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Inside the Ring
By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough

EP-3 intercept
A Chinese jet conducted an aerial intercept of a U.S. EP-3 aircraft over the South China Sea last week, as the aircraft sought to monitor Chinese military activities.
The Chinese F-8 interceptor came within 500 feet of the U.S. surveillance plane, according to defense officials.
"There's been an intercept every couple of weeks for the last year," one official said, noting that the Chinese fly close to the Japan-based U.S. aircraft "every fourth or fifth flight."
"They haven't demonstrated any of the craziness of the past," the official said, referring to the Chinese pilot who crashed into an EP-3 in 2001, killing himself and nearly killing the U.S. crew.
The latest intercept involved an EP-3 that was on a monitoring mission with two objectives: listen in on the large-scale Chinese military exercises on Dongshan Island near Taiwan and watch for three Chinese missile tests Beijing is expected to conduct in the coming months. China has told neighboring Russia that it plans to flight-test a long-range DF-31, a medium-range DF-21 and a JL-2, a submarine-launched version of the DF-31.
Asked recently about the upcoming missile tests, Air Force Gen. Lance W. Lord, chief of the Colorado-based Air Force Space Command, said, "If they test, we'll see them." (snipped)

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is good at metaphors. Capturing Osama bin Laden is akin to catching a chicken in the barnyard. Tapping reserve forces is like turning on the spigot of a deep barrel of water. (snipped)

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040729-111504-5385r.htm