If the name Global Marine Inc. sounds familiar, it is probably because of its controversial involvement in the Central Intelligence Agency’s $500 million attempt, in the early 1970s, to raise a Soviet submarine off the floor of the Pacific Ocean. The audacious mission, to recover K-129 along with its nuclear missiles, cryptographic equipment and code books from a crash site almost three miles beneath the surface, is said to be the CIA’s most daring covert intelligence-gathering operation ever. It was certainly the greatest-ever feat of deep-water engineering. But the story of Global Marine Inc. goes far beyond its Cold War salvage work. (Click to continue reading)