"The Target is Destroyed" [antikvár]

IntroductionThis book began because of the courage of a senior miUtary intelligence officer who, while being interviewed late in 1984 on the shootdown of Flight 007, decided to tell what he thought was the real story: the abuse of communications intelligence. Aided by that first account, I was able to locate others who had knowledge of the event through their work for the National Security Agency and in Air Force and Navy communications intelligence and found them willing to talk. Senior officials of the Japanese, government also agreed to tell their story.One of the inherent difficulties of interviewing such men and women is their nonexistence in the normal day-to-day world of journalism. Theirs is a world closed to outsiders, even to family members. Those who chose to talk to me did so out of a conviction that political abuse of communications intelligence has become a reality in the Reagan administration, and a belief that to protest to their superiors about it would be futile and damaging to their careers. Some of those interviewed did retire from intelligence service shordy after the events described in this book. In a few cases, the mishandling of Flight 007 played a role in their decision to get out.I am aware that those who talked risked much. Many, despite more than twenty-five years of public service, had never spoken to a journalist before. Their act of faith in helping to tell this story is one that now has to be shared by the reader. This