BPR Mailing List Digest: 05/21/00

Philologos
BPR Mailing List Digest
May 21, 2000

Digest Home | 2000 | May, 2000

To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - May 21, 2000 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 08:56:49 -0400

8:00 PM Eastern

TLC - UNMASKED: EXPOSING THE SECRETS OF DECEPTION - Hoaxes:
crop circles, seances, mind readers.(CC)

10:00

DISC - HIGH-SPEED CHASE - Law-enforcement officials use
technology to capture criminals without endangering
lives.(CC)

HIST - HISTORY UNDERCOVER - "Sex and the Swastika" -
The Allies spread lurid tales of Nazi debauchery to try to
bring down the Third Reich.(CC)(TVPG)

TLC - THE HUMAN CANVAS - New forms of tattooing and body
piercing push the limits of the ancient art
forms.(CC)(TVPG)

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - US House to vote May 23 on medal for John Paul II
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 09:18:16 -0400

US House to vote May 23 on medal for John Paul II

WASHINGTON, May 18 (AFP) - The US House of Representatives will vote
May 23 on awarding Pope John Paul II one of the nation's highest honors --
the congressional gold medal -- a top lawmaker announced Thursday.

"Pope John Paul is one of the truly heroic figures of our time," Republican
Majority Leader Dick Armey said in a statement. "He is a man of great
compassion whose tireless campaign to defend the dignity of every human
life has been an inspiration to people of all faiths.

If the House and Senate pass the measure and President Bill Clinton signs it
into law, the prelate would join past honorees like South African President
Nelson Mandela, US civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, missionary Mother
Teresa, and Charles Schulz, creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip.

Companion legislation in the Senate has 66 co-sponsors, according to a
spokesman for Republican Senator Sam Brownback, who introduced the
measure in April.

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Thunder in a Bottle
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 09:19:49 -0400

DISCOVER Vol. 21 No. 5 (May 2000)
Table of Contents

Future Tech: Thunder in a Bottle
This tube of supercharged sound could
make the biggest bang since internal
combustion
By Brad Lemley

A thrum, low and insistent, emanated from the room next to engineer
Greg Swift's office at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the late
evening of May 3, 1998. "It was very weird," he recalls. "Those guys
had never made any noise before." Swift hurried next door and found
postdoc Scott Backhaus in a state of disbelief. Backhaus's
experimental sound-powered engine, wrapped in heater tape and
suspended from a framework of steel pipes, had suddenly fired up on
its own.

"I was heating it up to test expansion and contraction," Backhaus
says. "I didn't expect it to start up at such a low temperature." He
was both surprised and relieved: "My major reaction was, "Thank God,
it works.' "

BACKHAUS'S SOUND ENGINE is driven by a
hot source and a cold sink (at left) that amplify
acoustic waves until they can do the work of
steel--but with no moving parts.

Courtesy Presely Salaz/Los Alamos National Laboratory

Backhaus's Thermoacoustic Stirling Hybrid Engine, which he
affectionately refers to as TASHE, performs the same basic job as an
ordinary car engine or gas-fired turbine: It converts heat into
motion. But the similarity ends there. TASHE operates entirely on
pressure waves, using high-intensity sound to do the work of steel. As
a result, it has no moving parts, can be constructed from cheap, basic
materials, and yet it is just as efficient as a typical modern
internal combustion engine. Ultimately, sound engines could take
dozens of forms, from big ones that liquefy plumes of natural gas to
little ones laboring in the cellar, that would provide supplemental
home electricity. "What sound allows us to do is build invisible
machinery. It's the next level of mechanical engineering," says Tim
Lucas, president and CEO of Macrosonix Corp., a research and
development company in Richmond, Virginia.

Although the idea of using sound to drive an engine is new, TASHE
relies on a mechanical blueprint that dates back to the era of steam
power. In 1816, Robert Stirling, a multitalented minister of the
Church of Scotland, patented a simple design for an external
combustion engine; unfortunately, it proved too costly to mass
produce. Stirling's engine consists of a sealed chamber filled with
gas that shuttles back and forth between a "cold" end, often at room
temperature, and a "hot" end, which can be heated by any energy
source. A displacer piston within the chamber moves the gas between
the two ends, while a power piston oscillates in response to the
movement of the gas as it expands when heated and cools when
chilled. The power piston can be attached to a crankshaft to do the
work.

