by robg on 8/4/24, 12:26 PM with 90 comments
by flohofwoe on 8/4/24, 3:59 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxrkC-pMH_s
(based on the first-person account book 'Deckname Saale' by Gerhardt Ronneberger)
by causality0 on 8/4/24, 3:07 PM
by Yawrehto on 8/4/24, 2:21 PM
It was 1959, two years after the USSR had launched Sputnik. The USSR was showing off its achievements to other countries. Most were uninteresting, at least to the US government (in a country with electricity, stealing models of power stations would've done little good), but one was quite interesting: the Lunik spacecraft. It had to be a model, the CIA figured. After all, the Soviets had to have known Americans would've looked at that and tried to steal it, or at least figure out how it was made. Models were safer. But American agents figured it wouldn't hurt to look, and they found that it was a real one, albeit with some critical parts, like the engine, removed.
But you can't just saunter in during the exhibition and steal it, for fairly obvious reasons. The key was that it was a traveling exhibition, and as it was being transported, via some maneuvering and some possible/probable kidnapping of truck drivers (Sydney W. Finer notes the truck driver was "escorted to a hotel room and kept there for the night" on page 36 of his article[1] on it), the CIA managed to gain access to it.
After getting the all-clear to start, and, at one point, being scared witless by a possible ambush (it was people lighting the lamps, as was regularly scheduled), they opened the box carefully and began taking photographs of it. They took photographs or made drawings of everything, taking small amounts of things for study. Then they put it all back together and, eventually, gave it back to the original driver. They did their job hiding it well. In 1967, according to Finer's article (final page), there was "no indication the Soviets ever discovered that the Lunik was borrowed for a night."
The CIA has now declassified some documents on it[2], referring to it, somewhat euphemistically, as a 'loan' or 'borrowing' rather than 'theft'.
[1]https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/THE%20KIDNAPING%20OF%20...
[2] https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/collection/lunik-loan-space-...
by gostsamo on 8/4/24, 1:45 PM
Edit: hm, I'm not sure who would be offended by the facts, but HN has a few stories about the bulgarian computer industry and how it was happily humming until 1989.
by TomMasz on 8/4/24, 7:56 PM
by pinewurst on 8/4/24, 2:18 PM
by arizen on 8/4/24, 7:32 PM
What strikes me is the dual-edged nature of these operations. While they may have successfully stymied Soviet technological progress, they also pushed the Soviets towards a more cautious and suspicious approach to Western technology, possibly slowing down legitimate collaborations and trust-building that could have benefited both sides.
This raises an interesting question: In today's context, with global supply chains so interwoven, could such large-scale technological sabotage even be feasible? And if so, how would it impact not just national security, but global economic stability?
Moreover, considering the evolution of espionage tactics with the advent of cyber warfare, I wonder if we'll look back in a few decades and see similar stories emerging about current technological conflicts. The stakes and methods have changed, but the underlying strategic goals seem eerily similar.
by loceng on 8/5/24, 2:36 AM
One day the US President met with the Canadian Prime Minister at the time. The next day the PM scrapped the program, ordered all schematics and documents of the aircraft be destroyed.
The something like 40,000 engineers mostly then got jobs in the US.
by bediger4000 on 8/4/24, 6:18 PM
Interesting that computing has become so thoroughly integrated and invisible that an aside in the article notes this.
by thimkerbell on 8/4/24, 3:07 PM
by GreggHyram on 8/4/24, 2:07 PM
by vaxman on 8/6/24, 9:19 PM
by yyyfb on 8/4/24, 2:48 PM
by OutOfHere on 8/4/24, 6:23 PM