Posted on 07/09/2002 2:17:28 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Despite their own concerns about Islamic terrorism, Communist Chinese military officials have continued to arm Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda commandos with sophisticated surface-to-air missiles even after the 9-11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., according to U.S. intelligence reports.
"Late last month, U.S. Army Special Forces troops discovered 30 HN-5s, the designation for Chinese-made SA-7s surface-to-air missiles, in southeastern Afghanistan," reports the Washington Times in Friday editions. "Other intelligence reports indicated the Chinese shipped missiles to the Taliban after September 11."
Just last week a captured al-Qaeda operative told interrogators that he had fired a surface-to-air missile at a U.S. military plane from a position just outside Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The missile was a Chinese made SA-7, according to Pentagon sources.
Before Sept. 11, the People's Liberation Army provided training for Afghanistan's Taliban militia and its al-Qaeda supporters, the Times added.
"It was carried out in cooperation with Pakistan's ISI intelligence service," defense officials told the paper.
Though Beijing has denied supporting al-Qaeda forces, reports indicate that Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin was so impressed with bin Laden's 9-11 attack that he sanctioned a domestic propaganda effort suggesting the U.S. got what it deserved.
"In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, workers at Beijing Television worked round-the-clock to produce a documentary they called 'Attack America,'" reported the London Telegraph in November.
In the video, Chinese film editors mixed real news footage of the two commercial jetliners slamming into the World Trade Center with scenes from a 1998 remake of "Godzilla" where the monster wreaks havoc on New York.
As carnage fills the screen, the film's narrator proclaims that the city had reaped the consequences of decades of America bullying weaker nations.
The anti-U.S. entertainment bears the imprimatur of the Communist Party-controlled media, the Telegraph said, with the most popular offerings produced by the Xinhua information agency, Beijing Television and China Central Television.
"Communist Party officials say President Jiang Zemin has obsessively watched and re-watched pictures of the aircraft crashing into the World Trade Center," the Telegraph said. (See: Chinese Propaganda Machine Celebrates Twin Towers Attack)
Merely having Chinese-made SA-7s (or any Chinese-made weapons or ammo) is not prima facie evidence that China gave or sold them directly to them.
Any more than Glock "armed" the LAX shooter. SA-7s are cheap, everywhere, and can be bought easily from any shady middleman arms dealer or pretty much any country, anywhere in Central Asia.
And color me dubious of any of the military or intelligence reporting of the Washington Times. Just too full of errors, distortions, and hype.
Tell me about it. After reading a few articles by Col. Stanislav Lunev, I got the impression that nukes would start falling anyday now from Russia & China. (Though I still think that the latter is more of a threat, I dunno, maybe im just regurgitating the propoganda i've been fed :x)
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