CNN Article on the Jimmy Carter

This is fairly interesting... this article from CNN that actually has people coming right out and talking about the Carter's potential capabilities as an intelligence-gathering platform. I, of course, have no idea what they're talking about, but it might make interesting reading for anyone who hasn't read Blind Man's Bluff. Here's are some excerpts:

"The Jimmy Carter, like other submarines, will also have the ability to eavesdrop on communications -- what the military calls signal intelligence -- passed through the airwaves, experts say. But its ability to tap undersea fiber-optic cables may be unique in the fleet.
"Communications worldwide are increasingly transmitted solely through fiber-optic lines, rather than through satellites and radios..."

"...To listen to fiber-optic transmissions, intelligence operatives must physically place a tap somewhere along the route. If the stations that receive and transmit the communications along the lines are on foreign soil or otherwise inaccessible, tapping the line is the only way to eavesdrop on it."...

"...During the 1970s, a U.S. submarine placed a tap on an undersea cable along the Soviet Pacific coast, and subs had to return every few months to pick up the tapes. The mission was ultimately betrayed by a spy, and the recording device is now at the KGB museum in Moscow."

I don't know... it sounds like a bad spy novel to me...

Staying at PD...