"As of the mid-70's... the Russians weren't admitting anything other than successful missions".
While true of their general policy, definitely not true of the two instances when they lost a crew (Soyuz 1 in 1967 and Soyuz 11 in 1971) on a mission. In both instances, there was a big state funeral (US astronaut Tom Stafford was even a pallbearer at the second) and their human spaceflight programme was brought to a halt. The Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11 tragedies were well-known about in the West. No need to trouble the CIA. You could, for example, have picked up Time magazine May 5, 1967 or July 12, 1971.
Or maybe just the local paper. Here's an eBay auction (not mine) for a regional American newspaper reporting the Soyuz 1 crash as front-page news on the day after it happened, giving Soviet news agency Tass as the source.
Apparently unable to comprehend that articles don't stay on the front page forever and ever, a Sollog sockpuppet claims that the article's been deleted because of a class action that Sollog's "followers" are threatening against VA Software.
Slashdot Mirror
While true of their general policy, definitely not true of the two instances when they lost a crew (Soyuz 1 in 1967 and Soyuz 11 in 1971) on a mission. In both instances, there was a big state funeral (US astronaut Tom Stafford was even a pallbearer at the second) and their human spaceflight programme was brought to a halt. The Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11 tragedies were well-known about in the West. No need to trouble the CIA. You could, for example, have picked up Time magazine May 5, 1967 or July 12, 1971.
Or maybe just the local paper. Here's an eBay auction (not mine) for a regional American newspaper reporting the Soyuz 1 crash as front-page news on the day after it happened, giving Soviet news agency Tass as the source.
Apparently unable to comprehend that articles don't stay on the front page forever and ever, a Sollog sockpuppet claims that the article's been deleted because of a class action that Sollog's "followers" are threatening against VA Software.
He didn't need to - Sollog has economies of scale on his side. Apparently, 311 can mean any of:
...that's eight dates for the price of one!
13 January
31 January
11 March
13 October
31 October
3 November
30 November
31 December
And what was meant to happen on one or all of those dates? Any and all of
PLANE CRASHES
TRAIN CRASHES
TERRORISM
FAMOUS DEATHS
MASSACRES
SCHOOL SHOOTINGS
EARTHQUAKES
HURRICANES
ASSASSINATIONS
So naturally, when the 113th Shuttle flight ended in disaster, this was a "direct hit" for Sollog, since 113 is 311 backwards...
No coincidence. NDC777 is a sock that Sollog's been using on usenet for about a month. Note also the posting style identical to LORDGODALMIGHTY