LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT FROM RICHARD L. OTTINGER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81-00142R000700040009-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 13, 2001
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: April 12, 1978
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Reldwob 2001/11/23: CIA-RDP81-00142R0070040009-5 DD/A Re3istry
oligm;,; of the nitro %tate 7,P
ou e of Aepre entutibeo D /A R gistry
ta. ol".91af, "A'. 20515 file
April 12, 1978
The President
The White House
Washington, D. C. 20500
Dear Mr, President;
The attached article from the May issue of Outside magazine,
published by Rolling Stone, raises serious allegations about a CIA
operation in India during the 1960's -- apparently carried out without
the knowledge of the Indian Government.
According to the author, Howard Kohn, there are two nuclear-
powered monitoring devices -- allegedly for the surveillance of Chinese
atomic weapons testing -- high in the Himalayas. The devices, containing
plutonium, were placed on two mountains, one of which, Nanda Devi, is
the source of India's Ganges River, the holy river for millions of Hindus.
One of the monitoring stations is said to have been buried by an
avalanche, and thus might be currently leaking plutonium into the Ganges.---
If this is true, it would be a serious problem, indeed.
We request that you investigate this matter and inform us fully
of your findings. If the article is in fact accurate, we strongly urge
that this Nation take whatever steps may be necessary to resolve this
serious and embarassing situation.
Sincerely,
Richard L. Ottinger,
Member of Congress
cc: Hon. Nani A. Palkhivala, Indian Ambassador to the United States
Ham. Stansfield Turner, Director of Central Intelligence
Dr Zbi i B
Hon. Clement J. Zablocki, Chairman, House International Relations Comm!
y
Hon. John Sparkman, Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Hon. Edward P. Boland, Chairman, House Select Committee on Intelligence
Hon. Birch Bayh, Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
. gnew rzezinski,
Assistant for National S
Approved For Release 2001/11/23 : CIA-RDP81-00142R000700040009-5
 Approved For Rel re 2001/11/23: CIA-RDP81-00142ROOW0040009-5
Ogre . of the niteb tntti
1100 of 3atprt tntatibej
tuatbi ton, .C. 2051.5
April 12, 1978
Hon. Nani A. Palkhivala
Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary
Embassy of India
2107 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D. C. 20008
Dear Mr. Ambassador:
As you will see from the enclosed letter to President Carter
and the enclosed article from the May issue of Outside magazine,
allegations have been made that there are nuclear-powered monitoring
stations in the Himalayas which may have been placed there by the
American CIA.
We would like to request that your government provide us with
any information which it may possess relating to this issue.
Sincerely,
Jo D. Dinge 1 Richard I Ott;nnnr
C
U1
ongress
cc: Hon. Timmy Carter, President of the iJnited States
Hon. Cyrus Vance, Secretary of State
Adm. Stansfield Turner, Director of Central Intelligence
Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Assistant for National Security Affairs
Hon. Clement J. Zablocki, Chairman, House International Relations Commi
Hon. John Sparkmen, Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Hon. Edward P. Boland, Chairman, House Select Committee on Intelligence
Hon. Birch Bayh, Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Approved For Release 2001/11/23 : CIA-RDP81-00142R000700040009-5
 Approved For`liidflease 2001/11/23 : CIA-RDP81-0014200700040009-5
TFIE NANNADA DEVI CA
PEK
How the CIA used American mountaineers to t~I Inc
Approved For Release 2001/11/23 : CIA-RDP81-00142R0007 904Q0g9-5
_ jj ,
 he pristine, upper reaches of the Indi
H
an
imalaya hold a deadly secret. During a 1965 spy mion th U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) lost a SNAP generator on a 'mountainside in Indias U tarlPradesh s ate,
and this nuclear power pack, filled with plutonium-2--9- is stall the
r r___l
re
th
d
es
e
,
ntes, w
h
evice will remain a radioactive menace that could leak into the 1~1 c.et
filtrate the Indian river system throu
Him l
h th h
al
d
aya
a
g
e ea
ayan sno~r r,
waters of the Ganges.
