Has any body read this ?

chits007

capt_mahajan

Fascinating and scary..

Since the OP doesnt say much, a little bit from the site.

quote
Winner of the 2007 Kekoo Naoroji Memorial Himalayan Literature Award, An Eye at the Top of the World tell the tale of the Cold War CIA, who with cooperation of the Indian Government trained the world’s best mountaineers to spy on China using a transceiver powered by a plutonium battery. The battery held four pounds of alloyed plutonium-238 and plutonium-239. The device was lost in 1966 – avalanched into a glacier at the base of a legendary mountain called Nanda Devi.

The glacier is the source of the Ganges River.......

unquote

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chits007

Yes and few other things

-- These guys have climbed Nanda-Khat

-- They are saying that 2 plutominum device are planted ( 1 get lost and other successfully planted at NandaKhat) ...is this true ???

-- Some guys are congratulating them for climbing Nanda Devi !! (See the comments on website )...


Watch the video too

AvidTrekker

I was present at his award ceremony in Mumbai. He had a very interesting slide show of his expedition... many people were asking him many Q's later, and he answered all of them properly....

He said they could not afford to take geiger counters and stuff coz theirs' was a "self" funded expedition with some small money sponsors.... but the whole thing was shown in good detail.

His book gives all his findings in better detail.

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chits007

Hi Avid,

Is this true that these guys climed Nanda Khat and more over did CIA planted 2 device one successfully on Nanda Khat and other lost ??

If thats true that what about radiation hazards ?
I guess Bill Atkins book "The Nanda Devi Affair : mention only one plutonium device ?

What do you say ?

AvidTrekker

Chits, what can I say??

In his slide-lecture Pete has conveyed that there was definitely some device planted... whether one or two.... i recollect it was only one. They could not install ir properly on the ridge so they tethered it "somehow" with guy lines and went out. Next year they returned to find the thing "missing".

Buy his book. It has all these details ...

machadinha

Does it have anything to do with this? Nanda Devi Sanctuary is closed - Joint Indo USA scam. Sounded like a good joke to me at the time.

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noflylist

sounds fascinating, would make a good old fashioned cold war movie

chits007

Avid, If there are two device (one on NandaKhat and second unknow) this would be a new thing...

anyway ...yeah its a good masala for a hollywood flick..

Avid, a sideline question...where r u trekking this summers ?

Radjesh

perfect for the next Bond movie where Bond saves the world by dismantling the device in the end.
still wish it werent true...

AvidTrekker

As of now, my mind is on Annapurna Circuit plus Base camp in Sept Oct 2007. [22 days trek] The road upto Muktinath is complete in different patches, meaning the end of this circuit as we know it. I'd rather do it before it becomes a full fledged road journey.

I am always open to other suggestions and lollipops

I was thinking of an impromptu trek from Narkanda to Sangla [13 to 15 days] starting this coming Saturday, just to escape the heat in Mumbai... but my mind is not firm on it as its not a challenging trek... Its a typical "take off without preparations" trek, so i was tempted.

kmalik

True or not, this story has been around for quite some time. That said, I suspect the radiation risk must be minimal at this point. Seems to me if the material involved was high in radiation level, it'd necessarily have a short half-life and risk 40+ years later would be quite minimal.

chits007

@kmalik : lets hope so..

few general comes to my mind

what technology was used by CIA in 60 to develop this device...is their any description somewhere..
howz plutonium going to help ?
when the data is received where it is send to ? any wireless system or satellite ?

@rajdesh: lets discuss some plot
mine : some islamic extremist group same to know of this device ..they wanna use it..UK after the Subway blast has tighten its security and their intelligence got the know of the terrrorist plans.. 007 was sent to stop them ...what else ..70% movie should be shot in majestic indian -himalays

machadinha

I'm not so sure:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste

Dilliwala

Well now, talk about synchronicity!
Two of us have been having an interesting discussion at some length on this very topic in another thread.

A few points I'd like to add here - none of this is new, specially since a pretty detailed book has been written by M.S. Kohli and Kenneth Conboy titled Spies in the Himalayas: Secret Missions and Perilous Climbs
(University Press of Kansas, 2002. India publishers- Harper Collins,New Delhi, 2003).
Given that it went into a lot more detail than Takeda has (from what I've gathered from online links, haven't read his book), I find his approach quite sensationalist. Really, nothing he says is new, including about the plutonium. Kohli was the leader of the first successful Indian team to summit Everest in 1965 (Avidbhai wud be very familiar with him ), and was shortly after picked as leader of the joint Indo-U.S. team to plant the nuclear devices on Nanda Devi and Nanda Kot (not Nanda Khat).

It's also my opinion that Takeda has been irresponsible on his own website. Given that the Kohli/Conboy book came out in 2002, 3 years BEFORE his climb and 4 years BEFORE his book was published, not to mention it at all is irresponsible:
http://www.petetakeda.com/journal/pl...ry-silt-sample

He also makes only a passing reference to it in an interview (link from other thread), saying
"Kenneth Conboy and Captain M.S. Kohli of the Indian Navy later wrote a book that detailed some of the operational aspects of the story."
SOME of the aspects??!! That book goes into HEAVY detail about the operational aspects, in fact sometimes it seems to be about nothing else! And given that Kohli was on the inside literally, he made many trips into the ND inner sanctuary, and that Takeda got nowhere near - again, if not irresponsible, sensationalist. Seems more an attempt to plug his book.
Note: Anyone who reads that a.m. link, do read all the way to the end including the comments by an independent radiochemist, Takeda himself, and the lab. Very interesting! Kinda takes all the sensation out of his stupendous find, and basically in line with the GOI's findings as described in the Kohli/Conboy book.
AND AFTER YOU READ THAT, READ THE CLINCHER!!
From Takeda's own website, even though he still prefaces it with - "Recent tests of a second silt sample by different scientist might contradict claims derived from earlier tests". This when he's not a nuclear scientist or radiochemist himself.

Disclaimer: It is not my intention to dismiss or diminish any possibility of danger - being a Himalaya lover and frequent visitor there myself, like other folks here this matter gives me cause for concern too. I've expressed myself more extensively in the other thread, so I'll refrain here, but suffice to say that it's better to hear all sides of the story before reaching any conclusions. Certainly sensationalism is not in order.
Anyone interested, take a look at the other thread - the real info starts at #35.

Well, not quite. It was there on the last climbing day of '65, and not
there on the first climbing day of '66 . They presume it got loose and went hurtling, melting, and sinking in one of ND's legendary avalanches in '65 itself.

Huh?
As you can see, very objective........

Quote:

They are saying that 2 plutominum device are planted ( 1 get lost and other successfully planted at NandaKhat) ...is this true ???

I won't reveal all the details about what and where becos I don't want to ruin it for anyone who intends to read the book, but one device was lost at Nanda Devi , two planted on Nanda Kot, of which one was lost, but later recovered. Phew!
The CIA then took that device back to the U.S., well, immediately.

All there in the Kohli/Conboy book - fascinating stuff! Golden era of spying in India and all that.
And mix in the Himalayan settings, reads like a classic spy thriller.
I do recommend this book to everybody. Whether you believe all of it, some of it, or none of it, it makes for a gripping and fascinating read.

More synchronicity, link from Takeda's website:
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/224538.html
I didn't know that permission was being given for climbs of Nanda Devi East? Then again, army expedition.....