Time and the internal combustion engine passed the Stirling engine by,
but it continued to intrigue scientists and engineers. Then, in 1979,
Peter Ceperley, a physics professor at George Mason University in
Fairfax, Virginia, published a paper showing that the work done by
heat in a Stirling engine could also be carried out by a sound
wave. After all, sound is nothing but motion--we hear because pressure
waves traveling through the air vibrate our eardrums at varying
frequencies. Those waves, Ceperley realized, could bat a slug of gas
back and forth in a Stirling-like cycle, just as heat moves a piston
back and forth.

"Lots of people tried to put flesh on that idea, with limited
success," says Swift, a fellow at Los Alamos. "About three years ago,
we said, =D4Let's put a postdoc on it full time.' " That postdoc was
Scott Backhaus. To test Ceperley's ideas, he built his own test
engine, starting with a baseball-bat-shaped resonator made from
inexpensive steel pipe. The resonator determines the operational
frequency of the engine, in the same way that the length of an organ's
pipe determines its pitch. At the "handle" end of the bat, Backhaus
bolted on a doughnut-shaped metal chamber to hold the hot (about 1,300
degrees Fahrenheit, or 700 degrees Celsius) and cold (70 degrees
Fahrenheit, or 20 degrees Celsius) heat exchangers. Then he filled
the device with compressed helium.

The heat exchangers in TASHE act like a huge stereo speaker--creating
sound, sending it down the resonator, and amplifying the feedback
repeatedly until it becomes inconceivably powerful. "If you were in
that wave, permanent hearing loss would be the least of your
problems. It's loud enough to set your hair on fire," says Swift. The
operating engine is remarkably muted, however, quieter than an idling
car. Quarter-inch-thick steel walls, needed to contain the highly
compressed helium, maintain the silence. "The cavity walls are
extremely stiff. They don't flex, so the sound wave hardly escapes,"
Swift says.

He and Backhaus are just beginning to sort out what their
sound contraption can do. Soon it may provide a better way to
recover natural gas. In the course of drilling, offshore oil rigs
can liberate natural gas, which is often just burned as a waste
product. The sound engine could provide a cost-effective way
to capture and ship the gas to the mainland. In cooperation with
Cryenco Inc., a Denver gas-transport firm, the Los Alamos
engineers are building a huge model of the engine--40 feet tall
and four feet in diameter--that can cool and liquefy 500
gallons of natural gas per day. The heat needed to run it will
come from burning a little of the cast-off fuel. "We're both
conserving a resource and cutting the pollution caused by
flaring off that gas," Swift says.

Sound engines could perform a similar conservation coup in the
home. Gas-fired hot-water heaters dump unused warmth into millions of
basements around the country. The sound engine could tap that thermal
waste and use it to move a spring-mounted piston driven by acoustic
waves. The piston, in turn, could run a household generator. Swift has
teamed up with the Clever Fellows Innovation Consortium in Troy, New
York, to develop such a hybrid device. "You burn natural gas, and
instead of putting the heat directly into the water, you'll use that
heat to run an acoustic engine to make electricity," says Swift.

SUPER-RESONATOR draws in air
when pressure piles up at the left end of
the chamber (top). When the pressure
wave rebounds (bottom), it could be
released as part of a cooling system for
people or computers.

Courtesy: Macrosonix

And there's more than one way to tap into the power of sound. At Los
Alamos in the late 1980s, Tim Lucas worked on a resonator capable of
creating far more intense sound waves than those generated by devices
like TASHE. By vibrating the resonator with an electric motor, he
generated sound waves having energy densities thousands of times
greater than had ever before been achieved. After forming Macrosonix
in 1990, Lucas began exploring ways to use extreme sound to perform a
variety of jobs that normally require complex machinery, such as
manufacturing pharmaceuticals, grinding up materials, mixing chemicals
rapidly, compressing gas, turbocharging engines, and recycling
plastics. "It's a factory in a bottle. There's a level of control
there that has never existed before," he says.

Chemicals can be heated and cooled 600 times per second over
temperature swings as large as hundreds of degrees Celsius, or
turbulently mixed 1,200 times per second. "We can create a wide range
of physical effects that were simply impossible to attain before,"
Lucas says. He calls his sound-generating process resonant macrosonic
synthesis, and he thinks it will someday find applications as diverse
as the laser. But first the technology will show up in more
conventional applications, such as acoustic compressors, which can be
used in refrigerators, air conditioners, and cooling systems for
microprocessors.