"It is a hazardous situation," says Dr. Arthur Tamplin, a biophysicist formerly with the Atomi
Every etTort should be made to re
E
i
'
c
cover
t. I don
nergy Commissio
t understand why that wasn't done right r
The U.S. government gave up its search for the device after a short-term feckless effort. Instead, aid` e 1 b~
kmerica's best mountain climbers, covertly placed 1 } rt 1
the
CL%
a seconc SNAP r> some t:
There after servi
h
'
,
ng t
e agency
s purpose,
, i
t also was abandoned. gencraor on another Indian mounair
The following article is the first public account of the entire misadventlre. It is as
e 14 mountaineers whop rppliF'ovi c ~" I~ P~dOnt4!M~ s fd
A -RPROA, ~1~ 6~ '~i1( 9aS e1gl;c c:
E Zl.e:ilgerce cornmunIcv-
 Approved For ease 2001/11/23 : CIA-RDP81-001424W0700040009-5
0 NANDA DEVI SANCTUARY
FIRST NUCLEAR SPY STATION (Lost on the slopes of NTanda Devil
SECO
D
N
SPY STATION (Positioned near the summit of Nanda Kot)
HEADWATERS OF THE GANGES RIVER
than intelligence, setting up the arrangement on an informal
basis to preserve the CIA's absolute authority over the project.
The CIA demanded that the CBI, which relies heavily on U.S.
spy expertise, keep the affair secret from Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi and other ranking officials of the
ruled India. that then
.
The CIA was concerned that the Gandhi government might
veto the project
n late 1964 the American climbers mustered at
CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where
they took the oath that hinds together spies every,
where: never to reveal anything to arlvnn.e unto
d
r ~? Hor
e sr rrmishes Point, North Carolina, some in a spy plane that had all (a l;,n cy
on India's northern and northeastern frontiers had erupted into itl!r 1' u;+ l . rs ;111 1,irk;,1
t1: ~'^
a miniwar in iOlS, and i,1ard:l Dc i. t C'nsori. from ti'.e
l+c' ClA'targcted moon- ~\ ind~ rll s cw ' st th pi'Irat , c + tC l-7'
t,ritl, is near a disputed area still churned by both count:i s 1' l `d?
The CIA did give i 1/ - 93 : C1Tac -s on
'('-00 11$0(9Oi'041~1 9(~6on of ncatherc i
M~rwddlF rrFt~ 1~99Ac o)1 barrac ?s orl 1bernarle Sound off the Atlantic. But behind the
project, but th? agency also asked him not to notify the Gandhi front Cites is a high- low 1
- ,. K crcc center for munition: and e.;,,l.~.
NANDA KOT
government, a circumstance that later became another reason
for the U.S. coverup'.
 _Apprnved Fp Ieps 20 /11/-23-t-CIA-RDP8a--DD14 RO O7.0004OOQ9-5.___._...._
In all, I4 of America's best climbers signed on with the CIA. The
agencys proposition included a guarantee of $l0o o a Month, a free
and exotic trip, an exciting climb and a modest porrloric benediction.
pack loaded with a heavy metal contraption makes
no sense for an ascent into the icy, thin air of the
Himalaya. But this pack was special. It radiated a
warmth that seemed to cling even after the pack
I was removed. All the Indian porters wanted to
carry it. The Americans, who knew what was inside, were a
little less enthusiastic. They weren't sure how many radio-
active isotopes were leaking out with the heat.
The climbers were convoying parts for a 125-pound tracking
device they hoped to assembleand mount atop NandaDevi,
one of the tallest peaks in India. They were the workhorses for
a CIA operation to eavesdrop across the border into China.
Inside the pack was the latest in CIA technology: a nuclear
SNAP generator to power the tracking device.
The CIA team had started up Nanda Devi after the autumn
monsoons of 1965. But razor-sharp winds and unseasonal storms
delayed them and then winter's approach forced them to re-
treat short of the top.. Intending to return in spring to finish
the mission, they found a sheltered cranny on the southern lee
of the mountain and stashed the special pack.
Not until the next spring did they discover their miscalcu-
lation. The CIA gimmickry had been lost in a capricious win-
ter avalanche.
The glaciers of Nanda Devi are part of the headwaters of the
Ganges, the holy river for 450 million Hindus. For the CIA to
have contaminated India's hallowed waters with plutonium, or
even to have risked that possibility, was an unprecedented
breach of the unwritten international nuclear code. The inci-
dent could have been far more politically embarrassing than the
radioactive pollution the Soviet Union's Cosmos 954 satellite
rained on northwest Canada in January 1978-except that the
CIA was able to keep :its mishap covered up.
he Nanda Devi project began as a sort of high-
minded compromise. China had exploded a nuclear
bomb at Lop Nor in barren Sinkiang province on
October i6th,1964. It was China's first nuclear suc-
cess and its reverberations were felt in Washington.
