shot down in 1983, there's many that don't really believe the "party line" the government had for the public:
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The simplistic notion that the Russians would cold-bloodedly shoot down an airliner because it was said to have entered its airspace has always been too preposterous for me to believe, regardless of the circumstances.At the time of this incident in 1983, I didn't pay as much attention to it as I normally would have, due to other personal commitments. I followed the story only casually, but nevertheless came to the fairly quick conclusion that in all probability this was just another CIA adventure gone haywire, as others had before it. I suspected a good number of people in this world probably thought the same.Specifically, while I was gradually and only very grudgingly willing to entertain the notion that Russia perhaps did shoot down the airliner, I believed they probably would have only done so after extreme and deliberate provocation. Exactly what may have occurred with the airliner to cause such an extreme provocation I was never able to discern, but realized that most of the truth was obviously being hidden once again, so eventually I put the matter out of my mind.My CIA-provocation conclusion stuck with me for years - until I discovered Michel Brun's book. Upon reading this book, the various pieces of the evidence I had hitherto been aware of finally fell into place and made some sense, and I realized that the apparent truth was far worse than I had previously thought. Here is a synopsis of the author's conclusions, reached after more than ten years of research, most of it done by him in person in Japan:* that KAL 007's flightplan close to Soviet airspace was planned and not accidental* that a number of U.S. military aircraft, which had overflown Soviet airspace at Kamchatka earlier that night, approached Sakhalin island just as KAL 007 was also flying nearby* that when these U.S. military aircraft again entered Soviet airspace over Sakhalin, an air battle ensued, resulting in the loss of about ten U.S. military aircraft, along with about thirty crewmembers* that KAL 007 never entered Soviet airspace at any time, but instead flew in international or Japanese airspace to the east and south of Sakhalin and continued on for about another 45 minutes after having passed to the south of Sakhalin* at which point it was destroyed off the western coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu by means and for reasons still unknownA few years ago I tried reading Seymour Hersh's _The Target Is Destroyed_, but was only able to labor my way through various parts, totaling about a third of the book. The stuff just didn't make any sense. In order to accept any of these earlier so-called conclusions proposed by various authors, one has to believe that the KAL pilots were nothing more than imbeciles, incapable of performing even the most basic and routinenavigational duties - duties in which they previously had repeatedly demonstrated expertise. These kind of superficial and facetious explanations are hardly worth considering._Incident At Sakhalin_ presents the most thorough explanation of what happened to KAL007, and to the best of my knowledge has yet to be challenged in any of it's premises, let alone discounted. It is the only explanation I've come across in which all of the evidence finally appears to fit.
Only a year ago, I watched a History Channel presentation of the "official" story of KAL 007, whose flight-number designation seemed so cruelly appropriate. Shortly thereafter I was recommended "Incident at Sakhalin" by a person who had been heavily involved in US Cold War strategies of the eighties. "Read this," he insisted, "if you want to know how close to the brink of nuclear war we came." He refused to say more, but the book is an eye-opener. On 1-Sept. 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007, enroute to Seoul from New York via Anchorage, disappeared over the Sea of Japan. An extraordinary propaganda campaign and coverup ensued immediately following the events surrounding this incident -- on both sides of the Cold War Iron Curtain. In that perilous and paranoid time, the disaster nearly precipitated World War lll. To this day, the four governments involved in the Sakhalin Incident would prefer that the "official" conclusion remain in effect: that is, the passenger jet had innocently strayed off-course and was mistaken for the Cobra Ball spy plane which was detected at the same time in violation of Soviet airspace. That story generated much suspicion, which resulted in numerous Congressional investigations and accusations regarding CIA use of foreign civilian airliners for its surveillance missions over the USSR. Passengers were routinely and unwittingly used as pawns, a chilling revelation in itself. But Brun's book goes way beyond that. The author has impressive credentials; he is a French aviation expert and aircraft accident investigator, fluent in five languages. Moreover, his political neutrality ensures an unbiased presentation of the facts he had spent some ten years gathering. Several mysteries of the Sakhalin incident are widely known. For example, neither the wreck of the plane nor the remains of the 269 passengers has ever been found in the shallow area of the Sea of Japan over which KAL 007 was allegedly shot down. Meticulous