CBS FACE THE NATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000200870002-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 27, 2008
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: September 11, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-01070R000200870002-1
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
cuestioned by. CBS News congressional correspondent Phil Jones; by Harp McCrory, 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.
HERMAN: 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 read,''I have enough time.' It's now translated as, 'They
do not see me..' Another one has now been translated as, 'I am firing cannon bursts,`
which the State Department points out could have been, not necessarily were, but 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, 2ir. 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
talked to Secretary Shultz this ..morning, early, and he gave we 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 computerreiconstruction 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, 1, 1, I 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 an?_v stretch of 'the imagination for downing
a civilian airliner, 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...
HER11AN:. They were apparently fired from behind the plane, which is not how you fire :a
tracer bullet to get attention (inaudible) ??? BAKER: Exactly right.
HERMAN: ...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
you
he had
any suspicions that perhaps the Korean government was not being totally point r tuh ful with
the United States, and that in fact the commerical airliner, mmight have been fittedth
CONTEVVED
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with cameras? BAKER: No, I have no such information, and no such suspicion. The
first word I received of this was by telephone 2rom the White House from a
presidential assistant. And the first question I asked on the telephone as I,regained
my senses in the middle of the night on the telephone was I want to know straight out
was there an intelligence mission? Is there something else that: I should know? And
the assurance, absolutely, back to me was that there was not.. I believe that. Since
then I have pursued' that line of inquiry, and :1an absolutely convinced that there was-
no finerican complicity. I. cannot vouch for the Korean government because I don't
know. But I have no reason to believe that there was any intelligence. mission by the
Korean government in connection with this airline (inaudible).
JONES: You are, you are very aware of intelligence.-..information.: Has there been-any
case where the Koreans have used commercial aircraft for_picture.taking in that area?
BA}:ER: Not that I am aware of. I get the national intelligence daily, the, NM,
so-called, as a matter of routine. I receive briefings periodically' by the
president's representatives,-the CIA and the State Department, which is'not to say
that I, I know when.every fly falls or every bird perishes. But I have a. fair
overview of the intelligence situation, I believe, as we.know it. And I have
absolutely no reason to believe that there is any mission of an intelligence nature
involved by this airplane at this'time.
jh . r: TM
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