Search For Titanic Really Was Cover-Up Mission

RamboLiberal

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Mon Jun-02-08 12:18 PM
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Search For Titanic Really Was Cover-Up Mission

Edited on Mon Jun-02-08 12:20 PM by RamboLiberal

Source: ABC News

When oceanographer Bob Ballard uncovered the world's most famous shipwreck in 1985, he grabbed the globe's attention. But in reality the explorer's search for the Titanic was a cover-up for a top-secret mission for the U.S. government.

Ballard reveals he was hired to use his advanced robotic sub to check on the status of two nuclear submarines, the USS Thresher and the USS Scorpion, that sank in the Atlantic in the 1960s.

"The Navy didn't want the Soviets to know they were looking for these subs," Ballard said on "Good Morning America" today.

The guise of searching for the Titanic's wreckage provided a perfect alibi for the intensified presence of U.S. ships on the Atlantic. Ballard was under strict instructions for the last two decades not to talk to anyone at the time about how he secretly sought out the two subs.

The Thresher went down in 1963 and the Scorpion sank in 1968. Both were nuclear subs and their locations had never really been mapped, Ballard said.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4978391&page=1

BTW, there's a book out on the Scorpion claiming it was sunk by the Soviets.

From Amazon.com
Scorpion Down: Sunk by the Soviets, Buried by the Pentagon: The Untold Story of the USS Scorpion

From Publishers Weekly
The U.S.S. Scorpion SSN 589, a 99-man fast attack submarine, sank 400 miles southwest of the Azores on May 22, 1968, a time during the Cold War when the Soviet Navy was expanding and becoming more aggressive. The Navy's top secret court of inquiry, however, theorized that the Scorpion was sunk by its own hot-running torpedo, not an enemy vessel. In this thorough post-mortem, military beat reporter Offley challenges the Navy's official report-including details like when the wreckage was found and what the sub's mission had been-with a succinct charge: "It was all a lie." Offley believes the Scorpion was sunk by the Soviets, in retaliation for the loss of one of their subs two months prior. Using the U.S.S. Pueblo incident of January, 1968, in which key cryptography gear was lost, Offley connects the dots between the Navy, the John Walker spy ring, and Soviet intelligence to conclude that the Russians had access to all of the Navy's most secret communications, allowing them to ambush the Scorpion. Most of Offley's argument, while compelling, is based solely on interviews with former Navy personnel, and a lack of factual evidence weakens it. Still, this well-told narrative history holds much appeal for naval historians and conspiracy buffs.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
The sinking of the nuclear submarine USS SCORPION in 1968, and the death of all 99 crewmen, was for years regarded as a strange and tragic mystery. Now military reporter Offley reveals that there never was a mystery--just a cover-up in the classic style. On that fateful day, the Cold War threatened to escalate, and the American people have been kept in the dark until now. The avuncular-sounding Richard Ferrone guides us along a journey of discovery as Offley painfully navigates through decades of hints and rumors, false leads and doublespeak. Truly, in SCORPION DOWN the demands of the dead to be heard and remembered are answered with dignity and respect. B.D.J. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.