From G. R. Sinclair
The news that the CIA is worried about a December attack from the Ebenezer Scrooge group (Feedback, 26 July) reminds me of an incident when I was working for a US government laboratory. I was hauled up in front of the security department because I had allegedly left a classified document on my desk overnight.
The document in question was entitled Project Turnabout, classified “Ultra Secret”, and consisted of a detailed description of a proposed system for the defence of the US against a Russian missile attack.
The idea was that a very large number of Atlas rocket engines should be placed round the equator, half facing north in one hemisphere and the other half facing south in the other hemisphere. When a Russian launch was detected by the early-warning system in Colorado Springs the engines would be fired, spinning Earth round so that the missiles would land back in Russia.
Security people are not well supplied with a sense of humour and the only reason that I escaped condign punishment was on a technicality: there is no Ultra Secret classification.
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Yeovil, Somerset, UK
