Word: iranians
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...first, it seemed like a triumph of high technology. Supersophisticated radar aboard the U.S.S. Vincennes picked up the airplane almost as soon as it took off from the Iranian airport of Bandar Abbas, on the shores of the Persian Gulf. Within moments the radar received enough information about altitude, speed and flight path for Captain Will Rogers III to reach a conclusion: the plane was a hostile fighter flying an attack pattern. An IFF (Identification, Friend or Foe) signal bounced back by the approaching aircraft seemed to confirm that conclusion. Two missiles launched by the Vincennes were electronically guided precisely...
...Iranian side, both civilian and military jets take off from Bandar Abbas airport. Military traffic controllers keep close watch on ship movements in the gulf; they must have known that the Vincennes was engaged in a gun battle with Iranian speedboats (two were eventually sunk) only twelve miles offshore at the southern end of the gulf at the very moment that Flight 655 took off. Yet apparently nobody warned the civilian traffic controllers that Flight 655's path would take it directly over a developing firefight; had the controllers known that, they say, they would have delayed the takeoff...
...wait until their forces are fired upon before unloosing their own weapons. All they need is some convincing indication that a ship or plane is approaching with hostile intent. Doubtless influencing Rogers' decision was the fact that his ship had just been engaged in hostilities. Following reports of Iranian speedboat attacks on two neutral ships, the Vincennes sent a helicopter to investigate. The Iranians fired on the helicopter, triggering a firefight that Flight 655 had the foul luck to wander into...
...Iranian official suggests that U.S. ships so often query civilian airliners, and even try to order them to change course, that some pilots have got in the habit of ignoring such communications; until July 3, they got away with it. But Rogers requested and received permission from Rear Admiral Anthony Less, aboard the command ship U.S.S. Coronado, to fire. The Vincennes then launched two Standard SM-2 missiles that found their target with unerring precision...
...federal vouchers to finance parental choice among public schools -- typically, say opponents, white schools for white kids living in mixed neighborhoods. He has called for AIDS testing of all marriage-license applicants, hospital patients and convicts and has unloaded on Republicans and Democrats alike who opposed the President's Iranian and contra policies. All that after Brother Bob told him about the fish. "He sees a complex federal agency as a bully pulpit," comments Joseph Duffey, chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Bennett's predecessor at NEH. "It is the temperament of a preacher." Hawkins has another...