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Subject: USSR Sank USS Scorpion
Softwar    6/5/2007 10:38:06 AM
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070531-115041-9758r_page2.htm Submarine secrets A new book by veteran defense reporter Ed Offley sheds light on one of the secrets of the not-so Cold War: the loss of the nuclear attack submarine USS Scorpion and its 99-man crew in the eastern Atlantic on May 22, 1968. "The Scorpion sinking is not a mystery," Mr. Offley said in an interview. "It is a Cold War secret that has been buried by both the U.S. and Soviet governments since 1968." Mr. Offley said the Scorpion was attacked by a torpedo fired by a Soviet submarine during an underwater battle, two months after the loss of the Soviet Golf-II-class submarine K-129 and all hands. Moscow had blamed that loss on overaggressive U.S. anti-submarine warfare efforts. "What my findings demonstrate is that the Cold War at sea in 1968 erupted into overt hostilities that killed 99 American sailors and another 98 Russians, and could have easily sparked a superpower clash," he said. "I have attempted to provide the surviving relatives of the Scorpion crew that full accounting that they have been denied for the past 39 years." According to his book, "Scorpion Down: Sunk by the Soviets, Buried by the Pentagon: The Untold Story of the USS Scorpion," the submarine did not blow itself up through an internal mishap or mechanical failure, as the official inquiry stated. The evidence uncovered in the book revealed that the Scorpion was engaged in surveillance of a Soviet navy formation that included an Echo-II-class attack submarine. The Soviets had been alerted to the Scorpion's spy mission through the case of Navy radioman John A. Walker Jr., who provided Moscow with secret communications codes that let them track the Scorpion. Another key piece of evidence is underwater sound recordings from sound surveillance system (SOSUS) sensors heard by two sailors that depicted "an underwater dogfight" between the Scorpion and a Soviet submarine "that ended when the Soviet torpedoed the American sub," Mr. Offley said. "I interviewed both the student and his senior instructor on the record in detail, and both confirmed this incident; the tape had come from a fleet SOSUS unit and had apparently eluded a Navy-wide search and seizure of all Scorpion evidence by the Office of Naval Intelligence within days of the sinking on May 22," he said.
 
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RockyMTNClimber    Read "Blind Man's Bluff", for a more plausible explanation.   6/5/2007 10:46:58 AM
 
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RockyMTNClimber    ht***tp://www.amazon.com/Blind-Mans-Bluff-Submarine-Espionage/dp/1891620088   6/5/2007 12:01:34 PM
 
Very good read, especially the story about "Whitey Mack".
 
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