The U.S. reaction was divided into two camps. At the
Pentagon there was a temporary "red alert" while the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, afraid that China was on the verge of a military
offensive, argued for a preventive first strike. At the State
Department the moribund Chinese desk saw an opportunity
to open up talks with Peking.
President Lyndon Johnson dismissed both ideas as opposite
extremes and instead acceded to the CIA's alternative proposal:
a spy mission to measure China's nuclear capabilities.
U.S. reconnaissance satellites were still unsophisticated at
that time, and the few in orbit were all marshaled inconven-
iently over the Soviet U,don. So the CIA conceived of an am-
bitious expedition to p1- -e a nuclear-pc,wered monitoring de-
vice on an Indian mou i _aintop near Sinkiang, where it could
pick up signals f:om China's nuclear tests and track Chinese.
nuclear-warhead missile,..
The CIA solicited American climbers with previous high
Himalayan and Alaskan ?xperience, and many gladly agreed to
help. The CIA's proposition included a guarantee of $roco a,
month for a job estimat+:1 to take about a year, plus a free and
exotic trip, an exciting climb and a modest patriotic bene-
diction.
Most climbers viewed the offer as serendipitous luck. One
climber was working at two jobs, tryir to support it family
and survive his final yea, of graduate school. The CIA money
came as a windf: ll. The agency also interceded with a univer-
sity dean to drop some academic requirements so he could earn
an early degree. -11`he elite')er ended up sr ending part of his year
"acclimatizing" at a hotel on Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps: he had
a nice vacation and was never called upon for Himalayan duty.
Most of the others sly:-.red similar perspectives. "How many
times do you get a chant for a free boondoggle?" explains one.
"I'd do it again f the s_me situation presented itself. I had a
lot of fun."
For two premier clin-_' ers, however, thzl~ project became a
three-year commitment. One, a brilliant student of the life
sciences, had been a track star in the Fifties. He was known
for his determination as i climber. ('He once gritted through an
enormously painful leg facture while spidering up Mount Mc-
Kinley). He and the CIA were mutually impressed. "There
are few times-in a man's life when he can truly say he was the
right man for a job and that his being there made a difference,-
he later wrote in a lettc r. "I can say that about my work for
the CIA."
The other was an er.:inee_et and inventor. He was also the
most openly patriotic of the group, and one fellow climber
dubbed him "the patriu." He viewed the CIA offer as a sum-
mons to serve his count: y, and he. guarded his involvement in
the project with zeal. f=riends say he did not even tell his
wife the full story.
Several years afterward, British climber Chris Bonington
sought him out for advice as Bonington was about to climb
Changabang, another p.:ak in the same. Himalayan cluster as
Nanda Devi. "I don't t, ant to know about your secret mis-
sion," Bonington explaned. "I'd just Ike to know what the
territory is like."
"You must he mistalen," the patriot replied. "I've never
been to that part of Ind... Despite coaxing, he refused to say
anything about the scene of the project.
In all, 14 American cli nbers signed on with the CIA, thoc~th
ultimately only nine w- c sent to India. They w; r,= ?oined '-!-
four of from te Ev r
Hotaard k:;i:n is an assoc:ate editor of 'Rol!tng Stone.' In the ex edition*
past year he has reported of 9p~tVeCbF(?ro sett2O01/11/21'n:rP!} ~~1~ 1~ 1{} tQQQ U4U@ .;lion o;
encrust causes of cancer and how the Israelis got the bomb. Indian counterp; rt, the f-entral Bureau c-f Invest _;?.t:on CRI
American und_r:ov.r.. cut: on th- CBI
 sivcs xestiug. The Nav yl: o 61i 12b0~1f1t$A/23 sefxl-RIDR,#~11rlQzfAI Q~QQ~ fQtQo~9 5 1 I ?
is , r se uo";' ?' ,'
shares the facilities with o er CIp
overnm4'nt .i nci' Tl
~
b I I . ]e
trained anti-Castro Cubans at Harvey Point before the 1961
Bay of Pigs invasion, and the agency took the mountaineers
there for a crash course in nuclear-age espionage.
