OT: Simulated Attack By 5 Chinese Shows US Defenseless

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BILL GERTZ THE WASHINGTON TIMES September 05, 1999

SIMULATED ATTACK ON THE U.S. BY FIVE ICBMS SHOWS AMERICANS ARE DEFENSELESS

Pentagon trackers hone in on China's nuke missile threat

COLORADO SPRINGS - It was only a simulation, but tension filled the Pentagon's Cheyenne Mountain Complex here when soldiers watched China's long-range nuclear missiles streak northward, heading toward the United States.

The oversized computer screen at the complex, known as the "Mountain," lit up as red lines showed the flight path of the Chinese missiles as they traveled over the globe to targets in the United States.

Hit: areas near Seattle, Colorado Springs, Chicago, New York and Washington.

"Sir, for the exercise, we have multiple missile launches," a voice announced through speakers inside the Mountain. "Stand by for target report."

"Intel indicates the probable launch of five ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) from China," an officer says. "Intel assesses this to be combat against North America."

That was the scenario played out Friday in the U.S. Space Command's dimly lit command bunker, located nearly a mile beneath the Rocky Mountains.

If China had actually launched a nuclear missile attack on the United States, the soldiers inside this command center, who monitor missile launches around the world, 24 hours a day, would have been the first to know.

The exercise highlights that Russia is not the only strategic nuclear threat to the United States. China has a small arsenal of about 24 CSS-4 long-range missiles capable of hitting all of the United States except parts of southern Florida.

Last year the CIA reported secretly within the U.S. government that 13 of them were targeted at U.S. cities.

China, however, is building three new ICBMs, including two road-mobile systems that the CIA believes will be the first to incorporate stolen U.S. missile technology and small warhead design information.

U.S. relations with China have grown tense since NATO's accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade last spring. China cut off all military contacts with the United States in response and stepped up a propaganda campaign.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin criticized the United States during a speech in Bangkok yesterday. He said Washington's "gunboat diplomacy" and "economic colonialism" are threats to world peace and international security.

China's increased tensions with Taiwan also are a potential flash point. In 1995, Chinese Gen. Xiong Guongkai told a former Pentagon official that the United States would not intervene to defend Taiwan from a Chinese attack because it "cares more about Los Angeles than Taipei."

The remark was reported to the White House at the time as a threat to use nuclear weapons against the United States. The Pentagon responded by saying China would be foolish to attack America with nuclear weapons because it would face retaliation from the much larger U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Ten years ago, this exercise in the command center probably would have shown long red lines from Soviet missile fields heading toward the United States.

Air Force Col. Allen Baker, director of operations for the North American Aerospace Command, said once the missile launches are confirmed with ground-based radar, he'd be "telling the president how many minutes until Washington, D.C., is gone."

When asked if the military has anything that can knock the missiles down, Col. Baker said, "Absolutely nothing."

So why track them?

"We're tracking them so we can tell our commanders exactly what is happening so they can figure out what their response is going to be," he said. "If they take out Washington, D.C., do we want to take out Beijing? I don't know. That's their decision."

If the United States deploys a limited national missile defense, "that system will be able to destroy incoming missiles," Col. Baker said.

President Clinton signed legislation earlier this year stating that it is U.S. policy to deploy a missile defense as soon as technologically possible. But the president has said there is no decision yet on whether to build a limited defense against long-range missile attack. A deployment decision is expected next June.

Earlier, in a briefing, Canadian Air Force Brig. Gen. William Calbfliesch, deputy commander of the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, said the Wyoming center could provide about 35 minutes advance notice before the Chinese missiles would impact.

The space command is not involved in retaliation. That job is carried out by another military base, the U.S. Strategic Command, located at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

There have been two war scares at the mountain in the past. Col. Baker said in 1979 a simulation tape of a massive incoming Soviet strategic missile attack was mistaken for a real attack. The false warning data was sent out to other command centers and the response was "Oh my God, there's an attack," he said.

