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Beijing secretly fires lasers to disable US satellites
telegraph ^ | 26/09/2006 | Francis Harris

Posted on 09/28/2006 9:46:54 AM PDT by mucho muchacho

Edited on 09/29/2006 12:19:05 PM PDT by Lead Moderator. [history]

China has secretly fired powerful laser weapons designed to disable American spy satellites by "blinding" their sensitive surveillance devices, it was reported yesterday.

The hitherto unreported attacks have been kept secret by the Bush administration for fear that it would damage attempts to co-opt China in diplomatic offensives against North Korea and Iran.


(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: china; india
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1 posted on 09/28/2006 9:46:55 AM PDT by mucho muchacho
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To: mucho muchacho

D*mn. Y'know, to hit a satellite, they'd have to use really big sharks.


2 posted on 09/28/2006 9:47:47 AM PDT by Frank_Discussion (May the wings of Liberty never lose a feather!)
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To: mucho muchacho

Where's my tinfoil hat?


3 posted on 09/28/2006 9:48:02 AM PDT by Lekker 1 (("...the world will be...eleven degrees colder by the year 2000" -- K. Watt, Earth Day, 1970)
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To: mucho muchacho

Maybe our satellites could accidentally drop a crowbar?


4 posted on 09/28/2006 9:48:36 AM PDT by MarineBrat (Muslims - The "flesh eating bacteria" version of humans.)
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To: mucho muchacho
Sources told the military affairs publication Defense News that there had been a fierce internal battle within Washington over whether to make the attacks public. In the end, the Pentagon's annual assessment of the growing Chinese military build-up barely mentioned the threat.

What sources? When was the Annual Assessment published?
5 posted on 09/28/2006 9:49:46 AM PDT by Froufrou
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To: mucho muchacho

Did Bubba give them the laser technology too?


6 posted on 09/28/2006 9:52:27 AM PDT by sgtbono2002 (The fourth estate is a fifth column.)
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To: mucho muchacho

Well, c'mon, this is serious $h*t--and we're not saying anything because of Korea. Nothing is going to happen with North Korea as long as Kim Jong Mentally Ill is still in power. I say let's become a bit like the Chinese and instead of the USA call ourselves United Machiavellian States.


7 posted on 09/28/2006 9:52:47 AM PDT by brooklyn dave (Ya can take da kid outta Brooklyn--butchya can't take Brooklyn outta da kid)
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To: mucho muchacho

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1710035/posts

Discusses Bill Clinton's Big Birthday Bash, which is the real reason the Chinese are shooting these colorful lasers. It's the least the Chinese can do for Bill, seeing as he provided them with so much secret technology.


8 posted on 09/28/2006 9:52:58 AM PDT by LZ_Bayonet
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To: mucho muchacho

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/dod-2003.pdf

The report I found is from July 2003! Gee, ya think maybe this is a bad source? Yeah, pretty much...


9 posted on 09/28/2006 9:53:24 AM PDT by Froufrou
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To: MarineBrat
Maybe our satellites could accidentally drop a crowbar?

How 'bout a 10 megaton crowbar?

"Ooops, soooo solly honorable survivors of former great city of Beijing, Amelican technicians were aiming for Pyongyang North Korea, but unexpected laser device blinded aiming mechanism, we get signal, but we miss target. So velly solly, and do have a nice life, whatever is left of it."
10 posted on 09/28/2006 9:55:22 AM PDT by mkjessup (The Shah doesn't look so bad now, eh? But nooo, Jimmah said the Ayatollah was a 'godly' man.)
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To: mucho muchacho

um why is this not an act of war?


11 posted on 09/28/2006 9:55:34 AM PDT by Walkingfeather (u)
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Isn't firing at a US satelite one of the things that started the military confrontation between America and the Soviets in the movie, "2010"?


12 posted on 09/28/2006 9:56:15 AM PDT by RandallFlagg (Roll your own cigarettes! You'll save $$$ and smoke less!(Magnetic bumper stickers-click my name)
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To: Walkingfeather
um why is this not an act of war?

Because.

13 posted on 09/28/2006 9:56:38 AM PDT by zarf
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To: Walkingfeather

Because all our cheap plastic crap comes from there, and we don't want to p!$$ them off.


14 posted on 09/28/2006 9:56:49 AM PDT by 50sDad (ST3d: Real Star Trek 3d Chess: http://my.ohio.voyager.net/~abartmes/tactical.htm)
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To: Walkingfeather

Come on now. They haven't actually shot down one of satellites yet. These are tests and wargames, things that we do all the time as well.


15 posted on 09/28/2006 9:57:54 AM PDT by jpl (Victorious warriors win first, then go to war; defeated warriors go to war first, then seek to win.)
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To: zarf
um why is this not an act of war?

Because.

And that's the way it is.

16 posted on 09/28/2006 9:58:48 AM PDT by evad (sarcasm may be introduced at any moment of any post)
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To: mkjessup

That'll give new meaning to, "All Your Base Are Belong To Us". lol


17 posted on 09/28/2006 9:59:01 AM PDT by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: mucho muchacho

I am told that NORAD actually pays the Russians for lidar (laser radar) data on third party satellites. The U.S. cannot illuminate a foreign satellite with lidar, for fear opening a can of worms, like this. Lidar data is extremely accurate, so we pay the Ruskies for data they are collecting anyway.

The U.S. has used lidar to track U.S. owned assets.

Strange world.


18 posted on 09/28/2006 9:59:46 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (The hallmark of a crackpot conspiracy theory is that it expands to include countervailing evidence.)
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To: jpl

"Come on now. They haven't actually shot down one of satellites yet."

Well, it is all part of the context equation. If they disable a U.S. satellite, where it floats around for the next billion years useless in orbit, I think that is an attack on a sovereign state. Nothing in orbit is really going to be shot down. Maybe they can put a little mirror on the camera lens and direct the laser down to Kim's, Ronco sprayed bald patch.


19 posted on 09/28/2006 10:01:37 AM PDT by Tulsa Ramjet ("If not now, when?")
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To: Tulsa Ramjet

"Maybe they can put a little mirror on the camera lens and direct the laser down to Kim's, Ronco sprayed bald patch."

Kim (looking over reports with generals): An den we can keel da students in dis town, and YEEEOWWWWWWWW!!!!!!! Wa da hell waz DAT????
General: Honorable Kim sir, your head ees on fire.


20 posted on 09/28/2006 10:03:21 AM PDT by Tulsa Ramjet ("If not now, when?")
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