Bill McNeff, a short, wiry CIA lifer, was the case officer in
charge. He was assisted by a demolitions expert, a former U-2
pilot, an in-house Sinologist, a psychiatrist armed with a
polygraph and a squadron of lesser strategists. The tableau was
cloaked in immediacy and intrigue. The demolitions expert con-
fided the subtleties of plastic explosives, teaching the climbers
how to carve an L-shaped recess in an icy mountainside to use
as a platform for the tracking station; and another technician
put them through an erector-set exercise on how to assemble
the apparatus.
But most of the spy-book garnishings
accordin
to
,
g
one
climber, "were just meant to impress us-and waste a lot of
time." The psychiatrist used his lie detector to quiz the group
about drugs, homosexuality, fidelity (marital and national),
and, with dedicated professional myopia, about any friends
who might be communists.
"After a while," another climber recalls, "we spent most of
our time playing volleyball and doing some serious drinking."
The liquor, he says, helped fight the ennui of droning, one-
dimensional lectures on the Asian mentality.
Toward the end of the session, the CIA brought in the four
Indian climbers. The two groups introduced themselves and
were soon exchanain stn,;, f h' h d
g s o
air. Wind, snow and high angle combine to make the
n;?u
i
nta
: l
ruthless beyond its size; the climbers would have to be alert for
The climb ahead promised to be monumental.~Only two
i
prev
ous expeditions had stcxxtl on the peak, and they had not
b
b
een
urdened with the extra CIA v.eight,
f anyone asked, the American climbers. were in
Uttar Pradesh under the auspices of the Air Force
High Altitude Test program (HAT), an appro.
The metal hat, about two feet tall and three feet around,
was a SNAP (Space Nuclear Auxiliary Power) generator-the
centerpiece of the tracking device. When assembled, it sat on a
to an electronic box. The generator powered the box that was.
'
to relay the antenna
s monitorings to a CIA telemetry expert
The key to Operation HAT was a thin fuel rod that fit in a
rod contained plutonium-238, a lethal nuclear synthetic that
d
ex
en
rg a venture, itself 7n a manner similar to a dry-cell battery, but if the CIA's
After a few weeks at Harvey Point
the climbers were flown
,
nuclear wizards were right, the electronic box could feed on
to Mount McKinley in Alaska, at 20,320 feet the highest peak the radioactivity for 75 years or more.
in the 5o states. The National Park Service closed off the sout
h The fuel rod arrived at the Nanda Devi base camp in a Lon
face of McKinley from other mountaineers while the newly derous lead liner, a container much too heavy to accomreny
fashioned team tested logistics. The warm-up did not go well, the expedition. The climbers collected to watch as the rod was
Distressing weather and other difficulties kept them from the carefully inserted in the metal hat. "After it was safely in,"
summit, an unfriendly omen the CIA chose to ignore. says one climber, "we sort of took turns touching the core. You
By fall 7965 the group was gathered in northern India, and could feel the heat."
for the first time the Americans were obliged to observe the The former track star, the patriot, two other American
anonymity of espionage. Because this was not an officially sane- climbers, four Indians and the porters formed hie first Blue
tioned climb, India's CBI agents were worried that local vil- Mountain expedition.. They set out up the south face in Sep-
lagers might take undue interest in the incongruous assembly, tember 1965. Their objective was the summit or a spot near
and they directed the Americans to keep their faces averted the top on the north face overlooking Sinkiang. But the
and their conversations to monosyllables as they traveled to- weather and the mountain conspired against them.
ward the mountain. They were about 2000 feet shy of the summit when they
A helicopter flew the climbers to a meadow in the Nanda agreed to turn around. Rather than undo all their labor, how-
Devi Sanctuary, and they hiked across the short, fragile grass ever, they stored the CIA cargo among the rocks to await
the final steps to base camp. The sanctuary, about 14,000 feet their return.
high and circumscribed by mountains, may be India's only re- A well-known climber from the 1963 American expedition
maining inviolate range for the rare Himalayan blue sheep. up Everest was added to the team for spring 1966. He was
Livestock do not compete for the vegetation, and few hunters skilled in electronics and map-making. As the team maneuvered
have ever been allowed access. - back up in April, however, the newest member sucked in mor e
Nanda Devi, a thrust of high-angle rock and snow, is an im- frostbitten air than his lungs could endure. He began whet-;rg
posing presence in the Uttar Pradesh region near India's and spitting bloody fuzz and had to turn back while the others
northeastern border, about Soo miles south and four miles continued toward their position of a half-year before.
