Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 33, October/November 1983
Facts have come to light which highlight the part played by Korean Airlines flight 007 in the anti-Soviet espionage activities of the US imperialists. The most significant of these, censored by the lying imperialist media, is the activity of the US electronic surveillance satellite Ferret-D, on the night of August 31st — September 1st.
The satellite made three orbits which synchronised with the flight path of the airliner and enabled it to compare Soviet radio and radar transmissions under normal conditions with their intensified activity when on full alert.
Stationed along the flight path of the South Korean plane were:
- 3 Orion Reconnaissance aircraft
- 2 RC135 electronic surveillance aircraft
- An AWACS electronic spy plane
- Several US Navy ships.
At first the United States tried to conceal the presence of the RC135s. When part of the truth was wheedled out, the imperialists then claimed that the RC135 was ‘just a routine flight’ — ‘just’ part of the ‘routine’ espionage conducted against the Soviet Union. Then two former US Airforce communications intelligence specialists who flew RC135s, T Edward Eskelson and Tom Bernard, pointed out that the US aircraft had the technical resources to prevent the entire incident. The RC135s can communicate directly with the US President, could have talked to the Jumbo, and could contact the Soviet fighter planes and even their ground control.
`We believe, based upon our experience, that the official US version of events is incomplete and misleading. There are serious questions in our minds as to not only what specific role did the capabilities of the RC135 play in the eventual shooting down of the KAL airliner but also why these capabilities were never utilised in an attempt to head off the tragedy. It is clear that a major effort has been undertaken to bewilder the American public … we believe that the entire sweep of events … was meticulously monitored and analysed by US intelligence.’
The United States has refused to release the recordings, allegedly of the Soviet pilots who intercepted the airliner. The transcripts of this recording have appeared in two versions, the second `improved’ one significantly different from its predecessor. A leak from US intelligence sources concludes that Steve Palmer Soviet defence forces did not know that the South Korean flight was a commercial airliner.
The information gathered will be used for planning nuclear attacks on the USSR. According to the appraisal of the information by a US Air Force Officer, quoted by the Economist ‘a B-52 with all its decoys, jammers and other countermeasures could be over Moscow before they figured out what was going on’.
Compared to these hard facts revealing the imperialists’ duplicity, the fairy tales dreamt up by the Fleet Street hacks about the plane being ‘accidentally’ off course — by hundreds of miles! —are simply laughable. The Boeing 747s are crammed with sophisticated navigational equipment to establish the plane’s position. The two South Korean pilots were very experienced —and both were reserve Colonels in the South Korean Air Force. Captain Chun Byung In had 10,500 hours flying in command (mostly in military aircraft), had two years of experience flying the Anchorage-Seoul route, and had been selected to fly the South Korean President. Nor has any explanation been given by the imperialists of why US and Japanese air traffic controllers made no attempt to correct the plane’s course —although this is normal practice when aircraft go off course.
For all their crocodile tears, the US imperialists care nothing for the lives lost as a result of their escapade. They see the incident as an occasion for whipping up anti-Sovietism, escalating war preparations, and countering the US peace movement — an important factor in election year. Taking advantage of the hysteria they had created, the imperialists showed their concern for human lives by rushing a $187.5 billion Military Authorisation Bill through Congress, funding production of nerve gas and development of the MX intercontinental missile. As the reactionary Senator Jesse Helms exultantly told his colleagues: `This is the best chance we ever had to paint these bastards into a corner’.
Steve Palmer
