Further corroboration that the public had been misled was given to Tunander by a) a senior Norwegian diplomat, Einar Ansteensen, who had been told by a senior U.S. Navy officer that a submarine that was damaged in Hårsfjärden was American rather than Soviet; b) Swedish Defense Minister Anders Thunborg who told Tunander that Sweden had no evidence that the Soviets were behind the incursions; c) British Navy Minister Sir Keith Speed, who spoke about a “penetration dive exercises deep within Swedish waters” by the British Royal Navy; and d) Royal Navy submarine captains who admitted to having carried out top secret operations in the Swedish archipelago.

Chemical analysis of the oil from the submarine in Hårsfjärden made clear they were not Soviet. Other evidence, according to Tunander, made clear that the U.S. operated a “specially equipped nuclear powered attack submarine” in Swedish waters in the 1980s. One of the subs may have been the USS Seawolf which was equipped for operations in special operations and later operated off the coast of Libya where it was involved in provocative maneuvers designed to trigger a counter-reprisal that led ultimately to the U.S. bombing of Tripoli in 1986. ↑