above the Sinkiang plains. Originally, the CIA had determined But their cache was gone, swept away under a torrent of
that a height of 27,000 feet was necessary to give its tracking mountain rubble. A wall of snow and fragments of cliff had
device an efficiently commanding view of Sinkiang. But after broken loose from above and come surging down, leaving ? ?e-
some last-minute slide-rule manipulations, the CIA lowered hind a clumsy artistry of resculptured furrows an.' hollows on
its sights to Nanda Devi's 25,645-foot summit
Nanda Devi
h
.
, t
e spot where they now stood dumbfounded.
which the agency later code-named "Blue Mountain, " takes Th ped' 'ti 1-,.
Sts n'IM;` from 1 S.nddes, 1n I lln-Ill !'1` .c~!:u~ti'. e ~~r ' 1,.011 bl?,o1!;1~hCd to Con tenlpldte 1`P ,.eX:
To h.t~l -!: !~?,'l cel~e~l 0 ~I
Above bas C.il;ip, in the. quickening dusk, the climbers could he voted to return to base 1111.'c1i:m~ln In Strict rl i
see immutable rocks fading ip1'j5~3 81 sec 1l 'i It t
b o3>ilF~>dR1bae Q0a1/1 fNr213~ l IA- Pc ,c ~rTr~i 1 uT ..1C
beyond, shrouded in mist, long; chutes of snow frosted the quer the reiroinirn 2000 f r
:'.loulltanl. Under the best of conditions N nda Devi presents ~?et? ` Mil,,: tile: f~.ttr::?`.
wV < scr.ulll'!.`d to the ,5,545-foot summit, a fe.a lh-tt ...1
pro
uces neat as it decays. The layers of metal around the fuel
rod were designed to reach different temperatures, creating an
imbalance to generate electricity. The fuel rod would
p
d
 the highest solo ascent by an American-though, of course, it
was never publicly recorded.
He reached the top without trouble, but his trip down was
more treacherous. As he approached the camp he lost his foot-
ing and went sprawling several hundred feet down a snowy
incline, miraculously coming to rest, unhurt, just short of a
cradle of sharp rocks.
D~8 - 014 0700040p09-5 ?
If the -Irl rC t l~ t ~t fit 4, nlrcjc_ar }~o~~ ~~r
pack was missing, maybe shattered, in the hcadvwaters of the G ngcs,
there would be an inexorable hunt for sc; pe~'Foats back in\\ ashingcon.
in ton. There it decision was made. The nuclear de i e was t,
be abandoned n the snow with the optimistic pres_:~on it
would stay th e.
Top CIA otlicials were anxious to keep the ar..~..` mi--
adventure sit=ilarly buried. They did not inform P: -e MM1in-
ister Candhi', government, and they pressured 1:- s CBI
officers, who were compromised by their earlier to
maintain their silence. The CIA allegedl
lso c
d i
y a
oareas-
t:
. ews of the lost device shook Bill. McNeff and the decision from the LBJ White House.
other Operation HAT officers. They did not have In so doing,, the agency opted for a long-term Plu-
to be told of the somber diplomatic implications or tonium?z,S re-mains dangerously radioactive for =c== 0 50:-
of their imperiled careers. If the Hindu population years, . nd even if the SNAP generator had s;'rvived ava-
ever learned that the CIA's nuclear power pack lanche intact, its outer shell would F ventu,ally Corr' --.-i
i
was mi
ssinig, maybe shattered, rn the uanges headwaters, there
would be are inexorable hunt for scapegoats back in Wash-
ington.
The spring thaw on the southern slope of Nanda Devi is a
major source of water for the Ganges. The Rishi Gang-, River
crashes down the slope into the Dhauli River, which joins the
Alaknanda about g0oo feet below Nanda Devi Sanctuary. The
Alaknanda is one of the largest tributaries flowing into the
Ganges, the 1557-mile dispenser of life fora parched land. The
Alaknanda-Dhauli juncture is a sacred place the Hindus call
Vishnuprayag. A temple sits on a rocky ledge dividing the two
rivers, and for hundreds of years Hindu worshipers, clinging
to ringbolts against the cold tug of the current, have paraded
down stone steps into waters from Nanda Devi's slopes.
