lkk@mit-eddie.UUCP (Larry Kolodney) (06/19/84)
From THE ECONOMIST June, 16, 1984: An analysis published this week makes the strongest case yet that Korean Air Lines flight 007 was involved in an intelligence-collection mission at the time it was shot down over hte Soviet Union last September. Most of the early accounts, and some more detailed studies in the press during the past few weeks, have concluded that the airliner had strayed into Soviet air space by accident: the pilot had somehow set his navigational system incorrectly. Other commentators have advanced the theory taht 007 was engaged in electronic intelligence, but assumed that the airliner itself would have done the collecting (whereas it is virtually certain that it did not carry equipment for this purpose). The new assessment, published by the British magazine, Defence Attache', contends that the Korean airliner was cooperating with American intelligence collection operationsz controlled by the space shuttle. The aircraft purposely flew over Soviet territory, the argument runs, in order to "turn on" the Russian air defence system so that the ensuing electronic emmissions - radars, radios and the rest of it - could be recorded by the Americans. Previous efforts by America to collect such information have made use of a combination of aircraft and satellite, the article says. The author makes a minute examination of the movements of both the space shuttle and the American air force's RC-135 electronic surveillance aircraft taht passed near flight 007 on the night the latter was shot down. The conclusion is that all were ideally placed for a co-ordinated collection effort. The RC-135, claims the article, revealed itself to the Russians as a military aircraft, then passed close by 007 just before the airliner turned in towards Kamchatka to try to spoof the Soviet radars into believing that the aircraft approaching its air space was military, when in fact it was not. The shuttle then did the electronic monitoring. Such near-perfect positioning, it will be argued, could hardly have happened by chance. Not necessarily so; accident and coincidence play a large part in military happenings. The magazine does not identify the article's authro. But whoever he is, he appears to have had access to high-level intelligence sources in the past, and has raised some disturbing new questions.
martillo@ihuxt.UUCP (Yehoyaqim Martillo) (06/19/84)
The United States of America can turn on Soviet Defense any time it wants
through the use of pilotless drones.
Electronic surveilance from space is so good nowadays there is little
reason to use a military airplane for most purposes let alone a passenger
airplane when the consequences are rather unpredictable if this passenger
airplane should be shot down.
--
Yehoyaqim Shemtob Martillo
(An Equal Opportunity Offender)wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (06/19/84)
H'mmm, I must be getting old and fuzzy, for once I have to agree with Martillo all the way. The magazine mentioned, Something Attache, does Not reveal the author of the story. Given that British magazines are notorious for being dupes for planted stories, I cannot accept this story at face value. I would suggest that all of those who are grasping at this story for an explanation, read a book called "The Spike". I don't remember the authors, but they were two journalists who knew of what they wrote. T C. Wheeler
martillo@ihuxt.UUCP (Yehoyaqim Martillo) (06/21/84)
>>from Yehoyaqim Martillo: >>Electronic surveilance from space is so good nowadays there is little >>reason to use a military airplane for most purposes let alone a passenger >>airplane when the consequences are rather unpredictable if this passenger >>airplane should be shot down. >But the people on the plane who died are now martyrs. And the Western >culture is based on martyrdom (look at its major religions....). The Soviet Union makes martyrs daily of Afghanistanis, Refusniks, Soviet Human Rights Activists, Soviet Baptists, the Sakharovs, Polish solidarity (through surrogates), East Asians (through surrogates) etc. ad infinitum. There is no need for the USA to trick the USSR into creating additional martyrs. If I believed the USA government made such irresponsible use of its civilians, I would think about leaving. Randwulf is deluded if he thinks American and Soviet approaches to the civilian populations are alike. Besides pentagon ideology emphasizes winning the war rather than gaining the moral high ground. Civilian martyrs do not win battles. I am not sure what the point about Western religion meant. My culture considers martyrdom only admirable if it is unavoidable (according to Jewish Law). The Rambam (Maimonides) and the Maharal (Rabbi Judah Loewe ben Bezalel) of Prague disparage those who martyr themselves when they can avoid martyrdom. Perhaps Randwulf considers Judaism to be non-Western (as I usually do). But non-Western religions like Shinto and Islam highly esteem eagerness for martyrdom. Communism also has its own martyroloy. Since communism values martyrs and since individual citizens in communistic states seem to count for little, I would expect Aeroflot to be invading USA airspace fairly frequently so that Russian civilian planes could get shot down. The Russians could get lots of propaganda benefit out of such blatant USA brutality. -- Yehoyaqim Shemtob Martillo (An Equal Opportunity Offender)
lmaher@uokvax.UUCP (06/21/84)
#R:mit-eddi:-217700:uokvax:5000100:000:480 uokvax!lmaher Jun 20 22:53:00 1984 As a Matter Of Fact, the RC-135 was in ALASKA when the 747 was shot down. Their flightpaths did come near one another in space, but HOURS APART in time. This is from a briefing in my intelligence seminar, showing the flight paths on navigation charts. The morning after the incident, the Soviet specialist in the seminar predicted they would first deny, then issue a series of big lies to confuse the issue, in order to raise doubts in other's minds. How true to form. Carl
saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (06/21/84)
>>>from Yehoyaqim Martillo: >>>Electronic surveilance from space is so good nowadays there is little >>>reason to use a military airplane for most purposes let alone a passenger >>>airplane when the consequences are rather unpredictable if this passenger >>>airplane should be shot down. > >>But the people on the plane who died are now martyrs. And the Western >>culture is based on martyrdom (look at its major religions....). > >The Soviet Union makes martyrs daily of Afghanistanis, Refusniks, Soviet >Human Rights Activists, Soviet Baptists, the Sakharovs, Polish solidarity >(through surrogates), East Asians (through surrogates) etc. ad infinitum. >There is no need for the USA to trick the USSR into creating additional >martyrs. If I believed the USA government made such irresponsible use of >its civilians, I would think about leaving. Ah, but all these people are not really "full humans", after all they are not american! (unfortunately, only half-(-:). The Korean passengers were not american either but there were enough americans on the plane for america to REALLY get its martyrs. Sophie Quigley ...!{clyde,ihnp4,decvax}!watmath!saquigley
rh@mit-eddie.UUCP (Randy Haskins) (06/27/84)
>from Yehoyaqim Martillo: >Electronic surveilance from space is so good nowadays there is little >reason to use a military airplane for most purposes let alone a passenger >airplane when the consequences are rather unpredictable if this passenger >airplane should be shot down. But the people on the plane who died are now martyrs. And the Western culture is based on martyrdom (look at its major religions....). -- Randwulf (Randy Haskins); Path= genrad!mit-eddie!rh