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N0KFQ > TODAY 19.08.11 22:39l 56 Lines 2646 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 11092_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Aug 19
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<N9PMO<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 110819/2033Z 11092@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.0.4
Aug 19, 1960:
Captured U.S. spy pilot sentenced in Russia
In the USSR, captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is
sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for his confessed espionage.
On May 1, 1960, Powers took off from Pakistan at the controls of
an ultra-sophisticated Lockheed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance
aircraft. A CIA-employed pilot, he was to fly over some 2,000
miles of Soviet territory to BodO military airfield in Norway,
collecting intelligence information en route. Roughly halfway
through his journey, he was shot down by the Soviets over
Sverdlovsk in the Ural Mountains. Forced to bail out at 15,000
feet, he survived the parachute jump but was promptly arrested by
Soviet authorities.
On May 5, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced that the
American spy aircraft had been shot down and two days later
revealed that Powers was alive and well and had confessed to
being on an intelligence mission for the CIA. On May 7, the
United States acknowledged that the U-2 had probably flown over
Soviet territory but denied that it had authorized the mission.
On May 16, leaders of the United States, the USSR, Britain, and
France met in Paris for a long-awaited summit meeting. The four
powers were to discuss tensions in the two Germanys and negotiate
new disarmament treaties. However, at the first session, the
summit collapsed after President Dwight D. Eisenhower refused to
apologize to Khrushchev for the U-2 incident. Khrushchev also
canceled an invitation for Eisenhower to visit the USSR.
In August, Powers pleaded guilty to espionage charges in Moscow
and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment--three in prison and
seven in a prison colony. However, only 18 months later, the
Soviets agreed to release him in exchange for Rudolf Abel, a
senior KGB spy who was caught and convicted in the United States
five years earlier. On February 10, 1962, Powers and Abel were
brought to separate sides of the Glienicker Bridge, which
connected East and West Berlin across Lake Wannsee. As the spies
waited, negotiators talked in the center of the bridge where a
white line divided East from West. Finally, Powers and Abel were
waved forward and walked past each other to freedom.
Upon returning to the United States, Powers was cleared by the
CIA and the Senate of any personal blame for the U-2 incident. In
1970, he published a book, Operation Overflight, about the
incident and in 1977 was killed in the crash of a helicopter he
flew as a reporter for a Los Angeles television station.
73, K.O. n0kfq
Another old retired guy
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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