, a mysterious break-in occurred in Los Angeles at the former headquarters of Howard Hughes, which had housed its archives there and had since left the U.S. permanently. Since documents were apparently stolen in the first place, the CIA feared that information about the Glomar II had also been leaked. Those responsible were pleased that the most expensive CIA operation of all time could now be revealed to the Soviets or the public before it took place, as had been the case with numerous CIA operations.
However, the collapse was obviously an inside job, which was obviously obstructed from above. The shady billionaire Hughes had shortly before been ordered by a court to hand over documents, which conveniently were now stolen. The allegedly surprised guard later admitted that he had taken an alleged Glomar document, but he claims to have destroyed it later, which is hardly credible.
Although there is much to suggest that such a document never existed, the Soviets did indeed get wind of the planned recovery of the K-129, and even knew the code designation "Jennifer", which was used by a planning group for secret maritime actions. But the KGB held out the salvage of a submarine 5.000 m depth was considered impossible and did not take the tip seriously. They obviously did not know or suspect anything about the huge claw.
Deep sea fishing for spies
On 04.In July 1974, the Glomar II reached the position above the damaged K-129 in order to fix its secret claw on the "Drill rod" to the depths. Historians have been able to verify this position through a British ship that requested the Glomar II’s assistance due to a medical emergency, but failed to notice its secret.
But also other guests were present, namely on 18.July, the Russian ship Chazhma, which used optical devices to scout the unusual research vessel from a helicopter. For security reasons the captain of the Glomar II loved to block the helicopter landing platform to make a capture by a Soviet commando action more difficult. Nothing of the sort happened. Instead, the Russians sent through visual signals various questions about equipment and mission, which one answered in the spirit of the cover story. The Chazhma was apparently satisfied with this and turned off.
However, on the 22nd. July, another Russian vessel, the apparently civilian SB-10, continued to observe the scene. To the eyes of American sailors, the Russians offered two women who showed themselves unclothed on the ship – a customary intelligence maneuver to facilitate good frontal shots of enemy agents by hidden photographers. How to use drill rods to turn a submarine out of 5.The fact that the Russian crew was trying to recover the ship at a depth of 000 meters was not clear to the Russian onlookers. It was not possible to suck it up through the pipeline. The curious ship drew ever tighter circles around the Glomar II, which it countered by blinding it with searchlights. Most recently, the SB-10 even loved divers to the water, causing the Glomar II to take evasive maneuvers. The Russians finally took their leave, unaware that there were only a few hundred meters left under the "Research vessel" the most powerful fishing rod of all time reeled in its catch.
Mysterious Deep Sea
documentaries and books about the long known as "Jennifer Project" known mission remained necessarily sketchy, often contained speculation. Rumors of alleged crew members circulated that the CIA had completely salvaged the submarine, which could not be verified due to the small size of the hatch. Another popular version says that K-129 broke apart during the lifting, so that only a part could be recovered. Russian experts, however, considered such a rupture of the sturdily constructed submarine unlikely.
The truth lies in the middle. At the end of 2009, the documentary film, which had previously only been distributed on DVD, was released "Project Azorian" by Vienna-based U.S. filmmaker Michael White, which features lavish animations as well as plenty of – actually secret – original footage from the expedition and interviews with participants such as engineers and managers. This almost two-hour film may have been the reason for the CIA, after 35 years of silence, to release this January the CIA report from 1978, which was allowed to be distributed internally for the first time in 1985. The report is largely blacked out and still veterans who want to write books about the mission have to submit to CIA censorship. But in White’s ambitious documentary, few secrets of the exciting and technologically impressive operation are left out.
K-129 had already been torn in two during the explosion. From the beginning, the mission objective was the well-preserved hull with the torpedo bays and the turret as well as the R-21 missiles presumed to be in it. However, the weak point in the recovery was not the solidly built Soviet submarine, but the grapple. Already during the access to the submarine there were problems with one of the gripping arms of Clementine, which broke off already at this stage. As it turned out later, the weight-saving metal from which the claw was built was not strong enough. On the way up more grapple arms broke shortly before the target. Although individual openings such as the torpedo bays had been secured against loss with nets, the entire body had been secured with the static of the claw. The remaining gripper arms demanded only a small remainder of the prey to the top.
