From: pmiragli@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Pierluigi Miraglia)
Subject: Re: Prima Pagina 13/11/92
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 21:11:15 GMT

Ho ritrovato l'affissione di UPI, 12/11/92, che tento di
riaffiggere:



     WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The Pentagon said Thursday it had no air or naval
forces in the area where an Italian airliner mysteriously crashed more
than a decade ago.
     ``We have relayed to the Italian government over the past years
repeatedly the fact that ... the United States Navy did not have any
ships or aircraft operating in the area of the crash'' in the
Tyrrherenian Sea on June 27, 1980, Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams
said.
     News stories, including a CBS News broadcast Wednesday, have
suggested the Italian DC-9 which crashed near the island of Ustica might
have been downed by a missile accidently fired from a U.S. ship or
aircraft. The reports said other possible causes of the crash have been
ruled out.
     Williams said the USS Saratoga was the only U.S. aircraft carrier in
the Mediterranean on that date and was in port at Naples from June 23rd
through July 6th.
     ``Obviously it was not operating, and when an aircraft carrier is in
port, the aircraft on that carrier do not operate.''
     ``There were no NATO (naval) exercises in the Mediterranean at the
time of the crash,'' he said. ``In fact, there were no NATO exercises
between May 16th and September 27th of that year. The only NATO activity
which occurred concluded in early June.''
     The broadcast Wednesday reported that the Saratoga's log for the
night of the crash, which was obtained with a Freedom of Information Act
request, was signed by four different noncommissioned officers although
all entries for that period were written in the same handwriting.
     The Pentagon spokesman said that was because that is standard U.S.
Navy practice. ``When you have noncommissioned officers who are officers
of the deck,'' he said, ``they all make ... a draft log, and then
periodically ... the quartermaster recopies the log for legibility.
     ``Then he goes back to whoever the officer of the deck was for that
particular watch, and the officer of the deck signs-off on that.''
     Williams said senior Pentagon officials made written replies to
Italian enquiries about the aircrash in January and May 1989 as well as
in December 1991. The replies provided various information, including
the location of every ship in the U.S. Sixth Fleet on the day of the
mishap.
     He said Navy commands in Europe provided information to journalists,
embassy officials in Rome, and the Italians.``
     ``We have consistently responded to requests for information by the
Italian authorities,'' Williams said.
     The Pentagon spokesman said that the Ustica crash story seemed to
arise anew at periodic intervals. ``When there's a change in Italian
governments, for example,'' he said, ``interest in this issue seems to
heighten.
     ``It's our belief that whatever party politics may be going on in
Italy shouldn't get in the way of an objective investigation into
Ustica.''
-- 
Pierluigi Miraglia       Miraglia.1@osu.edu
Dept. of Philosophy, The Ohio State University
Logic before Frege: "Metalanguage? It's like when you talk about
football in French" (Intro. to Symbolic Logic anonymous)