Greg Russell finds that the Trident test failure that came to light this week amid much outrage is just the latest in a history of threats to our safety

-------------------------------------------------------------

TWO nuclear submarines were involved in a collision off the west coast of Scotland at the height of the Cold War, according to a document from 1974, which is in a batch of around 13 million published online by America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

They shine some light on decades of spooks’ thinking in the US and were put on the CIA Records Search Tool (Crest) following a lengthy challenge from Muckrock, a freedom of information pressure group.

The papers were in the public domain, but could only be inspected on a personal visit to the National Archives in Maryland, where only four computers gave office-hours access to Crest. This, said Muckrock, “presented an obstacle to many researchers”.

The documents cover a vast range of topics including briefings on the Lockerbie bombing, UFO sightings, psychic experiments from the Stargate programme and include a collection of papers from Henry Kissinger, the former US diplomat, secretary of state and national security adviser, who served under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

WHAT ABOUT THE SUBS?

A CABLE marked “secret eyes only” included in the documents is addressed to Kissinger, who was US secretary of state when the incident happened in November 1974.

It related the collision between the American and Russian vessels near the Holy Loch, which was then a US naval base.

The note did not go into detail about the extent of damage, but it has been reported that the American sub, SSBN James Madison, had to be taken back to base for repairs to its hull.

It was typed by Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser under presidents Ford and George H W Bush, and reads: “Have just received word from the Pentagon that one of our Poseidon submarines has just collided with a Soviet submarine.

“The SSBN James Madison was departing Holy Loch to take up station when it collided with a Soviet submarine waiting outside the port to take up trial.

“Both submarines surfaced and the Soviet boat subsequently submerged again.

“There is no report yet of the extent of the damage. Will keep you posted.”

During the Cold War it was common for US and Russian submarines to track each other, and there has been speculation about a number of collisions.

HAS THERE BEEN MUCH REACTION?

OH yes – and as you might expect the SNP has gone ballistic. Brendan O’Hara, their defence spokesperson said it could have been devastating.

‘’The truth is – as we saw with the Trident malfunction revelations – nothing has changed, it could happen again,” he said. ‘’We keep asking the UK Government to realise how dangerous, how unsafe, how unreliable these weapons of mass destruction are.

‘’But again in parliament on Monday they tried to hide behind ‘national security’ to avoid answering legitimate questions and continue to insist on dumping these weapons on the Clyde – so close to Scotland’s biggest city. Once again we are dependent on the United States rather than our own government to find out what is happening.

‘’And, just as in 1974, there are serious questions today regarding security and safety concerns about Trident that Labour and Tory MPs dismiss at their peril.”

He added: ‘’The people of Scotland live in the shadow of this appalling nuclear arsenal because Westminster puts it there – against the vast majority of its elected representatives – and without taking the necessary measures to defend it or to protect the people who live here.

‘’We are not safer with Trident and we must end the madness once and for all. It is immoral and eye-wateringly expensive and we can now add – dangerously useless.”

WHAT ELSE IS IN THE PAPERS?

TO examine them properly you would need to set aside a month or so. Apart from the sheer volume, the CIA search engine is not the best and an innocuous search can turn up 50,000 or more documents.

One previously secret set of papers is a briefing from December 1989 for then Director of Central Intelligence William H Webster, for a meeting with Ann McLaughlin, chairman of the president’s commission on aviation security and terrorism, a year after the Lockerbie bombing.

It describes allegations – later discredited – that the CIA allowed terrorists to place a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103. Other claims centre on a bigger drugs-for-hostages operation used as cover by leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) to plant a bomb on board; and a bomb threat warning from the Israelis to Germany and the CIA which the agency failed to act on.

However Webster dismissed the claims and said the CIA had no information that could have given advance warning of the tragedy.