research, aided by post-Cold War release of previously classified materials, reveals more of the disturbing story. In fact, Flight 007 was not lost over Sakhalin, but continued to fly and transmit messages for nearly an hour after other intruding aircraft were intercepted there by Soviet MiGs. The evidence shows that a poorly-conceived US intelligence and provocation operation launched a two-hour-long air battle with Soviet fighters over Sakhalin. In this battle, US Air Force and Navy aircraft and personnel were lost, and KAL 007 disappeared some 435 miles from where it was "officially" claimed to have crashed -- by means and reasons after all these years still unexplained. Boris Yeltsin, in his 17-June, 1992 speech to a joint session of the US Congress, mentioned Soviet-held American POWs in conjunction with the KAL 007 incident. This was interpreted by the American press as reference to the Korean and Vietnam eras; and the Reagan Administration offered no enlightenment to the public. We Americans have become accustomed to some misinformation and coverup on the part of the government, some of which is conducted in the name of national security. It appears that the Incident at Sakhalin was the result of a massive blunder with tragic, embarrassing, and nearly devastating ramifications. Get the book! Loaded with technical facts and stats, it is a fascinating read.
As one who's not prone to buy "coverups" and "cospiracy" theories I was skeptical when I bought the book about what would be inside. To my surprise I found Brun didn't wildly speculate but rather offered ideas based on hard factual data. His research was impressive and his style of presentation was very well thought out. The idea that this could have occured is believable for the height of the coldwar. Reagan did some very foolish things to "push the buttons" of the soviets and this scheme is entirely plausible. As a relative of someone who was in a special forces unit in the army. It's quite plausible that many service man did infact die in this operation and their poor families are none the wiser.
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The simplistic notion that the Russians would cold-bloodedly shoot down an airliner because it was said to have entered its airspace has always been too preposterous for me to believe, regardless of the circumstances.At the time of this incident in 1983, I didn't pay as much attention to it as I normally would have, due to other personal commitments. I followed the story only casually, but nevertheless came to the fairly quick conclusion that in all probability this was just another CIA adventure gone haywire, as others had before it. I suspected a good number of people in this world probably thought the same.Specifically, while I was gradually and only very grudgingly willing to entertain the notion that Russia perhaps did shoot down the airliner, I believed they probably would have only done so after extreme and deliberate provocation. Exactly what may have occurred with the airliner to cause such an extreme provocation I was never able to discern, but realized that most of the truth was obviously being hidden once again, so eventually I put the matter out of my mind.My CIA-provocation conclusion stuck with me for years - until I discovered Michel Brun's book. Upon reading this book, the various pieces of the evidence I had hitherto been aware of finally fell into place and made some sense, and I realized that the apparent truth was far worse than I had previously thought. Here is a synopsis of the author's conclusions, reached after more than ten years of research, most of it done by him in person in Japan:* that KAL 007's flightplan close to Soviet airspace was planned and not accidental* that a number of U.S. military aircraft, which had overflown Soviet airspace at Kamchatka earlier that night, approached Sakhalin island just as KAL 007 was also flying nearby* that when these U.S. military aircraft again entered Soviet airspace over Sakhalin, an air battle ensued, resulting in the loss of about ten U.S. military aircraft, along with about thirty crewmembers* that KAL 007 never entered Soviet airspace at any time, but instead flew in international or Japanese airspace to the east and south of Sakhalin and continued on for about another 45 minutes after having passed to the south of Sakhalin* at which point it was destroyed off the western coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu by means and for reasons still unknownA few years ago I tried reading Seymour Hersh's _The Target Is Destroyed_, but was only able to labor my way through various parts, totaling about a third of the book. The stuff just didn't make any sense. In order to accept any of these earlier so-called conclusions proposed by various authors, one has to believe that the KAL pilots were nothing more than imbeciles, incapable of performing even the most basic and routinenavigational duties - duties in which they previously had repeatedly demonstrated expertise. These kind of superficial and facetious explanations are hardly worth considering._Incident At Sakhalin_ presents the most thorough explanation of what happened to KAL007, and to the best of my knowledge has yet to be challenged in any of it's premises, let alone discounted. It is the only explanation I've come across in which all of the evidence finally appears to fit.
