kevin@ccs.QueensU.CA (Kevin Broekhoven) (05/19/91)
From: kevin@ccs.QueensU.CA (Kevin Broekhoven) While not strictly scientific/technical news, I believe this excerpt from National Review May 27 p10 will be of interest to sci.mil readers. === Start of Excerpt After a Soviet pilot downed the Korean Air Lines plane carrying 269 people in 1983, some odd explanations were floated to demonstrate that the U.S., after all, was really responsible. It must have been a secret American spy mission, said some--including military aviation experts like xxx of the Nation, yyy, zzz, and aaa. And anyway, the plane was warned by radio to leave Soviet airspace. When the pilot refused, what choice did the Soviets have but to take out the plane? Now, in an extensive interview with Izvestia, the pilot who downed the plane, Lieutenant-Colnel Gennadi Osipovich, says, no, there was no warning to the airliner. And, no, he did not mistake it for a military plane: it was clearly a 747. He further admits that the Soviet government instructed him to lie on each of these points--an excuse unfortunately not available to xxx, yyy, zzz, or aaa. === End of Excerpt I have deleted the names of quoted American military experts as I have no knowledge of American libel laws, and my interest in expanding my knowledge is minimal. Kevin Broekhoven Computing Centre applications programmer Queens University K7L-3N6 (Canada) Bitnet, NetNorth: BROEKHVN@QUCDN IP: kevin@ccs.QueensU.CA (130.15.48.9) X.400: Kevin.Broekhoven@QueensU.CA Bell: (613) 545-2235 fax: 545-6798