Given the way the this work is going, Backhaus's little experiment at
Los Alamos could soon become the thrum heard 'round the world.

RELATED WEB SITES:
To find out more about TASHE, see the Los Alamos National
Laboratory's Web site: www.lanl.gov/mst/engine.

http://www.discover.com/may_00/featfuture.html
via: transhumantech@egroups.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Feds: No warrants for Net wiretaps
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 09:28:18 -0400

Feds: No warrants for Net wiretaps
By Mike Brunker, MSNBC
May 17, 2000 7:20 AM PT

URL:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2570897,00.html?chkpt=zdhpnews01

In a case with broad implications for communications technology, lawyers for the Justice Department and a coalition of telecommunications and privacy groups square off in federal court Wednesday to argue whether the FBI should be allowed to intercept Internet communications and pinpoint the locations of cellular phone users without first obtaining a search warrant.

At issue in the proceedings before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington are rules issued last year by the Federal Communication Commission spelling out how telecommunications providers will be required to comply with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), passed by Congress in 1994.

Among other things, the act requires telecommunications equipment manufacturers and service providers to build into their systems the capability for surveillance of telephone line and cellular communications, as well as of services such as advanced paging, specialized mobile radio and satellite-based systems.

After telecommunications providers were unable to reach agreement with FBI officials on how to implement the monitoring capabilities, the FCC adopted rules that in several areas went beyond the CALEA language - including a requirement that cellular phones be traceable and that information on any digits dialed after a call is connected, which could include such things as account or credit-card numbers or call-forwarding instructions, must be provided.

Warrant not required

As interpreted by the FCC, the act also would require telecommunications providers to turn over "packet-mode communications" - such as those that carry Internet traffic - without the warrant required for a phone wiretap.

Taken in total, the FCC rules amount to a "significant expansion" of law enforcement's ability to monitor private communication, said Jim Dempsey, senior staff counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology.

"We're arguing that given the constitutional right to privacy, and given Congress' concern about protecting that privacy that it was wrong for the FCC to broadly interpret this statute to give more surveillance powers to law enforcement," he said.

via: transhumantech@egroups.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - IsraelWire items (5/21/00)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 10:17:30 -0400

Ministry of the Interior to grant residency permits to SLA forces
(IsraelWire-5/21) The Ministry of the Interior has decided that members of
Israel's allied Southern Lebanese Forces who wish to move to Israel will be
granted foreign workers status and work permits for their first years in the
country.

The significance of the decision is that the SLA members will not be
granted Israeli citizenship as was first indicated. Therefore, they will
not be entitled to many social aid packages given to citizenships including
assistance form the National Insurance Institute.

Security Cabinet meeting on southern Lebanon and violence in Yesha
(IsraelWire-5/21) In light of the escalation in fighting in the security
zone of southern Lebanon, accompanied by over a week of increased violence
and attacks against Israeli motorists, civilians and Israeli military
forces throughout Yesha, the Security Cabinet convened in an urgent
session late Saturday night.

In light of the seriousness of the situation, Minister of Housing Rabbi
Yitzhak Levy of the National Religious Party, who last week submitted his
resignation from the government, agreed to a request to participate in the
meeting. The cabinet secretary called upon Levy to join the forum since his
resignation has not yet taken effect.

Although the cabinet is still in session and no information has been
released, it has been learned that Prime Minister/Defense Minister Ehud
Barak has postponed his planned trip to the United States and his scheduled
Tuesday meeting in the White House due to the seriousness of the
situations in southern Lebanon and Yesha as well as the ongoing coalition
crisis.

Hizbullah attempt to overrun outpost in southern Lebanon repelled
(IsraelWire-5/21) An attempt by Hizbullah guerillas to overrun an SLA
outpost in the western sector of the security zone of southern Lebanon was
successfully driven off on Saturday.

The Hizbullah troops approached the perimeter fence of the outpost but were
detected. SLA troops assisted by Israel air force, naval and artillery support,
managed to thwart the attack.

