Editing At the Abyss (section)

== Trans-Siberian gas pipeline sabotage allegation<span class="anchor" id="Siberian pipeline sabotage"></span> ==
In the book, Reed stated the United States added a [[Trojan horse (computing)|Trojan horse]] to gas pipeline control software that the Soviet Union obtained from a company in Canada.<ref name="The New York Times; October 26, 2009">{{cite news|last=Markoff|first= John |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/science/27trojan.html |title= Cyberwar: Old Trick Threatens the Newest Weapons|work=The New York Times|date=October 26, 2009|access-date=July 30, 2015}}</ref> According to Reed, when the components were deployed on a Trans-Siberian gas pipeline, the Trojan horse led to a huge explosion.<ref name="The New York Times; October 26, 2009"/> He wrote: "The pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines and valves was programmed to go haywire, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to the pipeline joints and welds. The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space."<ref name="The New York Times; October 26, 2009"/>

A report in the ''[[Moscow Times]]'' quoted KGB veteran Vasily Pchelintsev as saying that there was a natural gas pipeline explosion in 1982, but it was near [[Tobolsk]] on a pipeline connecting the [[Urengoy gas field]] to the city of [[Chelyabinsk]], and it was caused by poor construction rather than sabotage; according to Pchelintsev's account, no one was killed in the explosion and the damage was repaired within one day.<ref>{{cite news |first=Anatoly |last=Medetsky |url= http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/kgb-veteran-denies-cia-caused-82-blast/232261.html |title=KGB Veteran Denies CIA Caused '82 Blast|newspaper=Moscow Times |date=March 18, 2004 |access-date=July 30, 2015}}</ref> Reed's account has also not been corroborated by intelligence agencies in the United States,<ref name="Bloomberg Business; October 10, 2014">{{cite news |last1=Hesseldahl  |first1 = Arik |last2=Kharif  |first2= Olga |date=October 10, 2014 |title= Cyber Crime and Information Warfare: A 30-Year History |url= https://www.bloomberg.com/ss/10/10/1014_cyber_attacks/1.htm |newspaper =Bloomberg Business |page=2 |access-date=July 30, 2015}}</ref> although in 1996 the CIA did publish that ''"flawed turbines were installed on a gas pipe line"'' in their historical recounting of the [[Farewell Dossier]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Gus |last=Weiss |url= https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/studies-in-intelligence/1996-2/the-farewell-dossier/|title=The Farewell Dossier|newspaper=CIA |date=1996}}</ref>

Another point of criticism of the sabotage allegations is that, according to Prof. V.&nbsp;D.&nbsp;Zakhmatov, an explosion safety expert who has overseen the safety measures on many of the Soviet oil and gas pipelines built in the 1980s,<ref name="Zakhmatov">{{cite web|title=ВЗРЫВ, которого… НЕ БЫЛО! |trans-title=An explosion, which… wasn't |url=http://ogas.kiev.ua/perspective/vzryv-kotorogo-ne-bylo-581 |work=[[OGAS]] memorial site |accessdate=July 19, 2016 |date=2011}}</ref> at the described timeframe Soviet Union simply didn't practice [[SCADA|digital control]] of its pipeline system. Most of the control was manual, and whatever [[automation]] was used utilized the [[Analog device |analog control system]]s, most of which worked through [[pneumatics]].<ref name="Zakhmatov"/>