Ivy Bells Go Boom ???

By now you've all heard of the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage and at least one of the theories about how it was done and by whom.

In case you missed it, one of the latest theories was just published under the byline "Retired US Navy Admiral James Stavridis". You can find it here:

https://21stcenturywire.com/2025/02/26/nord-stream-revelation-submarines-in-the-nato-lake/

One of the things strangely missing from Admiral Stavridis's report was any mention of Operation Ivy Bells. You can read all about it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy_Bells

https://www.military.com/history/operation-ivy-bells.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20101207163630/http://www.specialoperations.com/Operations/ivybells.html

The gist of that story is that the US tapped at least one Soviet undersea communications cable using submarines modified for that specific purpose. It was all hush-hush back then, but has since come into the public record. The capabilities needed for that operation appear to have been exactly what was needed to kill the Nord Stream pipelines, and (no surprise!) they appear to have been first developed and used by the US.

I knew two officers who may have been involved in such underwater surveillance:

• RADM Richard Riddell, my CO on USS NAUTILUS (SSN-571), who was a junior officer on USS HALIBUT (SSGN-587) at the time it was modified for such surveillance activities, and
• A navy nuclear power school classmate of mine who served on USS SEAWOLF (SSN-575) around the same time I was on NAUTILUS.

Neither one ever mentioned Ivy Bells or any other such operation, which is a bit strange considering how we all liked to brag about the nifty things we had done underwater. My guess is that someone told them to keep their mouths shut due to the extreme sensitivity of such operations. Strictly need to know.

The whole thing makes me suspicious that the reports of Admiral Stavridis and Seymour Hersh both are limited hangouts, with the implication that additional such undersea cable and pipeline disruptions either are or will be underway ... and thanks to such complex but misleading theories as those mentioned above will NEVER, EVER be discussed in public.

But that's the beauty of submarines - nobody (sometimes even including members of the crew) ever knows exactly what they're doing.