There were no reports of injuries. The Israel Air Force later attacked the
structure where the guerilla forces were believed to have used for their
getaway. Late Saturday night, Israeli fighter craft launched an aerial
assault against Hizbullah targets in the eastern sector outside of the
security zone.

On Saturday afternoon, fighter planes attacked the Habboush area, outside
the eastern sector of the security zone. All planes returned safely to
their bases.

During the night between Friday and Saturday, fighter planes attacked
guerilla targets in Sojoud, in the eastern sector of the security zone.

Saturday brings another day of Arab attacks throughout Yesha
(IsraelWire-5/21) Two IDF soldiers' sustained light injuries after being
struck with stones on Saturday, one in northern Samaria near Tul Karem and
the second in Judea, near the Jewish community of Tekoa.

A bus carrying Israeli Arabs was bombarded with stones near the Arab
village of Halhoul, south of Gush Etzion. One of the occupants was injured.

In southern Jerusalem, two Egged buses were attacked by stones at Pat
Junction, in the Gilo area. Two persons were lightly injured in the attack.

Officials in the PLO Authority (PA) are reporting that about 100 rioters
were injured, throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza, most lightly.

Live fire against IDF forces in Tul Karem on Saturday
(IsraelWire-5/21) IDF soldiers on Saturday came under fire in the Tul Karem
area. A bullet struck one soldier's helmet, saving his life. There were no
reported injuries. The source of the live gunfire was not identified. Therefore,
IDF troops did not return fire.

Following the incident, IDF officials called upon PLO Authority (PA)
security chiefs to take immediate and decisive action to bring an end to
the violence which has plagued Yesha areas for over one consecutive week.

Senior IDF commanders reiterated they are acting with restraint but attacks
aimed at security forces, using live ammunition, would be met with orders to
shoot to kill.

IAF hits ten tanks belonging to Ahmed Gabril
(IsraelWire-5/21) Israel Air Force combat helicopters on Saturday afternoon
destroyed ten T-55 tanks belonging to Ahmed Gabril's DFLP (Democratic
Front for the Liberation of Palestine).

According to the Office of the IDF Spokesman, the aerial assault was
launched over the Lebanon Valley, striking a tank storage location close to
the Syrian border.

Gaza endures another day of Arab violence
(IsraelWire-5/21) Leaders and residents of the Gazan community of Netzarim
on Saturday night held an emergency meeting to discuss the past week's
events. The community was under siege for hours every day over the past
week, while Arab rioters closed down the approach roads during violent
demonstrations which included attacks with stones, bottles, firebombs and
live gunfire against Israeli security forces.

On Saturday, hundreds of Arabs turned out at Netzarim Junction, closing
down the area once again.

On Friday afternoon, close to the Sabbath, the air force had to fly
residents home for the Sabbath by helicopter. Once again, the approach
road was closed down due to Arab violence.

Following the emergency town hall meeting, residents called upon the IDF to
take a firmer position to ensure their road remains open, explaining the
current situation is intolerable, creating a situation in which children cannot
be transported to schools, adults cannot go to work and all regular life has
come to a halt. One resident explained that the area's main product,
agricultural products, is suffering since they are unable to get goods to
market on time.

In Brief - More aerial sorties over southern Lebanon
(IsraelWire-5/21) The Office of the IDF Spokesman is reporting that on
Saturday night, Israel Air Force combat helicopters and fighter planes
attacked guerilla targets in the western sector of the security zone as
well as outside of the eastern sector. All planes returned safely to their
bases. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

National Security Advisor Berger meets in Ramallah with Arafat
(IsraelWire-5/21) United States National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, on
Saturday met in the autonomous city of Ramallah with PLO Authority (PA)
Chairman Yassir Arafat.

The two discussed the ongoing Oslo process between the PA and Israel, as
well as the possibility of a trilateral summit to include President Bill
Clinton for some time in June.

It is being reported that Berger is pressuring Israel to make additional
land concessions to the PA to advance the stalled Oslo process, carrying a
message from President Clinton to Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

10 firebomb attacks on Saturday night
(IsraelWire-5/21) Ten firebomb attacks were recorded between Saturday
night and Sunday morning in the Jericho, Ramallah bypass road and Hebron
areas.

A 2-year-old girl is in very serious condition, with burns over her entire
body, from an attack on the Jericho bypass road. She was taken to the
trauma center of Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem.