Only a year ago, I watched a History Channel presentation of the "official" story of KAL 007, whose flight-number designation seemed so cruelly appropriate. Shortly thereafter I was recommended "Incident at Sakhalin" by a person who had been heavily involved in US Cold War strategies of the eighties. "Read this," he insisted, "if you want to know how close to the brink of nuclear war we came." He refused to say more, but the book is an eye-opener. On 1-Sept. 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007, enroute to Seoul from New York via Anchorage, disappeared over the Sea of Japan. An extraordinary propaganda campaign and coverup ensued immediately following the events surrounding this incident -- on both sides of the Cold War Iron Curtain. In that perilous and paranoid time, the disaster nearly precipitated World War lll. To this day, the four governments involved in the Sakhalin Incident would prefer that the "official" conclusion remain in effect: that is, the passenger jet had innocently strayed off-course and was mistaken for the Cobra Ball spy plane which was detected at the same time in violation of Soviet airspace. That story generated much suspicion, which resulted in numerous Congressional investigations and accusations regarding CIA use of foreign civilian airliners for its surveillance missions over the USSR. Passengers were routinely and unwittingly used as pawns, a chilling revelation in itself. But Brun's book goes way beyond that. The author has impressive credentials; he is a French aviation expert and aircraft accident investigator, fluent in five languages. Moreover, his political neutrality ensures an unbiased presentation of the facts he had spent some ten years gathering. Several mysteries of the Sakhalin incident are widely known. For example, neither the wreck of the plane nor the remains of the 269 passengers has ever been found in the shallow area of the Sea of Japan over which KAL 007 was allegedly shot down. Meticulous research, aided by post-Cold War release of previously classified materials, reveals more of the disturbing story. In fact, Flight 007 was not lost over Sakhalin, but continued to fly and transmit messages for nearly an hour after other intruding aircraft were intercepted there by Soviet MiGs. The evidence shows that a poorly-conceived US intelligence and provocation operation launched a two-hour-long air battle with Soviet fighters over Sakhalin. In this battle, US Air Force and Navy aircraft and personnel were lost, and KAL 007 disappeared some 435 miles from where it was "officially" claimed to have crashed -- by means and reasons after all these years still unexplained. Boris Yeltsin, in his 17-June, 1992 speech to a joint session of the US Congress, mentioned Soviet-held American POWs in conjunction with the KAL 007 incident. This was interpreted by the American press as reference to the Korean and Vietnam eras; and the Reagan Administration offered no enlightenment to the public. We Americans have become accustomed to some misinformation and coverup on the part of the government, some of which is conducted in the name of national security. It appears that the Incident at Sakhalin was the result of a massive blunder with tragic, embarrassing, and nearly devastating ramifications. Get the book! Loaded with technical facts and stats, it is a fascinating read.
As one who's not prone to buy "coverups" and "cospiracy" theories I was skeptical when I bought the book about what would be inside. To my surprise I found Brun didn't wildly speculate but rather offered ideas based on hard factual data. His research was impressive and his style of presentation was very well thought out. The idea that this could have occured is believable for the height of the coldwar. Reagan did some very foolish things to "push the buttons" of the soviets and this scheme is entirely plausible. As a relative of someone who was in a special forces unit in the army. It's quite plausible that many service man did infact die in this operation and their poor families are none the wiser.