The CIA located the debris of the avalanche on the moun-
tain's southern profile about 3000 feet above the sanctuary.
Retrieving the SNAP generator, however, posed unfamiliar
problems. What could be used, thousands of feet in the air, to
bulldoze through tons of rock and snow?
McNeff and the others pondered that, then devised a solu-
tion more elegantly creative than the project itself. CIA
operatives we-e dispatched to New Delhi, India's bustling capi-
tal, where they shadowed the bazaars and .hardware shops.
What this undertaking called for was a local guide who had
always wanted to he a fireman. The CIA agents were in pursuit
ofrubberhoses, the blackwide-throated kind that firefighters use.
Eventually they managed to buy several hoses, of varying
lengths, which were helicoptered back to the sanctuary and
hauled up Blue Mountain. Jointed together, the hoses became
ir
ersa^
one long rubber snake with its mouth stuck in a slanting moun- mendatiens per,_:aded many climbers to enlist. : ad : e_-per
tain stream and it
t
il
i
hi
h
h
s
a
sw
s
ng t
roug
the rubbl i di H bd fl ild bh
e,nsgust.eietnsutey te agency's.:c., c?= ;-_-z
The diverted water was supposed to wash away the snow ciation fcr the difficulties of mountaineering. T*-.- CI'_ tech-
and exhume the nuclear treasure below. In theory, perhaps, nocrats had continued to change their minds ate:: .e the idea held traces of brilliance. But a mountain stream is not tion needed to make the tracking device work. T--e:_ mss: _ _ev
easily converted into a fireplug. Mud and sticks clogged the had been 27,000 feet, then 25,500, and, after the as o _: c hose opening, requiring a frigid cleaning every few minutes; they had decide 2r,ooo would be adequate.
and water pressure at the other end was equal to that of a did not seem to understand was that, because C.
mound created by the avalanche, about the size of a Giza 2^ u u feet in mountaineering is like the d i - -.
id
pyram
, stood unmoved. M Frien I F. h: \-
r..~...n..,....,.. 14 Ci A. anoQ4 ~`. ii4'~tS1t .irAMriS:c :re.
The CIA
-
unhappy repot: was sent to base camp and radioed on to \ ash launching pads `fc r their nuclear missile. t`rrc -.- _t
lease its poisonous core. Handling or inhaling plu-;;:;; can
be fatal, and it would be impossible to retrieve the r_d_.;.
material once it escaped into the snow. If it reached ne: .
River system, it could cause cancer in anyone who drank e~ en
microscopic ari,ounts or ate contaminated fish.
In Uttar Pr-aesl, meanwhile, a weary irritation had s _:-1ec1
over Operatic-?, HAT. The men had been up them
three times, as, unplanned investment of work and
and yet it had defied them each time. Their : ; ssio n %v--s un-
fulfilled. and in Washington the project was }vin sue: r a as a
zero turned. -nei- Give.
Everyone w.,s on edge. The CBI agents, a gry 2.n? cc-us
about tl e position in which the CIA's deceith_d cl_`,.: :_m,
grew arbitrary and short tempered. The cli_m rs, u-: ccus
tomed to the fatuous nature of undercover work, to
question overall strategy. A rift opened in the CIA rank- e-
tween the Chinese and Indian specialists, who seized en this
excuse to vent longstanding jealousies. And the vnrr
ing porters to0: abuse from all sides, as if the.:r presence had
somehow jinxed an otherwise flawless plan.
Tensions flared. In the midst of one confrontation cr:e er-
ican climber lur ; ;:d o.=er a desk and, with one rurc r. enfed
a CBI agent frc:n his chair. Another climber ccm:rand e ed a
military helicof::er at the Nanda Devi Sanctuar:
New Delhi, 20.4 miles away, for an unannounced s: _ n
with the head of Indian intelligence. Both cli ,::; sv e. . k
in the Stites soon afterwards.
