USSR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100290003-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: September 11, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100290003-8
CBS FACE THE NATION
11 September 1983
From CBS News, Washington, a spontaneous and unrehearsed news interview on Face the
.Nation with Senate Majority Leader Boward Baker of Tennessee. Sen. Baker will be
questioned by CBS News congressional correspondent Phil Jones; by nary ncGrory, a
reporter for the Washington Post; and by the moderator, CBS News correspondent George
Berman. Face the Nation is produced by CBS News which is solely responsible for the
selection of today's guest and panel.
HER>h_kN: Sen.' Baker, the State Department has released some revisions of the
transcript of the broadcast of the Soviet pilot who shot down. the Korean plane. One
of them is now, it used to re'ad,''I have enough time.' It's now translated as, 'They
do not see me.' Another one has now been translated as, 'I a.m iiriT19 on '
which the State Department points out could have been, not necessarilyewere, buts could
have been the tracer bullets which the Soviets say their pilot fired to warn them. If
it turns out, in fact, that these were tracer bullets, does it affect the situation
any at all? Does it change the picture? BAKER: No, I don't think so, Hr. Berman.
But I do congratulate the administration and the State Department with going ahead
with the release of this information. I, I, I think that it is an important piece of
information and that the American people and the world should be aware of it. I of
talked to Secretary Shultz this'morning, early, and he gave me this information and
explained the background. That is to say since we received these tapes from our
sources in the Far East, for some time now they have been played over and over by our
intelligence and security people, and the tapes have been, as they say, electronically
enhanced over a period of time, that is, by computer reconstruction so that they can
try to get the least bit of conversation. And one of the bits of conversation on that
tape, that they've now developed, was indeed the, the conversation from one of the
pilots saying, 'I have now, I have fired cannon bursts.' Now, it would be awfully
easy for the administration just to ignore that, but they didn't. And I, I think they
were very wise in releasing it. Now, I, 1, 1 think even if you accept the idea that
these were warning shots, perhaps they were the tracers that the Russians claimed to
have fired, it is still no justification by any stretch of the imagination a civilian airliner, for downing
a civilian 747. But in all fairness, you've got to say from that
conversation, I can't tell whether they were tracer bullets. It says 'cannon rounds,"
and whether they were warning shots or fired at the plane... I, I, I really don't
think there is any point in me trying to decide that. The important point..
HER.?L.N: They were apparently fired from behind the plane, which is not how you fire
tracer bullet to get attention (inaudible) ??? BAKER: Exactly right.
KER?AN: ...from canopy to canopy. BAKER: And it is also clear from other
transmissions that the pilot of the 747 made no mention of it in his transmission.
There's no indication that they saw it. That, that I'm afraid is the most I can say
about it. I do not think it changes the, the gruesome nature of the Soviet assault on
this unarmed aircraft.
JONES: Senator, it seems almost daily we're getting new interpretations, new
translations of, of what was said between the pilots, etc. At any point have you had
any suspicions that perhaps the Korean government was not being totally truthful with
the United States, and that in fact the commerical airliner might have been fitted
CONTINUED
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100290003-8