THE MYSTERY FLASH: BOMB OR PHENOMENON?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170043-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 28, 2011
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: September 16, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170043-9
ARTICLE APPEAi
ON FAG1V
JACK ANDERSON
THE WASHINGTON POST
16 September 1980
The Mystery Flash:
r PhenOmenoii?
~o
Although it happened almost a year about one-sixth the size of the atomic
ago, the mysterious flash detected .off bomb dropped on Hiroshima.35 years
the coast of South Africa by a U.S. spy ago.
satellite is still a matter of dispute The advantage of tactical nukes to
among Intelligence experts. ' the three nations, as intelligence ex-
. The Defense Intelligence Agency, as perts see it, is that they could be used
might be expected from its military for limited, defensive purposes to fore-
orientation,. is convinced the mysteri-' stall invasion from aggressive neigh-
ous flash was a nuclear explosion. of bors without inviting massive retalia-
.
.some sort. Navy experts agree with the tion from the nuclear superpowers.
DIA's conclusion. Taiwan, for example, could repel an, at- I
On the other hand, a White House tack from Red China by detonating
panel of experts from the Office of.Sci- tactical nuclear devices in the Strait of
ence and Technology hashed over the Formosa without blasting the Chinese
admittedly scanty evidence and de- mainland and. touching off a holo-
cided the most likely explanation was._ caust.
that the flash was a natural phenome- While this relatively moderate use
non-in other words, a mystery. of nuclear weapons is reassuring, U.S.
A closely guarded Central Intelil- intelligence agencies do, not overlook
gene Agency report comes dawn al- the ominous possibility that the small,
most in the middle of these two diver- tactical nuclear devices might be more
gent assessments. It gives the edge to tempting to 'use simply because they
DIA and the~Navy: The flash detected are ? less destructive. Once - nuclear
by the orbiting spy satellite was:'most weaponry was used even on a limited
likely" a nuclear explosion, though it scale, It might be impossible to stop a
possibly could have been ;,nothing chain reaction.
more ominous than a gigantic light- In its secret report to the National
ning bolt or other natural occurrence. Security Council, dated June 20, 1980,
As I reported earlier, the CIA has - the CIA raised the distinct possibility
suspected 'for years that. both South that the "mystery flash" of September
Africa and Israel have the capability to 1979, was part of a tactical nuclear
produce nuclear weapons. The CIA weapon test in the joint South Africa-_
thinlts it quite possible that the two na- Israel-Taiwan program.
tions are collaborating on the develop- ? If that's what it was, the CIA report-
ment of nuclear devices, and have ed, technical improvements needed to
been working on this with still a third make the device ready for combat use'
beleaguered nation-Taiwan. could be expected "by late. 1980 or
What- the CIA experts think most early 1981."
probably happened, according to the
secret report, is that the South Africa-
.Lsrael-Taiwan trio tested a relatively
small-scale, tactical' nuclear weapon,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170043-9