Following the attack, in which the girl's mother was injured as well as a
third person, the victims made their way to the District Coordinating
Office where help was summoned and arrangements were made to take the
victims of the attack to the Jerusalem trauma center.

Hizbullah demanding prisoner release
(IsraelWire-5/21) Leaders of the Hizbullah guerilla organization have
called upon Israel to immediately release all Lebanese prisoners being held in
Israel jails, including Mustafa Dirani and Sheik Obeid, both being held as
bargaining chips towards obtaining the release of Israeli MIAs.

Guerilla leaders added that failure by Israel to comply with the demands
would result in the continuation of the 'jihad' against Israel.

Hizbullah leaders have stated repeatedly that the ongoing unilateral IDF
troop withdrawal from the security zone would not result in a cessation of
its attacks.

NRP postpones resignation from coalition
(IsraelWire-5/21) The National Religious Party will be delaying quitting
the government coalition until the government actually hands over Abu Dis,
Azariya and Swahara to the PLO Authority (PA).

The party's leader, Minister of Housing Rabbi Yitzhak Levy, last week
announced that in light of the government's decision to turn over the three
villages to total PA control, his party would be quitting the coalition.

After the Security Cabinet convened in an urgent session on Saturday night,
voting to put the planned handover on hold until the PA controls the
widespread violence, the NRP has indicated it would postpone
implementation of its resignation. The party's central committee will meet on
Sunday afternoon. It is expected the committee will approve postponing
implementation of its resignation pending the actions of the government.

In a related matter, Minister of the Interior Natan Sharansky, who heads
the Yisrael B'Aliyah Party, on Friday sent an urgent letter to Prime
Minister Ehud Barak, calling upon him to put the planned handover on hold
until the violence is brought to an end. Sharansky is encouraging party
leaders to resign from the coalition in light of the deteriorating security
situation.

Yesha Council protest tent
(IsraelWire-5/21) The Council of Jewish Settlements in Judea, Samaria &
Gaza has established a protest tent opposite the Prime Minister's Residence
in Jerusalem on Sunday morning. "Arafat shoots - Barak capitulates," is the
message being delivered by persons manning the protest tent, which they
state will remain indefinitely.

According to Yesha Council spokesperson Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, they are
calling upon the prime minister to halt ongoing talks with the PLO
Authority and take the necessary action to bring an end to the violence
throughout Yesha.

Travel bans on Israelis resulting from Arab violence
(IsraelWire-5/21) Prime Minister/Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced on
Sunday morning that in light of the continued Arab violence aimed at
Israeli motorists and civilians and military personnel, Israelis are until
further notice banned from entering into areas "A", under total PLO
Authority (PA) control.

Israeli officials have also announced that tourists are banned from
entering into the autonomous city of Jericho following the Sunday morning
attack in which a 2-year-old was seriously injured by a firebomb along with
two other occupants of a car. The attack took place at about 3:00am Sunday
morning on the Jericho bypass road. Jericho hosts the popular PA Oasis
Casino that has become a popular attraction to Israelis and tourists alike.

In Brief -Terrorist activity against Karnei Shomron Electrical Grid
(IsraelWire-5/21) On Friday and Saturday, the greater Karnei Shomron
community and adjacent industrial area (over 6000 people), was subject to
numerous electrical interruptions as a result of Islamic terrorist
activity. The quality of service degradation included, brownouts, blackouts and
power surges.

Southern Lebanon - Sunday afternoon
(IsraelWire-5/21) Hizbullah guerillas on Sunday renewed attacks against IDF
and SLA outposts in the security zone of southern Lebanon. According to
foreign agencies, at least 20 Katyusha rockets were fired at an IDF outpost.

On Sunday afternoon, IAF fighter planes attacked Hizbullah targets in
Sojoud, in the eastern sector of the security zone. All planes returned
safely to their bases. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

In a related matter, during the weekly Sunday cabinet meeting, Minister of
Foreign Affairs David Levy stated that in all areas in the security zone in
which Hizbullah takes over when IDF forces leave, Israel will at some point
have to reenter those areas. Levy added that there is an agreement with the
United Nations that UNIFIL troops would enter those areas shortly following
the IDF's withdrawal.

