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Inside the Ring
By Bill Gertz and Rowan
Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON
TIMES
China's missile tests
China's military is preparing to conduct
a flight test of the new DF-31 mobile missile, according to U.S.
officials. The test is one of three missile shots expected to take
place in the next several weeks.
In
addition to the DF-31 test, China's military also will flight-test a
medium-range DF-21 missile and a submarine-launched JL-2.
All three missiles are part of China's
strategic military buildup.
A U.S.
official confirmed the missile tests after a Russian press report
last week said Beijing's Defense Ministry had notified Moscow of the
three upcoming tests.
The tests are
expected to take place from the Wuzhai missile test center north of
Beijing, and the missiles' dummy warheads will be targeted at an
impact range in the remote Lop Nur test range in northwestern China.
GCHQ not
NSA
British government electronic
eavesdroppers are taking credit for intercepting two key al Qaeda
telephone conversations on the eve of the September 11 attacks.
A new book by London Daily Telegraph
reporter Michael Smith, "The Spying Game," states that Britain's
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the counterpart to
the U.S. National Security Agency, captured the phone calls warning:
"The match begins tomorrow," and "Tomorrow is zero [hour]."
The calls were listed in the U.S. and
British watch list of al Qaeda telephone numbers and e-mail
addresses that were being monitored. The calls were not translated
from Arabic for two days after being intercepted, Mr. Smith stated.
A British government intelligence probe into the intercepts
concluded there was no forewarning of the September 11 attacks.
Mr. Smith said 30 percent to 40 percent
of GCHQ's electronic spying was focused on al Qaeda after September
11, and he noted that the agency played a supporting role for
military operations in Afghanistan and recently in Iraq.
The NSA director, Air Force Lt. Gen.
Michael Hayden, told Congress last year that NSA "did obtain" two
pieces of information suggesting that people with terrorist
connections believed "something significant" would take place
September 11, 2001.
He stated that the
information did not "specifically indicate an attack would take
place on that day, and it didn't contain any details on the time,
place, or nature of what might happen."
The information was not reported until
Sept. 12 "because of the nature of the processes" for disseminating
intelligence, he said.
Roche nomination
President Bush has approved the
nomination of Air Force Secretary James G. Roche to be the next Army
secretary, defense insiders tell us. The nomination paperwork is
expected to go to the Senate shortly.
But congressional aides say Mr. Roche is
likely to receive some rough treatment on a number of issues. They
say they still expect the nomination to win Senate confirmation, but
would not be surprised if one or more senators placed a "hold" on
Mr. Roche to get the White House's attention.
The rub comes on three issues: Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's decision to cancel the Crusader
artillery system, the Air Force Academy sex-abuse scandal and a
feeling on Capitol Hill that Mr. Rumsfeld and his civilian staff
mistreated the Army.
Mr. Rumsfeld fired
Army Secretary Thomas White in April and was never on especially
good terms with Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff who
retired earlier this month after a four-year term.
SEAL
sub
Supporters of a new submarine
for Navy SEALs are pointing at recent test successes as a reason
Congress should fund a second Northrop Grumman-produced boat.
A team of Navy testers oversaw a sea
trial of the first and only Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS)
last month. It executed two ship-to-shore missions off the attack
submarine USS Charlotte.
The minisub
returned to the Charlotte, recharged its battery and then conducted
a second underwater operation, as required. The ASDS carried out the
missions with a new, redesigned propeller that resulted in a quieter
vessel — a key Navy requirement. A previous test in February 2002
identified the old propeller as the main source of excessive noise
that can lead to sonar detection by enemy forces.
Defense sources say the test has
convinced Naval Sea Systems Command it can start construction of a
second boat.
The changing ASDS design
prompted, in part, a negative report from the General Accounting
Office, Congress' investigative arm.
Some in Congress want the Navy to build
a second boat, a move that may delay production.
The House approved $23.6 million in
advanced procurement money for the second boat, but the Senate
deleted those funds, shifting the battle to a House-Senate
conference.
"Because of the long lead
time required [18 months] to build the ASDS hull and composite nose
and tail assemblies, eliminating the advanced procurement funding
will delay the construction of ASDS No. 2 by one year," the Pentagon
said in a message to Congress.
The sub
requires a crew of two and can hold eight SEALS. A Navy policy
statement says the ASDS "was designed to reduce the risk to Navy
Special Operations forces [during] the transit from a submarine to
shore. ASDS permits long-range special forces operations. It also
enhances the effectiveness of the insertion teams by delivering them
to their destination rested and better equipped as well as the means
of conducting shore surveillance prior to landing."
Reagan's
wings
At 5 p.m. today, flatbed
trucks will begin moving huge sections of a Boeing 707 from the old
Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, Calif., to Simi Valley and
the Reagan Library.
The 100-mile,
police-escorted convoy is part of an operation by Boeing and the
library to put the 707 on permanent public display by late 2004.
This 707 flew for 28 years in presidential service, including as Air
Force One, and was used the most by President Ronald Reagan.
It took him to Berlin in 1987, when he
issued this challenge at the Brandenburg Gate, "Mister Gorbachev,
tear down this wall." It was also this 707 that he and wife Nancy
boarded and flew home to California after his two-term presidency.
Boeing is the largest employer in
California, where Mr. Reagan worked as an actor, union leader,
corporate figure and governor.
Rudy
deLeon, a former deputy defense secretary who directs Boeing's
Washington office, said the company's role is twofold. It dismantled
the plane in San Bernardino and will put it back together once a
host pavilion is finished at the library.
"What's very important is the public
will be able to go on board the aircraft," Mr. deLeon said. "I think
we all know Air Force One, the trip to the summit in Switzerland or
previous trips — President Nixon to China. The plane is very much
part of our history."
Mr. deLeon said
Boeing relied on volunteers, retired company employees and paid
workers to complete the dismantlement.
The 707, tail No. 27,000, replaced
President John F. Kennedy's plane.
Ambush probe
The Army has completed a commander's
inquiry into the March 23 ambush of the 507th Maintenance Company
that resulted in the deaths of 11 soldiers and the capture of Pfc.
Jessica Lynch.
The inquiry, officially
called regulation number 15-6, is designed to tell commanders what
went wrong in major incidents such as the 507th ambush. The
inquiring officer may also recommend personnel for disciplinary
action.
But a Pentagon official said the
inquiry does not recommend any punishment and found that every 507th
soldier acted properly, and in some cases heroically.
Pfc. Lynch is hospitalized, recovering
from several fractures suffered when her vehicle crashed during the
chaos of avoiding Iraqi firing from all sides in the town of
Nasiriyah.
The Army plans to release the
inquiry's executive summary, perhaps before month's end.
• Bill
Gertz and Rowan Scarborough are Pentagon reporters. Mr. Gertz can be
reached at 202/636-3274 or by e-mail at
bgertz@washingtontimes.com. Mr. Scarborough can be reached at
202/636-3208 or by e-mail at
rscarborough@washingtontimes.com.
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