From: "Adam Flinton" 


"George Sherwood"  wrote in message
news:pan.2003.03.05.11.45.41.110390{at}beernabeer.com...
> Unless you are in combat in that area, you aren't going to send in an
> ummanned drone either.  You have watched way too many movies.
> >

Some articles:

http://www.theage.com.au/frontpage/2001/04/05/FFXEXO3E5LC.html

"
References to the February 10, 1970 incident are contained in a State
Department memorandum that was declassified last year. It is among several
formerly secret documents related to US aerial surveillance of China made
available to news organisations today by the private National Security
Archive.

The documents contain few details about the 1970 shootdown. They make clear
that senior US officials feared the incident could have unwanted diplomatic
consequences. Then, as now, apologies were at issue.

A memo from Harry Thayer of the State Department's bureau of East Asian and
Pacific affairs nine days after the shootdown by air defence forces on
Hainan, in the South China Sea, discussed how US officials should respond
if Chinese officials raised the issue during the next round of US-China
talks in Warsaw, Poland.

"As far as I know, we have never apologised to the Chinese in the past
for aerial reconnaissance incidents," Thayer wrote.

"If we apologise in this case, we are putting ourselves in the
position both of having to explain past cases and, more importantly, of
having to apologise in future cases."

He went on to say that if it were certain that any future overflight of
Chinese territory would be accidental, then an apology might be
appropriate.

"But future overflights might not be accidental," he wrote.

Although the US government has declassified little about intentional spy
flights over Chinese territory, Air Force veterans who flew such missions
along the Chinese coast have said they sometimes flew over Chinese
territory. "



Blimey who would have guessed that someone from the State Department's
bureau of East Asian and Pacific affairs would have watched too many
movies.....



http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/05/01/nkorea.us.spy/

"May 1, 2001
Web posted at: 6:05 AM EDT (1005 GMT)


PYONGYANG, North Korea -- U.S. spy planes conducted more than 150 flights
over North Korean territory in April, North Korea says.

The planes took photos and conducted electronic reconnaissance and other
espionage activities, according to a report. "

Obviously they might be exaggerating but methinks there may be a kernel of
truth. It is possible the US aircraft (not the one intercepted) were faking
radar signals so as to make the NK'ers think there was an intrusion
underway so that they turn on their radars/send up fighters etc

More on the Sr-71:

http://www.wvi.com/~lelandh/kadena.html



" Between 01 January and 31 March 1968, six missions were flown: four
over North Vietnam and two over North Korea. The first flight over North
Korea was flown on January 26th by Frank Murray (CIA) to assess the seizure
of the USS Peublo by North Korean gunboats.

  a.. On 08 May 1968, Jack Layton (CIA) flew one mission over North Korea.
It was to be the last operational mission flown by the CIA on Okinawa. The
SR-71 was prepared to take over mission responsibilities. The SR-71's began
arriving in March of 1968. There was an overlap of approximately 90 days in
the phaseout of the A12's from Kadena."
http://www.wvi.com/~lelandh/Aerotech.htm

" Haynes said More than 30 years passed since the SR-71's predecessor,
the A-12 was flown to Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa. "I was among
the maintenance personnel sent there before the aircraft arrived to set up
the hangers and was on the launch crew when the SR-71 flew its first
operational sortie," De Lozier said. In subsequent years, the SR-71
flew more than 3,500 operational sorties over North Vietnam, North Korea,
Iran, Libya, Syria and Cuba. "


http://www.nti.org/db/profiles/dprk/msl/fac/NKM_F_paegunGO_bg.html

" Description: According to North Korean defector Ko Yong Hwan, North
Korea completed construction of a long-range missile base at
"Paeg'un-ri" 1986. Eya Osamu, a Japanese journalist,
characterizes this base as a Nodong missile base. The base is located
relatively close to the Chinese border, which could deter military strikes
by South Korea or the United States against the base. Defector Im Yong Son
claims that North Korea launched the SA-2 surface-to-air missile (SAM) at
the US SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft on 26 August 1981 from this site,
which indicates the base's original or ongoing mission could include air
defense. If Im's claims are true, it's odd that the SAM was fired from this
site since it is relatively far from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the
flight path of the SR-71 aircraft. There is a "Paeg'un-ri" (???)
in Chunghwa-kun (???), which is in the southern part of Pyongyang, and an
air defense unit could have been deployed here instead. It's possible that
Im could have confused these two locations. [Note: "Paeg'un" is
now a "dong," an administrative unit within the city of Kusong.
It was probably changed from a "ri" to a "dong" in
October 1967 when Kusong became a city.]"
Adam

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