MK Elon calls for demolition of 20 percent of PA structure in Abu Dis
(IsraelWire-5/21) National Union MK Rabbi Binyamin Elon has filed a query
with Prime Minister/Defense Minister Ehud Barak, demanding the government
demolish twenty percent of the future PLO Authority (PA) parliament
building in Abu Dis since it sits within the municipal boundary of
Jerusalem.

Elon bases his request on a response in the past by former Minister of
Defense Moshe Arens, who stated that a defense minister does not have the
authority to handover authority to the PA of any municipality under Israeli
sovereignty.

http://www.israelwire.com

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Nature: A FREE SAMPLE COPY of Chromosome 21 issue
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 10:21:48 -0400

We are very pleased to offer all users of Nature=92s electronic services a
FREE sample of the May 18th issue of Nature. To request a free print copy
containing the Chromosome 21 paper, use the order form at:

http://www.nature.com/marketing/freecopy/

These free copies of Nature are produced with support from Applied
Biosystems -

http://www.appliedbiosystems.com

Forward this e-mail to let your friends and colleagues know about this
special offer.

Chromosome 21 is the second human chromosome sequence to be
documented, encompassing more than 33 million base pairs of DNA, and its
publication therefore marks a major scientific milestone. A striking feature of
the chromosome is that it contains less than 300 discernible genes. This
implies that the whole human genome may contain no more than 40,000
genes, many fewer than previously thought.

The chromosome sequence reveals the organisation of a number of genes
linked to specific human disorders, and will speed the search for several more
disease-linked genes. The availability of this sequence will also provide
valuable tools for investigating the basis of Down syndrome, which is caused
by the inheritance of three (rather than the normal two) copies of
chromosome 21.

Yours sincerely

Richard Gallagher
Biological Sciences Editor
Nature

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Russia To Evacuate Mir Space Station In June
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 10:25:27 -0400

Russia To Evacuate Mir Space Station In June

MOSCOW, May 20, 2000 -- (Reuters) Russia is planning to evacuate its
ageing Mir space station in June but will keep it in orbit in case there is
money for more missions, a senior space official said on Friday.

Full Story:
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=161214&text

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Phalcon Crest
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 10:32:14 -0400

May 19, 2000

Inside the Ring

Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough

Notes from the Pentagon.

Phalcon Crest

                              U.S. intelligence agencies reported this week that
                         Israel is nearly finished with work on a
                         high-technology airborne warning and control system
                         (AWACS) aircraft for China. The Israelis resumed
                         work on the jet and U.S. spy services now expect
                         the first of several AWACS aircraft to be delivered
                         to China late next month.
                              The intelligence is a sign that the Israeli
                         government ignored recent warnings about the sale
                         from Defense Secretary William S. Cohen. The
                         secretary last month urged Israeli Prime Minister
                         Ehud Barak not to go through with the deal. Mr.
                         Cohen told him the technology contained in the
                         high-tech surveillance jet could be re-exported to
                         Israel's enemies, a common practice for Beijing's
                         military.
                              U.S. intelligence first detected the outfitting of the
                         Russian jet in Israel last October, but the sale has
                         been known since 1996. The system is being
                         outfitted by the Israelis aboard a Russian Il-76
                         transport. Inside will be Israel's Phalcon radar
                         system. The resumption of work on the jet indicates
                         the Israelis at least temporarily suspended the deal.
                              The aircraft will boost the Chinese military's
                         capability to target enemy forces with
                         "over-the-horizon" surveillance. Some Pentagon
                         officials view the sale with alarm because its most
                         likely use will be to directly threaten U.S. aircraft
                         carriers and naval forces in the Pacific that would be
                         called into defend Taiwan in the event of an attack on
                         the island by mainland forces.
                              The AWACS are part of a major buildup of
                         Chinese military command and control, the software
                         of war fighting. Earlier this year, China launched the
                         first military satellite for a new command-and-control
                         system called Qu Dian. The AWACS aircraft will
                         further enhance the system.
                              Chinese President Jiang Zemin saw the $250
                         million aircraft during a visit to Israel last month.
                         China could buy between three and seven additional
                         aircraft.
                              The Pentagon has said it is opposing the transfer
                         because it will upset the military balance with Taiwan.
                         At the same time, the Clinton administration is
                         refusing to approve sales of advanced U.S. weapons
                         to Taiwan, including Aegis warships that would
                         increase Taipei's defenses.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200051922399.htm

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

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