‘Abandoned C.I.A. device could kill millions in India’

Press, 14 April 1978, Page 6

‘Abandoned C.I.A. device could kill millions in India’

i NZPA-Reuter New York, i ' A nuclear-powered spying . device was lost by the; United States Central In- : telligence Agency in the ’ Himalayas and could some ; day contaminate the Ganges ] River with plutonium, a ’ well-known investigative reporter has told a press con.'ference in New York. A “Rolling Stone” maga-; ' zine associate editor. How-] ard Kohn, said that unless! the device was retrieved! from under an avalanche of] 'snow. ice. and rocks, it! ! ! could “place in jeopardy! I tens or hundreds of thousands. maybe millions, of In—j dians.” A C.I.A. spokesman said; 'the agencc would not com-' ment on Kohn’s charges. But two Democratic Congressimen, Mr Richard Ottinger: land Mr John Dingell. asked;' I:President Jimmy Carter toi J conduct an investigation' ibased on Kohn’s article. ' Kohn said the device — a jS.N.A.P. generator — had.

been planted by a team of 14 United States mountaineers about 600 metres from the peak of a Himalayan mountain, Nanda Devi, in 1965 to spy on China’s atomic-weapons development in Sinkiang provipce across the Indian border. The device, containing 4.5 kg of Plutonium 238, had later been buried in an avalanche. Kohn said that the metal protectors surrounding the plutonium would corrode in 10 to 30 years, whereas the pl itonium would remain active for hundreds of years. He . said there was a strong possibility of its eventually leading into the snows of Nanda Devi and from there being carried into the nearbv headwaters of the Ganges, which supplies millions of Indians with their drinking water. A full account of Kohn’s allegations will bi published [ n the forthcoming issue of ‘Outside” magazine, an off-

. shoot of “Rolling Stone.” | Kohn said that the infor- > mation of his article had ! come from eight of the i United States mountaineers, I who he said had been hired (by the C.I.A. to plant the : device. The Indian Government had never been in- ; formed. ,?■ ‘ Kohn charged that the 'C.I.A. refused to make further attempts at retrieval, I fearing an international incident similar to the one : which took place when a (Russian nuclear-powered satlellite fell in northern Canada 'earlier this year. He quoted scientists as 'saying that unless something was done to retrieve the ■device, a hazard existed. The entry of that amount] ■of plutonium into the Ganges could raise atomic! material levels to the danger point and even cause a cancer epidemic among Indians] who use the river for their; water. Kohn, whose previous in-!

vestigative reports included' a widely-praised account of Patricia Hearst’s life in the radical underground, said that double-agents in India’s equivalent of the C.1.A., the Ct.ntrai Bureau of Investigation. had aided the United States agency in mounting the 14-man expedition. He said that the C.I.A. had decided to carry out the plan because it' needed to know the range of nuclear iaiSsiles that China was: developing and did not at. that time have sufficient satellite technology. He added that two years later, the C.I.A. had financed a second expedition up a less treacherous Himalayan I peak. Nanda Kot, and had [planted another plutoniumpowered spying device. This one had worked for (two years, but had been .abandoned because more advanced technology had been :developed. He said this de- ! vice posed no danger. ,