National security officials in the Carter administration were informed that some 2,000 missiles were on their way. Under U.S. strategic doctrine, a retaliatory nuclear attack must be ordered before the first missile hits.

Col. Baker said the mishap nearly led to the launch of U.S. nuclear missiles against Russia.

"I was a captain in the Air Force in Grand Forks, North Dakota, sitting 60 feet underground in a silo when the first one happened," Col. Baker said. "And there was enough time that we actually prepared the nuclear warhead capsule for launch, we actually put in launch keys, we actually pulled out our authentication system and strapped our chairs down and strapped ourselves in and prepared for launch."

"No launches occurred, however," he said. "We all wouldn't be sitting here if it did. But we were ready to go."

Army Maj. Michael Birmingham said a second alarming incident took place several months later in June 1980 when a computer chip "went haywire," showing a missile launch.

After radar ground stations showed no incoming missiles, "that's when they realized it was a multiplexer in the system," Maj. Birmingham said. A multiplexer is a computer chip.

The computer systems were upgraded afterward to prevent any further mishaps, he said.

About 1,200 troops work the Cheyenne Mountain, which has been operating nonstop since 1967. The complex uses space sensors and ground radar to monitor all aircraft flying over North America, to warn of incoming missiles - both long-range missiles targeted at the United States and short-range missiles fired abroad. The Mountain also has a center that tracks objects in space. An intelligence center also operates in the mountain. Officials said the center is closely watching North Korea in anticipation of a long-range missile test.

"We are rarely surprised," Col. Baker said.

In a separate center in the complex, the U.S. Space Command keeps around-the-clock tabs on the nearly 9,000 objects circling the globe in space. The objects include about 700 active satellites and the rest is orbiting material that ranges in size from metal pieces of defunct spacecraft to discarded rocket boosters up to 30 feet long.

"We're mostly tracking space junk," said Air Force Lt. David Levy, the center's director.

What about space aliens?

The center's computer system can weed out fast moving objects, such as meteors, and other unidentified objects are analyzed. Most turn out to be manmade objects, Lt. Levy said.

-- a (a@a.a), September 06, 1999

Answers

Chinese nuclear torture:

Blip...blip...blip... on the radar screens.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), September 06, 1999.


Hey I loused up the title, but lets see... what group of 5 chinese could take us down?

1. Johnny Chung

2. Jackie Chan

3. Son of the man killed in embassy bombing

4. Bill Clinton (I think he's only part Chinese..)

5. That guy who keeps threatening to blow the doors off Taiwan

-- a (a@a.a), September 07, 1999.


Why track them?

Simple herr a:

To find out which US missile assets are being targeted so that we may have time to launch our missiles back at the remaining unlaunched chinese assets while the untargeted US assets remain unharmed.

When the chinese first strike lands it will be hitting empty silos.

It's quite a maddening circus. So much for "decisive battle".

-- Santa Claus (VonClauswitz@deuschland.com), September 07, 1999.


Dear Santa:

Would that that were the case. Somewhere in the recent threads is a link to the not so new strategic stance of the US, which is to launch on IMPACT, not on identification.

The low whir you hear is Von Clausewitz spinning in his grave, joined by a couple guys named Patton, Mitchell, LeMay, and Bradley.

C

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), September 07, 1999.


Clinton's retalliate-on-impact policy is due to the fact that he's in the pay of Communist China, yes? He's received 100s of thousands of dollars from them, since before he was Arkansas Attorney General. Our carriers left the vicinity of Taiwan during the Chinese missle firing crisis, due to a letter from "restauranteur" Charlie Trie. Clinton loosened export restrictions to benefit the Chinese military. He's let the Chinese fix the auction for control of the Panama Canal. Why wouldn't he pave the way for a first strike? HE'S A COMMUNIST AGENT.

Liberty

-- Liberty (liberty@theready.now), September 07, 1999.



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