A third American, a magazine photojournali_- w se -: _d 4
as liaison between the CIA and the cli
bd
 On October-27th, 1966, rA rotted J r eals@c2Q.Q'1I141/23 : CIA-RDP81-001420700040Q09-5
a pad In central Sinkiang, right under the nose of the CIA's
unsensing tracking device.
n early 1967 Bill McNeff was terminated as the
agent in charge of Operation IIAT. Most of the
climbers liked McNeff's Irish street kid attitude
and vernacular, and they felt he was being un-
fairly singled out for blame. But McNeff's removal
was part of a final effort to rehabilitate the project. Another
American from the prestigious 1963 Everest expedition had
been recruited to help replace the climbers who'd left, and
another mountain, Natlda Kot, had been selected as the new
target.
Nanda Kot stands adjacent to Nanda Devi and, to keep its
score card straight, the CIA code-named it "Red Mountain."
The climbers, however, had no trouble telling the two apart.
Shorter and squatter, the 22,47o-foot Kot clearly lacks the
prodigious ferocity of its neighbor.
The new recruit arrived in New Delhi in March 1967, two
weeks ahead of his teammates, all veterans of Blue Mountain
and in no rush for any extra reconnoitering with the terrain.
For this attempt the Indians insisted on even more elaborate
security precautions. One American, a CIA radio operator,
had such arid, alabaster features that he was conspicuous in
any crowd, but, after a hushed conference, the Indians pro-
duced a disguise: Man-Tan, an American drugstore potion
that fabricates a suntan. It turned his skin a carotene-brown.
The Americans were trucked in late-night darkness to a
New Delhi military base, flown to a remote airport in Uttar
Pradesh, then helicoptered to a Nanda Kot base camp. The
Indian climbers met then, there in April and, as warm winds
softened the winter austerity, the group roped up Nanda Kot,
packing along the components of a substitute plutonium-fueled
device.
They proceeded cautiously, searching for the best route in
the black-and-white patterns, avoiding the long, perpendicular
chutes where avalanches, loosened by the morning sun, could
rumble down. They were about halfway to the top when a
blizzard blocked their way. The bad weather persisted, and
finally they had to return to camp, a hurried trip that was
interrupted by another crisis. Without warning an avalanche
trapped and almost. killed two of the climbers.
The two men escaped, however, and a few days later the
team moved up again. This time the climb was successful.
They found a suitable hump on the north ridge at the 21,000-
foot level and, after some minor remodeling of the area, they
set up the tracking station.
It worked. The nuclear battery, still warm to the touch in
the frosty air, hummed and vibrated as the antenna scanned
the northern horizon. The climbers celebrated briefly, in keep-
ing with the occasion and the climate, then retraced their path
downward.
Operation HAT seemed over. But a year later the CIA was
back in Uttar Pradesh and yet another team was a ell, to scale
Red Mountain. A winter storm had laid siege tihe CIA's
spindly alpine robot and imprisoned it in a tomb of snow. The
en e
agency mounted a fifth expedition, made up of Indians and with Vice-Admiral Rufus Taylor, the agency's number-two
porters, to di out an J net.Iir the device in snru,g 1965. official, and then, in an ean`:est ceremony, be was dec(;rated
Tl,. aiti
ci nt 'ii. . . ~: "f !11 1111;1:1 r (or ~.
as the
t, r
another But, 't)), Llic , 11 I)-) :i_uger needed. The U.S. ev r, it CIA agent stepped morwal'd to unpin it and retu,I) it to
had launched a new sun:Ay pmode rfkelealg~r*1?(ill/11i2r31t42ki RDP18Ie001914>? Q 7I1QE ,QOI :Z`a0rtol
over-the-horizon radar from 1- tlwa11, ",.:d assumed the task of or even mention that he'd been giveI1 one:-because: it m"`a
Scouting (alilll S nuele it u'.'_ ,,,I w- tats. Cia r..l:'.c the n.ltu.nal security.
Summit of NNanda Devi viewed from the Rishi Gorge.
he four American mountaineers from the success-
ful 1967 .expedition returned home in triumph,
though the fanfare had to be restricted to a tight
circle of friends because of the earlier oaths they'd
taken. An irrepressible CIA recruiter, impressed
with one climber's sideline abilities as a tinkerer-technician,
tried to draft him for an Arctic spy mission. But he declined,
and, as far as is known, the American alpine community's
affiliation with the agency came: to an end.
One of the four opened a TV repair shop, another went
into the outdoor-equipment business, and a third took up film-
making. Thc former track st