What else was found in the wreckage, apart from the bodies of the sailors and the ship’s bell, is still officially classified. Only a few crew members were allowed access to the cargo hold. As a rough success of the mission, the CIA chalked up the realization that the hulle of Soviet submarines was significantly more massive than previously thought. One expert said that this finding alone was worth the price of the mission. In the wreckage they found manganese nodules, which fit perfectly to the cover story.
Arguably the most significant spoils from the wreck, however, were two Russian nuclear torpedoes, which Russian intelligence believed the CIA had managed to recover. White’s documentary even includes an examination of one of the torpedoes aboard the Glomar II.
Some of the contaminated material was dumped en route, and the bodies of the Russian sailors were buried at sea. A manager who died during the operation was granted his wish to have his ashes scattered at sea from the Glomar Explorer.
Press leaks
That same year, the spectacular story leaked in slices onto the desks of well-known investigative journalists, including Seymour Hersh. CIA chief William Colby personally phoned around to convince the editors that publication would endanger national security. The hijacking of foreign military ships could have been regarded as an act of war, as was propagated in the case of the Pueblo, especially since one superpower was grabbing the atomic bombs of the others.
The coarse newspapers accepted this reasoning and put their scribes in chains. Good patriots did not want to be responsible for a crisis between the superpowers, such as the deployment of Russian missiles in Cuba a decade earlier.
But an investigative journalist, who had already embarrassed Nixon in other ways, refused to be humiliated and broke the story in 1975: Pulitzer Prize winner Jack Anderson, who as a devout Mormon considered his successful journalism a godsend to be honored, was the first to report, and his colleagues promptly followed suit and pulled their stories out of the drawer. The disclosure of the operation persuaded the CIA to definitively refrain from further salvage attempts.
Watergate(s)
Anderson had already been prering President Nixon for years with his revelations about bribes. Billionaire Howard Hughes was a long-time donor, which caused a scandal, especially during the 1960 election campaign. As explosive government documents kept finding their way to journalists like Anderson, Nixon had recruited a secret group of Pratorians from the intelligence millieu to serve as "Plumber" (Plumbers) were supposed to seal the information leaks. To this end, the Plumbers had even plotted assassinations of Anderson by poisoning.
The Plumbers were also supposed to find out what political opponents knew about Hughes’ discreet donations. The Relationship Between the Richest American and "his" President was cooled off because Hughes was displeased with the continuation of above-ground nuclear testing, which even shook his temporary residence in Las Vegas. Another security risk was posed by Robert Maheu, a flamboyant ex-intelligence agent and Hughes lobbyist, who had fallen out of favor with Hughes but maintained good contacts with top Democratic politicians whom he had recruited to lobby Hughes. Since no one had seen Hughes for several years, Nixon knew next to nothing about his eccentric financier, who wanted to give him instructions on nuclear weapons – but also supplied some of the missiles that went with them. The tax authority, for instance, had even amed that Hughes had been dead since 1970 and was only a production of his managers.
The Plumbers broke into Democrat campaign offices several times with all sorts of bugging equipment. In the office of Democratic chief strategist Larry O’Brien, who was also on Hughes’ payroll and a friend of Maheu’s, the team was caught red-handed in June 1972. It took another two years before the burglary’s connection to Nixon could no longer be denied. On 8. August 1974, two days before the remains of the K-129 reached the Watergate of the Glomar Explorer, Nixon had resigned because of the collapse of the Watergate building. By the time Anderson broke his story about the CIA ship in 1975, its worst enemy had long been history.
The former Glomar II now sails as the "GSF Explorer" for oil drilling across the seas. In the meantime, it had actually been used to harvest manganese nodules and then decommissioned for more than 20 years until the ship was reactivated for oil drilling in 1996. The floating transport hangar for the Talon, also still in service, later housed the Navy’s first stealth ship. The whereabouts of the salvaged cargo is still a secret today.
The book is expected to be published in October "Project Azorian. The CIA and the Raising of the K-129", in which the authors Norman Polmar and Michael White bring more secrets to the surface.