All kinds of military disasters have been occuring since Dumbya got in and approved drinking on duty (see "Beer for Dumbya" thread). Bombing innocent civilians in Iraq to show them he is a tough cowboy, planes and helicopters crashing into each other, people throwing parties with civilians on submarines and crashing into Japanese boats. Now we have some cocky pilots drinking Lone Star and playing bumper planes with the gooks, just what we need.

Is Dumbya purposely trying to get us killed by acting like the neighborhood bully idiot, or is he just too stupid for diplomacy? Unfortunately for America, the answer is yes to both questions.

-- Dumbya (sure.is@dumb.ass), April 02, 2001

Answers

Yep, first he tried to destroy the planet with pollution but his advisers told him that might take a few years, so now he is hoping to start a war. Why doesn't he just hide in that $50 million bunker and ask Russia to launch all their nukes at us?

-- (less people @ equals more. profit and power), April 02, 2001.

I want to vote that we send you two dumbasses over in exchange for our 24.

You'll be where you want to be, and we'll get our servicemen back.

-- (can@I.vote), April 02, 2001.

(can@I.vote)-- Sure you can vote, but it won't count if you are in the minority and/or democrat.

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), April 02, 2001.

Those 24 are undergoing fingernail torture because Dumbya decided to get cocky and told them to go closer than they should have. He just gave away all of our latest spy technology because of his macho stupidity.

-- (dumbya.one@tough.cowboy), April 02, 2001.

(can@I.vote)-- Sure you can vote, but it won't count if you are in the minority and/or democrat.

Cherri, does this mean that Gov. Locke and Senators Murray and Cantwell are not actually in office? Their might be hope for our state yet.

-- Dr. Pibb (dr_pibb@zdnetonebox.com), April 02, 2001.

Don't suppose big Bill would be willing to call in a couple of chits to help out.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), April 02, 2001.

Arr lound eyes must die.

-- (Mao@rittle_led.book), April 03, 2001.

The irony is that the right wing has been accusing Clinton of selling secrets to the Chinese for years, and here Bush is simply giving it to them right before everyone's eyes.

-- (here@haveA.spyPlane), April 03, 2001.

"here@haveA.spyPlan",

Do you just appear stupid, or are you really as moronic as this posting shows?

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), April 03, 2001.

Oh don't be so sensitive. Just because your hero gave away some of our best technology to the Chinese. Must be pretty disappointing, though.

-- (here@haveA.spyPlane), April 03, 2001.

"Oh don't be so sensitive. Just because your hero gave away some of our best technology to the Chinese. Must be pretty disappointing, though."

Excuse me, but my 'hero' certainly was not Clintoon. Clinton may have given away tons of technology to the Chinese but neither am I stupid enough to blame hime for this incident, as you are to blame Bush.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), April 03, 2001.

If Clinton really gave away "tons of technology" to the Chinese, then why didn't they just return the plane without looking at it? Surely, "Klintoon" must have already given them plans for the spy plane amidst the "tons of technology." LOL

-- (here@haveA.spyPlane), April 03, 2001.

Tuesday, 3 April 2001 12:53 (ET)

Photos show China removed equipment from plane

By PAMELA HESS

WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- Chinese officials have removed equipment from a U.S. Navy spy plane that made an emergency landing at a Chinese base after a mid-air collision with a fighter jet March 31, a former intelligence official who has seen classified satellite photos of the base told United Press International Tuesday.

The source also echoed the fears of many Pentagon officials that the Chinese are unlikely to ever return the plane.

"The chances of getting this airplane back are pretty close to nil," he said.

The official said he had seen four images from two KH-11 "Keyhole" satellites, which are clear enough to see details -- including racks of the plane's equipment sitting on the tarmac around the aircraft and damage to the EP-3's propeller, engine and wing.

The EP-3 was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan Island after a Chinese fighter sent out to intercept the aircraft instead collided with it. The Chinese fighter and its pilot are still missing. China has blamed the United States for the incident, saying the aircraft violated its airspace.

The sun-synchronous KH-11s pass over the Earth at an altitude of around 500 miles twice a day, taking high-resolution snap shots. The electro-optical pictures have better than one-meter resolution and are beamed to a U.S. ground station in near-real time.

The EP-3 is an electronic signals surveillance aircraft and is loaded with sophisticated equipment used to collect intelligence on an adversary's weapons, command and control capabilities and operations. The equipment is mounted on metal racks inside the shell of the 100-foot long plane, which carries a crew of 24.

The EP-3 could not have landed in a better place for China or a worse one for U.S. military intelligence. Hainan island is host to one of China's largest electronic-signals-intelligence complexes and is manned by experts who can glean critical information on the aircraft's capabilities if they gain access to the Navy's EP-3, also a "SIGINT" collector, Pentagon sources said. Hainan is also home to a major Chinese satellite-communications intercept facility.

The United States claims that the aircraft, because it made an emergency landing, should be considered sovereign territory like a U.S. embassy and is therefore off limits to the Chinese.

President Bush Monday warned China against "further" tampering with or damage to the aircraft.

"The airplane itself, military aircraft of all countries in situations like this, have sovereign immunity. That is, no other country can go aboard them or keep them," said U.S. Pacific Command chief Adm. Dennis Blair said Sunday in a press conference.

However, the Navy presumes Chinese boarded the plane shortly after it landed on a military base on Hainan Island. The last radio message from the crew said it was being ordered to shut down its operation.

In the event of just such a landing, the crew was trained to destroy classified paperwork and wipe clean computer memories, and may have even physically destroyed some of the equipment.

"If I were them I would have been pitching stuff out the back," said a U.S. intelligence official.

The Chinese military is well-known for its ability to reverse engineer sophisticated equipment -- that is, deconstruct a finished product to discern how it works, its capabilities and recreate it for their own use, the official said.

Pentagon officials say they are concerned the aircraft will never be returned. They speculate that China will say it is holding it as evidence of U.S. violation of international law.

They made clear Tuesday that even if the Chinese strip and dismantle the aircraft in order to reverse engineer it, the U.S. would still -- for political reasons -- demand its return.

-- (wh@t.will Bush do), April 03, 2001.