{"id":12957,"date":"2016-03-10T07:45:48","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T13:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=12957"},"modified":"2016-03-10T07:45:48","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T13:45:48","slug":"cold-war-files-10-dastardly-secret-operations-of-the-kgb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/10\/cold-war-files-10-dastardly-secret-operations-of-the-kgb\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold War Files: 10 Dastardly Secret Operations of the KGB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like the CIA, the Soviet (and now Russian) spy agency known as the KGB has engaged in decades of secret operations across the world, ranging from blackmail to kidnapping. Most of the secrets that we know about the KGB today are because of one man\u2014Vasili Mitrokhin.<\/strong><\/em> Mitrokhin was an archivist for the KGB for 30 years before he defected to the UK and handed over hi s25,000-page archive<\/a> of secret KGB files. Here are some of the KGB\u2019s most disturbing and outlandish secret operations.<\/p>\n

10. Attacks On America\u2019s Infrastructure<\/h2>\n

\"Hungry-Horse-Dam\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From 1959\u201372, the KGB began to photograph US power plants, dams, oil pipelines, and infrastructure for a nefarious operation that would disrupt the power supply to all of New York. Once they picked targets that they thought were vulnerable, the KGB set up a safe house near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. From there, KGB agents sought to plan and carry out a series of attacks on America\u2019s power systems.<\/p>\n

Hydroelectric dams, which generate a significant portion of the US\u2019s energy supply, were a target. The KGB formulated an elaborate plan to destroy two large hydroelectric dams, the Hungry Horse Dam and Flathead Dam, in Montana. Taking the two dams out of commission would cripple the power supply of the state and surrounding region. The attack was to begin 3 kilometers (2 mi) down the South Fork River from Hungry Horse Dam. The KGB planned to have operatives destroy power pylons on top of a tall mountain slope, which would be difficult to get back online, indefinitely knocking out power transmission from the dam. Then, the operatives were to seize the Hungry Horse Dam\u2019s controls and destroy them<\/a>. The attacks would have knocked out the power supply to all of New York state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From the Soviet Union\u2019s Canadian embassy, the KGB also planned to further disrupt America\u2019s energy supply by attacking oil pipelines<\/a> between Canada and the United States. The plot, called Operation Cedar, was planned for over a decade<\/a>. The KGB even sought to destroy oil refineries in Canada, which supply a great deal of America\u2019s gasoline.<\/p>\n

All of the attacks on America\u2019s power system were part of a larger scheme to attack New York City. Once they had knocked out most of the power in the United States with the earlier attacks, the KGB plotted to use the chaos and darkness to plant explosives on piers and warehouses along the Port of New York, a crucial harbor<\/a> for America\u2019s commerce and imports.<\/p>\n

9. Hostage Crisis Retribution<\/h2>\n

\"Hostage-Retribution\"<\/p>\n

In 1974, the KGB created an elite counterterrorism task force with the mysterious name \u201cAlpha Group<\/a>.\u201d The Alpha Group was used by the KGB to carry out top secret and often dangerous missions for the USSR\u2014and now Russia\u2014including a bloody and vicious mission in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

In 1985, the Soviet Union found itself with its first major hostage crisis after four Soviet diplomats were kidnapped in Lebanon by terrorists affiliated with an Islamic terrorist group. The kidnappers reportedly took the Soviets hostage to stop the USSR from giving support to Syria\u2019s efforts in the Lebanese civil war, which the country was then embroiled in. After the Soviet diplomats were taken hostage, the kidnappers sent chilling photographs to news agencies of the hostages with guns to their heads. The terrorists demanded that the USSR force Syria-affiliated forces to stop attacking Iran-affiliated forces fighting in northern Lebanon, or the hostages would be executed.<\/p>\n

Initially, the USSR was open to some form of negotiations with the terrorists to release the hostages unscathed. Things changed when the USSR didn\u2019t seem to stop the Syrian forces\u2019 involvement in the civil war, and the terrorists executed one of the hostages only two days after the initial demands were made.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the USSR abandoned negotiating, and the KGB took swift and bloody action. First, the KGB investigated what organization was behind the the kidnappings and found it to be the work of Hezbollah<\/a>. That\u2019s when the KGB did a bit of kidnapping of their own, snatching a close relative of a Hezbollah leader. They began to dismember him<\/a>, castrating him and sending some of his dismembered body parts to the kidnappers of the Soviets. Soon after, the KGB killed the Hezbollah relative.<\/p>\n

Then, the KGB sent the Hezbollah leader a message indicating that they knew of many more of his relatives and their whereabouts and warned that they would suffer the same fate if the hostages were not released. The Islamic terrorists holding the Soviets took notice and released the remaining three Soviet diplomats shortly after, entirely unscathed and without further demands.<\/p>\n

Read About the Other 8 Operations at ListVerse<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like the CIA, the Soviet (and now Russian) spy agency known as the KGB has engaged in decades of secret operations across the world, ranging from blackmail to kidnapping. Most of the secrets that we know about the KGB today are because of one man\u2014Vasili Mitrokhin. Mitrokhin was an archivist for the KGB for 30…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2908,2426,4319,4880],"tags":[5366,5367,5368,5343,5369],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12957"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}