Can I just say a few words about Gertz to maybe clear this whole thing up?
First of all, though: Being in Charlottesville, VA I have purchased the WashTimes for the last 10 years despite insults from my colleagues and insinuations about my Moonie-ness. More bluntly: I am a loyal reader of this newspaper. THAT is my bias.
That said, I DO search out Gertz's column and articles. I have found him to be right more often than not and he presents facts that no one else seems to be privy to. How does he get these 'facts'? It has been my impression that he has "SOURCES" within the US military and intelligence community that "feed" him stories. This is just the journalistic game, straight up; No BS. (Ever hear of Woodward and Bernstein? Someone fed them too.)
When the US military and intelligence community wishes to 'send a message' they 'leak' what they know to a trusted journalist. They pick of course a sympathetic ear. They would not pick a communist-loving, America-hating liberal. More often than not they pick Gertz. He in turn publishes it and usually includes in his article a statement to the effect: ".......unnamed CIA/Pentagon sourses yesterday said that........". Voila! The message is sent: "We are watching you. We KNOW what you are doing".
This is exactly what happened 3 weeks ago when his 'sources' informed him of the mysterious freighter that had just left a North Korean port. The US military and intelligence community sought to send a message to the scumbag, commie, WMD-proliferating NKs: "We are watching you. We KNOW what you are doing".
A week later the freighter was boarded. Surprize, surprize.
At least to those who had not been reading Gertz.
You can be sure that the Ambassador to China sitting in his high-rent-district-residence was on the secure phone this morning after having had the usual US morning papers delivered to him. He reported to the Politburo what he had read in Gertz's article.
The message has been sent.