During the Cold War the Brits and Americans built what is
thought to be the longest tunnel ever constructed for the
purposes of spying. They began in West Berlin and dug 1,476
feet into East Berlin, intending to tap into underground
cables used by the Communists to send messages.

What the intelligence agencies of both countries have
suppressed to this day is an embarrassing fact: when a small
test hole was dug to the surface, what they saw was not the
Berlin Wall but the Eiffel Tower.

------------------
Sandalwood's Cosmic Creations: Working with the magic of love....

Must have read this post ten times trying to figure out what I'm missing or if it's a joke that I just don't get. Are they even certain they began in West Berlin? If so how do you dig a mere 1,476 feet and end up at the Eiffel Tower. I'll probably end up being totally embarrassed but I don't get what's going on here.

------------------
If at first you don't succeed....parachute jumping is not for you

[This message has been edited by dave_fl (edited 05-20-2000).]

Gee I don't know Dave, It was a fact I ran across and found it interesting so I posted it!!!

P.S. Parachute jumping is NOT for me...

------------------
Sandalwood's Cosmic Creations: Working with the magic of love....

You are not alone here Dave - I don't understand it either.

------------------
From over the pond....

Not without a satellite telescope (which hadn't been invented yet.) More to this than meets the 'eye-full', eh?

------------------
Gunslinger
'Slipping the surly bonds of earth, to dance the skies on laughter-silvered wings'

[This message has been edited by Gunslinger (edited 05-23-2000).]

This is something that I found concerning the 'Berlin Tunnel' fiasco······

George Blake, born in the Netherlands to a British diplomat and a Dutch woman, was trapped there by the German advance when the Second World War broke out in 1940.

Interred by the Nazis, he escaped, joined the Dutch resistance and was later recruited by the British as an espionage agent. He served with "valor and distinction" until 1943 when he finally escaped to Britain where he joined the Royal Navy. After the war, Blake was posted to Naval Intelligence, again serving with distinction.

His reward, after studying languages including Russian, was a Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) post working under diplomatic cover as vice-consul in Seoul.

On his release, after being held by the North Koreans for three years, SIS gave Blake leave to recuperate, posting him in April 1955 to the SIS station in West Berlin as deputy director of Technical Operations. His special assignment was to study the Red Army in East Germany, looking for potential defectors amongst its officers.

It was during this assignment that Blake committed his main act of betrayal by telling the KGB about the Berlin Tunnel, which had been bored as a joint effort of the SIS and CIA so that Western intelligence could tap land lines linking East Berlin with Moscow.

Blake's tipoff to the KGB allowed the Russians to use the tunnel to plant information which deceived Western intelligence agencies. Later, when it suited them, the KGB turned the Tunnel Operation into a propaganda victory.

------------------
Pinhead,Pin-Up at 56,Pinintheneck,Pindead,PinM&M, PinMoney, Pinocchio Pincushion, Pinwheel, Pinochle

And from another site········

The Berlin tunnel, generally thought to have been a centerpiece of the spy war of the early 1950s; British and American agents had tapped Soviet and East German telegraph and telephone lines from a tunnel dug under the East-West dividing line in Berlin.
The tunnel had long been thought a feather in the British-American intelligence cap. Then sources revealed that the KGB knew about its planned construction before it was built.

Why didn't the Soviets stop construction or raid the tunnel earlier?

Conventional theory held that the KGB was using the tunnel to spread disinformation. Not so, contended Mr. Murphy and Mr. Kondrashev from the dais. They argued that the KGB had knowingly allowed valuable top-secret information to go through the telephone lines because the KGB could not afford to compromise the safety of their prime British mole, George Blake, who had passed plans for the tunnel to Kondrashev on a bus in London years earlier.

Instead, Mr. Kondrashev said, the KGB had to tap its own telephone lines to demonstrate to comrades in Moscow how easily this could be done and to warn them to use better discretion.

------------------
Pinhead,Pin-Up at 56,Pinintheneck,Pindead,PinM&M, PinMoney, Pinocchio Pincushion, Pinwheel, Pinochle

WOW this is great Pinhead..Thanks!!

------------------
Sandalwood's Cosmic Creations: Working with the magic of love....

Sandalwood, you're welcome.!! I guess this is why they're called 'useless facts'..LOL..

------------------
Pinhead,Pin-Up at 56,Pinintheneck,Pindead,PinM&M, PinMoney, Pinocchio Pincushion, Pinwheel, Pinochle